Red tape blacks out TV repeater

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 10

Red tape blacks out TV repeater

PA Nelson Red tape has caught up with 40 Upper Takaka residents who installed their own repeater to pick up TV2. Golden Bay residents have been unsuccessfully seeking TV2 reception for some time. Three months ago about 40 households in Upper Takaka formed the Takaka Televiewers’ Society and contributed $lO each for a repeater on Takaka Hill.

But the society forgot one thing — it did not have a piece of paper which said it was allowed to install a repeater. The spokesman for the society, Mr J. Cunningham, said that a radio inspector found the repeater and told him to turn it off because he did not have a licence.

Mr Cunningham said that he had been in touch with the Broadcasting Council, and had been told that if the society wrote asking for permission the council was sure that a licence would be is-

sued by the Post Office. Mr Cunningham said that what the council had said would cost $4500 had cost the society $250. It had bought two house television aerials, two poles, an amplifier, and a battery. Members placed the aerials on either side of the hill ridge, connected the amplifier to the battery, and brought in the TV2 signal.

The aerials stand about 1.2 metres above the ground. The signal spread for about eight kilometres and was usually clear. Did the society think of the need for a licence before it put up the aerial? "I telephoned the council in Wellington and spoke to some minor clerk,” Mr Cunningham said. “He did not want to know about it; and so I just went ahead.”

He believed the society would get a licence, but in the meantime the people of Upper Takaka would be upset about losing the TV2 picture.