MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 4 July 2018 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street
Chair: Dave ZL2MQ, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Present: Dave ZL2DW, Wally ZL2MO, Paul ZL2HB, Blue ZL3TT, Mike ZL2MY, Peter ZL2CD, Revel ZL2SS, Errol ZL2IT and Karl ZL1TJ.
Apologies: ZL2XC, ZL2ST and ZL2VM.
Minutes of previous meeting: Read and confirmed to be correct: ZL3TT, ZL2HB.
Arising: Dave ZL2DW: the proposed NZART public liability insurance for members will now also apply to branches with charitable / non profit status according to Peter Mulhare ZL2IK.
Also: the on line sale of Baofeng hand-held radios was discussed at the last Branch 13 meeting.
It was decided to spread the information via the reflectors and pass names etc. onto the Radio Inspectorate. The Radio Inspector responsible for the area is reported to visit Hawke’s Bay soon to investigate the matter further.
Dave ZL2MQ: the two remaining SWR Power meters have now been sold. Trade-me fees are now exorbitant.
Correspondence: various email correspondence: Peter Mulhare re: NZART insurance, non profits are excluded. Internal emails regarding new Bank and members financial status.
Finance: Treasurers report attached.
General Business: Errol ZL2IT questioned Dave 2DW regarding the proposed AREC communications trailer (see minutes 6 June). The status and usage of the present ageing caravan was discussed. The consensus was that the proposed trailer is a viable concept. It will be supported by Branch 13, support from Branch 25 will also be needed.
Dave 2DW mentioned the annual Branch 13 junk and scrap metal collection is now ‘on’ and the associated auction of ‘The Good Stuff’ is to take place at the next Branch 13 meeting, July 25th.
The winner’s trophy for the Branch 13 home brew contest was presented to Errol ZL2IT.
Dave 2MQ asked for information about ‘The Napier Branch Verification Cup’ (NZRA DX). First presented in 1933 it appears not to have been contested after 1938. There are a few other ancient trophies that may be of interest and need to be identified.
The meeting closed at 8pm and was followed by an interesting ‘Show and tell’ session.
Mike ZL2MY presented a simple but clever central hub for a VHF / UHF ground plane antenna. Resonant frequency can be changed quickly by exchanging rods.
Dave ZL2DW presented a much more satisfactory way of utilising an (automatic) antenna tuner. It is mounted just below the (dipole) antenna balun in a weather proof enclosure. An inductor / capacitor network is used to feed the necessary 12V dc up the coax cable to feed the tuner.
Errol ZL2IT presented his E-Field Probe Active antenna. A small device made of copper laminate with a J-Fet transistor. It works on the electrostatic dimension of radio waves and has a very wide pass band. In Errol’s case is used to receive 475 KHz. Also, similar to Dave’s, a DC into coax injector device to go with the antenna.
Errol also presented a DDS oscillator, high stability, to take the place of a number of crystals in an older radio. The device is paired with a Picaxe micro processor to provide the 2 bit parameter input and read the 14 bit output using Hexadecimal coding. High Tech. Amateur Radio in the 21st century.
Karl ZL1TJ Secretary NARC.