1951


1954

1956
In December, radio operator Irwin Smith departed and Clyde Williams arrived from Wellington Radio ZLW.
[Read Clyde’s account of life in the Chatham Islands]
1957



1958

In April, radio operator Clyde Williams left ZLC and returned to Wellington Radio ZLW.
1965
A telephone terminal with privacy system was installed.

Until 1965, maintenance and repairs at Chatham Islands Radio were carried out by the Christchurch Radio Depot or, in emergencies, by the resident Superintendent of the station.
My appointment to the Chathams as the first resident Radio Technician in 1965 was instigated mainly by Norman Kirk MP (later Prime Minister) who had promised Chatham Islanders that they would be able to ring up New Zealand and overseas from their home phones. Previously such calls could only be made from Waitangi Post Office or the radio station, a couple of kilometres distant.
On arrival, I installed a new single-sideband transmitter and terminal equipment, which involved major reconstruction at the radio station.
Any call destined for New Zealand was transferred from the Telephone Exchange at Waitangi to this terminal at the radio station, and connected to the appropriate transmitter at the station.
The initial setting up of the daily service to New Zealand was carried out at the terminal before connecting up the telephone operator and the local person making the call.
This terminal equipment had a 5-band privacy system which enabled privacy on all calls. With earlier equipment, residents were able to listen to phone calls on their short-wave radios.
To my knowledge, this equipment was also installed in the Stout Street Exchange in Wellington, and may have been supplied to other island circuits such as Rarotonga.
The last time I saw the equipment in a similar position was at the Waikanae Post Office, which had been transformed into a Post Office technical museum, but I do not know if it still exists.
– Don Nicol

Photo 2016 Alex Glennie
1968

In the photo above you can see the radphones console, 121.5MHz air radio, RT to the telephone techs Rover, ITO morse receivers, with John Brennan in the hotseat. Behind John is the telephone exchange switchboard and further to the right the 2182 kHz console. It could get ‘interesting’ in that hotseat I can tell you!
– Allan Burgess (Feb 2019)
Bruce McLachlan
13 October 2018Great to read Don. Fond memories from 1968 when I relieved you for a few weeks. Hope more historical info comes forward