RADIO BRINGS HOME NEAR TO MEN OF BYRD EXPEDITION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18730, 9 April 1929, Page 4

RADIO BRINGS HOME NEAR TO MEN OF BYRD EXPEDITION.

THEY LISTEN TO VOICES FROM BEYOND THE SEAS. BY RUSSELL OWEN. Copyrighted, 1028. by the " New York Times ” Company and " St Douis Post-Dispatch.'’ All Rights for Publication Reserved Throughout the World. Wireless to “ New York Times.” BAY OF WHALES, April 7. No radio broadcasts have ever had a more picturesque reception or a more interested audience than our Saturday afternoon messages from home. Work ended lor the day. the men drop their shovels or leave the dog teams at four o’clock, when the broadcast begins. The large room contains many bunks, mess table,? and a kitchen stove. The sun is low, just about to drop over the edge, leaving behind a red scene which makes the western sky glorious. Inside, there is the big range, with the evening meal cooking on it and clouds of steam rising. The stove and accessories take up the right side of the room, with the bunks opposite. In a corner is the radio department, whence news despatches are sent to the “ New York Times.” thence to Vancouver and Australia and New Zealand. It is busy for a good part of the day and night with expedition business, but now it links our homes with

Along the entire left side of the house, beyond the radio room, are double bunks, ends to the wall, and from them hang parkas, boots and gloves. There are no cupboards here. A man’s domain is his bunk, and he hangs what he can about it. Down the centre of the room is a long table, flanked by benches and mounted with a little square box containing the loud speaker.

The warning is given that the broadcast is about to commence, and there is instant silence in the room. The men sit at the table, leaning on their elbows, or lie listening on their bunks, with their heads peering out over the ends. They cease their badinage and listen to the voices from home, eleven thousand miles over land and sea, silent wastes of ice and desolate, stormtossed waters. Music that represents all the familiar things of far-off civilisation comes with what is said over the magic of the radio.