RADIO SIGNALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 94, 20 April 1940, Page 8

RADIO SIGNALS.

EQUIPMENT READY. NEW OCEAN AIR LINES. i FACILITIES AT AUCKLAND. While waiting for the trans-Taxman and the trans-Pacific air services to begin, the Post and Telegraph Department has the radio directional equipment on Tamaki Point ready to be switched on at a few hours' notice. It is expected the system will be brought into regular use when the air link between the Dominion and Australia, is established; probably during the next fortnight. The service to the United States should begin shortly afterwards. The apparatus was fitted up last winter and \ra<s originally expected to come into operation at the beginning of September. Tests carried out during survey flight* by the big Pan-American Boeing Clipper and the two ErapL-e flying boats, the Aotearoa and the Awarua, hav.) pro'ed its effectiveness, and as the signals have been flashed out pilots have been guided unerringly to Auckland. Together with Awarua, in the South Island, Tamaki Point is on the aerial base cf a triangle, of which an approaching aircraft is the apex. It is a simple matter for a navigator to discover from the intersection of lines from the two base points the exact position of x 'plane in flight. On the hill above East Beach, on the neck of the peninsula, the radio station is a miniature forest of masts and poles, with a email building to house the transmitting equipment. T;wo miles away, on the point overlooking the harbour entrance and the Tamaki River estuary, is the site for the buildings which will form the Musick memorial radio centre, destined to be one of the. important links in future airline communications.

Some idea of the intricacies of the system is given by the array of aerials and highly technical equipment set up for transmitting and receiving the tig-

nale, and it is claimed that Auckland ha<s secured the most modern apparatus of its kind. During the past eight months the facilities have been under constant riipcrvision by radio experts, and the operators selected to man the station have become thoroughly ekilled in the work.