Evening star., 1922-07-30
BY COMMANDER STANFORD q.
HOOPER, u, 9, n. =,

OIU SlANEONO Ns-.
HOOPER, U. 3. n, :
Head Of Radio Division, Bureau ol
Navigation.
lCopyright. 1922, by Stanford c. Hooper. Al
rights feserved.)
Communications between Washing
ton and Pekins may now be ex:
changed rapidly under any condition,
which are likely to arise.
Never again will the American min
lister At Pekin6 be completely isolated
from the outside world as this ofiicia
was during the boxer uprising III
1912. when the foreign legations ir
Peking were all besieged and al
foreign devils" threatened will
death. the German minister being
killed by fanatical Chinese.
AS a direct result of the boxer up
rising. and through agreement by
the powers. the Navy established q
radio transmitting and receiving sta.
tioh in Peking.
This station has since been kept in
operation day and night by embers
of the marine detachment who guard
the American legation situated within
the walls OF the legation compound.
The land wire telegraph service be-
tween Peking and the sea coast is
often interrupted even under normal
conditions.
Interruptions to cable service in
Cnlnese waters is also not an infre-
Quent occurrence
Under these conditions the provid.
ing OF a reliable means Of communica-
ton with the outside world obviously y
was necessary, even if the boxer up
rising had not made such action i'm
perative.
ReIayed at Cavite.
The Peking station exchanges com.
munications with the Navy radio sta.
ton at Cavite, in the Philippines
1913 miles distant, from which poirt
the messages are relayed directl,
across the Pacific ocean to San Fran.
cisco and thence across the continen,
to Washington.
Should a grave situation arise mes.
saees from Peking could be sent tt
Washington over the Navy's radio
circuit within fifteen to twenty min.
utes' time. In fact. II special prep
arations were made in advance. they
could be received in Washington al
most instantaneously as they were
sent. word for word, from Peking.
This rapid transmission Is possible
owing to the fact that the Cavite
station as well as the other super
high power stations of the Navy's
transpacif1c transcontinental circuits
are operated duplsx; that is to say
messages can be sent and received
through these stations at the same
time.
For example. an operator at Los
Banot (the controlling and receiv-
ing station for Cavite) may he re-
ceiving a message being sent by the
Peking station while another oper.
ator at Los Banos may be transmit.
through the Cavite station. by means
of the local land wire connections
between Los Banos and Cavite.
Similarly, the message could bE
instantly received and retransmit-
ted. word for word. through the Sar
Francisco or San Diego station and
received finally at its destination if
ton. which point is the receiving sta
tion for Annapolis. and from which
point the functioning Of the An.
napolis transmitters are controlled.
Thus we have a direct circuit be.
tween Peking and Washington. over
tire distance practically instanta-
neously. II so desired.
The signals from the Annapolis
station may b heard at Pekine
under the most favorable seasonal
and atmospheric conditions for radio
but, OF course, thle oirect methoo OF
signaling Is not reliable.
Commercial Use Forbidden.
It 10 never used for traffic pur-
poses. although the operators al
Peking sometimes copy the press
news broadcasted from Annapolis.
Such results are possible at night
during the winter months. but ..arl
regarded as freak transmission" IL
radio.
The Peking station exchanges traf'
fc regularly with vladivostok, 81
IBERIA. distant TT miles: with shipt
in Asiatic waters and with the yes