Television Transmitter Progress

Work on the new television transmitting: system to cover the Nelson, Murchi-son and West Coast districts is progressing' rapidly. At the transmitting site on the Grampians, the contractors have the 2000 sq ft, two-storey building to house the equipment, at an advanced stage of erection, and a start has been made on the 225ft self-supporting mast on the site. The composite picture above shows the site of the mast in relation to the building, with Nelson below on the left. The site of the receiving and transmitting equipment to be erected on Saddle Hill is arrowed. As well as erecting buildings and masts, new roads have had to be formed and will have to be formed (6 1/2 miles up Mount Murchison). At left can be seen part of the new road to the Grampians site (left) and the old route used until the new road was formed.

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The first section of the mast on the Grampians is secured by workmen Syd Lowery, Allan Stone, Les Charles, John Hughes and Fred Spittal.

Reception in the districts to be served by the new equipment should be a tremendous improvement on reception today. The Grampians transmitter will be of 5000 watts (25 watts on Takaka and 10 on Princes Drive, at present) and at Mount Murchison 600 watts (2 watts at present). This translator at Mt Murchison will serve the area and push the signal down to the West Coast. The signal will be received first from Wellington on Saddle Hill and will be transmitted to the Grampians by micro-wave. A 40ft tower to hold a 16ft diameter micro-wave parabolic dish is to be erected here.

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The 12-ton drilling rig which drilled the holes for the tower (below right), is seen negotiating the tortuous track to the top of Saddle Hill. Both these pictures were taken by Nelson N.Z.B.C. chief technician, Laurie Merrick, who is seen at right taking a compass bearing on Mount Murchison from the Grampians. Stoke is spread out below.