NZ Net News 126, 17 Feb 2024

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Featured key

By Greg ZL4GW

Here is a Double Current key that I have owned since I was 13. I bought it at a radio club junk sale for £1.

It was my first Morse key, and I used it for a couple of years after my grandfather taught me how to send and receive CW.

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

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Quick notes

Regarding the video of Rugby Radio in NZ Net News 125, Don ZL2TLL writes: “Many thanks for your film on Rugby. I was stationed (sent to) in Coventry in the mid 70s and used to attend the Rugby Amateur Transmitting Society (RATS) meetings which we then held at the Rugby site.”

Cartoon: Gildersleeve, June 1955

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Photo flashback

For more photos of Scott Base radio operations, visit maritimeradio.org

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Remember these days?

Now, it’s hams complaining of interference, instead of being blamed for it!

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Dit-dah newsletter from WW2

Graeme ZL2TE reports: “Papers Past have added an interesting WW2 publication called Dit-Dah which caught my attention.”

Dit-Dah was a weekly typewritten camp magazine published by the 2 New Zealand Divisional Signals from Trentham Military Camp between 1939 and 1940 during World War II.

A message from Commanding Officer Major S F Allen in the first issue from December 1939 stated ‘may the journal be a true chronicle of our community life, a means of maintaining our morale in times of stress, and a permanent record of our illustrious (we hope) achievements’ (01 December 1939: 1). A call was also made to help ‘Dit-Dah grow and flourish by feeding it with raw material – no matter how raw’ (01 December 1939: 1).

Features included information about the camp structure, notices, songs, cartoons and even a joke menu.

It is not clear how far the journal ‘took on’ as there are currently only four available issues. However, from January 1940 the title appears to have been published ‘at sea’ suggesting it may not have continued once Signals reached their destination of Egypt as part of the First Echelon of troops sent to Europe.

You can read the four issues of Dit-Dah on the Papers Past website.

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Morse challenge

Here’s a bit of traffic handling from a few years ago. Jeff WB8WKQ sends a radiogram to ZM50MAUQ. Before starting the radiogram, Jeff advises that there is no need to wait until the end of his message to ask for a fill. How does he indicate this?

Please send your answer via radiogram or email to ZL1NZ.

Answer to previous Morse Challenge
Seventeen stations checked into the NZ Net during January 2024. Correct answers were received from VK3DRQ, ZL1ANY, ZL2GVA and ZL2KE.

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Advertising archive

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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!

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Neil Sanderson ZL1NZ, Net Manager
New Zealand Net (NZ NET)
3535.0 kHz at 9pm NZT Mon-Fri