While I was buying groceries at a small shop on Raivavae, I had a chance meeting with three gentlemen from the United States.  In speaking with them, I learned that they were ham radio operators. Ham radio is a worldwide network of amateur radio operators who, among other things, use their skill with shortwave radio to communicate with other operators all over the globe.  They explained that the world is broken up into 340 “countries,” which are separate geographical areas rather than political entities. Many of the operators around the world will attempt, over many years, to make contact with all of them, almost like collecting stamps, where the stamp is a code you receive upon making successful contact with one of these “countries.” The Austral Islands have one of the hardest codes to get, both because the islands are so remote, and because no ham radio operators live on them.

Bob Allphin, Robert Brandon, and Madison Jones had come to the Australs to set up a temporary radio transmitting station in the bedroom of the pension they were staying in. During their stay, they received transmissions in morse code from hundreds of other operators around the world hoping to add the Australs to their stamp collection. They were very excited to show me their setup and happy for me to take a few portraits of them in their makeshift station.