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MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 6 August 2014 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street

Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Apologies: ZL2ST, ZL2DW, ZL2VM, ZL2US, ZL2IT
Present: Lee ZL2AL, Revell ZL2SS, Dave ZL2MQ, Peter ZL2CD, Wally ZL2MO, Bert ZL2OC, Mike ZL2MY and Karl ZL1TJ.

Minutes of the previous meeting: read and confirmed correct: ZL2TC, ZL2SS.
Arising: Lee: further enquiries regarding Q-Tennas are still coming in.

Correspondence:
Exchange of emails with President Vaughan ZL1VH regarding Silent Key procedures.
Notification to NZART HQ regarding H.Meyer, SK. A request to Debby at NZART HQ that Branch 25 be included in the proposed umbrella public liability scheme, if this is to succeed.
A submission to the Auckland City Council in support of the submission by Branch 66 regarding antenna restrictions in the proposed Unitary Plan and confirmation that this has been received.
A note from Dave ZL2DW that Branch 13 will organise this year’s combined branches Xmas dinner. Also that Brach 13 ‘s October meeting (22/10) will be held at Waipukurau, with a light meal before as an optional extra.

Finance: A few accounts for previously approved expenses were presented by Lee.

General business:
The Napier City Council advertised the renewal of the Club’s ground lease.
A brief discussion primarily between Laurie and Dave regarding Beacon frequencies etc.
Laurie: Ongoing improvements to the clubrooms now include a connection point for the club’s generator and repairs to the generator connection panel. The club building meeting room (interior) repaint is now complete. Thanks to Wally for doing this single handedly, by acclamation.

Meeting closed at 8pm.

Followed by Lee, making a passionate case for giving the AWARD option of Amateur Radio a go.
Amateur radio operators chase Awards for reasons similar to those of athletes striving to win medals, preferably gold medals. Awards allow the more competitive amongst us to proudly prove our radio skills and ability to persevere to fellow Hams. The certificate(s), beautifully framed, displayed in the shack remind us of the struggle to achieve and the satisfaction of getting there.
There are some 3500 awards to be had, 3000 or so of which are basically give-aways. But some are almost impossible to complete and these are the ones that ‘sort the men from the boys’.
Awards can be Local, National or International

and are awarded by clubs, national organisations, magazines or special interest groups. The USA ARRL is foremost with the more prestigious awards such as DXCC (DX Century Club)

, certified contacts with stations from 100 countries and other more difficult variations of the basic award.

An interesting NZ Award is NZART’s Worked All Pacific, some 30 countries to be contacted. A good Award to get underway with is WAC, worked all 6 continents. Lee then proceeded to pass around the most prestigious of his Award Certificates. (It must have taken some time to remove the documents from their frames). Probably the top Award that can be achieved is the DXCC Honor Roll. The number of ‘Entities’ (NZ has 5) on the list for this award is 332 and working all 340 achieves No.1 Honour Roll. The last few are almost impossible to get e.g. North Korea, as there are no hams in the country and the only stations operating there are visitors who have been given special licenses. Lee is on of the few with a DPRK (P5) QSL card. A list with Award information web sites was prepared and distributed by Lee. Information on New Zealand Awards can be found in section 6 of the Callbook. More information with links may be found at http://www.zl2al.com/category/awards/ It was another interesting evening.

Karl ZL1TJ, Secretary NARC

MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

Meeting Wednesday 2 July 2014 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street

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

Apologies: ZL2MO, ZL2DW.

Present: Lee ZL2AL, Rob ZL2US, Sue ZL2DC, Jan ZL2CZE, Shane ZL2PG, Revell ZL2SS, Stan ZL2ST, Mike ZL2VM, Dave ZL2MQ, Peter ZL2CD and Karl ZL1TJ.

Minutes of the previous meeting: read and confirmed correct: ZL2TC, ZL2MQ.

Arising: Lee: all 20 Q-Tenna kits have been sold, another four enquiries have been received. Laurie suggested that if sufficient demand exists a further run may be considered .A brief discussion on insurance. Laurie: apparently the Napier City Council insures the building, NZART covers members public liability while on repeater sites.

Correspondence: A letter from Doug Ingham, ZL2TAR, Secretary of FMTAG, requesting updated info regarding repeaters etc for the next callbook. Karl to action.

NZART HQ Infoline issue 297, item 2, president Vaughan proposes that NZART extends it’s public liability insurance to provide cover (of up to $10M) for branches. Cost would be in the region of $35 to $50 per annum. Karl to write to Headquarters to include Branch 25 into the scheme.

Finance: Thanks to donations of gear (Hilton Meyer, ZL2MN, SK and Eric Robson, ZL2BJD, QRT) and Lee’s ongoing major job of converting some of this into cash, the smile is still on treasurer Stan’s face.

General business: Lee and Stan reported on the task involved dealing with Hilton Meyers gear. Mrs Meyer received the bulk of the proceeds which was well beyond expectation. The club also benefitted considerably, a working bee to remove and salvage a tilt-over mast is still to come. Laurie was contacted by Eric Robinson. He donated his gear to the club on the understanding that the more modern items would be used as part of the club’s station.

Stan reported Errol Lilley, ZL2IT expressing an interest in joining NARC.

Lee referred to giving the signwriting to update the Presidents Board etc a go but decided a professional job would be preferable. Lee was authorised to organise this.

The meeting closed at 8 pm.

Followed by Mike ZL2VM’s discourse on the Amateur Radio Emergency Corps.

Mike started by presenting a brief history of AREC in Hawke’s Bay. Early members of the group (including himself) being involved with police in search and rescue and similar operations were mentioned. Equipment over the years evolved and became more sophisticated. At present such refinements as portable repeaters make coverage of a search area really good.

Mike stated that the latest developments have unfortunately made amateur radio not as critical as most traffic is on non-amateur frequencies and equipment is easy to install, operate and is very reliable. Radio ‘Hams’ are often inclined to follow their own procedures which may clash with standard Civil Defense or Search and Rescue protocol. Also some communications systems use satellites and involve data transmission.

Mike believes that there still is a need for an amateur radio emergency system.

The Councils’ Civil Defence emergency station has a 2m and 70cm radio for the purpose of linking to Ham systems if the need arises. The club has a portable emergency station that can be quickly loaded into he back of a car. Rob, ZL2SG owns a fully equipped station permanently fitted into a caravan to be located at a disaster site. A late development is Urban SAR, searching for missing people, again assisting police.
Mike referred to Rob ZL2US’s call in the March 2012 Break-Out for all HB hams to be prepared to form an ad-hoc Emergency communications system ‘Of Last Resort’ when all else fails!

Karl ZL1TJ. – Secretary