MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 6 July at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street
Chair: Wally ZL2MO, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Present: Laurie ZL2TC, Revell ZL2SS, Dave ZL2DW, Paul ZL2HB, Bert ZL2OC, Blue ZL3TT, Peter ZL2CD, Stan ZL2ST, Erroll ZL2IT, Mike ZL2MY, Tom ZL1TO and Karl ZL1TJ.
Apologies: ZL2US, ZL2DC, ZL2VM, ZL2MQ.
Wally welcomed visitor Tom McDonald ZL1TO, Secretary of the Franklin ARC.
Minutes of previous meeting: Read and confirmed to be correct ZL2HB, ZL2MY.
Arising: no matters arising.
Correspondence: Annual information sheet to NZART. Email exchanges regarding shared Branch 13 and Branch 25 Examination Supervisors.
Finance: Laurie reported selling the Club’s 2KW linear amplifier for $700. Stan is still looking for a better deal with the Club’s power supplier. Wally made contact with our neighbours, ‘The Man Shed’. It would appear their monthly power account is in the region of S50, which is about half of ours. Wally to get further details.We now have a ‘Smart’ KWh meter, another meter reader un-employed. Lower cost should result in lower charges?
General Business: Dave ZL2DW reported on Branch 13’s ongoing antenna height discussion with the Hastings District Council. It would appear that Court action is to be avoided and a satisfactory agreement can be reached. The eventual positive outcome, achieved at some financial cost to Branch 13, may set a precedent for the next Napier City Council plan review resulting in a better outcome for Napier Amateurs. Tom ZL1TO mentioned the ongoing struggle in Auckland where combined clubs have raised some $6000 to fight height restrictions in the Auckland Unitary Plan.
Dave ZL2DW: news items and articles for Breakout are needed. The next Branch 13 meeting will feature the annual donated equipment auction.
The meeting closed at 8:10pm.
Followed by the annual Show and Tell event:
Dave ZL2DW: a handy arrangement of two small vices on a supporting stand: The Third Hand. Also a beautifully made 1:1 balun, (HF bands, 50 Ohms) and third item a KVE60C antenna analyser, pocket sized and the graphic colour displays shows all ‘dips’ simultaneously.
Laurie: The latest Wouxun 2 band hand held, Ham and commercial bands and broadcast FM. Robust, can be bought on eBay for below $100 (be sure shipping costs are not excessive). The enclosed programming software will not run on Windows 10, Laurie found the W10 software on the internet but had to pay seperately for this. All up still a great radio for a good price.
Erroll: two items constructed from low cost (eBay again) components. The first a wideband field strength meter using a logarithmic amplifier IC and a Picaxe processor to drive the digital display. The second a VHF / UHF Power and VWSR meter based on a low cost directional coupler. Again using a Picaxe to drive digital display. Errol, while claiming computer programming not to be one of his strengths, did write the programs for both applications.
Hi Tech Ham Radio.
Karl ZL1TJ, Secretary Branch 25.