Transmitters.
119. The following is an account of transmitter operations and interruptions during the year:
Service Interruptions.
Transmitter
Running
Call Sign/Freq.
Hours.
Due to Tx.
Other Causes.
ZBW
860
kc/s. 2kw
4235
3m. 20 secs.
2 mins.
2kw
4008
40 secs.
2 mins.
3744
37 mins.
11 mins.
ZEK 640 kc/s.
ZBW3 3940 kc/s. 21kw
As from November 4th, the short wave transmitter carried all the Chinese programme.
Recording.
120. There was a slight increase in the number of recorded programmes produced in the station. In terms of hours worked on recording channels, however, there was a far greater rise. This was due to the increase in the amount of processing that is now given to a recorded programme by tape editing.
Number of recorded items Hours worked on recording
channels
1,761
Change. inc. 2%
1956. 1955, 1,801
2,360 1,948
inc. 21%
Portable tape recorders provided for spot interview work were taken out by Radio Hong Kong reporters nearly every day.
Relay reception.
121. During the period 1,094 English programmes and 779 Chinse programmes were received at the Mount Butler Receiving Station from the B.B.C. and relayed by Radio Hong Kong. Eight other programmes, during the Olympic Games in Mel- bourne, were received from the A.B.C.; one programme was received from the Voice of America.
The increase of sunspot activity has permitted the successful exploitation of the higher frequencies on the route direct from London to the extent that direct reception has, in almost all cases, been better than the relayed service of the B.B.C. Far Eastern Station in Singapore, although the latter is always received and fed to the Studios as an alternative.
Two recordings of B.B.C. programmes out of usual hours were made possible by high sunspot activity; one used direct reception of a transmission directed to South Africa, and the other reception of a London programme beamed to Australia by
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