MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 6 December 2017 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street
Chair: Dave ZL2MQ, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Present: Revell ZL2SS, Peter ZL2CD, Dave ZL2DW, Michael ZL2MY, Wally ZL2MO,
Paul ZL2HB, Blue ZL3TT, Errol ZL2IT, Stan ZL2ST, Mike ZL2VM and Karl ZL1TJ.
Apologies: ZL2XC and ZL2US.
Minutes of previous meeting: Read and confirmed to be correct: ZL2HB, ZL2MO.
Arising: Dave 2DW: both the annual combined branches end of year dinner and the ‘summer wine’ bus trip went well. The latter saw 9 participants, no one was ‘evicted or arrested’ for misbehaving.
Correspondence: various email correspondence regarding the 2018 hamfest. Advertising and seeking speakers. Requests for support from radio equipment suppliers resulted in one ‘no thank you’ and one ‘no reply’. Email from Stu 2XC, in Papua NG for the week, available for 40m QSO’s.
Finance: RSM invoice for licence fees has been paid by direct debit. Transfer of cheque signing authority from Stan to Paul has been achieved with the usual bank hassles. The Napier CC ground rent account can now be paid.
General Business:
Dave 2MQ: A second run of the pool Cue antenna kitset has been cancelled due to lack of interest.
Wally obtained quotes for the hire of spray painter, cherry picker, cost of paint and sign lettering.
Errol offered his spray painter for use by the club. Some discussion led to the conclusion that the roof, being low pitch, can be safely painted without the use of additional equipment.
Errol suggested that, considering the great job building custodian Wally has done on the interior of the clubrooms, the club could perhaps consider looking at replacing the ageing chairs. Stan explained the history of the existing chairs. To be further considered at the next committee meeting.
Karl reported briefly on the state of hamfest preparations, advertising is in place, several speakers have confirmed availability. The venue has been booked but details of catering etc. need to be finalized.
The meeting closed at 8:07 pm.
And was followed by Dave 2MQ presenting a slide show explaining the multi band, microprocessor based SWR meter he has designed and built as the club’s next project. The meter can be offered as a partially built kitset or fully built up and should, all going well, be available at the April 7th hamfest. One built up meter could be the raffle prize. Dave’s excellent presentation, showing both the versatile electronic hardware available now and also what can be done with simple programming, will fill one of the slots at the hamfest, ideally the first or second one.
Being the end of year meeting the customary liquid refreshment etc. made the evening special.
Karl ZL1TJ Secretary NARC.