RADIO SECRECY

Evening Star, Issue 22619, 10 April 1937, Page 23

RADIO SECRECY

THE "SCRAMBLER" DEVICE USED ON ALL OVERSEAS CHANNELS “ With the installation of ' scrambling ’ apparatus on the transtasman liner Awatea,” stated the PostmasterGeneral (the Hon. F. Jones) this morning, “ the Post Office is now able to guarantee secrecy for all overseas radio conversations.” This ingenious electrical apparatus, which gives privacy for toll conversations over the air, has been in use for some months on the New Zealand-Aus-tralia and New Zealand-United Kingdom channels. It involves the provision of extensive equipment at Wellington Radio, La Perouse (N.S.W.), and the London Exchange. When a conversation is in progress between New Zealand and any overseas point, including the Awatea, clear speech received along the subscriber’s line is converted at the Wellington telephone exchange by the “ scrambling ” apparatus into what sounds like a meaningless jumble of very high pitch, quite unlike normal speech. A short wave listener who happened to tune in on the right wave length might be misled into thinking that a conversation was proceeding in some very strange foreign language; but, as a matter of fact, no linguist, without the aid of the intricate apparatus, could

grasp the meaning of any of the sound** Even the technical operators in charge of the radio channels cannot understand what is being transmitted, and th* English radio-receiving station at Baldock transmits: the same apparent jumble to the International Exchange in London, where it is converted back into normal, clear utterance and put over the subscriber’s line. As the inland telephone circuits (except party lines) are private and consist of. independent channels to the exchanges, there is complete secrecy along th* whole route. MM———