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Radio
In Australia
COMMERCIAL wireless in Australia dates back to 1910, when the first ships equipped with
wireless arrived in Australasian waters.
Little was known of the then comparatively new
science of wireless communication, and any wireless work that had been
carried out during the preceding years had been spasmodic, and of an
experimental nature only. So little progress had been made that there were
no Coastal Radio Stations in Australia for wireless-equipped ships to communicate with.
Between the wireless situation in Australia in
1910, or, one may truthfully remark, the non-wireless situation, and the thriving
and ever expanding wireless industry of 1930, employing thousands of
Australians, wonders have been worked. In the space of two decades a new
science has been developed in Australia and a key industry of vast importance to every
Australian has been established. That it has attained such importance and
has placed Australia in the forefront of wireless progress is due to the
foresight, ability, and conscientious research and development work of Mr.
E. T. Fisk, Managing Director of Amalgamated Wireless.
To-day, practically every ship in the
Australasian Mercantile Marine is wireless-equipped a chain of eighteen
modernly equipped Coastal Radio Stations encircles the Australian
coastline, while nine Island Radio Stations are operating in New Guinea and
Papua, and four stations in the Fiji Islands. In the Northern Territory, Wireless Stations serve as feeders to the landline
telegraph system. Broadcasting stations in each of the capital cities
transmit programs throughout Australia, while in Sydney and Melbourne the most modernly-
designed short-wave transmitters are capable of transmitting any local
broadcasting programs to England and America. The largest and most scientific wireless equipment of
every type is now manufactured for use at sea, on land, and in the air.
The A.W.A. Radiophone Service between Australia and Great Britain and the Continent of Europe, inaugurated on April 30th
last, is now in successful operation, and dozens of people daily carry on
private and business conversations from their homes in Australia with residents in Great Britain and Europe.
The Beam Wireless Service to Great Britain, the Continent of Europe, and North and South America now handles the greater part of Australia's overseas telegraphic communications.
This far reaching progress in the application
and development of wireless was entirely due to the pioneering work carried
out by Amalgamated Wireless (Asia) Ltd., which was incorporated in 1913, and at once set
about the task of providing Australia with modern wireless communication facilities.
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