TV Translator For Timaru Approved

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30191, 24 July 1963, Page 14

TV Translator For Timaru Approved

(From Our Own Reporter) TIMARU, July 23. Several months of testing and negotiating ended for the South Canterbury Televiewers’ Society today when it was advised that its application for a television translator on Mount Horrible about eight miles east of Timaru has been approved by the Broadcasting Corporation.

“It is a red letter day,” said the president (Mr J. E. Thompson) this evening. The £BOO to £9OO translator, which will be the first operated in the South Island, is being built by A M. Tait, Ltd., of Christchurch. The translator, licensed by the Post Office, will pick up the programmes from CHTV3 from that station’s signal from Christchurch, boost the signal on a small transmitter, and send the programmes out to Timaru viewers on Channel 6, which is a channel at present not being used by the N.Z.B.C.

It is hoped to have the translator in operation by late August or early September.

Post Office engineers will visit Mounit Horrible some time next week. There is already a V.H.F. radio telephone station there and the inspection will be made to establish that there will be no interference. “At present, the viewing

we get is about 10 per cent. of the total. The translator will provide Timaru with at least 50 per cent, to 60 per cent, viewing from Channel 6,” said Mr Thompson. The society, which was formed in November of last year, has a membership of 100, including both retailers and viewers.