BEAM WIRELESS

Hawera Star, Volume L, 9 January 1931, Page 8

BEAM WIRELESS

SBEEIDY COMM UNLC ATION

QUICK POPULARITY

Beam wireless services have become exceedingly 'popular channels oif communication. The beam between Australia and Great Britain and .Europe was opened lor commercial traffic on April 8, ! J. 927, and almost immediately leapt into public favour. Additional beam facilities were made available on June l(j, 1925,. by the opening of the service between Australia and North and South America, thus providing not onl|y direct communication with the Now World, but also a second link with the Old World, via the Montreal-Lon-dm beam circuit.

The greatest- long-distance direct telegraph service in the world, the beam service is operated entirely without re-transmission or relays. It is by far (lie most speedy method of communication yet devised, tiie speed of" working being limited only by the mechanical limitations of the manipulating and recording instruments at each terminal. Wireless signals travel at the rate of 180.000 miles- a .second, and the sending apparatus handles! the messages at the rata of 1250 letters a minute. Thus a. message of 125 code words could be in (London one minute after transmission commenced in Australia.

THE BEAM STATIONS

The beam w ireless transmitting centre in Australia is- near Italian —about fifty miles to the N.W. of Melbourne, and the receiving centre is at Rioekbrmk —1.8 miles from Melbourne in the same direction. Both -stations are connected by special telegraph fines .with the beam wireless offices at Melonrnc and Sydney. Ar .'Rallnn there are two transmitters, one of which is used for sending messages to London, whence they are distributed through the United Kingdom to Europe, and the other transmits to Montreal all messages for North and South America.

The transmission of messages originates- at offices in the heart of Melbourne or Sydney, and the telegraph operators there, by means of the special telegraph lines to the .stations, automatically cause the great- transmitters at- Balia 11 to radiate the messages, and likewise messages from London or Montreal are received at- Rockbank and automatically passed on to the telegraph centres in Sydney or Melbourne, where they are recorded on tape.

BA IiLY EXPER LM ENTS

The necessity and practicability of wireless communication between Australia and England was early recognised by Air .13. T. ‘.Fisk, who- commenced experimenting in 1914, and was successful in receiving the first direct w ireless telegraph messages from England to Australia in 191.8. This was followed by; his effecting the first wireless telephone reception from .England in 1924. His strenuous advocacy and practical experiments in trams (ocean telegraphy resulted in the establishment- of the beam w ireless .service be-, tween Australia and Great- Britain and the Continent of Europe in 1927. and due to bis untiring efforts wireless telephony between Australia and the Homeland is to-day accomplished.