RADIO AND AVIATION RECORD

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 105, 28 January 1929, Page 11

RADIO AND AVIATION RECORD

MESSAGE FROM BYRD’S AEROPLANE TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION ESTABLISHED DISTANCE OF 10,000 MILES ' By conducting two-way communication between Commander Byrd’s plane and New York, a distance of 10,000 miles, a record for radio and aviation was established. ' (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Press Association.) (Rec. January 27, 5.5 p.m.) New York, January 25. A record for radio and aviation was established early this morning, when Commander Byrd’s ’plane, flying at 3000 feet altitude, conducted two-way communication direct with the “New York Times” radio station, a distance between ’plane and receiver of 10,000 miles. It was the first time an aeroplane in flight had sent and received messages at such a long distance. It was 10.30 p.m. in New York, when the operator, Carl Peterson, aboard the City of New York, called' the “Times,” and said that Malcolm Hanson, the radio chief of the expedition, would make a test flight aboard the ’plane at 8.15 p.m. in the Bay of Whales. Reginald Iverson, the radio engineer at the “Times” station, tuned his dial to 34 degrees, and found the operator nearest the South Pole had kept his rendezvous. Iverson soon picked up the signal of the aeroplane flying over the Antarctic. “Go ahead,” Iverson flashed back. The ’plane heard the dots and dashes from the “Times” transmitter in New York. “A Fine, Sunny Night.” Then followed an official message to Commander Hooper, of the Navy Department, Washington. “A fine sunny night here,” said Hanson, on concluding. Transmission ended at 3.28 a.m. New York time, just twelve minutes after the message came that the ’plane was ready to go aloft. Hanson’s ’plane is equipped with what is termed a fixed doublet antenna, reaching from the tips of both wings to the tail and into the fuselage. This is for short-wave transmission, while a trailing .wire is utilised for communication on the universal commercial wave of 600 metres. The installation receives its power from an i electrical generator coupled direct to the aeroplane engine. This is an innovation in aeroplane radio. The ’plane’s receiver, which picked up the signals from the “Times” station, is a special four-valve super-regenerative circuit for short-wave reception, designed by Malcolm Hanson and built by the National Electric Supply Company of Washington. So strong were the signals from; 1 the ’plane, and so slight the fading, that the “Times” operators are hopeful that they will pick up the plane’s dispatches as the Stars and Stripes flies over the South Pole.

ATTEMPT TO CUT PASSAGE TO BARRIER ICE RAMMED BY CITY OF NEW YORK PREPARING FOR ARRIVAL OF ELEANOR BOLLING (By Russell Owen. —Special to “New York Times.”) (Rec. January 27, 5.5 p.m.) Bay of Whales, January 25. Yesterday Commander Byrd made a valiant attempt to reach the ice barrier to cut a passage through the heavy pressure ice with the City of New York to a place where the Eleanor Bolling could be easily unloaded. The ice proved too thick, however, and after a day’s ramming and battering he was forced to quit and await a little aid from the weather, which appears now might be coming, as a storm is brewing which may shift to the south, and if it does this, part of the bay ice should go out. We left the berth where the ship had been made fast to the edge of a floe, because the ice in that spot was getting soft. Several men went in up to their waists during the morning, and finally Norman Vaughan, who has been carrying heavy loads in the last few days, went in up to his shoulders while he was standing alongside his team preparing to start in with a load of coal.

Lead Opened Up. A lead on the east side of the bay had opened up to within a few hundred yards of the low part of the barrier. Commander Byrd determined to attempt to smash his way through there in the hope that he could make a passage for the Eleanor Bolling. The City of New York pulled along the edge of the bay ice under steam until out in the open lead. The ship headed along the south parallel to the barrier, and about three hundred yards out from it, where there seemed to be a series of openings which led on a gradual curve inward towards the barrier. The ship hit the ice with all the power in the engine and easily cut its way through for some distance. The ice then became heavier until it checked

the forward movement. Then we began to back up and ram ahead, making a few feet each time. Smashing Through Thick Ice. Once the ship was caught amidships by a big cake that folded under the other ice and the bow .was jammed tight. Men went over the side with bars, poles, axes and shovels, and finally broke the ice loose so that the ship could move again. The ship .went ahead with renewed speed for some distance, the bow lifting up and smashing down again through ice five and six feet thick, but later we found that we were working against ice that was. ridged and heaved up with pressure, so much so that there were in places cakes standing like pillars fifteen feet above the surface. It was also ice that was confined by pressure ice on two sides and by the barrier on the other, which makes the task much harder.

Byrd was sceptical as to how much he could accomplish, but felt that if the barrier could be reached and the ice broken up so that it might move out more quickly it would help greatly ■in the unloading of the Eleanor Bolling, which is now the greatest problem facing the expedition. Accordingly rhe ship went full speed ahead into this mass, which was at least ten feet thick below the water-line. Time and again the boat would ride up on one of these huge floes, forcing her way between uplifted and jagged cakes of pressure ice, and slide off again when the engines were reversed without apparently making any impression. Two or three times this would be done, then the ice would crack and slowly be forced aside. Barrier a Hundred Yards Away. A yard at a time the ship made her way towards the barrier in this way, reeling under the shocks and swaying when a stubborn cake deflected it as it charged forward, until the barrier was only a hundred yards away. But it might just as well have been a mile, for a point was reached where we could not go any further, and Byrd decided to back out and go back to the last point where coal had been unloaded. Most of the day and a good part of the evening were spent in this attempt, and it did some good, for the ice has split and broken so much that a good southerly wind might blow it out, and we hope that this will happen. The Eleanor Bolling is coming more slowly to economise coal, and there will be two days for ice to move before she arrives.

'Copyrighted 1928 by “New York Times” Company ami “St. Louis Post-Dispatch.” AU rights for publication reserved throughout the world.}