AMATEUR WIRELESS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19349, 9 December 1924, Page 4

AMATEUR WIRELESS.

FEOM ENGLAND TO NEW ZEALAND.

OPERATORS AT THE ENGLISH END. AN INTERVIEW WITH MR C. W. GOYDER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, October 21. Mr C. W. Goyder, who has been communicating with New Zealand bv wireless during the past few days, is about 20 years of age. His experiments started before ha left the Mill Hill School, near Hendon, North London, and he was responsible for sotting up a transmitter some months ago • by means of which he was one of the firstamateurs to get into communication with other amateurs in the United States. He received a great amount of publicity on that "occasion, but he is naturally prouder of this last achievement than of the previous one. as he now has, as it were, no more worlds to conquer.

The set he used to get in touch with Mr Bell, of Waihemo, was another he had assembled in one of the rooms of tha Science Laboratory at Mill Hill School. Mr Goyder lives at Mill Hill, and he has been in the habit of, getting up in the morning en hour or two before dawn and conducting his experiments. It was on Saturday morning, when Mr Godyer was trying to connect with America that he got into touch with New Zealand. It was quite a surprise probably to the operators at both ends. Mr E. J. Symonds. of Gerrard’s Cross, whose call sign is G 20D, was really the first British experimenter to hear a New Zealand station. This was on Thursday morning. He was also the first to have his own Morse code messages heard in New Zealand the next morning. Mr Goyder, working the Mill Hill School _set,_ then established the two-way communication on the Saturday morning. He repeated his performance on Sunday. Other amateurs tuned up to his wave length on Sunday and attempted to call New Zealand, and yesterday morning Mr Goyder was again in communication with Mr Bell, and sent a message of thanks for Mr Massey’s congratulations. , At the present, time long distance testa are being carried on by amateurs on tha short valve length band around 90 metres by special permission of the Post Office, and they are allowed a power up to 250 watts input in some cases. 'Mr Symonds is working with 105 watts input and Mr Goyder with 200. Mr Partridge, another amateur in South London, whose call sign, is G 2!KF, has also been heard _ in New Zealand. In every case the conditions have been favourable from about 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., and it is the small overlap of dusk or darkness at each end that has made the communication possible; as dawn breaks here the signals die away. THE EXPERIMENTERS’ LOGS.

The logs of Mr Symonds and Mr Goyder are interesting. Last season Mr Symonds established two-way communication with 51 stations in America and Canada, and since October 1 he hag added another 17 stations to his list, which constitutes a “record.” At 6.30 a.m( on Thursday he heard the New Zealand call sign of Z4AG for half on hour, while that amateur was calling an American station. On Friday, at 6.15 a.m., he sent out test signals on 95 metres, and learnt subsequently, when Mr Goyder established two-way communication on Saturday, that his signals had been strongly received by Z4AA, another New Zealand amateur, who has since cabled his identity as Bell, Waihemo. On Saturday Mr Goyder was in touch with Mr Bell for an hour from 6.15 a.m. Ho received a congratulatory message to the Radio Society in Great Britain, was asked to inform 20D that Z4AA had received him strongly the previous night, and was told that the New Zealand amateur was using 150 watts input. On Sunday, at 6 a.m., he called New Zealand and sdnt (h 0 following message:—“Congratulations to the Radio Society of New Zealand on achievement and greetings.—Radio Society of Great Britain.’’ At 6.15 a.m. he heard the New Zealand station tap put that the whole of the message had been received and that the Prime Minister of New Zealand sent his congratulations. . Mr Goyder received New Zealand on. a two-valve set (one detector and one low frequency valve). His aerial is a transmitting one. ig 40 feet high, but electrically is only 15 feet off the school roof, with- a counterpoise earth underneath it, and .is unscreened. Mr Symonds is using a super heterodyne set, with four valves, and ' a wire' cage aerial 40 -feet high, but badly screened with a counterpoise earth 30 feet below the aerial. In both cases telegrams hare confirmed the transmissions.

CLEAR MESSAGES. Mr Goyder informs me that in sending the messages both he and the New Zealand operator have repeated each word twice, but no sentence has had to be repeated. Ho will be continuing the experiments for a few days, but as the summer days in New Zealand grow longer the chances for getting a call_ through will grow fpwer. In any case it must be remembered that New Zealand experimenters are at their machines in the pleasant evenings. The experimenter at this end has to be up in the cold and unpleasant hour before the milk carts start their rounds.

Only recently Mr Goyder came from Mill Hill School to the City and Guilds Engineering College, South Kensington. 'Hie registrar informs me that he will be talcing the ordinary engineering course for a year or two, and later on, if he wishes, he will specialise in electrical engineering and wiroless. KADTO SOCIETY’S GRIEVANCES. “The unexpected and remarkable resurrs p.cU'cvec; by -wo English wireless amateurs in establishing communication with New Zealand,” pays The Times, “here stimulated wirelesc expo: imenters all over the country. Both of (hem had special permission from the Post Office to use increased power rnd to work on wavelengths as low ns 90 metres. “The Radio Society of Great Britain rs not, however, satisfied with the present position, and there is very strong opposition to the fees charged, and also to the policy of the Postmaster-Genera! in granting licenses to amateurs. The society is, therefore, taking legal opinion on the right j of the Post Office to make a charge under the Wireless Telegraph Act. of 1904 for j transmitting licenses. It is stated that without special permission amateurs may not transmit to countries other than Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and before an amateur is given the increased power for long-distance work, he must furnish evidence of intended co-operation with foreign stations. This restriction, according to the Radio Society of Great Britain, apart from its hindrance to wireless experiment, tended to hold up international relationships In wireless work. The communication with New Zealand was an example of the absurdity of asking for full details of the intended co-operation beforehand, for no British amateur could have furnished in advance any evidence of intended co-operation with a New Zealand *• iiiateur, and he had no idea that he would be heard there. In this case, ewing to a special permission for long-distance tests, (he British operators ware entitled to transmit anywhere, but this was not ordinarily the case."