ZL6RWC Rugby World Cup Radio

Calling all radio/rugby fans

MELISSA KINEALY

Papakura Radio Club members will be making contact with people from all around the world during the Rugby World Cup.

But they won’t be meeting them face-to-face. Instead they’ll be using a special call sign – ZL6RWC – from September 1 to October 31.

RADIO SOUNDS: Papakura amateur radio club member David Karrasch can’t wait to use the club’s special world cup call sign. Photo: FIONA GOODALL

Longtime member David Karrasch is hoping they’ll make contact with more than 40,000 people in that time.

“We expect to have it on air on two or three bands every day. It will be swamped.”

He applied to the New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters for a call sign especially for the Rugby World Cup. The club’s usual callsign is ZL1VK.

But club members won’t be having lengthy banter with contacts. Most communication is just an exchange of call signs, he says.

“We will be going to work as many people as we can.”

The ZL6 is the special part of the call sign because they normally start with ZL1, 2, 3 or 4, he says.

The plan is to operate through nine bands of frequency on multiple platforms including a more traditional form of communication, morse code, Mr Karrasch says.

The 50 club members are looking forward to using the new call sign, he says.

“It’s really a matter of contacting people and recording them in our log.”

They’re not keeping the call sign all to themselves – other amateurs will ask to use it working from their homes and clubs across New Zealand, Mr Karrasch says.

The club has no set channel that its operates from – visit www.nzart.org.nz to see the frequencies club members will use.

It recently had another special event call sign – ZL6LH – when members set up a radio station at a lighthouse as part of International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend.

Last weekend o they set up the station at Pouto on the Kaipara Harbour, to help raise public awareness of lighthouses and lightships and to promote amateur radio.

Papakura Courier

© Papakura Courier August 24, 2011.

This material remains © Fairfax New Zealand Limited and is only to be used for non-commercial personal or research use. Any other use requires permission of the copyright holder.

For a current list of all radio stations broadcasting in New Zealand, visit our New Zealand Radio Guide.

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