ON AIR AND OFF AGAIN

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31234, 5 December 1966, Page 18

ON AIR AND OFF AGAIN

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 4. Radio Hauraki came on the air this morning after the radio crew had worked day and night to erect a new aerial, but after only three hours the transmitter went silent because of a modulator fault.

A spare modulator transformer was flown out to Great Barrier Island to be ferried to the Tiri tonight and Radio Hauraki hopes to be on the air again before morning Since its 100 ft aerial was blown over in a gale on Thursday the crew of the Tiri have worked unceasingly to erect a new 60ft aerial.

This morning their efforts were rewarded when transmissions were started at 9 o’clock.

From Whangarei, Morrinsville, Thames, and a host of other places, people rang to report good reception, although some people in Auckland still found the signal fogged by static. Then at 12.30p.m. the announcer told listeners that owing to modulator trouble Radio Hauraki would have to go off the Mr. As the broadcasts ceased Radio Hauraki staff on land began searching for a replacement part. None could be found and eventually the staff of the Auckland Transformer Company were called from home to design and build one. The transformer reached a waiting amphibian aircraft at Mechanics Bay at 7.15 p.m., the very latest it could leave and still return before dark, At Great Barrier Island the transformer and a 20-foot whip aerial lent by an Onehunga man were loaded into a waiting boat and taken to the Tiri.