"BIGGEST IN THIS HEMISPHERE"

Evening Star, Issue 22536, 2 January 1937, Page 4

"BIGGEST IN THIS HEMISPHERE"

VISIT TO NEW After a recent visit to the new 2YA at Titahi Bay, a ‘ Dominion ’■ representative wrote;— . Commanding the scene for .miles around the single inast, 710 ft tall, brushes low-flying clouds and stands as a monument %o the. daring and ingenuity of this inventive age. On a hill rising back from Titahi Bay, it challenges wind and storm, a thing of strengh, and, to the engineer’s eye, of beauty. Gulls, up from the sea, wheel over and under the guy ropes, curiously inspecting the intruding .steel. .One of the technical experts, at no pains' to conceal his pride in the mast, mentioned. that the view from the top was magnificent—so he had been told by the men who had built it. They said they could see miles beyond Paekakariki, where the-coast faded into a bluish haze away to the north. But; he, for his part, had no ambition to' climb,it, not in a breeze, at all events,. Secure on its insulated pivot at the base, it swayed perhaps 2ft at the extremity, a look-out better appreciated l by a steeplejack than a man of the, ground. ‘ 1 Inside the. main' building, equipment worth a fortune was in process of adjustment by technicians who bestowed paternal affection to the gleaming valves, switches, motors, and indicators; The layman gazed'in reverent admiration. An engineer made an heroic attempt to strip technicalities from his description of the electrical installation, but.gave it up after vainly searching for synonyms for the vocabulary of Lis craft. That was radio all over, he explained. Its kingdom lay in the stratosphere' and it was next to impossible to get it down to earth. But he did say: “ This is the biggest set of equipment I know of in this Hemisphere. The station is expected to cover every part of New Zealand, and,. we hope, those places where reception of 2YA is poor at present,” That was something to go on with. He qualified it, however, by pointing out that one never knew with radio how reception would turn out, and the capabilities of the new 2YA would not be known until field tests were completed. Nevertheless, he had received a report from. Gisborne—the only one to hand so far—that the station had come in very well, Gisborne being hitherto a difficult region in which to hear Wellington. A diverting part of the - installation is the engineer’s control desk. To his left he has; a panel operating a fivekilowatt emergency section which can be brought into independent use in the event of the breakdown of the main 60-kilowatt transmitter. Red and green lights tell the man in charge almost anything about what everything else in the station is doing. In the compound enclosing the entire station property, unusual precautions are takqn to ensure the safety of persons handling the plant, and visitors. Tt was stated that when the transmitter is l working the induction from the aerials will be so powerful that a person attempting to climb the mast would be hurled off.