GEBBIES PASS "Gateway to the Air"

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30507, 31 July 1964, Page 22 (Supplement)

GEBBIES PASS "Gateway to the Air"

JJROADCASTING is a community service which uses the skills and talents of a well-trained staff, collectively representative of many specialist callings. Among the key personnel of any radio or television organisation are the members of its technical branch. The New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation employs in its engineering section some 800 persons, all of whom have specialist qualifications in their various fields.

Nine of these technicians are stationed at Gebbie's Pass where they man the powerful transmitters that release to listeners throughout the country, the programmes of Christchurch’s four stations—3YA, 3ZB, 3YC and 3YD.

The programmes travel the 14-mile journey to Gebbies Pass through ordinary telephone circuits from the studios in Colombo street and Gloucester street. Naturally some quality is lost en route but this is soon restored after treatment in equalising equipment.

From the equaliser, the programme is fed into a limiting amplifier which prevents the transmitters from becoming over-modulated. The

programme then passes through the transmitters and along specially shielded feeder lines to, finally, the aerials.

The staff at Gebbies Pass work varied-shifts from 5.15 a.m. to 12.15 a.m. There is always a minimum of two technicians on duty to keep a watchful eye on the fascinating equipment which is the final link in broadcasting’s chain.

Five of the technicians at the pass are married and they live in well-cared for homes which provide magnificent views of the Lyttelton Harbour and bays to the east and panoramas of coastline plains and valleys to the west. The station superintendent is Mr H. B. Fletcher. All the corporation’s technical staff in Christchurch, including those who remain at the controls of the Gloucester and Colombo streets studios and at CHTV3 are the responsibility of the regional engineer (Mr R. * Tulloch).

Together, the corporation’s team of engineers and ’heir technical staff are carrying on a tradition of service the foundations of which were solidly laid during the hard and exacting days of early radio. New Zealand’s broadcasting services—-taken for granted by most of the country’s two-and-a-half million people were developed by engineering men of ability, foresight and courage. They are now in the hands of persons of similar mettle, who have the added advantage of deeper knowledge and experience as well as many hitherto unheard of aids provided by today’s science and technology.