New Zealand by radio from Wythall
11,640 miles – that’s the distance between Wythall and Nelson, on New Zealand’s South Island. 
On Saturday night Wythall Radio Club member Lee G0MTN and Roger ZL2RX made contact using amateur radio on the 40 meter band.
The surprise was that Roger (see photo) used to be a local!
“I am a blown-away Black-country person having been born in Walsall. I have been in New Zealand since 1968, but was raised in Alvechurch and schooled at Woodrush in Wythall.”
You can see their Morse Code contact here….
Roger was using a K2 transceiver (see photo below) and an Ameritron AL-811 linear amplifier putting out 500 watts. The antenna is a centre loaded 7.5 meter vertical with one counterpoise earth wire.
“I learned some Morse ability at Woodrush School in the early 1960s” says Roger “when Harry Clay our woodwork teacher started the “key clickers” lunch time club. It would be interesting to hear from any of the old timers like myself who remember that!”
Roger and Lee were taking part in the Commonwealth Contest, an annual 24-hour event in which radio amateurs in Commonwealth countries contact each other – scoring points for the number of contacts and different Commonwealth countries worked.