DIRECTING WHALE CHASERS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 203, 25 May 1936, Page 6

DIRECTING WHALE CHASERS

Use of Radio Telephony

APPARATUS AT TORY CHANNEL

Dominion Special Service

Christchurch, Aiay 24.

For the first time in New Zealand radio telephony is to be used in directing the operations of whale-chasers. Arrangements are now being made by A. I’erano and Company, of Picton, who operate one of the two whaling stations in New Zealand, to have radio telephone apparatus installed at their look-out station at the entrance of Tory Channel, and on the Tuatea, the mother ship of the company's whalechasers. Tile apparatus, which has been constructed by the staff of the Electric and General Import Company. Christchurch, was tested on Saturday, and will bo sent to Picton for installation. The successful opeatiou of the apparatus should result in larger catches a reduction in the working costs of the whaling fleet, and a considerable saving of time. The whaling fleet con sists of the mother ship and a numbeof fast chasers. In the past the flee! has had to be at the base to receive instructions from tile look-out station When a whale was sighted the fleet set out, the mother ship usually arriv ing at the scene of operations after the chasers had caught ant flagged the whale. The fleet would then return to the base with the whale towed by the mother ship, and receive any further instructions. Now, however, the radio telephone apparatus will allow communication to be established between the look-out station and the mother ship when the fleet is out in Cook Strait, and the licet will be able to receive directions without coming back to the base. The whaling season began last week—an unusually early opening. It continues for about four months, and last season 52 whales were caught. However, it is estimated that fully twice that number would have been caught if there had been communication between the base and the fleet such as should be given by the radio telephone apparatus.

The apparatus is as simple to use as a telephone. The operator speaks into a microphone, and the reproduction is through an ordinary loud-speaker. The only controls are an “on-and-off” switch and a switch for changing over from the transmitter to the receiver, while a meter on the panel registers the aerial output. A similar apparatus was installed last year on the Clarence Reserve estate, Kaikoura, for giving communication between the home station and the back station at Quail Flat, thus bridging mountainous country on which no telephone line could withstand the severity of winter storms.