Comments on: New Zealand radio communications

By: Bruce MORRIS

Bruce MORRIS — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 10:11:46 +0000

I was a Merchant Navy Radio Officer 1965-1971. From 1946 to 1971 there was a Commonwealth Area Scheme masterminded by the UK RN. This allowed Commonwealth MN ships to send and receive messages via any of the Area Stations anywhere in the world for free relay to/from to any other Commonwealth country. The hub of the operation was the famous British GPO station Portishead Radio which was linked via landline to RN Whitehall Wireless. There was a network of Naval radioteleprinter links between the various main Naval stations that took part in the Scheme.
These stations then transmitted/received the messages on HF to/from the ships. Portisheadradio was a GPO station with a few RN ops assisting. Most of the others were Naval, such as Simonstown near Capetown. There were a couple of anomalies in Aus and NZ. GPO Wellington/ZLW transmitted the TFC blind to us on HF but wouldn’t accept QSLs or TFC. That had to be sent via Naval Irirangi/ZLO or GPO Awarua/ZLB. How did that work?! Similarly in Aus, Canberra Naval/VIX transmitted TFC blind to us but we sent QSLs and TFC by GPO Sydney VIS but only on HF. I am trying to compile a history of the Area Scheme so if anyone could help, especially with the mix of GPO (used as a generic term) and Naval in Aus/NZ I would be very greatful. Thanks – Bruce MORRIS/GW4XXF

By: Neil Watkins

Neil Watkins — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 18:42:56 +0000

Some of these comments are a bit dated but a few names above I recall from my Radio Depot days including working at ZLW when Valves were still king and the VFET output transmitters just didn’t cut it. I did have a trip to Kiribati for mobile work much later and realized the work the radio operators had done and the sacrifices they made. Great to be a small part of that.

By: Peter Banks

Peter Banks — Fri, 23 Nov 2018 01:36:36 +0000

I have just come across this website as well. I’m Peter Banks and worked at Wellington Radio for several years in the 1970s until 1977 when I moved to Auckland.
We had a team of 4 or 5 at time doing maintenance work 5 days a week with call out duties if required after hours. I mainly maintained the Receiving section and each day had to check the clock against the pips from London at 11am. The weights we used then where washers to keep the clock accurate.
When I moved to Auckland I purchased a house in Pakuranga close to Howick where Auckland Radio was based. I also worked there in a few times and also took turns at callout if faults occurred.

By: Paul Hawkins

Paul Hawkins — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 13:42:42 +0000

When I was researching HF P-P history for my book (see my post on the F/B page) I came across this traffic schedule, in the C&W archive, for the NZPO services in the mid 1950’s:
Services GMT Mod Ch Privacy Transmitter Ant Frequency
London 07–12 ISB 2 5 band 40kW (STC) Array 10235
London FSK 50kW (GE US)Array 10275
Oakland 02-05/15-17 ISB 1 5 band 4kW (STC) Rhombic 9900/15500
Sydney 20 – 12 ISB 1 5 band 4kW 10980
Sydney FSK 1kW 16005
Ships 21-22/00-02/06-08 DSB 1 Inversion

By: Adalberto Raul Olivera

Adalberto Raul Olivera — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 01:25:26 +0000

Many years ago, summer of 1974, I was barely 14 years old, a very hot night I was doing radio in the band of 6 meters (50MHz) with an old RT-68 team from the gerra of Vietnam,
that night it was very good spread and my old team only had 18 watts approximately.
Suddenly I hear a call from a station that is identified as Radio Concurry, I ask him if he listens to me and he answers me in a very clear Spanish language telling me he listens to me loud and clear.
he asks me what a child does on the radio and I answer that I am a radio amateurs from Buenos Aires Argentina, the operator tells me that he is at a coastal radio station in New Zealand Australia,
It was a great joy for me because it was a very distant communication,
My postal address from my country asks me to go to Darcela, after spending almost a year and a half I get the mail with a card and a flag of the Coastal Radio Station.
Today I am 58 years old and never again communicated with that radio station.
I only remember the card and the pennant which is still hanging in my transmission room.

Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina

Adalberto Raul Olivera (LU4DAJ)

By: Brian Gallagher

Brian Gallagher — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 01:05:08 +0000

What a great interesting site,pure nostalgia which kindles many happy memories.I started my working life as a Post Office Radio tech and spent a good part of that time at ZLW before moving on to work at the then NZBC. In retrospect my time at ZLW was the best job I had,interesting rewarding work with the greatest ever bunch of people.Sad to see that a number of these have passed on.
Thanks for setting up this valuable site.
Would love to hear from those people that I knew and worked with.

By: geoff Kenny

geoff Kenny — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 06:03:55 +0000

As an ex operator at ZLW and ZLC i have really enjoyed finding this site and taking a trip down memory lane. Congrats and thanks to all have made this happen. I particularly enjoyed Clyde Williams articles. I only wish as a young man i had realised what this job would mean to me and taken a few more photos.

By: Barry Munro

Barry Munro — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 04:26:23 +0000

I was stationed at ZLC Chatham Islands Radio at the time. ZLB Awarua Radio picked up the Gothic’s (callsign MAUQ ?) on the 8 mHz lifeboat emergency radio frequency; the ZLB operator was the late Dave Dow.

For a while, not knowing that the bridge and radioroom, plus some passenger accommodation, was destroyed by fire, it was thought the Gothic might have headed for Chathams as the nearest point of land. She actually sailed to the mainland, either Lyttelton, or Wellington.

By: Richard Davies

Richard Davies — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 02:29:21 +0000

Came across this book last week. “Invaluable Service” by Desmond Ball, Cliff Lord and Meredith Thatcher. The front cover has a picture of Musick Pt station which is what caught my eye. It details the work of the Coast Radio Stations during WWII in signals interception – also ZLB in intercepting comms from the German Fleet in the Pacific in WWI. A bit technical so it can be a hard read, but worth persevering. Tried to include a photo of the front cover but its beyond my technical competence.