Station improvement

Press, 13 February 1981, Page 9

Station improvement

PA Auckland A Government decision on whether to improve the satellite tracking station at Warkworth will need to be made soon if New Zealand is to keep pace with developments in telecommunications technology. Without the improvements, the station would be unable to use a new range of ratellites to be commissioned over the Pacific Ocean region in 1984. According to two Post Office engineers, a speedy decision is needed if the station is to be refurbished in time. In a paper presented to the Institution of Engineers conference in Auckland, Dr M. 0. Milner and Mr G. T. Neill said the tracking station appeared to have stood up well to

its first nine years of work. The performance of the antenna had not altered significantly and irrqgula* rities in the station radiation beam could be corrected during refurbishment programme. The station at present provided 113 circuits to 14 countries around the world, or 38 per cent of the international communications capacity of the country, said the two engineers. It also provided the television transmission and reception service which had become well known to the public through the coverage of “live" sports events. The demand for circuits had increased dramatically since the service began, however, and it had become necessary to in-

troduce “frequency re-use’’ techniques to increase the number of telephone circuits occupying the same band width. The Intelstat V satellites, to replace the Intelstat IV series in three years, would greatly increase traffic capacity, allowing up to 12,000 simultaneous telephone conversations, as well as two television signals. Dr Milner and Mr Neill said an assessment of the Warkworth station performance had been made last year and provided information which should be invaluable in planning modifications to the antenna. The Post Office had reported to the Government on the implications of the station refurbishment and now awaited a decision on whether it would proceed.