From the pages of the June 1952 “DX Times”.
Donald I Devon, of Pukeuri Junction, some five or six miles north of Oamaru, where a branch line runs to Kurow near the Waitaki Hydro dam, was elected secretary and treasurer of the North Otago Branch at its first meeting on Saturday, April 5, 1952. He is 17 years of age, weighs 10 stone, is 5ft 9ins high with grey-blue eyes and fair hair. He is employed in the Post Office as a telegraph messemger, the idea being to graduate to a postman so that he can carry home his own verifications. Don started DXing in 1950 when he read about reporting stations i “Scout”the Boy Scout paper… Don was a patrol leader in the Scouts. Born in Oamaru he has also lived at Fairlie and, of course, Pukeuri Junction where, apart from Hilderthorpe, his DXing has been done. He is most interested in broadcast listening because he considers it the hardest, but is also keen on shortwave. He has 58 verifications on broadcast, 52 on shortwave and six amateurs. His first verification was VLC (15200) Melbourne on Juy 28, 1952, while his first call of importance was Larissa (6745) on the same date. He also likes SEU in Spain and on broadcast CJOR in Vancouver, British Colombia. With the enthusiasm that Don displays, we know it will not be long before he adds many choice calls to his log. By continents his combined totals are Australia 64, Asia 6, Oceania 7, Europe 18, North America 21, South America 1, Africa 1, His ambition is to log Godthaab in Greenland and as many countries as he can. The receiver used is a 7-vlave Philips and the aerial is an inverted L 100 feet long, and it will be seen by the good lists of loggings appearing in this issue that Don is making good use of both. His other hobby is stamp collecting, while he also plays the piano which will make him popular at the branch’s social function. Good luck to the two Dons, in their efforts to serve the North Otago Branch, and their DX efforts too.
The other Don referred to is Don Reed who had an aerial farm at Hilderthorpe, a mile or two North of Pukeuri Junction.
