Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union picture: UNESCO’s portable “Radio In A Box” radio transmitter.
An innovative, compact and mobile radio transmitter, which has been used to broadcast messages in post-disaster situations in Asia, will be demonstrated at the World Press Freedom Day conference in Brisbane.
The Radio-In-a-Box is a UNESCO product designed by engineers at the Kuala Lumpur-based Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU). The ‘box’ contains a 30 watt FM transmitter, a small computer, microphones, CD/cassette player, digital audio recorder and all the other essentials needed to set-up a radio station in an emergency situation or disaster area.
Mr Rukmin Wijemanne, formerly head of the ABU team which built the prototype Radio-In-a-Box, will provide practical demonstrations of the set-up at The UQ Centre during the conference.
To show the potential of the Radio-In-a-Box, the conference organisers have sought a short-term ‘special events’ FM broadcasting licence to enable the station to transmit signals within a 5 kilometre radius of the university.
Apart from broadcasting general news and information, the World Press Freedom Day Radio-In-a-Box community station will also transmit conference keynote speeches and other presentations.
The station will be on-air on the 2nd and 3rd May.
