3706
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 101

except that important storm warnings, reports of light-
ships off stations, &c., will be treated as urgent, and sent
out as soon as practicable after each hour scheduled.

Time Signals.

The following wireless stations send out time signals
broadcast between 11.55 a.m. and noon every day, except
Sundays and holidays, for the determination of chrono-
meter errors, and hence time and longitude at sea:
Portsmouth, Boston, Cape Cod, Newport, Fire Island,
New York, Cape Henlopen, Washington, Norfolk, Beau-
fort, Charleston, Key West, Pensacola, and New Orleans
on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts; Table Bluff, North
Head, Mare Island, and Point Loma on the Pacific coast.
This service has been suspended at St. Augustine, and will
be re-established as soon as practicable.

It is proposed to extend this service to the wireless
stations at Guantanamo, Colon, and Tatoosh Island, if
necessary arrangements can be made.

The signals are sent from the Naval Observatory, Wash-
ington, for the Atlantic coast between 11.55 a.m. and noon
of the 75th meridian west of Greenwich, and from the
observatory at the Mare Island Navy Yard between 11.55
a.m. and noon of the 120th meridian west of Greenwich
for the Pacific coast.

The wireless sending or relay key in each wireless station
is connected to the Western Union lines by a relay at
about 11.50 a.m., and the signals are made automatically
direct from Washington or Mare Island.

Time signals from each of the observatories mentioned
begin at 11.55 a.m., standard time, and continue for five
minutes. During this interval every tick of the clock is
transmitted, except the 29th second of each minute, the
last five seconds of each of the first four minutes, and
finally the last ten seconds of the last minute. The noon
signal is a longer contact after this longer break.

(NOTE.—See diagram on back of Pilot Chart of the
North Atlantic Ocean, No. 1400, of November, 1910, or
North Pacific Pilot Chart for January, 1911.)

It is not necessary that an elaborate wireless telegraph
installation be employed for the purpose of receiving these
signals, nor that a skilled operator be in attendance. Any
vessel provided with a small receiving apparatus with one
or two wires hoisted as high as possible and insulated from
all metal fittings, or preferably stretched between the
mastheads with one wire led down to the receiver, may
detect these signals when within range of one of the
sea-coast wireless stations.

These time signals have been used successfully by vessels
for rating their chronometers, and have been used by
surveying vessels in the accurate determination of longi-
tudes.

COLLECTION AND TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION FROM SEA.

All information for the Hydrographic Office and all
weather reports received by any wireless station will be
forwarded by wire direct to the Hydrographic Office and
the Weather Bureau respectively, without charge.

Stations at isolated points, and other stations in im-
portant cases, will relay these messages to other wireless
stations for further transmission if necessary.

The attention of all steamship companies, ship owners,
masters of vessels, and operators is invited to the advan-
tages of transmitting apparatus capable of sending with a
certain wave length with one sharp crest only. Signals
from such apparatus can be readily “tuned out” if the
desired signals differ sufficiently in wave length and the
interfering ship is not too near. A change from direct to
inductive coupling between the closed or oscillating (con-
denser) circuit and the open or radiating (aerial) circuit
will accomplish this without loss of efficiency if two cir-
cuits are carefully adjusted by a wave meter and the
proper coupling between the two inductances is used. A
few experiments in tuning out any naval ship or station,
properly adjusted to new standard tunes, especially those
with high-pitched sparks, will show some of the possi-
bilities of ordinary wireless working in the future.

Sharply tuned transmitters involve attentive receiving
operators, in order that no calls may be missed. It is
suggested that each line select a wave length under
600 meters and carefully adjust the transmitters of all its
ships to that tune, as is being done with ships of the Navy.

Certain stations referred to above may use a wave
longer than the standard (1,000-meter) for ship communi-
cations, and these exceptions will be published from time
to time in “Notices to Mariners” and in the “List of
Wireless Telegraph Stations of the World.”

WORKING RULES FOR MOST SATISFACTORY WIRELESS COMMUNICATION.

A vessel wishing to communicate with a coast station
should commence calling when about 100 miles from the
station, having first “listened in” to ascertain that she
is not interfering with messages being exchanged within
her range. The power and range of many stations, how-
ever, are being rapidly increased, and vessels should note
at what distances they hear certain stations working with
merchant ships in order that communication may be held
over the maximum distance if necessary.

Calls should not be prolonged beyond fifteen seconds,
and should be followed by the letters of the station calling.
Reasonable time should be given for an acknowledgment
before repeating the call. A number of complaints have
been received that vessels frequently call for long periods
without pausing to hear whether or not their call is heard,
or they are interfering with other communications going
on. If after making the call a ship hears the signal
“BK” or “XXXX” made she should take it to mean
that one station communicating with another is being
interfered with by her calls and that she should wait.

As the use of longer wave lengths for avoiding local
interference and for long distance and overland communi-
cation will be used considerably in the future, a vessel
should listen on the longer wave lengths as well as those
around 1,000 metres. Otherwise she may not understand
why her call is not acknowledged immediately. While
intercommunication is going on between two shore stations
or between shore stations and naval ships with long wave
lengths no ship calls will be heard.

After the station acknowledges the call the vessel should
report her position. The following manner of reporting
position, &c., is preferred:—

(a) Distance of the vessel from the coast station in
nautical miles.

(b) Her true bearing from coast station in degrees,
counted from 0 to 360.

(c) Her true course in degrees, counted from 0 to 360.

(d) Her speed in nautical miles per hour.

(e) The number of messages she desires to transmit.

This will enable the coast station receiving a number of
calls from various vessels to determine which one will
pass out of range first in order that that vessel may be
permitted to finish her business. When a coast station
acknowledges she may state whether or not she has
messages for the ship, and if she cannot communicate
further with the ship at that time the ship will be
informed of the length of the time it will be necessary
to wait.

COMMERCIAL MESSAGES.

All naval wireless telegraph stations, with the following
exceptions, viz., those at the navy yards at Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Puget Sound, and Mare
Island, and the naval stations at New Orleans and Yerba
Buena, San Francisco, will handle commercial messages
under the following conditions:—

(1) That no commercial station is able to do the work.

(2) That no expense is incurred by the Government
thereby.

(3) That no money or accounts in connection with this
business is handled by any person in the employ of the
Navy Department.

(4) That the handling of the commercial messages shall
not interfere with Government business.

The Government handles all commercial wireless mes-
sages without charge, but assumes no financial responsi-
bility whatever for errors, delays, or non-delivery. Every effort will be made, however, to forward all mes-
sages accepted accurately and expeditiously by the best
means available. Confirmation copies of commercial mes-
sages sent through naval wireless stations will be sent only
when request is made in advance, or within thirty days
after messages are forwarded.

Messages of all kinds received from ships at sea will
ordinarily be forwarded by land wire, the land wire
charges to be collected at destination.

In cases of isolated stations, such as stations on Alaskan
Islands and in emergencies, these messages will be relayed
to other wireless stations for further transmission if
necessary.

Position reports will be forwarded to owners or agents
by land wire when request is made.

Messages received by land wire at a naval wireless
station for a ship at sea will be forwarded by wireless
when the ship comes within range. For this reason ships
should ordinarily communicate with wireless stations while
passing along the coast, giving their positions.

Messages received by a wireless station for a ship which
cannot be delivered for any reason will be returned to the
land wire company from which it was received.

The personnel of naval wireless stations are required to
keep the strictest secrecy in regard to the contents of
messages passing through their stations, and they are not
permitted to communicate the fact that a message on any
particular subject has been received.

All messages are kept on file, and senders and ad-
dressees may obtain copies of all messages as sent upon
request.