MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 7 December 2016 at the Clubrooms
123 Latham Street
Chair: Dave ZL2MQ, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Present: Revell ZL2SS, Dave ZL2DW, Laurie ZL2TC, Blue ZL3TT, Rob ZL2US, Peter ZL2CD, Stan ZL2ST, Mike ZL2VM, Paul ZL2HB, Stu ZL2XC, Wally ZL2MO and Karl ZL1TJ.
Apologies: ZL2IT.
Minutes of previous meeting: Read and confirmed to be correct: ZL2CD, ZL2MQ.
Arising: Dave ZL2DW reported the annual combined branches christmas dinner at the Taradale RSA was another success, and so was the annual ‘gold card’ bus excursion. The memory of SK ZL2BCE was toasted by all eight participants
Correspondence: Email to NZART Engineering, Licencing and Band planning Group (ELG) regarding the recently allocated beacon frequency of 144.270MHz. This frequency is too close to existing Waipuna beacon (144.271MHz) which operates at high power (100W). A new frequency (144.265) was requested by Laurie ZL2TC.
Finance: Stan reported receipt of the annual refund from lines company Unison ($150). Some subs have been paid. The MBIE database needs to be updated with new addresses etc. Signatories for the club’s bank account need to be amended. Moved by Stan ZL2ST and seconded by Mike ZL2VM that club president Dave ZL2MQ and secretary Karl ZL1TJ are to be empowered to operate the club’s bank account in addition to treasurer Stan ZL2ST. Cheques to require two signatures. Carried.
General Business: Laurie moved that the club apply to ELG for a beacon frequency of 144.265MHz, reasons: see correspondence above. Seconded by Dave ZL2MQ. Carried.
Stan reminded the meeting of the recent passing of ZL2CZ who was AREC section leader of NARC for many years. Dave 2MQ mentioned the International Space Station passing over on 9.12, possibly transmitting live pictures on ham frequencies. Check it out on the web. Also, the 6m band has been open recently. Stan 2ST reported successful participation of the local ZM4T contest group in the latest CQ WW CW contest. Held at Holger’s QTH and supported by himself, 2IB, 2MY, 4YL in ‘multi one’ mode. A respectable score was achieved.
Dave ZL2MQ thanked Laurie ZL2TC, who is soon moving back to his home town Whanganui, for all the work he did for the club during his 12 years as club president and before. We all wished Laurie well for the future and as he now is a life member look forward to his visits to the club.
The meeting closed at 8 pm and was followed by Revell ZL2SS presenting ‘The History of Radio’.
As the title implies, this was about the beginning of radio technology, not just Ham radio.
Illustrated with an excellent slideshow Revell expressed the view that, although patents were granted to individuals, much of the actual work was done by a large number of people before.
These were the people originally investigating such things as magnetism, static electricity, lightning and the storage of electrical energy in batteries. It was only when Marconi (and others) put the available (mostly telegraph by wire) bits together with a (sparking) source of RF energy that wireless transmission was born. Marconi is credited with the addition of functional antennas.
A most interesting talk which must have taken considerable time to prepare.
Karl ZL1TJ Sec. NARC.