RADIO UNIT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 85, 12 April 1940, Page 4

RADIO UNIT

ATTACHED TO FORCES ENTERTAINMENT OF TROOPS THREE MEN CHOSEN The Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) has announced that the following members of the National Broadcasting Service have been chosen to go overseas with the broadcasting unit which will be attached to the Second New Zealand Division overseas. Their selection is subject to medical examination, as they have not yet been passed flt for service. Mr. Alan B. Young, aged 51, at present programme organiser at Christchurch. He will be in charge of the unit as oßserver-commentator. Mr. Noel Palmer, aged 29, assistantengineer at headquarters, National Broadcasting Service, Wellington. He will be the engineer. Mr. Norman Johnston, aged 22, who will be the technician, is also a member of the engineering staff, National Broadcasting Service, Wellington. Because of unforeseen difficulties the broadcasting unit will not leave New Zealand before the Third Echelon sails. By that time the equipment for the unit and all plans for its operation will be completed and ready to go into immediate service. / Mr. Young has been associated with broadcasting since 1933, when he was appointed to the staff of Station 3YA. At present he is programme organiser at Christchurch, but he has frequently acted as station manager and undertaken special assignments, such as the commentary on the departure from Lyttelton of H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester. To the children of New Zealand he is popularly known as “Uncle Alan.” Mr. Palmer, who is a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Palmer, of Karori, Wellington, was educated at Wellington College and later at Victoria University, where he took his science degree. While a student at Wellington College, Mr. Palmer won a Walter Turnbull scholarship, and at Victoria he carried off the Bruce Dall prize in physics and a Sir George Grey scholarship. He went straight from the University into the broadcasting service, beginning as an operator with Station 2YA. Mr. Johnston, a son of Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Johnston, was born in Tlmaru. South Canterbury, and was educated at. Wellington College. He had made a hobby of wireless so, in order to gain k further experience on the technical | side of broadcasting, he joined the staff of 2YA as office boy in March, 1934. From the office he graduated to the control room and then to the engineering branch, where he is working to-day as a technician. Assembling of Equipment The whole of the equipment which will accompany the broadcasting unit to Egypt is being assembled in Wellington. This will include a completely self-contained truck equipped with amplifiers, loud speakers, receivers, and recording machines. On a trailer will be transported a petrol driver alternator for generating the necessary electrical power for operating the plant. Stores of recordings for the entertainment of the troops will also be carried, as well as suitable stocks of recording blanks and spare equipment of all kinds. This means that, no matter where the New Zealand Division may be established, the broadcasting unit will be able to entertain the men and at the same time make recordings for transmission to New Zealand for use throughout the stations of the National Service. Included with the truck will be temporary sleeping accommodation for a staff of three, but this will be used only in case of emergency. 1 All the necessary equipment, on which Messrs. Palmer and Johnston, with other engineers of the service ar* at present working, is being specially designed for operation in hot or cold climates, and is being made dust-proof and vibration-proof to overcome the conditions prevailing on the Egyptian desert or in any other sphere of operations.