CHRISTCHURCH OBSERVER'S COMMENT

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 11, 14 January 1928, Page 8

CHRISTCHURCH OBSERVER'S COMMENT

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evenino Post.") CHEISTCHUECH, This Bay. | "People have said in the north that they received messages from the airplane. One man said that he picked up a message to the effect that the aviators were 500 miles from the coast of New Zealand. That is wrong, for nothing could be learned from the signals but that the 'plane was in the air and that the aviators were transmitting," said Mr. R. J. Baggs, who was detailed by the Post and Telegraph Department to pick up the signals from the Aotearoa. "It was simply a peculiar note of a particular frequency," said Mr. Baggs. "It could not be read. I think I am right when I say that I have the most sensitive and most efficient shortwave receiver in the country. There is no doubt in my mind that the signals received were from the 'plane. Although there were no tests taken from the transmitter on the 'plane it could not be proved beyond doubt that the signals received came from the aviators. "I have no doubt myself that the signals received from 5.12 to 5.22 p.m. on the day of the flight were from the 'plane. They were first picked up on a wave-length of 33.35 metres. No commercial stations were sending on that wave-length at that time. After 11.44 a.m., the first time the signals were picked up again was 3.33 p.m., when we heard them up till 4.18 p.m. At 3.30 I p.m., TXAF, the New York station, was on the air broadcasting on 32.77 metres, and this was a further guide to the wave-length of the 'plane's transmitter. "There was silence from 4.18 p.m. until 5.12 p.m., when the signal again came through, continuing until 5.22 p.m. One Trentham man was supposed to have received the signals until 5.30 p.m., but I don't think that they were the right signals."