THE RUGBY STATION

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 82, 5 April 1924, Page 22

THE RUGBY STATION

As negotiations betwen the. Post Office and the Marconi Company with respect to tho building of other great stations ar.fi.still in progress, the Rugby installation which the British Government is building, will be the first of its size in Britain. It will rank with Bordeaux and Bte. Assiser. in ■ using an -input of IUOO kilowatts, and is expected to have an ail-roond efficiency equal to that of any other single station in the world. .

The Hillmorton site ' comprises lv,square miles, sufficient space having been secured, to admit of considerable extension of the original plans. These provided for eight masts, and already this number has been erected. But a'total of sixteen masts could be arranged for without acquiring fresh ground. The 800 ft steel- masts are of the "stayed" variety, which is regarded as having- advantages over "towers"—-masts standing unsupported on their bases—which are favoured in America.

. The, Rugby 'station- will be used for purposes of transmission only, the .Government receiving station remaining at Banbury. Absolutely continuous daytime service may :bo impracticable, even with the immense power developed, but it is confidently expected that during the "good", times of- daylight, automatic 'working will be possible, and it may be economically desirable to concentrate on such periods, rather than incur a'heavy waste of power by endeavouring to secure a- precarious continuity by handworking under serious atmospheric disadvantages. The commercial prospects of a huge station of • this description arc a good deal, more uncertain than is commonly supposed. The loss on the stations already erected at LeafieM and Abu Zagal,' near Cairo, has" been freely criticised, but as a matter of fact it is questionable whether any, foreign country lias yet erected a large station which has paid its way, or' is likely to do so for a long time to come. France, for example, rocp.ntly opened • a very powerful station at-Saigon, in Cochin China, which can communicate directly with Bordeaux or' Lyons. But there is little or no chance'that this .will prove commercially remunerative. On the other hand, apart tfmm naval and military considerations, some important Imperial potentialities are bound up in, more particularly, such a peculiar- centralised station as thai, at 'Rugby. One of these is'the facility afforded of broadcasting news of Imperial significance -simultan° eously to every British Dominion and colony throughout the world. At those 'timps of the day or night when automatic transmission is practicable, it wili be a comparatively simplematter to distribute from-Kugby a news service with which no land line or cable system could hope to compete in the matter of absolute. uniformity, even if it did so—at enormously enhanced cost in that of comprehensiveness.