For Pacific Radio Amateurs
pp. 93-94 · Read in the full issue
Conducted by Ex ZK-1-AC/VR-2-AK (Address notes to P.O. Box 179 W, Wellesley Street, Auckland, NZ.)
Island Hams, try a CQ on your favourite band at the Pacific Islands Net times—oloo/0700/1900Z. By fostering the Net others will know when to look for you—and you will know when to look for others. Avoid answering the outside DX for at least 15 minutes.
Notes Of Interest
„ .. , Further changes in the ARRL weekly Sunday (GMT) programme from Voice of America stations are published in their , V^L K S ,i^o;^ Tra ? Smi i SlonS *u are J*° W at 1045/1445/1915Z only. For other Ham broadcasts see February notes. ..,, , , , Conditions have remained at a low ebb L P f a n , m ° nth “J. MUW S arC expected to fall lower as the year prot£r W ' r ”’ S ° l M Wa i T cerned, there were several notable break- ~* r mg In. as of old, for short periods.
W.l.A’s “Amateur Radio” reports interestingly from Dr. Rob Black VK2QZ/9, It will be recalled that he has been fo P r era some Znfhs, wS./t been in the Solomons, and very active— m, 4A - w *i.«. r This delightful tropical island (Save) is actually a volcano and feels like it . . .
VR4AF will be operated from various islands . I am visiting little-known Polynesian atolls which are visited about once a year. The malaria hunt is still on, but the end is in sight ... We have another five weeks to go (thence back to Sydney). Conditions here are
pretty good and the old Type 3/Mk M is doing nicely, with a car battery ...
ZL’s are very strong . . . VK’s not so good ... I worked 250 contacts from the Trobriands—no Europeans or Africans —but I was not out after DX. En route to the Trobriands I met VK9GW, VK9MT and VK9XX at Samarai. He has a lovely site on the hill . . . One contact was with a research station on an ice floe at j unea u, Alaska ... The antenna here ts itself tied to a coconut palm . . I don’t use an earth.” * Dr - B. Black, back from his anopheles-hunting excursions to the Trobriands and the Solomons, gave a talk “» Wireless Institute of Australia in Svdn v on Tnlv *5 * The °a r m “ n .Iso reports th.t V khyk r... „ ... ..
vßg 1 b “xsr'sas?„ e
print. Russ contacted 120 counties dur ing his short term in Papua—and worked all VK districts except VK6 on 50 mc/s.
When a new team manned Mamuarie
S£j d 'H
Melbourne VK IRC (ex VKSRCi Rohh
sjsrsa ajr’jsa*’ss
Will be there until next April. VK-l-RG is already very active, and is now on with a 50 M/cs transmitter.
Clipperton Island, French Oceania’s most distant outlier, 1,800 miles west of Panama, has a Ham these days—FO-7-AW —a Swiss, with the call HB-9-AW when at home.
Nothing further has been heard from Tom Davis aboard the yacht Mini—ex
ZK-l-AN—since advice came via com mercial channels that he had touched at Rapa Is. If the winds serve, next word is expected from Easter Is., 1,800 miles further east.
Twenty-metre stations recently heard active include KC6DX at Truk, KM6AX on Midway, KH6PA/KB6 on Canton, W-O-EGY/KJO on Johnston, KG6IG away up in the Bonins. ZK2AA on Niue is the most active Eastern Pacific station at present.
For Yachts And Smallships
In June we gave details of some useful weather broadcasts suitable for Pacific mariners who cannot read morse signals.
To that list may be added a broadcast for the Fiji Group on 7.5 mc/s at 0915 Z from Nadi, and another for French Oceania waters on the same frequency at 0025/1825Z from Papeete. This latter broadcast is in the French language.
The Suva broadcast station on 930 kc/s also makes a weather broadcast for the
Fiji Group at 0910 Z in addition to the 0600 Z broadcast previously listed.
Emergency Frequencies For
Smallcraft
We are frequently asked what fre quencies are in use by Eastern Pacific coasts stations for voice contact with smallcraft.
Tahiti, Rarotonga, Apia and Suva do not maintain scheduled watch for small craft, but they will do so by prior arrangement.
For cases of emergency yachtsmen are strongly advised, when cruising in the south-eastern Pacific, to carry trans mitting crystals for 7,000 to 7,500 kc/s.
The Papeete post office station maintains watch during business hours with its outer island stations on 7,500 kc/s. There is also a Government “net” on this frequency in the Fiji Group. In the Cook Islands 7,000 kc/s is used, as also between Apia and the Tokelaus, and in the Gilbert and Ellice Is.
In case of emergency these channels are usually active at the International weather observation hours—oooo/0300/ 0900/1200/1500/1800/2100Z, which are the best times to net in. The average yacht is incapable of tranmitting on 500 hc/s and these channels are your best bet when in trouble.