Taken from the pages of the October 1953 DX Times:
Murray Stewart Lamont, resides at 22 Passmore Crescent, Dunedin, N.N.W.!. and has a DX shack located at The Spit, near the mouth of the Otago Harbour 15 miles from Dunedin, or 40 minutes by car (but we remember the days when the train was taken to Port Chalmers then the six odd miles to the Spit ground out on the bike with the radio battery on the back..but that was before the V8). And this leads us to remark that Murray is one of the most unassuming DXers we know but also one of the most enthusiastic. To see the two or three lines that appear almost every month in “The Times”, to know that he takes no interest in Branch affairs might lead one to think that he has lost some of his keenness. But don’t you believe it. To be with Murray for a few minutes engenders enthusiasm in any DXer, He will talk DX until the “veries come home” and in pride of place on the lounge table is a massive volume which contains the bulk of those more than 800 verifications he possesses on the broadcast band. In it 23 United States stations state in their replies that he was either the first from N.Z. or the first from outside North America to hear them and numerous others infer as much without definitely saying so, He was born at Sawyers Bay a few miles North of Dunedin and later shifted to St. Kilda where he started DXing with the rest of the South Dunedin gang, Lynn, Fox, Martin, Moir etc. He became interested in DXing in 1934 when he saw Alf Greenway of the NZDXRA DXing at his shack at Purakanui and his interest was kept alive by window displays so that when his folks got their first set in 1938 Murray quickly learnt to twirl the knob and hasn’t stoped since. His first verification was VLR Melbourne on S.W. but he isn’t sure of the call as he has since “lost” the verie. In May 1938 he verified 3TR Sale and KRLD which was his first Yank and included in his total of 820 are WSKI WOND WICH WILM WHN WINS KFAR PRG2 ZNS, but his most novel verification was from WHTB who sent a box of candy withe the verie for the most distant report. He likes WINS, however because although is a 50kW , it is probably the hardest 50 kiloWatter to hear. He has 630 North American verifications, 144 Australasia, 17 Oceania, 15 Asia, 7 Europe and I South American and strange though it seems his ambition is to get more veries. He has used a Philips a.c. 9-tube, a Cromwell 9-tube battery, and a Cromwell 6-tube battery receiver in the past and now has a locally-made 8-tube battery set with a single wire antenna 700ft long attached to a cliff 150ft high, running in a S.W. direction. He thinks the B.C. band is tougher and that you get a bigger thrill in hearing stations that are not designed for distance. He joined the League on its formation and is a member of the National Radio Club and was formerly in the N.Z> DX Club and the N.Z. DX Radio Assn. “Monty” Lamont is a big lump of good nature being 6ft 2in in height and weighs 14 1/2 stone, brown eyes, dark hair, and although 30 he is still single and works as an upholsterer at Wm. Nees & Co Ltd. He served overseas in the Middle East and since his return has played in big cricket and football, He is at present coach of the Kaikorai 5th grade rugby team, the club for which he used to captain the 2nd XV. He has represented Otago at cricket and plays for the Kaikorai Cricket Club but we have no authority for saying that it was “Monty’s” bowling which developed his club mate, Bert Sutcliffe, as a batsman!
