RADIO COVERAGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 September 1944, Page 3

RADIO COVERAGE

WEST COAST PLAINT.

“This Council, on behalf of the radio listeners of the West Coast, in view of the Minister of Broadcasting’s admission of inadequate coverage, his inability to effect a remedy, and his failure to answer the remit regarding fees, repeats its request that, until such time as good qualitative reception is available and until facilities are installed to give reasonable coverage, the license fee in respect of West Coast radios be remitted, or at least reduced to half, namely 12/6 per annum.” This was the text of a resolution adopted by the Council of the Westland District Progress League, last evening, following the receipt of further correspondence on the topic of unsatisfactory reception from 3ZR Greymouth. The resolution will go to the Minister of Broadcasting and . to Mr. O’Brien. Following the discussion at the previous meeting, Mr. J. Saunders (Secretary) reported, he had written to the Minister of Broadcasting setting out the League’s complaint with the service from 3ZR and quoting an article from the “Listener” of May, 1941, setting out details of “four heavy compact, intricate-looking radio transmitters for the four main ZB stations, where they would act as standby plants.” In reply to the original letter from the League, Mr. Jones had stated that the provision of a more powerful station for the West Coast area had been on the development programme of the department for some years, and the cause of delay in proceeding with the work was the prevailing conditions. It should be mentioned, however, that there were some populated areas in the Dominion not so well served as the Coast, and if any low-power equipment became available those areas were entitled to first attention. It had not been possible to construct any plant but what was required to keep the present service in operation. The League could rest assured that the needs of the«

district were well-known and wbre down to receive early consideration. In a subsequent letter Mr. Jones explained that the four ZB standby transmitters were planned before the wax' and they were of varying power, which in all cases was somewhat under 500 watts. The main transmitters at the five commercial stations had been in use for a number of years and were liable to break down through the ageing of the components. The utilisation of any of the standby transmitters at Greymouth' would not result in an appreciable., improvement of the coverage. The interference being experienced from Australian stations was caused by several being on the same frequency. All the available frequencies in the broadcasting band were being used in New Zealand and Australia, and some had as many as four stations on them. The allocation had been made to cause the minimum amount of interference in both countries, and any alteration would transfer the interference to another part of the band. The Director of Broadcasting (Prof. J. Shelley) wrote stating that the Minister would reply to the League’s correspondence (as above). Commenting on the Minister's letters, the Communications Committee remarked that the input power of 3ZR was about 186 watts and, considering that a quarter-wave Marconi type antenna was employed, the output carrier power would be 60 watts, so that the 500-watt standby plants referred to, were 8 1-3 times more powerful. Such increased power would provide a service acceptable to the Coast pending the completion in perhaps five years’ time of the Broadcasting Service plans. Coast listeners had been patient, but unfulfilled promises over the years had exhausted their patience. The broad statement that there were some populated areas not so well served as the Coast could; not without reservation be accepted.! It should be possible to instal one of' the already-assembled standby transmitters at 3ZR.