WIRELESS REGULATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23945, 21 October 1939, Page 5

WIRELESS REGULATIONS

A SERIOUS OFFENCE UNLICENSED TRANSMITTER USED RADIO MECHANIC FINED " These offences are regarded very seriously by the Government, and the preterit charges are brought largely with ft view to having their seriousness impressed on the public," said Mr J. B.- Deaker in the City Police Court yesterday when George Roberts appeared before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., and pleaded guilty to having used and maintained an unlicensed wireless transmitter. Mr Deaker, who prosecuted on behalf of the Post and Telegraph Department, said that in April last the defendant had for short periods transmitted music from gramophone records from an unlicensed transmitter. The transmissions, which were on the broadcast band, had been heard by several people In various parts of the city, who reported the matter to the department. When found, the set was dismantled, but It could easily have been put in working order again. The detection of the transmitter had caused the department’s Inspectors a good deal of trouble and Inconvenience, and several week-ends were spent by the inspectors in the detection car before the source of the broadcast could be traced. There was a special band for licensed amateurs, Mr Deaker added, and' in no circumstances would an amateur ever be given a licence to operate on the broadcast band. If the transmitting had been carried out during the first emergency period the department would have pressed for the maximum penalty, but the defendant did not admit having used the set after the outbreak of war, and in the circumstances a heavy penalty was not asked for.

Questioned by the magistrate, the defendant stated that he was a radio mechanic, and was 18 years of age. He had built the set himself, but he had used It very seldom. . - The magistrate remarked that although the offence was a serious one, It could hardly, in the present instance, be suggested that the defendant had acted other than stupidly. Mr Deaker: It was just sheer effrontery. His Worship emphasised the necegslfr of the regulations governing amateur transmitters being strictly compiled with, and said that the present proceeding* would be sufficient to bring the matter under the notice of the public. In view of the circumstances and the defendant’* age, he would be fined 10s and cost* (10a). on the charge of using the tran*mltter, and on the other a conyictlon would be entered, solicitor’s fee (£2 2s) to be paid In both cases.