Flying over Middleton Reef

I met Bernie many years ago, in a professional capacity. We clicked straight away, even before we realised that we share a hobby. Bernie is cool – happy to converse on any topic. Versed in electronics, but also finance, stocks, physics and chemistry, vintage watches – with the memory of an elephant. Well travelled, a kind of strange mixture between an Aussie and a Brit. Above all – a man of a sharp mind. What impressed the most: you can show him any electronic or mechanical device, and he can not only tell you what it is, and what it does, but also a story or two about it.

If we were in sixteenth century Europe, Bernie would be a village clock smith, gunsmith, locksmith, money lender, and would sit on the town’s council. A true renaissance man.

An asset to the ham radio community: he can not just fix radios, but do repairs at a logic level, and rebuild amplifiers. Years ago when I was looking for a large high Q coil for 600m band antenna, Bernie quickly provided not one – but two ex-NDB tuning coils!

Of course, you know him too: Bernie Nicholson, VK2ABN.

“I was first licensed in 1967. I did the AOCP when I was still 17 BUT I got the license at age 18. My first callsign was VK2BEA, but in 1969 I went to sea and didn’t come back to Australia for a few years. So my callsign got re-issued as my mum didn’t pay the $2 license fee as it was then. I got VK2ABN in 1976.”

And here is a typical message, only Bernie could write:

“Hi Nick –I hope you are still enjoying Norfolk Island I used to know Jim Smith very well and Bob Davidson VK9ND I used to fix Bobs radios and he even brought TV sets for me to fix. They both had stayed with us when I lived at Gladesville.

Last time I was on Norfolk they wouldn’t let me out of the airport because I forgot to take my passport.

John Green from Lord Howe Island had rang me one morning to see If I could help him deliver a pigeon pair fridge/freezer, to get it in and out of the plane. It was a memorable trip back via LHI. We went down to below 500ft over Middleton Reef and I took pictures of the ship wrecks as it was low tide. JG died a few months ago… Rhonda and my daughters stayed many times in LH in Johns AIR CREW accommodation. As I am an electrician, we used to visit once a year and spend 2-3 days fixing things that had broken down and the other ten days we did the tourist thing on the island. Except knowing John, I used to go out on the fishing excursions for free, it was a great deal. I’ve done all the walks on LH including Mt Gower and Lidgbird.

Yes that trip to Norfolk Island was a bit of a disaster, but seeing Middleton and Elisabeth reefs was a memorable bonus. I took lots of pictures of Middleton reef as I wanted to organise a fishing trip and I wanted to look at it at low tide as we wanted to access the entrance. That’s the top picture. The next is the wreck of the “RUNIC” of Shaw Saville Line (a shipping company set up to transport both produce and passengers between Great Britain and New Zealand). “RUNIC” hit the reef in 1961, during a cyclone. The reef gets fully covered at high tide. No GPS in those days! The next picture is of the wreck of the “ERROL” which I think was wrecked in about 1890 and the survivors apparently resorted to cannibalism, around this wreck you will see lots of pock marks in the reef as this wreck was used as bombing practice for Bristol Beau fighters from Amberley near Brisbane in WW2. John Green from LHI showed me black and white pictures of the iron sailing ship Errol. It still had remnants of sails on its masts and yards, but now and after a few direct hits its just great shards of rust and an anchor. The bottom picture is the reef from around 300ft. John Green came down so low over the reef that I could see fish trying to escape from the aircraft shadow. I actually had difficulty looking out of the window in the co-pilots seat to concentrate on taking pictures as at least three separate alarms were going off: Under 500ft alarm and stall alarm .

Cheers and regards Bernie N.”

So why am I sharing this with you? Really, no particular reason, except to acknowledge the fact that we do have many brilliant friends who share the same passion, who are genuine, smart, authentic and just pleasant human beings all-around. So next time you bump into Bernie – either on air (40m AM?), or in person – beware you are talking to a passionate ambassador of amateur radio. Respect!