RADIO IN POLAR SEAS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20518, 20 March 1930, Page 10

RADIO IN POLAR SEAS.

AUCKLAND MAN'S RETURN. COMMUNICATION WITH AMERICA. "It was a wonderful trip, and I would go again without hesitation if the opportunity offered," said Mr. R. J. Orbell, of Devonport, who has returned to Auckland after an absence of over three months with the Byrd Antarctic Expedition. Mr. Orbell left Auckland on December 4, in answer to an urgent summons from the Dunedin agents of the expedition, to fill a position on the radio maintenance staff of the City of New York, on her last trip to the Bay of Whales.

The. conditions for radio reception were described by Mr. Orbell as excellent. On both the southward and the return trips the City of New York kept in regular communication with the office of the New York Times, and at times also with San Francisco and short-wave stations in various parts of the world. Most of the communication was carried out in Morse code, but under specially favourable conditions a radiophone equipment was used to permit of speech. The aerials on the City of New York were screened to a certain extent by the rigging, and this necessitated the use of a greater amount of power than would otherwise have been required.

New Zealand wireless stations were picked up with ease. Station 2YA, Wellington, provided the clearest reception, while IYA, Auckland, also was easily heard. Station 4YA, Dunedin, although the nearest in actual distance, was not clearly heard, owing to the inferior carry-ing-power of its greater wave-lengt.li. A Dunedin amateur station, 4ZL, provided particularly good reception.

Static was not very noticeable owing to the absence of machinery and other forms of disturbance. When the ship was traversing the Ross Sea to the east of the south magnetic polfe, strange effects of fading were noticed, but they disappeared after the ship turned further to the southeast at the entrance to the Bay of Whales.