Amateur Radio's first 60 Years in Invercargill

As we come to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Branch 37 I feel that some of the past history and activities of the Branch should be made available to those who are relative newcomers to the World of Amateur Radio.  I have included facts drawn from past Minute books and my own recollections of events which cover just over half this history.

The first 20 or so years of the Branch are not well documented as no trace of the minute books have been found.  References to the early days of the Branch have been obtained from early Break-Ins.
 
The first meeting of N.Z.A.R.T Southland Branch, Branch 37 of the Association was held in Invercargill on the 11th of June 1932.  It is not known where the meeting was held but we know that meetings continued to be held in various places around town including members homes from this date on.  Some year’s later rooms were rented above a shop in Dee Street and I have heard stories of the Club Transmitter being run from power obtained from the DC Tram wires, which ran by the window of these rooms.  The Club eventually moved to rooms in the Trades Hall in Esk Street but because of multiple users it was not possible to have a transmitter set up as a Club station.  Meetings were confined to one a month because of room availability and cost of rent.
 
The Amateur Radio Emergency Corps started operation in Invercargill in 1937 and most of the members of NZART Southland Branch became members of AREC.  The Second World War greatly affected the Branch as many members joined the services, meetings were held but numbers were very low.  Following the war there was an increase in membership from those who had been trained in radio and had gone on to obtain their tickets.

The Branch and AREC also benefited by obtained surplus radio equipment, which was used for emergency communications mainly within the Search and Rescue Organisation and the occasional sporting event.  Because of storage limitations at the Trades Hall this equipment was stored in various locations throughout the City, which was not very convenient when an emergency call was received.  Both Southland Branch NZART and Southland Section AREC had a need for their own building as both had equipment, which needed storage, and both wanted a meeting room that could be used more than once a month.
 
Discussions on obtaining a new Clubrooms began in 1955 and within a few years had progressed to the stage of obtaining a site in the new Surrey Park development and the drawing of plans and even the making of a model of the proposed new clubrooms. I joined Branch 37 in 1957 while still at Intermediate School and can remember Bill Pickford ZL4AW reporting to meetings on the progress of the new Surrey Park site.  Bill was the Club's representative on the Council of Sport, which coordinated activities at the Surrey Park Sport and Recreation area.  I remember Bill reporting problems with the site of the new clubrooms which was alongside the Model Engineers Building, but the Sports Council now wanted the Branch to accept a new site across the road.  This site would have required a long and expensive drainage system, which seemed unaffordable at this time.  The meeting ultimately decided that it would be best to seek alternate sites for the new clubrooms.
 
Branch meetings at this time were not as dull and boring as the above makes out.  I remember a demonstration of Stereo Sound by a representative of Charles Begg Ltd, this was the latest in audio technology at the time.  We also had a demonstration by Maurice Wills ZL4GY of VHF Radio Telephones using the new Bluff Hill Repeater system.
We were able to talk to a mobile station in Wyndham using new modern Pye Reporter Valve RTs. There were six young members of the Club at this time and we met at 7pm for morse practice in a downstairs room at the Trades Hall.  There was a lot of talk at meetings about running theory classes for us but it took a while for anything to happen.  Allan Frame ZL4GA and George Bateman ZL4.. finally started theory classes once a month before Branch meetings.
 
Bert Fox ZL4IG was AREC Section Leader at this time and I, along with two other young members were invited to the Annual Search and Rescue Exercise at Mid Dome.  The town link on 3900kHz was done on CW using an ARC-5 Transmitter while a ZC1 was used on 5680kHz.  This was my start in AREC and I have only missed one or two annual exercises since then. The Branch was involved in providing communications for the 3 day cycle tour of Southland together with Car Club events and the Motor Cycle Club Bluff Hill climb, all using ex army ZC1s on a 2mHz sports frequency.
 
Branch members were very busy in 1958 with organising and running the first National Conference to be held in Invercargill.    The Club was advised in 1961 that the Trades hall was going to be sold and the search was on for a new building.  The Building fund had the large sum of 500 pounds and all that had been built so far was a model of the new clubrooms, which sat alongside the model of an AREC caravan made a few years before.
 
Civil Defence was being formed in Invercargill at this time and AREC was becoming involved in providing communications for this new organisation.   The City Council through Cr Norman Jones and Civil Defence was asked for help in finding suitable accommodation for AREC and the Radio Club.  The December 1961 meeting of the club was advised by Allan Frame ZL4GA that an unused Council Croquet Pavilion in Ettrick Street, which would be most, suitable for new Clubrooms had been located.  It was decided that the Club should check with the Council to see if the building was available for rent.  On approaching the City Council it was found that the Dogs Obedience Club had also applied to use the Croquet building.  This did not seem to be an insurmountable problem and the Branch at its February 1962 meeting voted to write to the City Council advising that a shared lease with the Dog Club would be most acceptable.  Council agreed to a shared lease on 2 March 1962 and the Branch held a Committee meeting in the NEW ETTRICK STREET CLUBROOMS on Tuesday 6 March 1962.   Purchase of a Zip, cups furniture and paint was put in hand.   The New Clubrooms were to be open every Tuesday night and a table with morse key and oscillator was to be set up for beginners.  The 20 March Branch meeting was held in the new clubrooms and resolved that 100 pounds from the building fund be spent on the building.  June 1962 and already the Branch was looking at expanding the Clubrooms by obtaining the use of the adjoining Tennis Pavilion through discussions with Southland Technical College who had a lease on that building.  The use of this part of the building was obtained and doorways were constructed between the two parts of the building.  The Technical College relinquished their use of the building in 1963 because of the poor condition of the tennis courts.  The Dogs Obedience Club moved out of the building around this time, which left NZART as the sole occupier.  The remaining money in the building fund was used to upgrade the interior of the additional part of the building and members of the day thought the club was at last set up with a suitable Clubrooms for life.  In 1964 the Club received a letter from the City Council advising that the Junior Tennis Promotion Organisation had been granted use of the Courts and the Tennis Pavilion and that we were to provide them with access to the building.   This caused much discussion and resentment that the Council could do such a thing after all the work, which the Club had put into this part of the building.
 
Approaches were made to the Council and the Tennis group with the result that the Tennis group went to other Courts within the City.  Amateur Radio was once again secure in the Ettrick Street building.  On the 30th of August 1966 the Club received yet another City Council letter advising that the Council will be selling the land in Ettrick Street and offering the Club the Building for removal. This was a sad blow to the Club but it was decided that the only option was to accept the offer and cost were obtained on moving the building to Reserve land off Mary Street beside the Puni Creek.   After inspection it was found that only the West half of the building was suitable for removal and a large sum of money would be necessary to reinstate the building on a new site.  A building fund was started again to meet the cost of moving the building and alternate buildings and sites were investigated.  Parliament saved the day in that the Ettrick Street land was a reserve and the Council could not sell it without a long and costly process, which included the approval of Parliament, which had recently shown opposition to the selling off of reserve land.  Now that the Ettrick Street site was once again secured improvements were carried out on the Clubrooms, which included a storeroom for AREC equipment and a Club radio station. Because of the increased commitment of AREC to Civil Defence and the resulting increase in emergency radio equipment the Club was able to obtain a commitment from the Council to assist in meeting the costs of improving the exterior of the building and providing window shutters to prevent vandalism which had plagued the building in recent years.  The building was roughcast in 1968, which improve its external appearance and solved the vandalism problem and for the next few years the Club and AREC continued to regularly use the building every Tuesday night.
 
In 1969 following a newspaper advertisement for interested persons, Beginners Classes were started at the Clubrooms on Thursday nights, with Neville Checketts acting as tutor to the 14 keen students.  These classes continued every Thursday night with Neville as tutor until 1981 when the classes moved to Southland Polytechnic where Neville continued as tutor.  The circle was completed in 1991 when the Beginners Classes returned to the New Clubrooms with 12 students and Neville still continuing as tutor.
 
AREC with assistance from the Southland Savings Bank and the Invercargill Licensing began a program of upgrading its radio equipment to Single Sideband in 1968 and over the next few years became well set up with modern equipment including a Honda generator.  The large amount of equipment now required a large car to transport it to a Search and Rescue operation and so talk of a dedicated vehicle for this purpose became a regular topic at meetings.   Neville Checketts became AREC Section Leader in December 1973 following the death of Alan Frame the Section Leader of the past 8 years.   Plans were laid at the February 1974 meeting to raise an estimated $ 8000 for a Communications Van with the aim of having the Vehicle on the road for the October SAR exercise.   All members pitched in and with the help of service clubs and members the new Communications Vehicle was on the road by 30 November 1974.   The vehicle was garaged at Bus Barn thanks to Civil Defence and proved its value during many Searches during the next few years.  The need for more space for buses in the bus barn resulted in the vehicle being moved to the public service garage some years later and then, to the old works yard in Levin Street then used by the City Traffic Department.   The vehicle was never very welcome at any of these garages but Council through Civil Defence had made a commitment to store the vehicle and therefore made the arrangements for it’s garaging.   It was obvious that AREC needed its own garage to overcome continuing problems with access to the vehicle.
 
By 1981 the existing Clubrooms in Ettrick Street were in need of major repairs to the roof and because of vandals, repairs to the roughcast exterior.  The City Council was asked to assist with these repairs but replied that they would not help as it was considered that the building was past its economic life and it would be a waste of money to do any major work on the building.   Jim Andrews a member of the club and a builder was asked to check the building and advise if the club could repair it at a reasonable cost.  Jim reported back that the building could be patched up but that it was generally in poor condition and would not last much longer.   Jim recommended to the May 1982 meeting that the club look at raising money for a new building with the aim of having $10,000.00 within the next 5 years.   The building and a new building fund were discussed at the next few meetings with various ideas being advanced for ways of raising the necessary finance.   A Building Committee was finally formed at the November 1982 Annual meeting consisting of, Chairman J.Andrews, F.DeHair, D.Faulkner, K.Hagen, K.McAuliffe, and C.Shirreffs.  The Building Committee began work on raffles, garage sales, junk sales, coffee mug sales, handles and drinking glass sales, and bottle drives.  A freezer was purchased and the sale of fish obtained by Jim from Stewart Island started.   During the next 2 years the building committee raised over $5000.00 but support from members began to wane and it had become harder to get help for fund raising.   No plans or a model of the new clubrooms had been made and a number of members began to wonder if there would ever be a new clubrooms.  In 1985 Civil Defence obtained through the City Council a 5-year lease with right of purchase on the old Marist school and AREC set up a radio room and store here.   AREC and the occasional club meetings were now being held at the Marist site and plans were made to build a garage to house the Communications Vehicle together with the Civil Defence Rescue Trailer.   The possibility of the Radio Club moving into the Marist building was discussed at a Club meeting and while a number thought this to be a good idea the Building Committee convinced the meeting that the Club should still pursue its goal of having its own building.  This proved to be a wise move as within a short time the Marist building had been sold to a property developer and Civil Defence was moved to a smaller part of the building until such time as development started.  The need for Civil Defence to find a new Training Centre by 1987 resulted in a proposal for a combined building on the Ettrick Street site adjacent to the existing NZART Clubrooms.  
 
The NZART Building Committee had by this time raised $10,000.00 but because of transfers to other parts of the Country had lost all of its members except Cliff Shirreffs and Ken McAuliffe.   A combined Civil Defence Amateur Radio Building on the Ettrick Street site held a lot of attraction and with a $4000.00 contribution from AREC gave an Amateur Radio share of $14,000.00 in a building estimated to cost of $30,000.00 and Neville Checketts was delegated to continue discussions with Civil Defence.  Planning continued on this combined building and the Building committee boosted by new members Owen Zwies and Jim McKenzie got back into serious fundraising.   Problems then began to emerge with Council requiring a change of site to Bowmont Street together with its much more expensive foundations and drainage.   Civil Defence requirements kept enlarging the size of the building to the stage where the final cost had risen to over $100,000.00.   This spelt the doom of this project and the Amateur Radio Club was back to square 1. 

From experience gained in planning the combined building it seemed necessary for the Club to obtain its own section.   Various pieces of land were looked at but all were expensive and would put the start of building back another 5 or more years at the current rate of fundraising. The building committee continued with fundraising mainly through the selling of fish and cheese.  At the November 1988 Annual meeting questions were asked about the new clubrooms and just what was proposed as many felt that some definite proposals and goals were needed.  

A special meeting was called in March 1989 to discuss and receive member’s proposals on the new clubrooms.   This meeting covered much ground but all were adamant that the Club must have its own building as soon as possible and preferably on the Ettrick Street site.   Various members were to go and obtain information regarding building costs, use of the existing site and additional information on methods of finance.  The April 1989 meeting was informed that the Club could build on the existing site but that the old building would have to be demolished as only one building was allowed on site.  Price estimates of buildings were submitted by members but these were for differing plans and size and were unable to be compared, but they did indicate that with volunteer labour the club just about had sufficient funds to construct the exterior shell of a building.  Neville Checketts offered to draw up a plan of suitable Clubrooms as determined during the Civil Defence negotiations and submit this plan to the next meeting.   The May 1989 meeting approved the plan and requested Neville to obtain estimates for its construction. 

At the June 1989 meeting Neville Checketts presented a written proposal for a new Clubrooms together with three prices and a recommendation for further action.   The meeting accepted the recommendation and appointed a building committee comprising Chairman Neville Checketts, Keith Reid, Roger Smithies, Cliff Shirreffs, Ian Fleming, and Warren Blain.   This committee was authorised to accept the Calder Stewart estimate and proceed with the construction of the New Clubrooms, and report back to each monthly Club meeting.   The Building fund by now had $15,000.00 and AREC had $4000.00 available for the estimated shell cost of $ 22,500.00.  The confirmed price for a Calder Stewart erected shell was $ 28,000.00 and the committee set about looking for a cheaper alternative.   This was found by Ian Fleming in the form of a Southland County Council Access building group who would be willing to erect the building at no labour cost.  A Calder Stewart kitset building was ordered and plans were made for an October start to the building.  The Building Access group started work late October with the laying of the foundations.   Ian Fleming had been appointed construction foreman and spent much time arranging materials for the builders.

Other building committee members were busy canvassing members for donations and many members donated $100 or more to the project.   At this time it was estimated that the building shell would cost $23,902.00 and the interior would cost $9,600.00 of which we had $23,900.00.   Money was coming in from the Water Tower visitor’s concession, which started in July at the rate of $250.00 a month, and members were responding very well with donations.  By the end of December 1989 the shell was all but completed and $22,308.00 had been paid out with $7,000.00 still on hand so the decision was made to keep the Access workers on and continue with the second stage interior without a pause.   February fundraising at fairs and displays using the chocolate wheel bought in $1200.00 while the Water Tower over the holiday period  also bought in good returns.   A donation of 80 sheets of gib board enabled a start to be made by members in lining the garage and in early March the Access builders completed their work and the Access plumbing group took over.  By the end of March the plumbing group had finished, the power was on and the building was used for meetings because the old clubrooms were unusable without power and water.  

Club members worked nights and weekends, gib stopping, painting and papering to finish the interior of the building.   A Hillary Commission loan of $4000.00 was received late March and arrangements were made for the Access s Building group to return and put up the ceilings.   Mid June and all the work was finished and Saturday 16 June saw members moving all equipment from the old clubrooms into the new.   A garage sale was held it dispose of unwanted equipment and fittings.
 
The next requirement was for carpet on the meeting room floor and this was laid in December 1990.   Money coming in from the Water Tower and from the February chocolate wheel activities enabled the first payment of $800.00 on the loan to be made.  To this stage the building has cost $39,766.63 compared to the estimated $30,000.00 at the start of the project and an additional $10,766.00 was raised during the year of construction.   Without the willing help of members who donated $7050.00, the 32 volunteer workers who donated 1129 hours and the $3000.00 of materials donated by members and local business firms over that year the new clubrooms would still be an empty shell.
 
The Official opening of the new clubrooms was held on Saturday 27 July 1991.  The MP for Invercargill Mr R Munro officially opened the building and unveiled a plaque before guests from Police, Search & Rescue, City Council, District Council, NZART President, Building fund donors and NZART Members.  An afternoon tea followed the opening.

Neville Checketts