This session was to concrete in a base post for the tilt-over tri-band Yagi Mast. 9AM Sunday morning saw the team of Laurie ZL2IC, Lee ZL2AL, Stan ZL2ST, Wally ZL2MO, Michael ZL2MY and Revell ZL2SS arrive ready to get to work. Very quickly plans were in place, pipes were moved from the clubhouse and it was all go.The mast is about 90mm diameter and it is planned that this “75mm “Stub” set in concrete would prevent the upper mast from moving sideways or rotating. The upper mast which will anchored to the clubhouse will be installed during a 3rd working bee. There will probably be a 4th session to install the antenna and rotator. the photos below tells the story.
Michael ZL2MY breaks the ground for the holeLee ZL2AL gets stuck into the 75mm stub mast with his “Canuck hacksaw”Michael ZL2MY didn’t find any treasure inspite of Wally and Revell’s encouragementLaurie ZL2TC inspects the stub in place and that it is perfectly vertical as Wally, ZL2MO mixes the instant concrete.The fourth bag of concrete is poured and the project is almost at an endFinished!! And never to be seen again once the full mast is lowered over it.
The job went well and was finished early on a beautiful Sunday morning.
The worst day working on antennas is infinitely better than the best day working
MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 5 November 2014 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street
Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Apologies: ZL2MQ, ZL2CZE, ZL2DC.
Present: Lee ZL2AL, Dave ZL2DW, Mike ZL2MY, Willy ZL2AGD, Wally ZL2MO, Bert ZL2OC, Revell ZL2SS, Peter ZL2CD, Stan ZL2ST, Mike ZL2VM, Rob ZL2US, Erroll ZL2IT,
Phil ZL2RO and Karl ZL1TJ.
Minutes of the previous meeting: read and confirmed correct: ZL2AL, ZL2MO.
Arising: Lee: thanking Wally for organising and supervising window panel replacements. The not so easily damaged policarbonate panels look great and should last a long time.
Correspondence:
From the Napier City Council, acknowledgement of receipt of our letter asking for assistance with the exterior repaint of the building. Labour is not available but council will make the paint available at Council buying rates.
Finance:
The $500 cheque from Keep Napier Beautiful as a contribution towards the building repaint was banked, the annual account for repeater licences from RSM is due for payment.
General business:
Dave ZL2DW reported the Branch 13 (now) annual Waipukerau Meeting and Munchies was a success, with some 22 attending and fun being had by all. A reminder that the combined branch end of year dinner at the Taradale RSA is not far away now, book with Dave ZL2DW or Rob ZL2US.
Laurie briefly reported on the antenna erection efforts the previous Sunday by ZL2AL, 2MY, 2SS, 2MO, 1TJ and himself, when a tiltover mast and Hustler five band vertical were erected and the forty/eighty meter diplole repaired.
Election of Officers
An election was held to confirm the new executive for 2015. Results as follows: President: Laurie ZL2TC Secretary: Karl ZL1TJ Treasurer: Stan ZL2ST AREC: Mike ZL2VM Building Maintenance: Wally, ZL2MO Committee: Laurie ZL2TC, Lee ZL2AL, Michael, ZL2MY, Revell ZL2SS, Peter ZL2CD
The new Executive for 2015 (L to R) Peter ZL2CD, Revell ZL2SS, Mike ZL2VM, Wally, ZL2MO, Karl ZL1TJ, Laurie ZL2TC, Stan ZL2ST, Lee ZL2AL and Michael ZL2MY
The meeting closed at 7:45 pm and was followed by the AGM.
The AGM – Treasurer Stan delivering the the Club’s financial report for the year.
Which was then followed by the annual Pan Pac Homebrew Contest.
Revell, ZL2SS demonstrates his PanPac trophy winning entry
Our newest licenced member Revell ZL2SS presented what he himself rated to be a very humble entry: a Homebrew audio morse code oscillator.
The other entry: a 23 cm yagi antenna constructed by Laurie ZL2TC was probably somewhat more sophisticated.
But rightfully considering the relative experience of the builders the meeting voted overwhelmingly for the oscillator, resulting in Revell being the current holder of the Trophy.
And of course we are looking forward to Revell joining the CW boys of the club (at 25 wpm at least) soon.
The mission was to erect the new Hustler All Band vertical antenna on a tilt-over mast that was donated to us by Hilton Myer ZL2MN (SK). ZL2TC, ZL1TJ, ZL2AL, ZL2MY, ZL2MO and ZL2SS assembled bright and early on Sunday morning ready to do great things. The weather was warm with sunshine and perfect antenna weather.
The front of the Club Rooms quickly became a hive of activity.
We had two jobs to complete. The first was to repair the 80M/40M trap dipole which had one leg disconnected from the a supporting giant gum tree. The spud gun soon took care of getting a line over the top branches while Laurie installed a new halyard line on the top of the VHF dipole mast.
The second job was to assemble the Hustler vertical antenna and get it on the mast. The photos below tell the story.
The Hustler laid out and ready to assembleMaybe we should read the instruction manual?The radials are attached here says KarlLee, drilling holes in the cross braceWally and Revell working on the cross brace for the mastWally and Michael clamping the Hustler to the mastThe Hustler raised to it’s operating position.
And does it work? Yes, indeed it does. A quick run with the antenna analyzer showed resonant spots near where they were supposed to be on each band. The morning turned into afternoon and there was limited time to check how well it will actually work and we left around 3Pm. We were getting some good signals through on 15M and 40M Comparison with the trap dipole showed that the vertical was noisy. We expected that. In any case, the job is done and the antennas are back in operation.
Our next project is getting the bigger mast up to put the tri-bander on. That will happen at the next working bee.
