Barry (Baz) is an old timer with a wealth of knowledge from the “Old days” Most old timers have. He was born in New Zealand in 1935 and has been a ham for most of his life with a wide range of interests including HF CW DXing and contesting. boat anchor vintage radios, home building gear especially antennas. He collects morse keys and headphones and is a member of FISTS#9026, Other interests :Food & wine, music,literature,aviation, travel. He has sailed the South Pacific extensively, also US West Coast, Western Mediterranean. He has two adult daughters (fine arts graduates) one in Chiangmai, other in London.

For many years Barry operated from his Homestay on Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf near Auckland. His wonderful location known as “Signal Hill” was a superb DX location as shown below.

Signal Hill looking out over the Hauraki Gulf

BArry, ZL1DD looking for DX

He was first licensed in 1953 but the pressures of family and work kept him from being very active on radio much of his life. Moving to Waiheke gave him the opportunity to set up his dream radio station and he enjoyed sharing it with others. He had a Yaesu FT1000D, Viewstar 2x 3-500z Linear amplifier and a Toshiba laptop.

The Giant Force 12 Antenna

The antennas were a Force 12 C-4SXL rotary beam, two elements on 10,15,20, and 40m with15m tower. Site is 90m above the beach and the station got out very well. 80m used a dipole at 20m fed with 450 ohm ladder line to antenna tuners so he could work all HF bands with this antenna.

Barry had a dedicated radio shack with a bed and an extensive radio library,
including QST collection back to 1928. There was a well equipped home workshop for radio and general construction, repair and maintenance. He worked mainly HF CW and Waiheke Island (OC201) and it was in demand from DX stations. He entertained many overseas visitors during his stay there including Bob Whelan, the President of RSGB in 2002 G3PJT alias ZL4CC working the 2001 Commonwealth Contest. He came sixth overall, best score from Oceania.

Overseas radio visitors to date include: Jukka OH2BR, Hans SM3TLG, Bill K6KM, Bob G3PJT, Kevin VK3DAP, Nico PA0MIR, John W1CU (ZL1/W1CU) Barry operated overseas with calls such as G4COP, GW4COP, A35CN, ZK1CM, ZM1BN/A as well as ZL1BN/W, ZL1BN/VE etc. For much of his radio life his callsign was ZL1BN. When his old friend Bert ZL1DD went SK his family asked him to take the callsign Bert’s family have been on the island since pioneer days and his father before him was the first ever holder of the callsign.

Barry has been in Thailand since 2006. Unfortunately there is no reciprocal license in HS so he has operated from RAST club station HS0AC in Bangkok That station was destroyed in floods but a new station will hopefully be operational again soon. He has been helping to build the HS0ZIA new super station out of Chiangmia and also on team working contests from there. In 2011 he got call XU7AEL and operated from Sihanoukville for 3 months in 2012. Rumour has it that Barry may try Vietnam 2014. He will be returning to ZL in 2013 to stay with his old mate Ken at ZL1AIH/ ZM1A.

73 de Baz