MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 6 November 2013 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street
Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Apologies: ZL2US, ZL2DC, ZL2LF, Ms Helen Roughan.
Present: Lee ZL2AL, Dave ZL2DW, Mike ZL2MY, Willy ZL2AGD, Wally ZL2MO, Bert ZL2OC, Revell Troy, Dave ZL2MQ, Stan ZL2ST, Mike ZL2VM and Karl ZL1TJ.
Minutes of the previous meeting, confirmed correct: ZL2TC, ZL2MY.
Arising: Nil
Correspondence:
Documents from the Napier City Council regarding the ground lease for the club rooms.
Last signed in 2009 and due for renewal. Conditions remain the same, annual ground rent of near $400 has crept up over the years. Tabled by Stan: documents related to the change over of electric power supply companies.
Finance: Account payable to the Napier City Council for annual lease.
The cost of re-programming the Eprom memory of the Tait radio was paid by Laurie.
He will not pass the charge on to the club and so made the club a $100 donation.
General business:
A reminder by Dave ZL2DW of the forthcoming Christmas dinner, bookings to himself or Laurie. Lee ZL2AL reported that an aerial rotator needed for the club’s new HF antenna system will be donated to the club by himself and Gary ZL2IFB. Originally bought at trademe for $120 for the contest station but now going spare.
Lee also reported briefly on the recent CQ WW contest, about 5500 contacts were made, results to be published when available.
The meeting closed at 7:45 pm.
The meeting was followed by the Annual General Meeting after which the homebrew contest for the PanPac Trophy was held.
Entries were:
Laurie ZL2TC: Left – A UHF co-linear antenna sometimes called ‘Coco’ antenna, made from 50 Ohm coax cable inserted in a fibreglass rod. Simple but theoretically capable of a 8 Dbi gain.
Dave ZL2DW: Right –
a home brew power supply capable of 12 Amp at 13.8 Volt. All components out of the junk box, the regulator is a truck 24 to 12 volt reducer.
Below – Dave’s recently constructed 9 meter tilt over mast, a 2m skeleton slot aerial constructed from what was a Gisborne’ kitset.
Mike ZL2MY: further refinements to the local (Holger’s) version of the Hexagonal beam under construction. The mounting base and central post with internal coaxial links now completed.
The winner was: Dave ZL2DW’s power supply with 4 votes. Shared second with 3 votes each went to Dave ZL2MQ’s amplifier and Mike ZL2MY’s hex beam.
Dave ZL2MQ: Left – A broadband (30 to 3000MHz) receiver pre-amplifier.
Based on the PCA103plus chip, has a maximum gain of 27 Db, but reduced to 15 Db by filters and attennuator. Beautifully built.
Karl ZL1TJ, Secretary NARC.