RADIO TELEPHONY

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 81, 6 April 1933, Page 21

RADIO TELEPHONY

BETWEEN SHIP AND SHORE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, March 30. Experiments in two way telephonic communication between ships at sea and a shore station have been successfully carried out by Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), Ltd.,-during the last few weeks. The possibilities in this regard were impressed upon the public on Sunday, during the flight of the Southern Cross over the Tasman. Telephopio communication, with the- aeroplane was maintained practically the ■whole' of the time, 'aiid had it not been for the great roar of the three engines

it would have been possible to hear distinctly every word uttered by Sir Charles Kingston! Smith. Even as it was very little was missed. The experiments with a steamer travelling between Sydney and Melbourne were repeated on Saturday last i and proved to be an added attraction at the big radio exhibition in progress at the_ Town Hall. The words from the ship came through so clearly that they were amplified and everyone in tho hall was able to listen to the conversation. It has been said that the time is not far distant when vessels on the Tasman run will be equipped with wireless telephones which will enable passengers to speak to any telephone subscriber in New Zealand or Australia. However, a word of warning in this connection has been uttered. Mr. E. T. Fisk said that the shortwave wireless telegraph-telephone apparatus, with s which one Australian vessel has been equipped, was specially ] designed and manufactured in Sydney. It was not intended that it should be used except for experiments. Whether there would eventually be a public demand for the utility sufficient to warrant the installation of the costly equipment that would bo necessary could not be forecast at present. Many_ of the Transatlantic liners were' equipped with similar apparatus, but the necessary gear was extremely costly—so much so that a conversation with a shore station cost, he understood, 10s a minute. To make a similar Bcrvice pay in Australian and New Zealand waters, it would be necessary to find means of reducing tho cost. He was still investigating the matter'with that end in view.