Amateur Radio Broadcasting Interests Many Vicars

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29077, 14 December 1959, Page 17

Amateur Radio Broadcasting Interests Many Vicars

Amateur radio broadcasting is the leisure-time interest of the Rev. ,R. W. Culpitt, vicar of Miramar, Wellington, who keeps in touch with several New Zealand Anglican vicars who share his hobby. His Call sign, ZL2FD, has Originated: frt»m his earlier parishes of Hunterville and GonVille, as'well as from Miramar avehue, where radio equipment takes up a large part of one bedroom in the vicarage, reports ’“Church and People.” Since -1845, when, wartime restrictions were lifted, Mr Culpitt has had. his radio transmitter in use about three times every week. “I keep regular contacts,” he Says. “On Monday, for example, I . call a 'ham* broadcaster at Nandi airport, • “On Fridays, I have a talk with an Australian, Canon Nel, the rural dedl of Juhee in the diocese of Canberra-Goulburn.” Mr Culpitt met the' rural dean during art early broadcast purely by chance. At the end of a long conversation he mentioned that ills address was “The Vicarage.” “That’s strange,” answered the Australian voice. “My adress is ‘The Rectory.’ ”. So began a radio friendship that has lasted tot many years. Local Contacts

During a building campaign When he was at Gonville, Mr Culpitt compared notes with the Rev. V. J. Hughes, vicar of Helensville, whose call-sign is ZLIAMK and who was conducting a similar building campaign. ' Mr Culpitt has also spoken with the Rev. W. A. 8001, the vicar of Akarog (ZL3GF) and he will soon be making contact with the senior chaplain, R.N.Z.A.F., the Rev, K. : Schollar, who has recently come on the air with hobby—but a selfish one," is Mr Culpitt’s comment about “ham” broadcasting. “When on the air you’re oblivious

to anyone And anything else. But there’s a kind of freemasonry about radio which you don’t find in any other walk of life.” Popular With Anglicans Many active Anglicans are among the 3000 amateur radio men in New Zealand, Mr Culpitt has found. Some of them first spoke to him after recognising his voice from his broadcasts in the N.Z.B.S. devotional services. But Anglicans are not the only enthusiasts—some of Mr Culpitt’s earliest radio contacts were priests of the Roman Catholic Church.

He often calls some of them—one priest broadcasts from Tolaga Bay, and several from Silverstream.

Once Mr Culpitt was talking to an American whom he discovered was in an Episcopal monastery in the United States. This man was preparing to go to Africa as an unusual missionary—he wag going to make television broadcasts from the gospels in native tongues.