[Boatanchors] Operation Deep Freeze & Amateur Radio Phone Patches

Sun Mar 19 23:37:05 EDT 2023

That was the Naval Communications Unit in Christchurch NZ, call sign ZLK. The receiver site was at Christchurch International Airport, and the transmitter site was some 13 KM to the southwest in Weedons. I was stationed at either NAW Gitmo or NGR Greece with someone who had previously been stationed at ZLK in Christchurch. He loved it down there. See https://navy-radio.com/commsta/nz.htm for more details.

Howie WB2AWQ

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________________________________
From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net <boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net> on behalf of Dave ZL3FJ <2c39a at silverbears.nz>
Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2023 5:48:15 PM
To: Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net <Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Operation Deep Freeze & Amateur Radio Phone Patches

Op Deepfreeze has had a long association with Christchurch New Zealand where
I live.  Christchurch and the local port, Lyttelton, has been associated
with the Antarctic from very early on-both Scott and Shackleton used
Lyttelton as a staging port for their Antarctic exploration.
 From 1957 (or so) onwards though the US Navy presence here in Christchurch
has been  constant and much appreciated.  There was a large US  HF radio
presence here for many years in support of both the US and NZ Antarctic
programs. It only bit the dust (literally in the case of some of the TX
antennas-see below for an amateur connection) when sat comms took over.
There was a  separate TX site out of town by around 10 miles at Weedons
while the RX site was located adjacent to Christchurch airport at Harewood
on the nor'west side of town.  These two sites were about 8 miles apart and
both had large antenna farms, mainly rhombics at the RX site and multiple
tower mounted rotatable log periodics -plus rhombics- at the TX site. The
local amateur  population often made visits to both sites over the years
and it has to be said that the intermingling of the US amateurs and the
locals amateur population gave rise to a lot of radio gear being acquired
through the PX store at McMurdo and winding up in the hands of  grateful
locals!
The RX site has totally disappeared now and a bypass road runs through part
of the land where the antenna farm was located.
The TX site lives on as a radio installation-it was taken over by the NZ
Defence Force but all the antennas that were used by the US have long gone.
In their place are just a few small HF broadband monopoles and one or two
log periodics on short masts- nothing like the 120 plus footers that the
2-30 MHz (I think Grainger) log periodics were mounted on.

Back in the early 1980s there was a lot of anti- government protesting going
on- mainly related to strong feelings about the  South African rugby team
-the Springboks- being allowed to come here and play the All Blacks. Some
misguided protestors thought the US log periodics were something to do with
TV broadcasting of the rugby matches and they cut the guys on one, possibly
two, of the log periodic support towers,  badly damaging them and the
antennas.

Quite some years later, a local builder, who had a long relationship with
the US Navy doing work for them at both sites, contacted a friend of mine as
regards some 'bits of the towers and antennas ex the US TX and RX sites"
.Turns out he had the job of clearing the antennas from both sites when they
were shut down and had meticulously gathered up all the important pieces of
the towers and guying connections etc.  Were we interested?

Well,  we were and  eventually after suitable bartering,  carted off a lot
of steel- basically  kitset rhombic towers ex the RX site and similarly for
the towers ex the TX site. In the latter case, the tower was  around 3 feet
on a side triangular lattice, much too big to put up  even just a few
sections for amateur purposes  but the steel was very useful.   The rx site
towers were much smaller -perhaps 18 inches on a side and much more suited
to amateur reuse. My friend, Rod, ZL3NW, has a very nice 80 footer he put up
some years ago using just four 20 foot sections of  the rx site 'kitset'
material.  6M gets a good workout from his QTH!

 At the time I acquired the top section of one of the TX site  towers that
had 'bit the dust' due to the protestors. This was about four feet high and
contained the main bearing, direction indication pot drive and rotator
gearbox  drive etc for the log periodic.  While I had visions of using it as
a mount for a 10 foot dish in the yard here, old age and the XYL have
prevailed and I recently passed it on to  a friend  who lives out of town
and  he hopes to use it for something similar.
 The US Navy still has a significant presence here in Christchurch due to
Deepfreeze. Long may it continue!
 73
 Dave
 ZL3FJ

-----Original Message-----
From: boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:boatanchors-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Dave Merrill
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2023 11:09
Cc: BOATANCHORS
Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] Operation Deep Freeze & Amateur Radio Phone
Patches

Thanks Pete for the additional info. There's always more to the story. Did
they use 15 or 20 meters for most of the QSOs?

The photo of Julius on the tower makes my feet sweat.

Dave N9ZC

On Sun, Mar 19, 2023, 12:10 PM <manualman at juno.com> wrote:

> Here is where the U.S. amateur radio connection was:
>
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Fmuhn79sz&data=05%7C01%7C%7C5458e6d0f0dc4fb619aa08db28dcd839%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638148701205182992%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=bcKdHqnUCZCGMgbBCTqT3l9Z4KcSq%2BLR7Q77hBpZVjY%3D&reserved=0
>
> The Sky Needle tower is still standing in these pictures.
> I knew both brothers and visited the location. I lived in Rahway, NJ
> about 1.5 miles from them as the crow flies.
> Younger brother, John, tried for many months every day to make the
> first Antarctica 6 meter contact. He never did. He also got into
> vintage amateur radio equipment at his location in Hawaii and had
> ordered several manuals from me.
>
> Here's a picture of Julius (older brother and inventor of EZ-Pass)
> doing some antenna work up on the Sky Needle:
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Fbdzahjm7&data=05%7C01%7C%7C5458e6d0f0dc4fb619aa08db28dcd839%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638148701205182992%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=uLwXUoHjtsSSrjyK8KuTP%2FyWb6PBdCvvre9l%2BQPLPnQ%3D&reserved=0
>
> Pete, wa2cwa
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.manualman.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7C%7C5458e6d0f0dc4fb619aa08db28dcd839%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638148701205182992%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4mvHekVrKRZd7%2B3sZpPhbfewm%2B1cRmApiy1stel8hnw%3D&reserved=0
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, 18 Mar 2023 12:02:21 -0500 Dave Merrill <r390a.urr at gmail.com>
> writes:
> > I've been watching The History Guy's YouTube channel and thought
> > others might find this one interesting:
> >
> > https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FuaTm_LUifUI&data=05%7C01%7C%7C5458e6d0f0dc4fb619aa08db28dcd839%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638148701205182992%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=D2T0R4BcsBwLQP7fSMFBjh7N5lINFW%2B%2FTykeW8jd22I%3D&reserved=0
> >
> > Dave N9ZC
>
>
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