‘HAMS’ ON ALERT

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30498, 21 July 1964, Page 16

‘HAMS’ ON ALERT

Radio Watch For Raftsman (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SYDNEY, July 19. Australian amateur radio operators, ships and aircraft are keeping a radio “watch” on the lone raftsman. William Willis, as he drifts across the South Pacific towards Australia.

Mr M. Cole, the president of the Wireless Institute of Australia, said in Sydney today that 600 “ham” operators in Sydney were monitoring Willis’s frequency around the clock.

Australian airline companies and ships in the Pacific, West of Fiji, had been asked to listen for any signal Willis might send, he said.

Willis, a 70-year-old American, left Apia in Western Samoa 27 days ago to complete his journey by raft from Peru to Australia. The raft, “Age Unlimited,” is now thought to be somewhere between Fiji and New Caledonia.

On Tuesday a Fiji-based flying boat picked up a distress signal followed by another which said “All’s well.” The next day the Lauthala Bay radio station picked up a weak morse message which appeared to be “Salvita three. All’s well.” Willis’s wife announced after' he left Apia that his call sign would be “Salvita three.”