PROBLEM OF RADIO INTERFERENCE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21631, 15 November 1935, Page 6

PROBLEM OF RADIO INTERFERENCE

TROUBLE AT GERALDINE DISCUSSED POSTMASTER-GENERAL HEARS DEPUTATION (SPECIAL 2» THE PBE88.) GERALDINE, November 14. The problem of radio interference was discussed by a deputation to the Hon Adam Hamilton, Postmaster-Gen-eral, at Geraldine yesterday, when a petition was handed the Minister, signed by more than 50 listeners, asking that some action be taken to rectify the matter. _ The deputation, consisting of Mr E. Undrill and Captain C. J. Kerr, was introduced by the Mayor (Mr B. R. Macdonald). Mr T. D. Burnett, M.P., and the acting-postmaster at Geraldine (Mr H. A. Robertson) were also present. Mr Undrill said that Geraldine was recognised as a bad reception area for radios generally. Probably owing to the amount of vegetation, more volume had to be opened up on sets and a terrible amount of interference was experienced. Much of the problem was probably caused by power faults, but the Post Office did not appear to do much about it. The Postmaster-General: Why don't you approach the power authorities and ask them to keep their .services up to date? He said that perhaps (here were leakages 'from other machines and these could be corrected. It appeared from what had been said that there was a combination of a bad reception area combined with interference, and he wondered if the position was worse than elsewhere. Mr Robertson (aeting-pastmaster) said that he admitted Geraldine was a bad locality. He thought the poor reception might be due to the stony nature of the ground. To trace the interference complained of, the radio inspector had put in hours and hours in the Geraldine territory. The faults were mostly of an intermittent nature and appeared at intervals of two or three days. Complaints were sent in to the radio inspector, but when he arrived reception was as clear as crystal. He had traced many faults, mostly power line leaks, loose bindings and loose fuses, and the Power Board had remedied these. The Postmaster-General said that recent legislation gave the Government power to deal with the matter, but they had to acknowledge that the Power Boards and persons using electrical instruments had rights and they could not be too drastic with them. However, in most places there was fairly general satisfaction with the efforts that had been made to reduce interference. The Postmaster-General asked whether they had discussed the matter with the Power Board. He thought that the board would put up standard equipment. In any case, he would attend to the request, and if listeners could help by giving the postmaster details of the nature of the interference that would help.