RADIO TELEPHONE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 66, 18 March 1924, Page 4

RADIO TELEPHONE

MESSAGE FROM ROSS SEA

FIRST OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION

£he first occasion b\\ which an official wireless telephonic message has been received in New Zealand was on Friday, but no announcement on the subject was made until last night. The message was transmitted from the Ross Sea, 1400 miles south jot Awarua radio station, in the South Island, and was fromCaptain Hooper, Nautical Adviser to the Government, advising His Excellency the bovernor-General of the success attending the Norwegian whaling expedition in the Boss Sea. Captain Hooper is accompanying the expedition as representative of the New Zealand Government, and his message to His Excellency telephoned from the mother ship Si- James Clark Ross was as follows:— "I am pleased to transmit to you the first radio ' telephone message sent from the Ross dependency. Tho first whaling station in Ross dependency has now terminated; and the Norwegian whaling expedition, consisting of six vessels, H is now off.Balleny Island, 1400 miles from Awarua radio,"on its way to Port Chalmers. The expedition has' secured 22,1 whales; and I hope next season's operation will ho more successful, and result in this company finding it necessary to increase the scope of its operations." The following reply was dispatched by His Excellency:—"Your radio telephone report, which was* clearly received, is of great interest. Please convey my congratulations to the Whaling Company on the successful results achieved this, season, and my hopes that these rnsults will be exceoded next year. I trust that the expedition will have a pleasant passage to New-Zealand." The >Sir James Clark '"Ross, during the whole of her Whaling expedition to thn Ross dependency, was in communication with the Awarua radio station by wireless telegraphy, but the message was forwarded in this instance by wireless telephony; and the distance, 1400 miles, is the greatest over which the radio telephone equipment on -.board the ship was used during the expedition. The circumstance is interesting, as it marks the first' occasion upon which the radio telephone has been used to send an official wireless communication to a New Zealand- coast station. Although tho message from Captain Hooper is the first official message to be received in New Zealand by .radio telephone, the Sir James Clark Ross is not tho first ship equipped with radio telephone apparatus to visit Now Zealand waters. Several ships, both naval and mercantile, which have visited these waters have been similarly equipped, and have communicated 'with New Zealand coast stations, although their wireless telegraph sets have always been used for tho purpose of official communications as being more secret and accurate for the transmission of code and other, messages. Radio telephone broadcasting stations as far afield as the United States of America, Hono-' lulu, Australia, etc., sending, out concerts by radio telephone are frequently heard in New Zealand.