Power Restored To Radio Posts

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31150, 29 August 1966, Page 1

Power Restored To Radio Posts

Normal power was restored to three of the Post Office radio hill stations in Canterbury by 4 p.m. yesterday; the power lines supplying the stations were cut by the snow storm on Thursday afternoon.

The three stations are at Mt. Alexander, behind Waikari, Beltana, near Parnassus, and Mt. Alford, near Stavley. There was no interruption to the services provided by the Mt. Alexander and Beltana stations which are micro-wave relay stations on the main Wellington-Christchurch-Dunedin toll link as power was supplied by stand-by generators. The Mt. Alford station, which is the base station for mobile radio-telephone services in the Mid-Canterbury area, was off the air for the whole period as it has no stand-by generator. Mr H. W. Wilkinson, the Post Office regional engineer, said a stand-by generating plant would be installed at Mt. Alford soon.

On Saturday the Post Office arranged for contractors and Ministry of Works men to use bulldozers to clear the access roads to the stations so that Post Office technicians and Power Board staff could make repairs. The power cuts were caused by broken and fallen poles and a broken span of wire which snapped after it became coated with ice of up to seven inches thick. The North Canterbury Pow-

er Board had two gangs and the Ashburton Power Board one gang following the bulldozers as they cleared the roads. They were accompanied by Post Office radio technicians and workshops staff who checked the stations and took in diesel fuel to keep the stand-by generators running.

Mr Wilkinson paid a tribute to all those who had worked under deplorable conditions to keep the services operating so well that with the exception of the MidCanterbury station there was no interruption to services. ■