TV Repair Crew Faced Atrocious Conditions

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31154, 2 September 1966, Page 6

TV Repair Crew Faced Atrocious Conditions

Everything humanly possible was done by South Canterbury Electric Power Board engineers and technical staff of the N.Z.B.C. to restore transmission from the channel four .television repeater as soon as possible when a power failure occurred last weekend, the regional engineer of the N.Z.B.C. at Christchurch (Mr R. G. Tulloch) says in reply to a correspondent “No U.N.C.L.E.” The teams investigating the fault at Mount Studholme faced atrocious weather conditions. The correspondent wrote: “At 2 p.m. on Saturday we in South Canterbury found that we could get np television reception. We went through our drill by not ringing the radio station because that would be a nuisance and learnt later from the radio that Channel 4 was off the air. At 5.40 p.m. we were told that there would be no programme that day. In the 6.15 news we found that tech-, nicians had set out from Timaru at 2.15 and reached the translator about 5.30. As the power supply was interrupted by snow on the power lines we had better forget television. Now there is such a thing as emergency power. Channel 4 operated on it for months. Was there no way of using it on this occasion?. I consider that if they had found out that the station was off the air a little earlier in the day some use could have been made of emergency power. These interruptions are becoming too frequent and surely the broadcasting people can do something about it.” The interruption to normal

transmission was regretted, but he thought that considering the conditions, getting the transmitter back on the air was an. outstanding achievement on the part of the repair crew, Mr Tulloch said.

“On Saturday afternoon an investigating team of power board and N.Z.B.C. staff set out up the mountain in extreme, abnormal and atrocious conditions. Snow was encountered at 1300 ft and at 1800 ft was of sufficient depth to bottom the differential housings of the Landrover. “The 300 ft altitude was reached with great difficulty, and it' became impossible to proceed further with a vehicle. The remainder of the journey, approximately a mile and a quarter to the transmitter, was made on foot. On the bluff where the fault occurred, the depth of snow on the road was measured at 4ft 6in. “An emergency communication transmitter was brought into operation, as the telephone line had also been disrupted, and the assessment of the damage and requirements for necessary replacements were reported to the power authorities and advice given to our Timaru studio so that we could inform listeners that there would be no transmission from Channel 4 that evening. The following Sunday morning a power board team re-climbed the mountain with our staff and temporary repairs were effected under extreme snowstorm conditions. The transmitter finally went on the air at 5.49 p.m., in my opinion, an outstanding achievement.

“The emergency power plant was originally used temporarily to power the transmitter to give Channel 4 viewers a service as quickly as possible, and to give the power board time to erect transmission poles and lines to this isolated location up the mountain. This unit has since been dispatched and used at another temporary site for development testing. “Since this transmitter has been -in operation there have been only two failures caused through most abnormal snow* conditions for Mount Studholme. The power board lines are considered reliable and normally should 1 not warrant emergency 'power,” Mr Tulloch said.