mercuryAmateurs did not interfere p11

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—SAMATEURS DID NOT
ae INTERFERE.

“STATEMENTS INCORRECT.”
THE ATMOSPHERICS BAD. _

Commenting’ on the statement which
appeared in “The Mercury” on Tuesday
by Mr. C. W. Monks that there was a lot
of interference from amateur transmit-
ters who had been specially warned not
to operate during the flight of the South-
‘ern Cross to New Zealand in order to
‘insure uninterrupted communication
with the airmen; officials of the Tasma-
nian section of the Wireless Institute of
Australia, pointed out that no interfer-
ence whatever was experienced from
amateur transmission during that period,
though occasional transmissions were
made on an entirely different wave
length. Any transmissions which were
made dealt entirely with weather reports
and other matters dealing with the
flight, and only occupied a few. minutes.
The amateur stations were particularly
careful to cut their transmissions down
to a minimum in order to avoid any re-
mote possibility of interference, as they
realised that good reception was a mat-
ter:of importance to the airmen. In ad-
dition to this they stood by and listened
for the signals of the plane in. order
that they might assist in relaying. them
to Sydney if they should not be picked
up. there, particularly as the “atmos-
pherics” were exceptionally bad... ‘Mr.
Monks’s ‘statement that these interrup-
tions probably interfered with the re-
ception of any information. that might
have bse sent eye the- ia sicshergr
was absolutely » rout for tion, an
was likely to Create a. een impres-
sion on the public, in 0 much as it might
be thought that the amateurs were Pre-
venting the reception of emergency, and
even S.O.S. signals. from. the plane.

A deputation of amateurs’ waited on
the State Engineer of the Postmaster-
General’s Department (Mr. J. G. Braith-
waite) and the Deputy Radio Inspector
(Mr. E, J. G. Bowden) yesterday, and
both assured them that no official warn-
ing had been issued to amateurs from
the Hobart office to keep off the air dur-
ing the flight, and that “they did not
think the department had igsued any
warnings at all. They also stated that
the department checked the transmis-
gions, and that there was_no interfer~-
ence whatever,.and that Mr. Monks was
‘not connected with the department, in
any wireless capacity whatever, and “was
purely acting as.an ordinary broadcast
listener, F ee