RADIO RECEPTION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20852, 7 October 1937, Page 6

RADIO RECEPTION

ELIMINATION OF INTERFERENCE DEPARTMENTAL ACTION Many radio listeners in Timaru are not aware of the extent to which the Post and Telegraph is prepared to take action, when necessary, in dealing with interference to radio reception caused by various types of electrical equipment. There is, in fact, an impression among some listeners that the Department cannot, or will not, take a firm stand in the matter. To remove any misapprehension regarding this, the District Telegraph Engineer has drawn attention to the Department’s powers under the Radio Interference Regulations, 1934, to enforce the elimination or reduction of interference caused by electrical equipment. He states that in cases in which the Department considers the interference sufficiently serious, it does not hesitate to exercise the powers vested in it under the regulations. In various parts of New Zealand a number of notices have been served in pursuance of this policy, and the results have been completely satisfactory. In opiy two instances were the Department’s requirements not Immediately complied with. In the first of these cases the matter was taken to Court, and the person concerned, a barber whose hairdressing apparatus caused interference, was fined £5 and costs, making a total of £9/2/-. In the second case, concerning an electric motor, the required action was taken by the offender after the matter had been placed in the hands of the Crown Solicitor. So far as the Timaru district is concerned, it can be said that in every case since the regulations came into force in which serious interference has been traced to electrical equipment, the owners of the equipment have complied, without coercion, with the Department’s request that filters, etc., be fitted. HAWKE’S BAY STATION By Telegraph—Press Association HASTINGS, October 6. A tender has been accepted by the Government for the erection of the new radio broadcasting station which is to be built at Opapa, between Hastings and Waipawa, according to advice received to-day. The work is to begin immediately, and it is hoped to have the new station in operation by next August. The manufacture of the apparatus will begin immediately and occupy some months. The Cabinet has accepted the tender of Amalgamated Wireless for the construction of two new transmitters of five kilowatts each, which is equal to the power formerly used by the national stations. One transmitter is to be installed at the new station near Invercargill to serve the Southland district, and the second will operate at Opapa, serving Hawke’s Bay and the East Coast. While some months would be required for the construction of the apparatus, its installation would be promptly carried out and the new stations should be on the air about the end of August.