From 1953 to 1993 the Himatangi Radio Transmitting Station was one of our links to the outside world. Before it opened we could only radio as far as Australia and relied on Sydney technicians to patch us through to other locations. The opening of the Himatangi Station changed all that.

For much of it's life the station was a 24/7 operation with married staff living nearby in Post Office housing and single men living in hostels onsite. This duty logbook covers much of the 1980s and was the record of who was operating the station each shift. It is pictured with part of the station's control panel. By the 1980s much of the station was automated and the Warkworth Satellite Station (opened in 1971) had eclipsed Himatangi in importance. But keeping the station on air was still a big job. 

Parts of Himatangi's control panel and transmitters can be seen at the MAVtech Museum in Foxton's Coronation Hall. 

This is a page from the last log book of the Himatangi Transmitting Station. The station started it's career in 1953 with an early highlight being the transmission of the Queen's Christmas Message during her 1953 New Zealand tour. By 1993 satellite stations were replacing radio as the main means of international communication and the station shut down only a few weeks after these entries were made.

The station was government run and transmitted messages via radio- another station in Wellington acted as the receiver. Before undersea cables and satellites, these radio stations were our main link with the outside world.

Attack submarine motors were used as backup generators in the 1960s to ensure Himatangi never ran out of power. 

A control panel from the station, and many historical documents, can be viewed at the MAVtech Museum in Foxton's Coronation Hall.