LONELY PITCAIRN

Evening Star, Issue 22880, 11 February 1938, Page 2

LONELY PITCAIRN

COfIIMUNIGATIDN WITH OUTSIDE RADIO EQUIPMENT TO BE INSTALLED Through the efforts of several American commercial firms, Pitcairn Island, a lonely spot in the South Pacific, and famous as the home of the Bounty mutineers, is shortly to have the means of speaking to the outside world. A* modern radio transmitter is to be installed there, and is to use the callsign PITC. A small expedition party is to visit Pitcairmto assist the islanders m the installation of the equipment, sailing, from Panama in about a week’s time. Their transport from Panama to the island is to be provided free by the New Zealand Shipping Company. ■ An imperfect means of . keeping touch! with the other parts ,of the world has been available to Pitcairn since 1920, when the Marconi Wireless Company presented the inhabitants with a crude crystal set. Since then ,Mr Andrew, Young, a descendant of one of the original white settlers, has applied himself assiduously to the task of maintaining wireless communication with passing ships, and even set up amending outfit, though his only technical information was contained in a small handbook. Knowledge of the presence of vessels near the island is naturally of great importance ,to the people _of Pitcairn, since it provides them with an opportunity, not only of finding _ out what is going on in the world outside, but of, trading the fruit and produce grown on the island- Without Mr Andrew Young’s (radio many a vessel would have passed unknown, but even at that the difficulties experienced may be judged from the fact that when the batteries of the set run dry they have to be sent the 3,800 miles to New Zealand for recharging. x When an American schooner visited Pitcairn last year the need _ for improved communication was realised, and the effort to ■ provide the necessary equipment has now culminated in the expedition that is to be headed by Mr Granville P. Bindley, gyro-compass expert, who was in New Zealand with the second Byrd Antarctic expedition. The whole of the equipment, comprising the transmitter, will be taken to the island and erected without cost to the islanders, largely owing to the gen'erosity of commercial concerns in the New England district of Rhode Island.