Author: admin

Amateur Radio Operator ZL1TJ

Posts

NARC Meeting – Dec 4, 2013

Post author By admin
Post date 05/12/2013

MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 4 December 2013 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street

Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.

Apologies: ZL2DW, ZL2DC, ZL2LF, ZL1FS (ZL2UFS). Accepted ZL2ST,ZL2AL.

Present: Lee ZL2AL, Mike ZL2MY, Willy ZL2AGD, Wally ZL2MO, Bert ZL2OC, Revell Troy, Dave ZL2MQ, Stan ZL2ST, Rob ZL2US, Jan ZL2CZE, Marty ZL2PX, Karl ZL1TJ and visitors Hannah and Otto Soderlund AG6KR and AG6KQ.

Minutes of the previous meeting, confirmed correct: ZL2AGD, ZL2TC.
Matters Arising: Nil

Correspondence:
Letter the Napier City Council regarding the ground lease for the club rooms..

Finance: Napier City Council annual lease account paid. Payments for repeater and beacon licences are now due.

General business:
Laurie welcomed visitors Hannah and Otto Soderlund, AG6KR and AG6KQ, members of ARALB, Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach, California. Otto was given the opportunity to say a few words and spoke about the ARALB club, and it’s involvement with SS Queen Mary, now used as a hotel at Long Beach. Club members do regularly act as hosts and guides to visitors to the ship’s ancient and very large radio room, station W6RO.
A year long journey travelling through Australia and New Zealand brought them to NZART headquarters in Upper Hutt where Debbie ZL2DL recommended a visit to Branch 25, Napier.xThe journey is now nearly complete and both Otto and Hannah are looking forward to going home and having a fully equipped shack available once more.

Stan and Lee reported on the ZM4T contest group participation in the most recent CQ WW CW contest, the group beat the NZ record amongst others. Stan, finding it ‘painful’ working through the night, obviously still enjoys the adrenaline rush. Otto asked about equipment used. Lee referred to the ZM4T website.

Mike ZL2VM wrote a report regarding the Civil Defense station and the proposed need to upgrade the amateur radio radio there. Laurie suggested to postpone discussion till Mike can be present. The bottom line suggestion in the paper is to seek a discussion with CD leadership first. Wally ZL2MO reported on progress with the paint job, pricing and samples at this stage.

Lee showed has latest QSL card, great design and beautifully executed in Russia, 2000 cards for the princely sum of NZ$ 120 including freight.

The meeting closed at 8:15 pm.
After which Jan ZL2CZE showed his latest acquisition, two ex Chech army 6 meter transceivers, bought at an army surplus store during a recent trip to the old country. These locally made RF10 sets, QRP (1 Watt or so), FM, frequency range 44 to 54 MHz programmable in 25 Khz steps sell for the equivalent of NZ$45.

Lee then set up his gear and ran the dvd record of the A52A Bhutan Dx-pedition. Produced by James Brooks, another quality film, not only highlighting the trials, tribulations and fun times of the team led by Glen Johnson W0GJ but also a fascinating report on Bhutan and it’s people today.
Thanks Lee, a great way to round the evening off.

Karl ZL1TJ – Secretary NARC

Posts

NARC Minutes – Nov 6, 2013

Post author By admin
Post date 07/11/2013

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's 8 Db Gain Collinear 70 Cm Antenna — Laurie ZL2TC’s 8 Db Gain Collinear 70 Cm Antenna

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 Walker, ZL2DW's Junk Box Power Supply. Cost = $10.00 and the Winner on the Night! — Dave Walker, ZL2DW’s Junk Box Power Supply. Cost = $10.00 and the Winner on the Night!

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.

Dave's Skeleton Slot Antenna project — Dave’s Skeleton Slot Antenna project

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.

ZL2MQ's beautifully built preamp — ZL2MQ’s beautifully built preamp

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.

Posts

NARC AGM – Minutes 2013

Post author By admin
Post date 07/11/2013

Napier Amateur Radio Club.
Minutes of Annual General Meeting.
Held at the clubrooms 123 Latham Street on 6 November 2013.

Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:45 pm.

Apologies: ZL2US, ZL2DC, ZL2LF.

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 read and confirmed true and correct: ZL2TC, ZL2MY.

Arising: Nil.

President’s annual report: attached to these minutes:

Briefly: Another successful year for the club, good support for various activities and club meetings.

A modest increase in membership and the refurbished and re-equipped radio room being used for contest operation. The building is in need of further maintenance and a proposal to have one member act as building custodian is to be tabled. Moved by ZL2TC and seconded by ZL2ST that the report be accepted. Carried.

Treasurer’s report: Stan ZL2ST presented the annual accounts, audited by S.E.Rooney as usual. Copy attached to these minutes. The club’s finances are basically hand to mouth and income and expenditure are roughly balanced only thanks to repeaters not needing maintenance this year and also a lower cost electricity supplier having been found. A transfer of $1000 was made from the AREC account to the NARC account. Moved by ZL2ST and seconded by ZL2AL that subscriptions remain at $25 and that the Treasurers report be accepted. Carried.

AREC Report: Mike ZL2VM presented a report which is attached to these minutes. Briefly:
The Tait TM 8250 radio was found to be inoperative upon checking after being lent out for use during ths Silver Fern Rally. The eprom could not be re-programmed and the radio had to be returned to the manufacturers to have this done at considerable expense. Now that this has been done progress can be made with the proposed portable SAR station. Moved by ZL2VM, seconded by ZL2ST that the report be accepted. Carried.

Election Of Officers: President ZL2TC, secretary ZL1TJ and treasurer ZL2ST were re-elected unopposed.

Active committte members: Lee ZL2AL and Mike ZL2MY are now joined by Wally ZL2MO.
AREC convener: Mike 2VM , Repeater trustees ZL2DW and ZL2TC and auditor Sue Rooney.

General bussines: Willy ZL2AGD was asked and consented to be the first Building

Custodian, primarily keeping an eye on graffiti and other external damage so repairs can be initiated speedily.

The Annual General Meeting closed at 8:15 pm

ZL1TJ, Secretary NARC.

Activities Posts

6M is all on December 6

Post author By admin
Post date 02/11/2013

The last Channel 1 Television transmitter is due to close down at the end of November and RSM has advised that from 6th December 2013 onwards (just in time for the annual VHF/UHF/SHF Field Day Contest) Amateurs throughout New Zealand will have access to the bottom end of the 6 metre band (50 to 51 MHz) without needing to apply for a permit.

Note that the management right under which the channel 1 television transmitters operated does not expire until August 2015 so 50 – 51 MHz can not appear on the Amateur General User Radio Licence until after this date. Instead RSM are putting in place licence No 4122 which will say that “Persons who hold a New Zealand General Amateur Operator’s Certificate of Competency and a callsign issued pursuant to the Radiocommunications Regulations 2001 may operate an amateur radio station under this licence”. The power on the licence will be 30 dBW (1 kW) to bring it into line with the power on the General User Radio Licence for Amateur Operators.

When Management Right 47 expires on the 30 August 2015, 50/51 MHz will be added to the General User Radio Licence for Amateur Operators.

Activities

NARC Minutes – Oct 2, 2013

Post author By admin
Post date 03/10/2013

MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 2 October 2013 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street

Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:30 pm. Laurie welcomed visitor Marty ZL2PX.

Apologies: ZL2ST.

Present: Lee ZL2AL, Dave ZL2DW, Rob ZL2US, Sue ZL2DC, Peter ZL2LF, Jan ZL2CZE,
Mike ZL2MY, Willy ZL2AGD, Wally ZL2MO, Bert ZL2OC, Revell Troy, visitor Marty ZL2PX and Karl ZL1TJ.

Minutes of the previous meeting, confirmed correct: ZL2MO, ZL2TC.

Arising: Dave ZL2DW was informed by Collin Robertson ZL4KJ ‘s daughter that she intends to keep her dad’s callsign ‘in the family’ through obtaining an amateur radio operators licence.
Dave also referred to preparations for the planned annual combined radio club’s end of year dinner, a list of those wishing to participate to be started by the undersigned.

Correspondence: None

Finance: No financial transactions.

General business: a reminder from Lee ZL2AL, the Oceania phone contest is on this weekend, see the web site for information and rules: http://www.oceaniadxcontest.com/ .
Rob ZL2US mentioned the need for amateur radio operators to be available for the annual Labour weekend Jota event. See http://www.jotajoti2013.tk/ for information.

Laurie ZL2TC and Lee ZL2AL presented some ideas for the proposed Hamfest to be held the 1st weekend of April, 2014. Suggested names sofar: Bayfest, Baywave Hamfets. Format to be similar to previously held Hamfests such as Westfest and Eastfest. A brief equipment market or junk sale late morning, afternoon speakers on current topics and a shared meal of sorts after. Possibly another social or sightseeing activity the following morning for those interested. Cost to be as low as possible.

The meeting closed at 7:45 pm. Possibly the briefest meeting in the club’s history!

Then followed by Laurie’s guess the mistery object competition and Lee’s annual quiz.
The first was won by Revell who guessed that the round, complex and fairly aged (valves) gizmo was the amplifier and transmitter section of a post World War II Sonar Boy. These were dropped in great numbers from aircraft into the sea to keep an ear out for potentially hostile submarines.

Lee’s quiz was fun as usual, 24 questions mostly to do with radio but livened up with the likes of: “Who played the role of Boss Cartwright in Bonanza” Graham Green, Lorne Green or Charles Green? A bit tough on the younger members but the undersigned got that one right! (Lorne).
Scoring 22 out of 24 were both Laurie ZL2TC and Peter ZL2LF. The toss of a coin decided the bottle of wine went to Laurie, Sorry Pete!

Laurie, ZL2TC Was The Winner On The Night!

Supper followed with fresh buttered buns provided by Laurie. Very nice.

Karl ZL1TJ
Secretary NARC.

Monthly News

NARC Minutes – Sept. 4, 2013

Post author By admin
Post date 08/09/2013

MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Wednesday 4 September 2013 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street

President Laurie ZL2TC chairing the meeting while Secretary Karl, ZL1TJ takes notes

Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.

Apologies: ZL2CZE, ZL2RB, ZL1FS and ZL2DC.

Present: Mike ZL2VM, Lee ZL2AL, Dave ZL2DW, Dave ZL2MQ, Rob ZL2US, Stan ZL2ST, Mike ZL2MY, Willy ZL2AGD, Wally ZL2MO, Bert ZL2OC, Revell Troy and Karl ZL1TJ.

Minutes of the previous meeting, confirmed correct: ZL2VM, ZL2MO.

Arising: Inadvertently omitted from the August record was the scrumpteous birthday cake Jan ZL2CZE contributed to the after meeting cup of tea.

Dave ZL2MQ reported on the Maraenui Golf Club’s catering for the annual combined branches end of year dinner. This is in hand, the cost to be similar to the previous year’s ($28.00 per person) and will take place on Friday November 29th.

Correspondence: Inwards: a letter from the Napier City Council advising that our application for a slice of the 2013-2014 Community Services Grant was turned down. Our mistake was to ask for a replacement radio for Civil Defence HQ, which is a ‘capital’ item and does not qualify. We are invited to apply again next year.

Finance: Stan reported receipt of $175.00 from the Car Rally people, $60.00 from the sale of surplus items actioned by Willy ZL2AGD and Wally ZL2MO who at the same time managed to make the club rooms a great deal tidier.

General business:
Laurie: the Tait radio is in need of some refurbishment, cost to be about $200.

Mike ZL2MY reported the accidental death in Southland of Collin Robertson, ZL4KJ, who was a regular visitor to the club when in Napier, visiting family.

Lee mentioned Warren ZL2AJ obtaining his DXCC qualification.

An offer from ZL2AGD and ZL2MO to paint the interior of the club rooms was accepted with thanks by Laurie. The club to purchase the paint.

The meeting closed at 8:15 pm.

David Walker ZL2DW: a brief history of Radio in Hawke’s Bay.

The meeting was followed by David ZL2DW’s potpouri of reminiscenses on the early years of radio, ham radio, broadcast radio, TV, Toll links, VHF land mobile radio, HF land mobile radio etc. in Hawke’s Bay. With occasional comments and additions by Laurie ZL2TC and David ZL2MQ.

Branch 13 was inaugurated August 1946, at a meeting in the home of Bill Lester ZL2GB.
Branch 25 came into being not long after on October 13 at a meeting at Viv Townsend ZL2ACW’s place.

In the 1950’s, WWII communication gear like the ZC1 was not only favourite with radio hams, public services like the Hastings Electric Power Board used these for communications at the top end of the broadcast band. Receive only sites for the HEPB were established at Kereru, Te Mata and Te Pohue, all fed back to the Control Room via UHF links through the Te Mata site. All base transmissions came from an aerial on top of the central Hastings HBEPB building. Gordon Hannan ZL2JJ was a radio operator for the HBEPB in the 1980’s and 90’s.

Dave, ZL2DW shows a piece of history from his collection of material.

Broadcasting stations were established at Opapa and Pakowhai in 1938 and 1957 respectively. The Pakowhai aerial system being mounted upon a large ground plane radial system which is still tested annually for continuity etc.

David referred to his article in the 2007 January/February issue of Break-In titled “Opapa and the spy”.It relates to the WWII story about what was assumed to be a Japanese spy who was seen taking pictures of the Opapa site during his operations throughout NZ during 1943.

The New Zealand Electricity Department established an HF radio network about 1954 using Collins equipment. This was replaced with Codan SSB gear in the mid 1980’s. David worked on both types of equipment. He noted that almost without exception technical establishment and support of equipment were done by technicians who were also licensed radio operators.

During his career David saw many changes and technological advances, the latest being the switch to digital television. The local newspaper recorded him switching off the redundant analog TV4 transmitter.

Karl ZL1TJ, Secretary NARC

Monthly News

NARC Minutes – Aug 7, 2013

Post author By admin
Post date 09/08/2013

MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 3 August 2013 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street

Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Apologies: ZL2GAZ.
Present: Peter ZL2LF, Mike ZL2VM, Lee ZL2AL, Dave ZL2DW, Rob ZL2US, Stan ZL2ST, Jan ZL2CZE, Mike ZL2MY, Willy ZL2AGD, Sue ZL2DC, Wally ZL2MO, Bert ZL2OC, Shane ZL2PG and Karl ZL1TJ.

Minutes previous meeting, confirmed correct: ZL2MY, ZL2TC.
Arising: Correction to QSL card listings.

Correspondence:
Emailed report from Lee regarding the installation and initial setting up of the club’s latest acquisition, an IBM SFF desktop computer, to be used for logging and digital modes etc.

Finance: A switch to Powershop should result in a significant saving on our power account as we now pay (much) more per Kwh but pay zero line charges. Doing contests on cold winter nights may actually prove to be expensive.

General business:
Wally referred to Break-In magazine’s OTC ( the real old timers club) section publicising Lee’s 60 years licenced operator certificate.

A brief report by Mike ZL2MY on the recent 160m phone / 80m Trans Tasman VK-ZL contest, run from the clubrooms by ZL2AL and himself under the ZM4T callsign. Dave ZL2DW reported on ZL2GT working the contest from the Haumoana site with a more substantial crew and a huge crane to hold up the antennas. Write-up and photos may be found on the club’s website. Mike suggested that a future 160m antenna may need to be mounted differently and experimented with some more.

Laurie mentioned the recent effort by himself, Lee, Mike ZL2MY and the undersigned to dismantle the antenna mast etc at SK Phil Moore’s (ZL2BLO) property and store this away at the club rooms for future re-erection. The job was done in about two hours with a constant drizzle keeping the workers cool. Again, some further info and picture was posted on the web notice board by web master Lee.

The meeting closed at 7:45 pm and was followed by a presentation on how to be a competent and winning Contest Operator by Lee and Peter.

The modern contest operator now has available a number of tools which do things like speeding up the exchange of data, reducing paperwork during and after the contest, giving operators instant indication how well things are going and reducing the possibility of errors.
Logging software (some free) is available of the internet. Of all the programmes available N1MM is a favourite with most contesters as it is versatile and easy to operate.

Contests range from world wide to Trans Taman to just local and the guys doing it get a regular adrenaline kick out of it and I am sure some form of addiction is involved.
Of course to be a winner one has to be a good operator. A good OP is methodical, boring and has great listening skills says Lee. Various tactics and methods were explained and the talk was rounded off with five Pro Tips and seven ‘Never Do This’ items.

Two complete contest stations had been set up within the clubrooms, in separate rooms, transmitting into dummy loads. Those present were invited to have a go at exchanging codes and logging the resulting data into the computer. The talk and practical demo were well prepared by Lee and Peter and fun was had by all present.

Karl ZL1TJ, Secretary

Activities Monthly News

Antenna Mast Removal Party

Post author By admin
Post date 04/08/2013

A few years ago local amateur Phil Moore became a silent key. His son-in-law, Barry Wilson asked if the Napier Amateur Radio Club would like the mast. Yes was the answer and Sunday morning August 4th saw Laurie ZL2TC, Karl ZL1TJ, Michael ZL2MY, Lee ZL2AL and Barry assemble at Phil’s old home to remove the mast. It was a tiltover design about 11 metres in height and fastened to the side of the garage. The lower section 8m was 100mm diameter and the upper 3m section slightly less. The beam at the top of the mast looked like a G4ZU Mini-beam design but due to corrosion and it being a very old design with questionable gain, we decided to scrap it. It is hoped that the new Tri-bander which will desider on top of the mast at the club rooms will be a Hygain TH3 Mk Mk1. The team got to work with spanners and a small grinder with a cutoff wheel. A few hours later the mast was lowered and loaded on to Lee’s van and trundled off to the club rooms.

Karl ZL1TJ, Barry Wilson, Laurie ZL2TC, Michael ZL2MY ready to roll with mast on the roof racks. Lee ZL2AL is behind the camera!

The plan is to re-assemble the mast and erect it at the clubrooms with a Triband Yagi on top to add a new dimension to our club station. A great job guys. Thanks to all who braved the Sunday morning Hawke’s Bay drizzle.

73, Lee ZL2AL

Activities Monthly News

The Trans Tasman Contest 2013 – ZL2GT

Post author By admin
Post date 22/07/2013

ZL2GT and the TRANS TASMAN COMPETITION

IMG_0192s (Medium) — Our magnificent site at Haumoana under blue skies and no rain!

Some weeks back the build-up banter began between contestants and some “stretching of the truth” was embarked upon. Prior arrangements came together on a great weather weekend and off went the ZL2GT Team to Moore Rd, Haumoana to be active in the
ZL – VK competition on 80m CW and 160m phone.

IMG_0175s (Medium) — The very expensive 30 Metre dipole centre insulator

Our crane……….yes crane, arrived early and soon after we had our Inverted Vee ant’s up and going. The 30m high hook provided the support for our rope halyard and we were easily able to pull up the two aerials. The 80m aerial was suspended about 6m below the 160m aerial and was at right angles to it, we had little or no interaction between the two bands. RG213 coax fed both aerials. We were well ready with plenty of spare time.

We also erected 40/20 m dipole for Randall to enjoy a brief guided tour around a band not often used (yet). Lots of time too for a cuppa and a catch-up.

A bulk package of Fish and Chips arrived and duly enjoyed before “the business” began.

Not so many participants on 160m this year and sadly we had a “standing crash” level of about S9 so this put paid to some contacts that might otherwise have been easily made.

IMG_0199s (Medium) — Dave ZL2DW (left) getting to grips with N1MM while Mike ZL2VM looks on

This year we introduced computer logging (N1MM), were shown the deep end and got on with it. As usual, something put off for some time turns into something we wish we’d done years ago. Thanks to Peter ZL2LF for his persistence, encouragement, PC’s and wry smile.

IMG_0195s (Medium) — Peter, ZL2MS Looking for those elusive VKs

We logged 42 contacts on 160m SSB and 69 contacts on 80m CW. Last year we logged 62 contacts on 160m and 79 contacts on 80 m CW.

The event adds to the experience level and we can now embark upon plans for next year.

Happy punters at Moore Road were: David ZL2DW, Peter ZL2LF, Peter ZL2MS, Graham ZL2BCK, Randall ZL1NW, Rob ZL2US, Sue, ZL2DC, Bill ZL2UBG and me, ZL2VM. Not all stayed overnight.

Peter, ZL2LF looking at the numbers on N1MM Logger

(Right) Peter, ZL2LF operating

73, Mike Bull ZL2VM

Activities Monthly News

The Trans Tasman Contest 2013 – ZM4T

Post author By admin
Post date 21/07/2013

Laurie — Where did the other Trap and wire element go????

The Trans Tasman contest is a unique test dreamed up by the VKs to test how well each country can perform against the other. The rules and scoring are interesting and have many hooks. Michael ZL2MY and I decided to do the six hour Saturday night contest a few months ago. Saturday 20th July at 9Am saw us gather at the club rooms to repair the existing 80M antenna and erect a new inverted “L” antenna for 160M. Our Prez Laurie, ZL2TC showed up to help us with the antennas. Thanks Laurie! He discovered that vandals had made off with one of the 80/40M traps and most of the wire element. We decided to ignore the trap and add enough wire to make it work on 80 and replace the trap at a later date. A couple of spuds and a bit of pumping by Laurie and the spud gun fired a line over the treetops. The 80M was up and working, resonant on 3600 Khz.

Suspect Antenna
The 160M inverted L element was raised to height with a few more spud gun shots and the 3 radials were strung out around the clubhouse and surrounding park. A quick check showed that the antenna showed a very high SWR with a minor resonance at 1900 Khz. We added 6 feet to the upright “L” and it came down to 1.805 Mhz where we wanted it. The impedance was around 200 ohms with an SWR of over 5 to 1. Quite ridiculous! I made the decision to cut our losses and tune the beast with the antenna tuner and hope for the best. We really wouldn’t know how well it worked until we were well into the contest.

Contest Start
Last minute checks were made and the contest started at 8 Pm local time. We very soon found we were leading the pack with our serial numbers. That was quite surprising as our urban noise levels were high and that combined with some mediocre antennas should have seen us at the end of the pack.

Hour two from 9 Pm to 10 Pm was the most productive and by midnight, only a few hardy ZLs were still around. It was great catching old contest friends and meeting new ones. Michael and I have never done the Trans Tasman previously. Pulling the VKs out of the noise was a bit a of a trial at times but we did manage to work a fair number on SSB and CW. We used an adaptation of the N1MM logging program set up in the JWFD mode and simply ignored branch numbers. The VKCL program was not used as there was no CW message interface written.

Our club secretary Karl, ZL1TJ dropped in for a natter around 9.30 Pm and watched the proceedings while doing some video of the station in operation.

And suddenly it was all over at 2 Am Sunday morning. Michael was into it and pulled down the 160M antenna from the trees and rolled up the radials and considerable lengths of rope. I wonder if the neighbours were watching the crazies in the park in the middle of the night?

Summary
I looked at our QSO totals and it appears we are definitely in with a chance. Our last S/N was 109 (with 1 DUPE) and the highest S/N we encountered was 79. There are many categories of the contest a team can enter and the scoring is rather bizarre so we really won’t know how well we have actually done until the contest organizer declares the winners of the categories.

Statistics:
65 x 80M CW QSOs
5 x 160M CW QSOs
38 x 160M SSB QSOs
68 x ZLs worked
39 x VKs worked
TOTAL QSOs = 108
1 x 5W DX station worked in Samoa
Groupings? – Many but haven’t worked them out yet
Radio: FT1000MP Mk5
Logging: N1MM with K1EL Keyer, Heil Headset
Antennas: 80M single trap dipole and 160M Inverted L up about 15M

Michael and I really enjoyed the contest. It was great fun and highly recommended for next year.

73, Lee ZL2AL and Michael ZL2MY