Minutes of the Napier Amateur Radio Club
Meeting on Wednesday 7 April 2021 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street
Chair: Dave ZL2MQ, the meeting started at 7:30pm.
Present: Stu ZL2XC, Revell ZL2SS, Mike ZL2MY, Peter ZL2CD, George Theron ZL2KKT, Rob ZL2AN, David ZL2DW, Mike ZL2VM and Karl ZL1TJ.
Apology: ZL2MO, ZL3TT.
Minutes of the previous meeting: Read and confirmed to be correct: ZL2SS, ZL2CD.
Arising: Apology from Peter 2LF for previous meeting omitted, now added.
David 2DW: Bch 13 was successful in it’s quest to find a sponsor for the annual repeater license fee. Suggested Bch 25 does the same. Mike 2VM: a list of SK Stan ZL2ST’s gear is now available. Expression of interest / offers to Mike please. Revell has been in touch with councilor Boag regarding tree felling. She suggested we contact the Works Department direct. Revel to have a go at this.
Correspondence: With Randal ZL1NW and John 2VAF regarding the Bch25 Break Out listing. With East Pier regarding catering and AV systems. With Stu regarding financial matters, with David 2DW regarding a trial run for his Conference presentation.
The usual notices to members.
Finance: Stu presented a printed statement of the Club’s financial affairs. Payments for Conference registration are now being received in the AREC (Conference) account.
Dave 2MQ presented a brief overview of progress with the NZART Conference preparation.
General business: Dave 2MQ: welcomed George Theron who recently converted his South African ham license to a New Zealand one, callsign ZL2KKT. Unfortunately ZL2GT was already taken. David 2DW presented a quick overview of the nets being run on the local repeater (670): the combined branches Sunday morning Net (9am) and the (weekdays) 7:30am Cornflakes net run by Marilyn ZL2 BOA. Rob 2AN went through the NZ licensing requirement changes over the years. It used to be a lot tougher to get a ham license, a radio inspector would come to check the transmitter and operator competence ‘on the spot’.
The recent license application for a privately owned local DMR repeater was discussed. The practical value was questioned but the experimental aims may be worthwhile.
The meeting closed at 8:40 pm.
Followed by David ZL2DW giving a preview of his Tech talk to be presented at the NZART Conference. Experiences from participation in the Australia / NZ 160m contest over a number of years, initially using disused telephone wires crossing a deep gully in the Cape Kidnappers region. Later with purpose made antennas near the Gannet Colony.
The prize for the ZL2 region went to the 3 man team of ZL2DW, ZL2VM and (often) ZL2CF at least twice. A number of interesting photographs and documents need to be converted to a screen presentation, Peter 2LF offered assistance.
Karl ZL1TJ