TALKING TO BYRD

Evening Star, Issue 20128, 19 March 1929, Page 3

TALKING TO BYRD

In Touch With Antarctic How News Comes Through FBy R. L. Du itus.] (Copyright.)

The following ;irLiitells how. _ through wonderful newspaper orga nisa(ion, for the first lime in history wifelc-s lias been utilised to rhronicle every happening in the Antarctic, that is likely to interest the. world.

It i' 3 o'clock in the afternoon of a lino Antarctic summer day on the edge of the Great lee Harrier, 9,.373.28 inih's from ‘ Times ’ square, a.s the radio wave, flies, and 2,10(1 miles from Dunedin. New Zealand, (he. nearest city in that country. The whaler, Gity of New York, lies anchored to the ice. A dog team is being loaded alongside, the drivers keeping a watchful eye lest their frozen trail should staid, to buck and break under a heavy swell from the berg-strewu sea. From I lie direction of (he ship's wardroom may he heard the- sound of a typewriter—the first typewriter, no doubt, that ever etched its clatter on the silence at this lonesomest of all harbours. Russell Owen, who, as newspaper men put it, is “ covering the South Role and its adjacent territory, is at work on his daily story. Reporters Inna* worked in strange places—in aeroplanes, in front-line dug-outs, on boad sinking ships, in burning buildings, in mines, in Spitsbergen, in the heart of Africa, in forbidden Tibet. Lint it does not seem likely that any newspaper man over had a stranger, a vaster, a more romantic or a more exclusive heat to cover than Owen has. lie is the only reporter for all the uncounted square miles of the earth's last, unreported continent. SUPPLIES FOR A LONG SIEGE. At the New York end of the wireless circuit an operator sits with receivers on bis cars, taking the words as fast as the operator on the City of New York—the gods of static permitling—can semi them. Coming out of the iiiglitless February in the Antarctic. it meets the oiirnsliing wave oi darkness in the middle of the Raidlie. All fids takes a little less than one-twentieth of a s.eeond. Five minutes more and the first sheet of the despatch has been received, mimeographed. and hand, 1 to the waiting copy boys and telegraph operators. It catches (he next edition of the ‘Times’ and earlier editions ot American newspapers published in lime zones one hour, two hours, or three hours further west.

Written in the middle of the a iternoon, it is received almost simultaneously all over the world, all the way from 3 o’clock the same morning to 3 o'clock the next morning—a puzzle in Greenwich time. One has to say “ almost ” simultaneously, lor even the New Zealanders have to wail until the story has come to New d ork and then been sent bark, over a route more than Jti.tldO miles long. We can picture Owen bent over his portable typewriter. with a lat pile of copy paper at his side. Me has more than enough ribbons, ropy paper, and spare typewriter parts to last him out the long weeks of two Rolnr years. "Getting news on an Antarctic expedition.'’ ho explains, 11 merely demands going somewhere. No mallei where one goes, there is new ~ I hrcountry is strange and fantastic. Bile is M) 'different from anything conceived at home that everything is new by contrast. And every day something exciting happens, even though one never knows exactly whore it will occur. , "The base is eight mile- inland, and to get there cue. must go over a dog frail —ride most ot the way in and all the way out. But most of the nows from the inferior i-nmcs iorrh every day. for the reporter most not remain long away from ship and radio. " Fven if he is merely standing on deck watching (he varying incidents of a day of unloading, with ice breaking away from under the ice anchor- ami shifting its position, he ran see much—dog teams being picked up from floes rocking in a slight swell; penguins and seals; dog fights there are a, thousand things to catch the eve. "“The difficulty is not to get news, but to keep up with it. There may he an aeroplane flight, a trip in a heat such as the one when we met the killer whales. Or possibly in the midst of a serene midnight a storm will come out, of the, sooth and a threatening obscurity close down around n>. " Getting the news from day to day is not Ti all ,-o difiirnlt as finding a place or quiet in which to write if. Recent I v the wardroom was (died with hags, and there was a desperate hunt lor a place to put a typewriter. Ami when some ol the hags were stowed awav so that part of a table waavailable, other bags were still being moved or boxes were being shitted out. of a. storeroom.

“Just non- Hie phonograph is playing. a bridge game is on during a -light cessation of work, two men are debating humorously who shall fill coal fiags, one or two arc sitting around “reading and telling stories, and J.)r Goman is patching up a lewcuts and bruises. Captain Melville, is admiring a sextant mirror 1m has improvised with mercury and some cigarette paper, and liie is unite norma). WRITING NEWS UNDER DIFFICULTIES. *■ News is written under every sort nf disturbing condition. lo which one must adapt One's self good-naturedly or not he able In work, tine ot the penalties oi Antarctic exploration is that fpiarters are so crowded that men cannot get out of each other's was'. And when a story is written one must cousicn it to the vagaries of .short-wave radio? and hope that it gets through in time. The wonder is that communication has been so good since we left civilisation. But covering news in the Antarctic docs keep one busy.” While tile party remains on the ship the news will come from Owen’s personal observations, from the reports of the dog team drivers, field parties, and aeroplane pilots, and from the constant exchange of messages by portable radios. The expedition carries, all told, twenty-two radio transmitters and thirtv-l'our receivers. In the working season there will bo five operators on duty at the ship or on shore. In addition, every member of every party going afield, on foot, by dog team, or by aeroplane, will be able to send and receive simple messages.

In the past lew weeks there has not been hall an hour at a time when the position of every member of the expedition who was away from ship or huso was not exactly known. The City ol New York lias been the clearing house for information. It is to this lari that Owen alludes when he says that a reporter must not remain long away from ship and radio. To do so might mean delay in getting on the air with a worth-while bit of news. The most thrilling moments of the expedition will come when attempts are made to explore the great while continent from the air, and particularly when the flight to the Pole is undertaken. On these occasions those, on the ship or at the base will not have to wait lor news until the aviators return. The planes will carry two sets —one operating at about bOU-moire wave length, the other at between 20 and 1)0 metres. Tim long wave instrument will lie chiefly used in getting radio bearings, a task easily accomplished by me,-ins ol Iwo fixed stations separated by a distance sufficient to form, with the plane, the three perceptible [mints of a triangle. The short waves can be used for messages. A “doublet'’ antenna, looped around wing tips and tail, will make it unnecessary for the planes to earn the old-fashioned dangling wire, which had to be reeled in if a descent were contemplated. If a plane has to come down, communication can still be kept up with power furnished from any one of live possible sources—the direct genorator, a wind-driven generator, a small gas engine, batteries, or, it everything else is smashed, a hand-driven generator. It those are all put out ol commission. the stranded aviators will still he aide to got in touch with the ba-c and with the outer world if they ran reach one oi the sub-bases, widen will be located about IDU miles apart, on the road to the Polo. I'iach base will be provided with bamboo poles, on which antenna can be looped. Knelt will have radio apparatus, operated 1\ dry batteries, especially [lacked to resist the cold.

Between the liases will be planted bamboo pules. at intervals of a feu miles, \\ !iii h can be utilised it the travellers wish to operate their ‘Jib portable sots. These provisions are primarily to give the explorers every possible safeguard. The aviators will have a far better chance of getting back in case ol' accident to tbeir planes (ban any other wanderers have had in these forbidding wastes. Incidentally, Mr Owen, and ihrongli him the outer world, ■will be able to lollow almost every moment ol their adventures. II all goes well the rediscovery of the South Pole may be actually in print, in New York. Buenos Aires, and Pans before the aviators who achieve it have ended their flight. DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSMISSION. Owen refer-- to (he ditbrulne- encountered in getting message.-, through. Before the next year is over we shall know much more about, the cause- of these trouble- than we do now. One manifest disadvantage of working (as radio men put, it.) .Antarctica in the Antarctic summer i- that, 1 lie waveinnsl traverse' both night, and day, because a short wave is better for daylight work and a slightly longer one for night work. So far. 1 he reception in New York lias been better I: ‘ at night - or rather very early in I he morning. The be-t hour ba- slutted a little as the season lias advanced, but lately ii ba- been about 3 a.m.. New York time. Hut sometimes the ether i- stubborn. The short wave radio is the only one that can be counted on to get. through regularly, and even that sometimes fades out. in the middle of a sentence. The only tiling the receiving operatorat the New York end can do then is to Jet the explorers know that they can no longer hear, and then wait. Reception is usually better ont-ide the crowded part of the city, and -o the me-sage- from Lite City of New York are often taken at Astoria or lieilaire. on Long Island. So, too. are tbo-c from the FJeanor Holing. Ciinon-ly enough, the Holme:, with only about one-tlnrd of the pouer in her generator- that the City of New A oi k bad. Ireipiently make- bcrselt heard in New York more, (dearly. JAZZ FOR THE EXPLORERS. Incidentally, n is ea-icr to send to the Antarctic than to receive from there. Every Saturday night the. members of (lie Byrd party get. a i»rogramme ol songs and jazz from KIYKA. of Pittsburg, and other station-. So far, this programme has been going through very well, according to reports from tlie flay of Whales. Contrast, this with the frightful isolation in which Scott, Shackleton, and Amundson had to live! When a story from Owen or Hyrd for Commander Byrd, as readerknow, can also turn out good copy is about to come through, the syndicate staff of the ‘ Times ’ as well as the. copy desk is ready. The approximate number of words i- known before transmission is completed, and elfortare made to rush the article, or a substantial part of it. into the next edition that goo- to press. Meanwhile copies lor the syndicate editor have been made, and lie has dealt them out to the telegraph operators on ten circuits, who havo been silling at their instruments all evening. The story comes in at the rate ol about 1.21)1) words an hour, and as it usually rims between ] ,"'OO and 2,000 words, the time taken to receive, it when everything is running smoothly is between an hour and a quarter and an linur and three-quarters. ,()n bad nights the New York operator usually sticks at Ids job until he breaks through the interference and gets the story complete. Twice recently, however. the message was picked up at San Francisco and relayed to the Times ’ by land telegraph. But in every case the matter passes through * Times ’ office before it is released lor publication anywhere else. The story goes directly from New York to a list of forty American and Canadian newspapers, to the New

Zealand Press Association, ami to seventeen foreign newspaper-, including the ’ Sun ’ in Sydney and journalin Antwerp. .Prague, London, .Milan, O-aka in Japan, Rotterdam. Mexico (lily, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm. Helsingfors, Hiieno- Aire-, La Par, in Bolivia, and Cartagena in Colombia, 'Two papers in Pari- receive the despatch. Several other newspapers m Fiance, and Latin America are. indirectly served, so that the total reaches sixty or more, and the audience nuts into many millions. The story as it ha- -n far been told, and a- we may expect it to be told during the months to come, will be one of heroism and endurance. The Antarctic Continent will inver be entirely sate or comfortable. Hut heroism and endurance tune been superbly demonstrated in the Polar regions many times. What stands out so brilliantly in the narrative of the Hyrd expedition is the scientific precision with which every contingency is provided for. Sot least among, the-c scientific preparations is that which enable- multitude- of newspaper reader- the world over to lollow step by step and day by day this supremo adventure. The loneliness of exploration i- gone. Half the population of the globe gaze -Into the arena in which Byrd and hr- companion.- are pitting themselves against an adversary that bite-, kick-, gouges, and hits below the licit. Perhaps the unheard but sincere applause will contribute to his final success.