Notes of the Day.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3614, 29 August 1912, Page 4

Notes of the Day.

WIRELESS CALLS FOR HELP. Tiie International Conference (of delegates from all the Powers) on Wireless Telegraphy, has been formally closed by Sir H. Babington Smith, tne president. Regulations regarding the transmission of messages from ship vu ship and ship to shore have been revised and amended and embodied in a convention signed by tlie delegates oi thirty countries. Ships will by the new regulations he required to provide an auxiliary source of power (besides the ship’s engines) able to work the wireless apparatus for at least six hours. 'Phis emergency installation must be placed in as secure a position as possible and must be entirely selfcontained. Steps have been taken to lessen the danger of distress calls going unheard by laying down rules as to attendance on the wireless apparatus- In ships of the first class a permanent watch will lje required, and in this case two fully qualified operators at least must, be carried. In ships of the second class the operator must listen during the first ten minutes of every hour. In the smallest ships (fishing boats, etc.) no regular periods of watch are prescribed. Each Government, in giving a licence to a ship to carry wireless apparatus, will determine in which of these three classes it is to be placed. Rules have also been made for both ship and shore stations to suspend work and to listen at the end of each quarter of an hour in cases where it is likely that distress calls might otherwise not be heard. The ship in distress will in future have control over tho wireless working of., all stations in its vicinity, while the operators in every ship are now specifically placed under the authority of the captain.