FORGET Facebook and social media – D’arcy Hancock has been contacting people all around the world for nearly nine decades, thanks to his ham radio.
D’arcy, who recently turned 106, is Australia’s oldest ham radio operator.
Ninety years earlier he was the youngest person to receive his amateur operator’s proficiency certificate. He still even has the same call sign: VK5RJ.
The Resthaven Marion resident has been gracing the airwaves ever since.
“I’ve been involved in radio my whole life,” said D’Arcy, adding that his favourite part is “just yarning to others about typical things”.
“It’s nice to speak with other radio enthusiasts –- we have a lot in common,” he said.
As many enthusiasts will tell you, ham radio is an interest through which you can make casual friends or lifelong mates without leaving home.
Among D’arcy’s cobbers are a man from Victoria and a Japanese dermatologist who eventually flew to Australia to meet him in person.
According to D’arcy, he would say g’day to one friend every morning at 7.30 – a ritual that lasted more than 40 years.
Growing up in Kadina on the Yorke Peninsula, D’Arcy said he had a “normal life” and particularly enjoyed fishing at Port Broughton.
In 1951, he started his own business, Hancock’s Radio Sales and Service, repairing radios and refrigerators.
A talented jazz musician, he later combined his two passions by selling musical instruments and sheet music as well as leading his own bands on the peninsula for years. The business continued until 1964, when the family moved to Adelaide and D’arcy went to work for Brighton Technical College, maintaining and fixing machinery.
His passion for ham radio endured, and he regularly attended “ham picnics” at Brownhill Creek or other locations, where fellow enthusiasts would meet and swap or trade radio equipment.
D’arcy, who has lived through several wars, the birth of TV and more recently the internet, said the introduction of TV “was remarkable” and that he’s seen enough wars – he served at home during World War II using his technical skills.
He has three children, three grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
One of his sons and a grandson have followed in his footsteps as active ham radio operators, with their own call signs. and licences.
