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