Category: Monthly News

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Apologies: ZL2GAZ, ZL2DC, ZL2LF.
Present: Mike ZL2VM, Lee ZL2AL, Dave ZL2DW, Rob ZL2US, Stan ZL2ST, Jan ZL2CZE, Dave ZL2MQ, Mike ZL2MY and Karl ZL1TJ.

Minutes previous meeting, confirmed correct: ZL2AL, ZL2VM.
Arising: To be discussed during general business.

Correspondence:
In: A request from the Hamilton Branch, via NZART, to send a submission supporting adequate aerial heights allowance in the proposed Hamilton City Council District Plan proposal.
Acknowledgement of our submission to the Napier City Council to the Draft Annual Plan 2013/2014 regarding antenna heights by Laurie.
Out: A submission to The Hamilton City Council as detailed above.

Finance: No significant financial transactions reported.

General business:
Lee reported having bought an additional aerial mast for the club via Trade me, he does not seek reimbursement for the cost of both the mast and transport and so made another donation to the club.

Laurie presented a completed prototype of the club project dual band VHF / UHF base station aerial. Mounted inside a 2m fibreglass rod the aerial exhibits SWR less than 2:1 on both bands and can handle up to 100Watts. To be offered in kit set form at a cost in the region of $50.

Stan referred to the Memorial Contest, both phone and CW coming up this weekend.

Rob suggested the Napier ARC organise the annual end of year combined branches dinner this year.
Agreed to by Laurie, Dave 2MQ offered to check if the Maraenui Golf Club might be suitable.
Suggested date: Friday 29th of November.
Laurie reminded us that Stan ZL2ST first joined the Napier ARC on 12 June 1955, 58 years ago.

The meeting closed at 8pm and was followed by a QSL card of special interest session.
Lee presented a brief talk on the history of the QSL confirmation needs arising from the establishment around 1936 of the DX Century Club and similar schemes whereby radio hams could prove their prowess in world wide radio communications.

Presently the original 100 countries target stands at 340. To obtain a DXCC Honour Roll accreditation a total of 331 countries must be confirmed. In NZ only 4 or 5 have achieved this and of these two were present at the meeting namely Lee himself with a total score of 336/340 and Stan with a score of 339/340, with only North Korea missing! Cards of special interest were presented by Dave 2DW: early Plessey and combined Branches Millennium Cards,

Stan 2ST: Sine wave George, Bouvet Island, 2m Wellington to Christchurch, Dave 2MQ: EME moonbounce contacts,

Laurie 2TC: Mexico City on 6m, SSB 2m contact with ZL2TOT with a homebrew converter putting out 50 milliwatts and Lee himself with a few of his most treasured cards out of a collection packed in 8 shoe boxes, some 2000 cards, the most treasured one being form North Korea.

Dave ZL2MQ showed his rare EME cards and gave an outline of the difficulties work EME contacts.

Lee finished with a short explanation of the ARRL ‘Logbook of the World system. Lee’s total log entry of 47000 QSO’s has been matched 11000 times there. The system holds some 500 million QSO’s at present.

Karl ZL1TJ.

MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 5 June 2013 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street

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

Apologies: ZL2GAZ, ZL2DC, ZL2LF.

Present: Mike ZL2VM, Lee ZL2AL, Dave ZL2DW, Rob ZL2US, Stan ZL2ST, Terrig ZL2TJX, Mr. Revell Troy and Karl ZL1TJ.

Minutes previous meeting, confirmed correct: ZL2AL, ZL2VM.

Arising: To be discussed during general business.

Correspondence:
Out: A submission to the Napier City Council to the Draft Annual Plan 2013/2014 regarding antenna heights by Laurie, and an application for funding for new AREC equipment through the Napier City Council Community Services Grants Scheme.

Finance: No significant financial transactions reported.

General business:
Laurie, Mike and Dave reported on attending the business section of the NZART annual conference held at Masterton over the previous weekend. The motion to alter the method of counting votes at conference was lost. The votes were actually counted on this occasion which turned out to be a slow process. Laurie noted the resignation from Council of ZL2TB and ZL2AMJ.

The Annual General Meeting ran smoothly and the atmosphere was friendly and co-operative.
Membership and subscriptions were briefly referred too, the $99 ceiling likely to be maintained.

Mike and Dave reported on the recent Trans Tasman 80m Contest. Details can be found in the report written by Dave and Lee on the club’s website. Mike mentioned preparations underway for the July 21 and 22 Trans Tasman 160m phone and 80m cw and digital contest.
Stan reported on participating in the previous week-ends CQ WW WPX cw contest by the ZL2M group, this time consisting of ZL2AL, ZL2MY and ZL2ST.

Stan thanked Laurie for single-handedly removing a substantial fresh batch of graffiti from the clubroom’s exterior walls. While at it Laurie did wash all exterior paintwork in preparation for a much needed re-paint.

Rob reported on providing communications for the Hawke’s Bay Car Club Rally the previous weekend. Comms went fine but one or two near collisions were reported.

The meeting closed at 8pm followed by a short technical lecture by Laurie, explaining the workings of the finalised design for the Club Project dual band VHF / UHF whip antenna. The design, which will be published once the construction project starts, is for a relatively robust, simple and cheap antenna with proven performance. The antenna will be enclosed in a 2m tall fibreglass rod.

During the remainder of the evening those present were pleasantly entertained by auctioneers Laurie and Rob who managed to sell a fair amount of the donated gizmo’s and parts on display.

The undersigned went home with an (ancient) rotator, swr meter and a Dick Smith frequency counter, all for the princely sum of fifteen dollars.

Karl ZL1TJ.