"PITCAIRN CALLING."

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19448, 23 October 1928, Page 11

"PITCAIRN CALLING."

MARCONI TRANSMITTER. * WORLD'S LONELIEST, i * ISLANDERS. (from: ovr own cobbbspondbht.) LONDON, September 7. A Marconi wireless transmitter has been shipped from London to Pitcairn • Island •by the Kuahine. The transmitter is being presented to the islanders by the Marconi International Marine Communication Company to enable them to com-' municate.. with passing ships in miaPacific • Until recently the islanders have had to watch day after day the ships sail or steam past without haying, any means of'communication exception the rare occasions when some friendly or storm-buffeted vessel halted for a short time. With the coming of wireless, and its general adoption on ocean-going vessels, some of the enterprising islanders saw a means of breaking down their extreme isolation. A little group of Pitcairn men began laboriously to learn the Morse code, picking it up from books witti .the. aid. of Morse keys and buzzers .lent or given to them by the '"Marconi operators aboard the ships that called. In 1921 they obtained a simplii crystal receiver, and were able to pick up from passing ships messages of greeting and news r>» the world's happenings and information in advance from the few ships that called with mails and supplies. A further | stride forward in the wireless history j of the island was made in 1926, when they were given a Marconi lype pi ship's crystal receiver. With an anel 180 feet long supported in the middle by a single mast 70 feet high, they have obtained excellent results with i this set, and on one occasion they received messages over a distance or 400 miles from a ship approaching on the side of the island trliioli is screened by a largo hill. The success and utility of these results led the islanders to desire a means of sending messages to ships as well as receiving. To do this it was necessary for one of their number to qualify as a wireless operator, and Mr McOoy went to New Zealand to study and sit for his examination. When lie left there, after passing his examination, Mr McCoy came to London ''to see the town and the Marconi works." On his 'lsifc to the latter he was presented with a ship's transmitter of J k.w. power for the benefit of, the islanders. It will enable them to communicate with ships anywhere in tlie vicinity of Pitcairir and it will also be possible for wireless messages from the island to i;e relayed to New Zealand or America.