1970s
“Gordon’s room used to amaze me – he had so much junk in it. There was a wee path from the door to his bed (which had stuff piled on it) so he made his way to his bed and then put the stuff off the bed onto the floor. And he had the biggest room.
“He also had a kitset television which he was working on. He was using the biggest soldering iron I had ever seen. The techs told him he would fry the componentry as he went along but Gordon took no notice.”
– Peter Huitson
“I always wondered why anyone would build a TV set on the Chathams. This was before the era of VCR, and TV signals from NZ would rarely make it that far, even with a good aerial. I suspect it was a learning thing more than anything else.
“One of the meteorologists down the road (Martin Potter) built a nice 30ft ferro cement Hartley yacht during the 1980s. I asked him where he was planning to sail, his reply ‘oh no, this is just to help pass the time’. When he left the island he sold it for a song to one of the locals. I don’t think it ever did get in the water.”
– Lester Price
“We were a great bunch of lads – there would have been about six of us down there at a time as operators with a couple of technicians, a linesman and the station manager – Dennis Horan when I was down there, a really nice chap. All of the operators were a similar age, so we used to head off on our bikes exploring the island, searching for fossilized sharks’ teeth in the lagoon, etc. They used to show a movie in the town hall each week which was something to look forward to.”
“The arrival of the mail was a big event – news from home and then all the mail order items we had bought. My big spend was music and there was always an LP or two in the mail. The mail used to come by air but was the first thing off loaded if the plane needed to reduce its load. The pilots used to radio in how many were on board, so much freight and mail or “no mail” this trip which was disappointing for everyone. If there was a backlog, it used to arrive on the Holmdale which came across to the island every 6-8 weeks.
“What happy times. It was a condition of our employment that we spend at least one six-month term on the Chathams. I did three tours of duty as I enjoyed it so much.”
– Peter Huitson
I own the Collins 51S-1 used at ZLC, having purchased it from the previous owner who had purchased it surplus from Telecom. In answer to the question from Ian Parkinson, it works well. Stable enough to copy RTTY without adjustments for hours on end.
I noticed the Collins radio. How do these fair over long periods of use.? Any adverse comments if any over what sadly like most radio’s have been referred as boat anchors.
It is interesting to see the changes at ZLC since I was there in 1968. I never heard a mention of the later addition to the station, but the new hostal was still under construction when I left Chathams during the last quarter of that year. (I arrived there on the 9th of April of that year, the day before the infamous “Wahine” storm of the 10th.
Good to see photos of familiar faces and unmet familiar names.
73s Barry Munro.