RADIO IN AUSTRALIA

Grey River Argus, 6 September 1930, Page 8

RADIO IN AUSTRALIA

1 * Commercial Stations A few years ago, when Amalgamated Wireless was entrusted with the | development of wireless in Australia, jit became apparent that in order to efficiently develop wireless it would be necessary for the capital cities of Australia to provide many services and it also appeared that this would | make it necessary to erect many sta. jtions. This not only meant great ex[pense, but it greatly increased the I possibility of interference, and there j was the real difficulty of securing suit(able sites accessible to the cities. j Mr. E. T. Fisk, Managing Director i of Amalgamated Wireless, decided to abandon the old practice of separate stations, and involved a new scheme of J centralising the activities into three [groups —a Transmitting Centre, a ’ Receiving Centre, and a Control Office. The development of this scheme has reached such a stage of efficiency I that to-day all the wireless stations of New South Wales are located in two i sites and operated from a central control office. Under the old arrangement lit would have been necessary to have had a separate site for each of the [nine services conducted from Sydney. J The Transmitting Centre is located at j Pennant Hills, some 14 miles from Syd- ( ney, while the A.W.A. Receiving Centre is situated at La Perouse, overlooking Botany Bay and the Pacific [Ocean. Apart from the economy both in equipment and personnel the operat ling efficiency of all the services has • been vastly improved by the centralisation of activities. Another important feature of the Sydney system is that even if the Station is using any or all of the various transmitters, it can be interrupted by a ship in distress desiring immediate attention. All the apparatus at A.W.A. Radio Transmitting Station at Pennant Hills and at the Receiving Station at La Perouse was designed and manufactured at | the A.W.A. Radio-Electric Works at Sydney. A.W.A. TRANSMITTING CENTRE PENNANT HILLS. The main mast at Pennant Hills is 400 feet high and has been a landmark for many years, but several additional masts of 200 feet have recently been erected. From the main mast to smaller masts -there is now suspended a multiplicity of aerials of every description. each adapted to some special service. The Amalgamated Wireless Transmitting Centre at Pennant Hills is to-day the largest and most modern

transmitting station in the Southern Hemisphere. The principal services are:— The wireless telephone service, to (heat Britain, and 22 European Countries; the Beam Feeder Transmitters operating with Melbourne; the Island Radio Service communicating with Adelaide, Perth, Townsville, and Brisbane; the service to Noumea, New Caledonia; the Marine Wireless Service to ships at sea; the N.S.W. Police Transmitters communicating with Police Patrol Cars in the city of Sydney; Sydney short wave telephone transmitters communicating with trawlers operating off the Australian coast; Broadcast Transmitters of the Australian Broadcasting Company’s Station 2FC; 20 k.w. Short Wave Transmitters for experimental telephony and world-wide broadcasting. Practically the whole of these services arc operated either from the A.W.A. Receiving Centre at La Perouse, (some 16 miles distant from the Transmitting Station) or from A.W.A. Headquarters in the city of Sydney. The Police Transmitters, however, are operated from Police Headquarters. Sydney, while the Australian Broadcasting Company’s programmes emanate from their studios. A.W.A. RECEIVING CENTRE AT LA PEROUSE. The Sydney Receiving Centre of Amalgamated Wireless is the most important receiving station in the Southern Hemisphere. The equipment installed at the station, though comparatively small in appearance compared to the transmitters at Pennant Hills, is of a most advanced design. Messages are received from a network of services, and duplex telegraphy and telephony working is maintained by means of “remote control”. An operator sitting before a receiver at La Perouse and receiving a message from a ship can, at a touch of a keyboard in front of him actuate the Marine Transmitter at Pennant Hills, and forward a message to the ship. At another moment he is in communication with Noumea ami as soon as the message has been received, he turns to a keyboard and with a few movements of the key the Coastal Radio Transmitter at Pennant Hills is sending out its message to Noumea. And so it goes on—day and night—La Perouse Station carrying on nine services. The principal functions of the station comprise: — The wireless telephony service from Great Britain and the. Continent. of Europe; the Beam Feeder Service from Melbourne; the Coastal Radio Service communicating with Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth ami Townsville; the Island Radio Service communicating with Pt. Moresby, Rabaul, and Fiji; tho long distance short wave marine serv-

ice; marine service to ships at sea, the Trawler Telephony Service for communication with trawlers operating off the Australian coast; the reception of press messages from the British Station at Rugby and from other parts of the world; the reception of broad cast programmes from England and America for re-broadcast by local broadcasting stations. The apparatus in use at La Perouse has successfully received messages from Australian ships transmitting from the docks at Tilbury (London), and also messages from ships in harbour at Vancouver and San Francisco as well as maintaining communication for the whole period of the voyage to and from Sydney.