Minutes of the Napier Amateur Radio Club
Meeting Wednesday 3 June 2020 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street
Note: The April and May meetings of the club were not held due to the Covid 19 (Corona virus) lock-down restrictions imposed by the NZ Government.
Chair: Dave ZL2MQ, the meeting started at 7:30pm.
Present: Wally ZL2MO, Karl ZL1TJ, Peter ZL2CD, Blue ZL3TT, Stan ZL2ST, Mike ZL2MY, Rob ZL2AN, Fergus ZL2VF, Revell ZL2SS and Errol ZL2IT.
Apologies: ZL2DW, ZL2XC, ZL2LF and ZL2VM.
Minutes of the previous meeting: Read and confirmed to be correct: ZL2MO, ZL2MY.
Arising: Dave 2MQ, a suitable antenna has not been found, the (future) discourse on EME radio will be based on videos of his home station in action.
Correspondence: Email from Debby NZART that a visit sometime October is ‘on the cards’ if we still want her to come. Also an email from NZART regarding Conference finance, dealt with by the Conference committee. Email from Dave 2DW regarding his proposed July meeting talk, email from Daniel Hopper, seeking assistance to gain his operating certificate. Power account and Info-line newsletter. Earlier correspondence was reported in the 19 May Committee meeting minutes.
Finance: financial statement attached, no major transactions, a $20 contribution was paid towards the running cost of the Mt Threave digital repeater.
General business: Rob reported checking the coverage of the Mt Threave digital repeater. This was found to be surprisingly good. A few (3?) members now use this repeater.
Errol suggested some form of lighting the building or the sign on the roof is necessary during the winter monthly meetings to assist potential visitors finding the clubrooms.
Wally reported being extremely busy with work, finding little spare time for other things and requested to be taken off committee lists for the time being. He is still able to fulfill his roll as building custodian. Accepted with thanks for all the work he has done for the club over the years.
The meeting closed at 8 pm
And was followed by Dave 2MQ’s demonstration of digital communication software such as found in the WSJT package. The FT8 format is very popular at present, it uses the audio input and output of a computer to interface to the radio. Dave’s laptop received and decoded sounds coming from the club’s radio room in spite of all the ‘talk interference’ being generated by the audience. Two (laptop) computers will talk to each other this way, without actual physical connections. Fergus ZL2VF brought in his computer to demonstrate another (his favourite ) software package, FLDIGI, and in particular the Olivia mode which comes in a number of sub-formats. It allows the exchange of messages similar to teletype or what is now known as ‘Texting’. These modes work well with low power even when atmospheric conditions are not good.
Karl ZL1TJ