ZL ‘H Night’ 50 year celebration

The anniversary of the return of Amateur Radio in New Zealand after WWII is to be celebrated in December by special event station ZL6H.
The seminal publication 'Ham Shacks, Brass Pounders & Rag Chewers', reported that ‘H Night’ was Saturday December 8, 1945, at 7.30pm New Zealand time. That book traces the history of Amateur Radio in New Zealand, from the early days of simple spark transmitters and crystal receivers, to sophisticated space communications. It records the dubbing of the name ‘H Night’ by the then NZART Secretary Doug Gorman, following widespread anticipation of the return of Amateur Radio.

According to an upcoming NZART Break In magazine edition, an article by SPAM - Society for the Preservation of Amplitude Modulation - reports that the return was initially only 80 metres, and 58.5 to 60 MHz. Rob Carter ZL2IW, given ZL6H by the NZART, believes that the occasion should be marked with on air activity 7.30pm to 10pm. He said: "Many years ago he had a chat with a local OM calling on 80 metres, who explained that H Night was important, and made a contact to remember this return of Amateur Radio privileges.
"As a coincidence, his first H Night contact was with a radio amateur who worked for the Post and Telegraph (P and T). At the time I worked for the New Zealand Post Office, which was the descendant of the old P and T. "The OM was tickled pink that H Night had yielded up a similar contact, many years after his first H Night." To commemorate ANZAC 100, a series of articles are to appear in the WIA journal Amateur Radio magazine.

WIA Historian Peter Wolfenden VK3RV will later write about how Amateur Radio in Australia was returned after WWII, in December 1945, with the re-issue of licences by the Post Master General’s Department. Initially restricted to 28-29MHz, 50-54MHz, 166-170MHz and 1345-1425MHz, by July 1946 there was also a partial release of the 40m and 20m bands. Normalisation of Amateur Radio took place in many countries at about that time, and international contacts were being made on air.

A summary of ‘Ham Shacks, Brass Pounders & Rag Chewers’ can be found by clicking the following Link

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