Mutilated Radio Signals

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28987, 31 August 1959, Page 3

Mutilated Radio Signals

Sir, —Permit me to draw the attention of the Royal New Zealand Air Force to the persistent mutilation of morse signals broadcast from radio station ZKF. The signals were originally broadcast to aid in the recruiting of members for the signab section and therefore have a strategic value; but apart from this, the broadcast is of enormous educational value to mountaineering and marine clubs and to scout groups. Telephoned complaints to the Wigram station may be likened to water on a duck’s back, and I venture to add that if the present lackadaisical service is allowed to continue, the mutilation of the morse alphabet can only do more harm than good. Perhaps the service could replace the worn-out tapes by substituting extracts from the theory of magnetism and electricity or even from humble garden notes.—Yours, etc., RIP VAN WINKLE. August 26, 1959.

[The commanding officer of the R.N.Z.A.F. Station, Wigram (Group Captain T. J. Mac Lean de Lange), said: “We at Wigram do not control the service and any complaints we have received have been passed to the correct quarter. In each instance we have been given a satisfactory answer. lam sure that if your correspondent did likewise and addressed himself to the Air Department he would also receive a courteous and satisfactory reply. We, of course, not knowing the address of the person making the complaint, are unable to pass on the information. I would mention in passing that this is a free service given, as stated by 'your correspondent, to assist those groups-mentioned, and the complimentary letters that we receive from all parts of Australasia would indicate its usefulness and that it is . serving its purpose adequately. However we do not claim always to be perfect.”]