HELLO, LONDON!

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 21 October 1924, Page 5

HELLO, LONDON!

WORLD SPANNED BY WIRELESS. . AMATEUR’S ACHIEVEMENT. WITH A MODEST PLANT. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. (Received Oet. 21, 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, Oet. 20., The Radio Society announces that members conducted trans-oeeanie tests on several nights with the result that two amateurs in Louden this week-end obtained communication with amateurs in New Zealand to-night. These exchanges are remarkable in that they were obtained with a transmitting power of only 100 watts with 80 to 100 metre wave lengths.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

As stated in yesterday’s Hawera Star, Mr Prank Bell, of Waihiemo, a wireless amateur, who has been making New Zealand prominent abroad by two-way communications over long distances, has succeeded in sending and receiving from London —a distance of 12,000 miles. On Friday night- Mr Slade, a wireless amateur of Dunedin, was heard in London, and received cabled confirmation of the fact on Saturday. On Friday night also Mr Bell picked up an English amateur, 20D, whose name is nob locally known. On Saturday night, however, between '6 and 7.15 p.m., Mr Bell was communicating with 2SZ, who is Mr Goyder, of Brown Hill School, London. Mr Bell reports that Mr Goyder’s signals were strong and loud, but faded away at 7.10 p.m., New Zealand time, which would be about 7 a.m. London time, or about "daylight. The Englishman’s wave-length was 140 metres, and his signals louder than mast American amateurs coming into New Zealand. Mr Bell sent two messages, of 90 metres, with an imput of 150 watts, and received one message from Mr Goyder. Mr Bell stated on Sunday that he would endeavour to maintain a two-way communication with London during the evening. The distance is about 12,000 miles, and the messages would come and go in a direct line through the Pacific, Behring Sea, and the North Pole. The dual success recently recorded —in maintaining two-way communication with America and England—has been a sharp .blow to the prestige of amateur wireless interests in Australia, which have not yet'met with any success. The Commonwealth’s leading amateur, Mr Mac-1 mean, who was recently experimenting in New Zealand and the Pacific on long-distance work, ha s thus expressed himself: “New Zealand amateurs ask us wffiy don’t we keep our fingers out of oiir ears. I say to them, ‘Come over here and see tlie difficulties under w’hich we work.’ New Zealand is wonderfully situated for long-distance wireless work. They can get with one valve in New Zealand what it takes us two. or three valves to get in Australia. For a high-power station. New Zealand is in a greatly superior oosition than Australia.”

Mr Bell’s plant, which is at Shag Valley Station, via Waihemo, Otago, is not considered by him to. be anything out of the ordinary. He says: “I use a. straight-out Hart'ey circuit, and one ITY 203. or 50-watt radiotron. The input never exceeds 130 watts. I attribute most of my success to my 97fopt lattice tower. Ever since 1 put this up the DX (long distance) . has pmmed in. I have been heard in a srood manv islands of the Pacific, such as Tahiti and Hawaii, and all over Australia. in the Argentine, the U.S.A.. and Canada. Tlie receiver used for all traffic work is just a simple detector and one audio of the ‘Low Loss’ type, I also, have a broadcast receiver using 3 RF (radio frequency) detector, i AF (audio freoueney), and 2 Power (amplifying valves),* which rings in music well.”

Bed ad'L that he has .very good results in listening-in to Farmer’s lu-nr dcu stiim station, Rvdnev, and FG<Y (pun Francisco), which sends out chiefly dance music.