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