Thread: End of an era

johnd My wife and I did a couple of seasons at Coverham while still only radio communications, great times . Bluff to Coverham , Bluff to Coverham are you there , over ��.

Branch recieving, over.

Not quite the same but had dealings with Awarua radio in the 80s.
Long since gone.

Shame, I have good memories of tramping on a multi-day trip as a young teenager and hoping I'd be one of the chosen ones allowed to set up the wire aerial and help operate the radio to get the next day's weather forecast. Good times.

A great service to be sure and hopefully the outdoor community will recognise and thank them when to time to hang up the mike arrives. I remember sitting in my tent on the Matemateaonga Range (Whanganui National Park) one night and relaying messages from SAR in Te Anau to their search parties in Fiordland as their HF signal was disappearing into outer space, but due to my position and angle to the ionosphere could talk to both SAR HQ and the parties in the field. They found the injured hunter and was a great outcome. Back in the day the Mountain Radio weather forecast and sched were an important lifeline for those of us in the back of beyond, and on many occasions urgent messages got through to those in the field, and the mountain radio operators were helpful in passing on messages as well. They certainly have my thanks for a job well done!