New Zealand Post Office coast stations at Awarua and Auckland (Musick Point) provided radio direction finding services for aircraft, beginning in the late 1930s.
During World War 2, these operations were controlled by the military and engaged in tracking Japanese ships. In this activity they complemented the Navy’s own DF station at Waipapakauri in the Far North.
The Marconi DFG24 Mk2 direction-finding system saw wartime use in Britain and at Awarua. The equipment from Awarua is now in the hands of the Ferrymead Post and Telegraph Society at the Ferrymead Heritage Park in Christchurch and may, in fact, be the last-surviving example of a DFG24/2.
The following article is reproduced on maritimeradio.org with the authors’ permission. It contains a few terms that may require explanation:
DEHS – Defence Electronics History Society
eDEN – E-Defence eletronic newsletter
RFP – Radio fingerprinting (analysis of radio signals)
Y Service – British signals interception network during WW1 and WW2
