1968 was a tragic year for New Zealand shipping, with the loss of the ferry Wahine and the grain ship Maranui plus a fire at sea aboard the liner Gothic. Sixty-seven people died in these events, but many lives were saved through remarkable feats of seamanship and heroism.
Fifty years later, these disasters were commemorated by three amateur radio special callsigns, each one in operation for a month during 2018 as outlined below. Operations were based at ZL1NZ Auckland.
ZM50GW commemorated the sinking of TEV Wahine ZMGW, with the loss of 51 lives (two others died later from injuries).
> Read about Wahine and her radio officer Bob Lyver
ZM50LA commemorated the sinking of MV Maranui ZMLA, with the loss of nine crew.
> Read about the Maranui disaster
ZM50MAUQ commemorated the fire aboard SS Gothic which killed seven people, and the heroic effort to save the ship.
Operations
Bands/modes: 80m, 40m and 20m – CW and SSB
Times: Weekday evenings, weekend days, covering every day of the month
QSL cards
Each station that contacted one or more of the special event callsigns can request a commemorative QSL card via Club Log’s OQRS system. You only need to put in one request, as we will check your callsign against the logs of all 3 stations.
The online logbooks are available on each station’s page:
ZM50GW
ZM50LA
ZM50MAUQ
Honour Roll: Stations that worked all three special event callsigns
EA5FX
HK1MW
JA7DSQ
K6CTW
K9AW
NO2C
UA0CID
VK3DRQ
VK5JN
VK7BC
W4ALE
W4FOA
ZL1BBW
ZL1TM
ZL2AIB
ZL2AYZ
ZL2BGF