RADIOS AND AVIATION

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 5, 6 July 1921, Page 6

RADIOS AND AVIATION

USE IN AUSTRALIA.

(IMM OCR OWN CORKIirOXBINT.)

SYDNEY, 28th June.

Having observed the value of wireless and aeroplane services in otlier parts of the world, the Australian Post Office— which was slow to b© converted—is now anxious to make all possible use of these new methods in solving the maay difficult problems of communication in Australia and in the islands controlled l>y the Commonwealth. Difficulties, however, ..ara being experienced, not the least being the delay which invariably occurs in obtaining material ord-ered from overseas. There is also the fact that wireless apparatus is ._subject to so many patent laws, that it is almost impossible to dosign apparatus locally which will be suitable to local conditions, without infringing the patent rights of someone or other. These difficulties have' been responsible for holding up experiments in a very important branch of wireless—namely, directional wireless.

It is proposed to establish aeroplane services to connect the Inaccessible central, north-west, and northern parts with the rest of Australia. The Gerald-ton-Derby route in West Australia has just been selected for the first experiment. There are several long flying stages on this route, and there is a considerable risk, of accident. It is hoped to establish directional wireless stations—with which such satisfactory results have been obtained in other countries—so as. to keep in touch with the aeroplane in every part of its -flight. Then, as other services are established, the directional wireloss system will be applied.

The Department is rapidly perfecting the organisation of its already extensive wirelesV systems in Papua and the mandated territories. There are new large stations at Rabaul, Port Moresby, Samarai, and Misima, and the tralHc with tho mainland is rapidly increasing. Rabaul distributes to six or eight small stations about the mandated territories, and arrangements are being made for the extension of the power of this plant, to' carry traffic between Rabaul, Townsville, Sydney, and' Melbourne.

A station is being established at Willis Osland, off the coast of Queensland. This will link up with the other wireless stations for the purposes of meteorological observation, so as to provide reliable weather forecasts 'and particularly to give warning of cyclones which every year do great damage in Northern Queensland.