RADIO INTERFERENCE

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 27 September 1933, Page 10

RADIO INTERFERENCE

REMEDYING THE POSITION. SUGGESTED LEGISLATION. The great majority of cau-ses of radio ‘"‘interference’’ can be removed at slight expense, according to the chief eng:neer of the Post and Telegraoh Department. Mr C. S. Plank, who gave an address on Monday at the annual conference in Wellington of the Electric Supply Authority Engineers’ Associatio.v Mr Geo. Lauchlan, president of the association, and chairman of the radio interference committee, said that the eommttee had decided to make eert.ui recommendations to the PostmasterGeneral whereby the position would be cleared and effective steps might he taken. It was suggested that the Post and Telegraph Department should ; ' t a® a cleaning house for complain is of interference and should investigate complaints and allocate the responsibility Tor remedying or improving + ho position. co-operating a-s far as practicable with electric supply and tramway authorities and users of electr.cal equipment in an endeavour to remove causes of compln.nt

It was su" , "'este'i to the Minister that regulations should be' made under the Post and Telegraph Act to require anyone using apparatus causing interterence with radio reception either to ie-' move such apparatus or take Hitch remedial action as was considered leasonabJe, and also to prohibit the installation of appliances inherently capable of causing ".nterferenee unless such apances were supplied with devices for preventin'*' the,r radiating high-, frequency oscillations and so causing interference. It was proposed that provision should he made for the • e-; forenpe of cases of sufficient importance and of cases in respect if which an appeai had been made to an advisory committee. The comm ttee should consist of nnaL'fied electrical engineers and should be representative of the Post and Telegraph Department the Public Works Department, the Broadcasting Hoard and the electric power, lighting and tramway unuoc takings. COMPLAINTS INVKSTTOATKD. J Mr P'ank said there was at present no power for the making of regulations, and it was therefore proposed that during the Parliamentary session an alteration to the Act should be made so that regulations could to promulgated and enforced. The Post and Telegraph Department would in vestigate complaints of radio interference, as it had done in the past, l'e gave particulars of complaints investigated bv the Department during the past six months “in order that some P'oplc can see for themselves where the blame should be placed.” Sum roarlsed. his figures were as follow: Powc 1 lies and fittings (under many sub-headinss). 214- trams, 54; medical , apparatus. 33; battery chargers and rotary converters, 17: domestic appliances. 6; trees touching power lines, 22; Morse signafs. 42- telephone d ulling and ringing, 11: amateur radio transmitters, 35<-, howling valves. DO; unclassified complaints (cause d‘ saopeared, etc). 110; compla/.nts considered unjustified, 54. A variety of other ca.usos giving rise to lesser numbers o 1 ’ complaints brought the total to 1249 for the six months.

-llefeirim/ to bramcars and trolleys, Mr Plank said that the Department had race ved fewer complaints than it ■should be -anise the general public had been given to understand anil to accept as a matter or course"that interference troubles were inherent in tramway systems, and that nothing could be done to remedy them, but the experience was that in many eases the trouble

( -on Id be removed at little expend. I The interference from amateur trim.v i mitters and howling valves was more | prevalent than the figures given indicated, for they were in respect of ascertained eases, and that type of r interference was often 1 n tier mi t tent, vherea-s other causes persisted until discovered. THOSE. WHO WILL NOT HELP. | Mr Plank said that in most eases every assistance was given by the owners of plant causing or suspected to be eaus ng interffcrefn.e, and most power boards and engineers fully realised that it would pav them in the lon a run to assist in removing faults that would be likely to make, radio less j Diiir ilar, There were, however, some I faults which were in a different class. In one ease not only d.d the owner of a saw milling plant fail to do any thing to rectify a sparking cu in mnl a tor to Pi- gitioed I>V advice. Put lie ■refused to allow the Lsteneis of h:s district, who were willing to go to some expense in the matter, to do any\hiir. I (> remove the nuisance. It was i to meet such cases that it was prothat regulations should be drawn j up and enforced. 1 Vr IT. F. Toogood remarked that i stat oris themselves were a cause of ' nsatisfactory reception. In Wellington there were two stations and when both were on the air thev caused, in ! some reoeiveis, poor reception through over-lapp.ng. A higher power would lift siana'w above the noise level and so improve the reception. If thej Broad asting Board would take into ' fc.tscoa.hfc that its stations should be located some distance from Wellington. and should be of higher power, a g eat deal of the interference trouble would disappear. The report of the committee was adopted.