Phones spoil TV picture

Press, 5 August 1988, Page 5

Phones spoil TV picture

An illegal cordless telephone being used in the Redcliffs area is causing interference to television reception. The interference is occurring in the Celia Street area, but efforts to pin-point the offending device have so far failed. The Trade and Industry Department s Radio Frequency Service has now sent letters to all residents of the area, warning the user to stop using the telephone, and either call the service for advice or return the telephone to the supplier. If the interference continues, the Radio Frequency Service will find the device electronically and confiscate it. Mr Lindsay Barker, the R.F.S.’s acting chief technical officer in Christchurch, said the confiscation or prosecution would be a last resort, and the service would be happy if the owner of the telephone simply put it away in a cupboard and sever used it again. The problem haS, arisen because many cordless

telephones made for use overseas work within the radio frequency channel set aside in New Zealand for television channel one. Channel one carries the TV2 signal for the Redcliffs and Sumner area, from the Southshore translator.

When the Celia Street telephone is being used, neighbours watching TV2 experience interference in the form of a loss of colour, or diagonal coloured bands obliterating the picture, and they might hear the telephone conversation.

Mr Barker said that similar problems occurred in Timaru earlier this year, when more than 20 complaints were received. Channel one is used for TV2 in the whole of the Timaru area. Cordless telephones—approved for use_Jn New Zealand work on other frequencies, and with a limited transmitting power. Non-approved telephones can legally be imported and sold here, but cannot legally be. used or connected to the telephone network.