NEW 2YA STATION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 79, 16 March 1935, Page 12

NEW 2YA STATION

60 Kilowatts is a Big Job THE HIGH-POWER FASHION The Broadcasting Board’s announcement of its intention to erect a new broadcasting station twenty miles outside Wellington with an aerial power of 60 kilowatts will come as a surprise to many listeners, though it is merely a continuation (except in respect to power) of the board’s policy of building new stations outside the main centres. The board now has new main stations at Henderson, near Auckland, ami Gebbio's Pass, near Christchurch, eaca of 10 kilowatts, and is construction one of similar power on the Otago Peninsula to replace the old and inadequate 4YA. Listeners have no doubt been surprised to lind how little difference was made by tht increasing of the power of IYA Auckland from half a kilowatt to ten. The new Christehurcu station does not use anything like itj full power, but the increase in received strength over the old station was very marked, largely because of the locality chosen for the new plant. An inc lease in the power of a station does not giv ' a corresponding apparent increase i,i received strength. It does not follow, then, that the new 2YA will drown everything out. except for its immediate neighbourhood, and if it is placed a few miles outside the city in a sparsely populated area the effect on city receivers in regard to overloading should not be very drastic. There arc in Europe only about torty broadcasting stations of •’>!) kilowatts or over, and only ten of these (of 5(1 kilowatts each'i are in Great Britain and Ireland. The two most powerful stations in the world are owned by Kussia ami the United States, each of wl i. h has one of 500 kilowatts. There is a small sprinkling of plants of 150 and 100 kilowatts. The new Wellington station will thus rank among tlr 1 world's broadcasting giants. | Why? asks the “E' uing Post.’’ There has for years been a tendency lin the broadcasting world towards I greater and greater power, especially in I the United States and in Europe where I many stations are crowded together, i The reason usually given i< r adopting I the high power is that it extends the ' lirst-class service area in which pt<grammes are heard free of electrical in- > tcrference; but it is open to quest oa whether the fashion is not something like an armaments race. The loudest voice can shout furthest. The New Zealand Board, however, I advances this conquest of interferem e > as a secondary reason, the main one ’ given being the “necessity for covering as much of the Dominion as possible m case of a national emergency.’’ It was i precisely this reason which dictated the construction of the. present 5 kilowatt station at 2YA. As most people know, 2YA does not adequately cover the Do minion. It will be very interesting to see whether the new station will be much more effective. Lt should be notI ed that the board in its statement, says i that “it will be possible to hear the i proposed station, day and night, all over the Dominion, but in certain difficult localities, the high power notwithstanding, fading and weakness of reception may preclude the signals havI ing a definite programme value.’’ The increase in power will not, in fact, have the slightest influence in the direction of reducing fading, and areas in jvhich 2YA is now unsatisfactory will continue to have cause for complaint. The board has not made any announcement as to its future programme of extension of its service, but the rate at which it has already enlarged its equipment, by replacing all its main stations with new plant of high power, indicates that it is not embarrassed by lack of funds. There are two directions in which it might invest some of its money as it becomes available, suggests the “Post.” One, and the obvious one, is in secondary stations which are badly served at present. The second is a national short-wave station. If New Zealand is to follow the fashion of going in for high power, why should it not go in for the fashion of idling the world?