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New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 718, 17 April 1953, Page 24

N OST of us are more interested in whether it’s going’ to be wet or fine than G. K. Chesterton’s Noah: He often said to his wife, When he sat down to dine, "JT don’t care where.the water goes If it doesn’t get into the wine." I heard the other day of a couple of men who bear out Samuel Johnson’s declaration that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather. But these happen to be New Zealanders. So keen are they about meteorology that their morning bacon and eggs (or egg) must wait until they have talked to each other about it,-even though they’re about 160° miles apart. On the last pip of the 7.0 a.m. time signal Robert Carr, of Ngaio, Wellington (ZL2DL), calls up Harry Pruden, of fF Sydenham, Christchurch. (ZL3JS), by

radio, using the Morse key, to have a little chat about ‘the type of weather prevailing in each centre-cloud, wind direction and velocity, barometer reading, minimum and maximum temperatures, and rainfall. As it’s alleged to be an ill wind that brings nobody any good I assumed’ that the two DXers got something out of their early morning operations. Bob Carr, who works in the colour laboratory of the National Public Studios, explained. For one thing, he said, he always knew whether to take his overcoat to the. office because a southerly leaving Christchurch often dropped in on Wellington. But let him do the talking. "Both ZL2DL and ZL3JS have iden. — tical equipment ensuring standard comparison. The Weather Office has helped

us by supplying conversion tables and charts and through the daily exchange of information we have built up a lot of useful data which has been put into diary form. Transmission is carried out on the 3.5 megacycle band. By 7.10 a.m. both stations are ready to close down. but occasionally at weekends we work uring the day. When either station happens to contact other stations, in New Zealand or overseas, it always makes weather one of the topics of conversation' and asks for a_ full report. During the morning tea break at work I’m often asked if it’s going to be fine for the weekend, and I can usually give a fair idea." Apart from. weather reporting Bob Carr does a lot of work with lowpowessd.’s transmissions ane _is eee

seen tramping the hills about Ngaio with pack frame up and a portable transceiver, type 208, which has a power of .6 watt and operates off dry batteries. A 16 feet whip aerial is used. Last Christmas the 208 was taken to Waikanae Beach, and from_ there ZL3GK Christchurch and ZL2AB Inglewood were contacted, the latter: station using a two-valve standby receiver for the test. The daily exchange of weather information has been going on for five years and only on odd occasions has a transmission been missed through one or the other operator sleeping in, being hampered by static, or through a technical fault. Well, well, every man to his taste. and I could think of many less useful hobbies.