NZ Net News 148, 21 Dec 2024

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Featured key

Gold telegraph key

JFK pressing a gold telegraph key to open the 1962 World's Fair in SeattleUnited States President John F Kennedy officially opened the Seattle World’s Fair by pressing a telegraph key in Palm Beach, Florida, on 21 April 1962.

The key, studded with Canadian gold, had been used by President Herbert Hoover in 1932, to open another Seattle attraction, the six-lane George Washington Memorial Bridge.

In 1909, William Howard Taft was the first US President to use the key when he signaled the opening of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition – also in Seattle.

* If you have an interesting key for this feature, please send a nice clear photo and a few words describing it.


QST cover from Dec 1957 shows boy dreaming of a fancy ham station

Happy holidays!

Wishing all our NZ Net News readers a very happy holiday season, and many more CW contacts in 2025.

Apologies for the abbreviated NZ Net News. Your editor is on holiday after a very busy year.

Your contributions of articles and/or photos will help us keep the newsletter going in 2025 so feel free to contact me with any ideas, or questions about what’s needed.



Photo flashback

John Karlsen SM6UA at the key, wearing headphones, while his XYL looks annoyed.

John Karlsen SM6UA was one of Sweden’s most prominent DXers in 1930. The woman in the photo is understood to be his wife.


Audio feature: High Speed Telegraphy Championship

Ianis AlexandruThe BBC has produced a documentary about this year’s HST World Championships, held in Tunisia. It’s well worth a listen.

Duration: 27:16. Published 8 Dec 2024

[ LISTEN ]

Pictured: Scutaru Ianis Alexandru of Romania, who set a new world record in the RUFZ (callsign receiving) Category B in Tunisia, with an incredible score of 311,192 points and a max speed of 1126 characters per minute (around 200 wpm)!

If you have a Facebook account, you can see a nice video of the HST in Tunisia

[ WATCH VIDEO ]


Advertising archive

Collins S Line under a Christmas tree

The radical new Collins S\Line was on everyone’s Christmas list in 1958


Suggestions?

If you have suggestions on how to make the NZ Net better, or things you’d like to see covered in these updates, please contact ZL1NZ. You might even like to write something for the newsletter.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear you soon on the NZ Net!

Neil Sanderson ZL1NZ, Net Manager
New Zealand Net (NZ NET)
7030 kHz at 9pm NZT Daily