Forty Years On The Pacific/Wireless

MALE radio operators only are carried on ships nowadays, although a certain magazine states that a woman operator sailed from Philadelphia for Europe in 1917. About 1910, the Mariposa, trading between San Francisco and Honolulu, took on a woman wireless operator, but she became so popular with the passengers that the crowded condition of her office prevented strict attention to business. Even so, the experiment was profitable in that the passengers, to justify their presence in the wireless room, sent many more messages than they otherwise would have done.

Two operators are required on all boats since the loss of the Titanic. At times, they will issue a newspaper, filled with information picked from the air. Some days, when conditions prevent, no paper can be issued. Such a bar, however, did not hinder an enterprising operator, on a vessel sailing from San Francisco a few years ago, from providing a paper every morning. He even produced New York Stock Exchange quotations. All went merrily until one day a New York broker, who was on board, on the strength of a rise in quotations reported in the newspaper, opened wine for the smoking-room crowd. Next day, however, some true quotations came through and Mr. Broker discovered that his stocks had suffered a big drop, rather than a rise. The radio man lasted only that one trip.

The telegraph service, consisting of wireless for the most part, in Alaska and Yukon Territory, is owned by the American and Canadian Governments.

I am glad to present the following interesting and authentic resume:

Wireless: By Kenneth Ormiston
Passengers from America to Australia may communicate with all points of the world, throughout the entire voyage, except when the atmospheric conditions are abnormal. These atmospheric disturbances, variously known as "atmospherics," "strays," or "static," are quite severe at times in the tropics, and are caused by electrical discharges in the air, which affect the receiving apparatus in exactly the same manner as wireless signals.

Static varies with the time of the day, the time of the year, and the locality. As a rule, disturbances are more severe at night than in the daytime, and more prevalent in Summer than in Winter. As it is Summer at the San Francisco end of the voyage when it is winter at the Australian end, and vice versa, the operators on this trip make up their minds that to fight static is unavoidable either at one end or the other. The most troublesome form of static is that caused by nearby thunder storms, as the effect from lightning is to paralyze or destroy the sensitiveness of the receiver for a time, from a few seconds to a few minutes, during which time several words of the incoming message are lost. Another form of static which is very troublesome is the so-called "rain static," found only in the tropics. This form of static causes a continuous hissing sound in the receivers as long as there is rain around, or fairly close to the ship. This static prevents anything but very strong signals from being read at all.

Wireless signals may be transmitted much farther at night than in the daytime. No exact cause for this effect has been determined, but it is usually conceded that it is due to the absorption by the sun's rays of certain essential parts of the wireless energy. Another peculiarity is the difference in range when transmitting over land or over water, the greatest ranges being attained when the transmission is entirely over water. This is due to some kind of absorption by the land, and to obstructions such as mountains. The Poulsen system, with which the vessels of the Oceanic Steamship Company are equipped, overcomes these two difficulties to a very great extent, it being possible to transmit signals at great distances in broad daylight, as well as cover long stretches over land.

The islands of the Pacific are well supplied with radio stations, but those forming the chain of communication from San Francisco to Sydney only are of interest to us at present. These are the stations on the American and Australian coasts, and in the Hawaiian, Samoan and Fiji Islands. Commercial radio service between the United States and the Hawaiian Islands is carried on both by the Marconi Wireless Company and the Federal Telegraph Company, the latter company operating the Poulsen System. The stations of the former company are located at Bolinas, California, a short distance north of San Francisco, and at Kahuku, on the northern extremity of the island of Oahu, about thirty miles from the city of Honolulu. The Federal Telegraph Company has its stations for the trans-Pacific service at South San Francisco, on San Francisco Bay, a few miles south of the city, and at Heeia Point, Oahu. In addition to these high-power stations are the lower-power stations of the Marconi Company, at Daly, California, and Wahiawa, Oahu, and the Federal Company's station on the beach at San Francisco. All these, with the exception of the Marconi high-power radios, are available for ship-to-shore wireless service.

Samoa is represented on the wireless map by the United States Naval Radio station at Pago Pago, on the island of Tutuila. A high-power station is operated by the New Zealand Government on the island of Upolo, sixty miles distant, and located in the town of Apia. The main station in the Fijian group is at Suva, on the island of Viti Levu, though there are, as in the Hawaiian Islands, several small stations for interisland communication.

Conditions are met with in the tropics which are not to be encountered anywhere else, and "freak" work is not unusual. For instance, the lower-power station at Pago Pago is able to maintain regular nightly commercial service with Honolulu, yet can be heard only a few hundred miles in a southerly direction. Honolulu is about 2,600 miles from Pago Pago, in a northerly direction. Occasionally, signals are heard from lowpower stations at enormous distances, while again the highpower stations, much closer, will be faint.

With a modern receiving set of the maximum efficiency, the low-power spark stations (the spark system being the style affected by daylight absorption) can easily be heard up to five thousand miles at night, whereas one thousand miles by daylight is a very good receiving record. The Poulsen stations, however, can be read up to six thousand miles by daylight from the high-power stations. Signals from the 60 kilowatt Poulsen Station at Tuckerton, New Jersey, have been copied on the Steamship Ventura for the entire voyage, the distance from Tuckerton to Sydney being about ten thousand miles. The Ventura is equipped with the most modern supersensitive receiving apparatus, and has been able to accomplish some very remarkable long distance receiving work. For instance, the 200 kilowatt Station at Elviese, Germany, which maintains twenty-four hours commercial service with Tuckerton, New Jersey, is heard throughout the entire voyage from San Francisco to Sydney. At a point between Pago Pago and Fiji, the Ventura is exactly half way around the world from Elviese, and wireless signals are thus received at the greatest distance possible on the earth's surface, 12,500 miles.

The following is a note made by Mr. J. Sterling, radio operator on the North Pacific, formerly of the Yukon Telegraph Trail:

Radio Communication—"Rain Static, so-called, occurs almost to a greater extent in northern latitudes than in equatorial latitudes. In fact it is often possible in the north to advise the officers on the ship's bridge of the approach of a rain squall, or sleet storm, some time before they can see it

"The reason that distant radio stations are sometimes heard better than nearby ones, is because the other waves are propagated both in an upward and an outward direction. The more or less parallel waves reach nearby stations, while those going upward are deflected downward at an angle upon reaching the upper strata, and arrive at a spot on the earth's surface far beyond the normal range of the station. Ships which are, therefore, at that particular spot at a given time are enabled to receive the signals."

Wireless Stations In The Pacific Ocean
As taken from the London Year Book of Wireless Telegraphy, 1918. Stations open to Ships and Shore Communication: