MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting on Wednesday 7 August 2019 at the Clubrooms 123 Latham Street
Chair: Dave ZL2MQ, the meeting started at 7:30 pm. Dave welcomed visitor Martin Akhurst who recently passed the licensing exam and has now been allocate the call sign ZL2MD.
Present: Mike ZL2MY, Peter ZL2CD, Revel ZL2SS, John ZL2AGE, Errol ZL2IT, Martin ZL2MD, Dave ZL2DW, Mike ZL2VM, Wally ZL2MO, Stan ZL2ST and Karl ZL1TJ.
Apologies: ZL2XC, ZL2HB and ZL3TT. (2SS, 2MO)
Minutes of previous meeting: Read and confirmed to be correct: ZL2MY, ZL2CD.
Arising: to be discussed under General Business.
Correspondence: From Dave 2DW: Branch 13 support for the proposed 2021 NZART conference offered. From Warren 2AJ: proposed changes to ‘Ham cram’ format. To New Plymouth conference organiser and Debby at NZART, request for information. received a response from Debby. From Mike 2VM: information from past conferences extracted from Break-In magazines.
Finance: Treasurer’s report attached. The term deposit was rolled over for one year at 3.1%. The bank was convinced to reduce the withholding tax from 33% to 10.5%. Karl to attempt to lodge a tax return asking for a refund of last year’s tax withheld.
General Business: Estimate for shack whiteboard replacement from Wally ($50-$100).
Dave 2DW: Bch 13 is looking into the establishment of a DMR repeater, probably on Mt Threave, possibly becoming part of a new digital National System. A lengthy discussion followed. A licence is being applied for, Napier ARC will be asked to share the various costs as per existing agreements.
Errol asked what is happening with D-Star? Dave 2DW: being a proprietary mode, it is now being overtaken by technological (internet) developments and has only a limited future.
The 2021 NZART Conference and AGM: It was moved by Dave 2MQ and seconded by Karl that the NARC offers to organise and run the event. In favour: seven. Opposed: none. Carried.
Dave 2DW confirmed Branch 13 support, offering to organise speakers for various special interest groups and a raffle. The following agreed to be part of the organising committee: 2MQ, 2IT, 2ST, 2DW, 2VM, 2MO, 2MY, 1TJ, 3TT(2DW). First meeting for allocation of responsibilities etc. scheduled for 17 September. Karl to report to NZART, Warren 2AJ to seek confirmation and approval before proceeding.
The meeting closed at 8:20 pm.
And was followed by the club’s annual ‘Show and Tell’ session:
1) Errol: a fully operational computer with 4GB ram, 64GB SDD memory, Wifi, Blue-tooth, all the ports and a (legal) Windows 10 operating system for Aus $200. Model AP35, on EBay.
2) Dave 2MQ: a well made illuminated magnifying headset. Exchangeable lenses. Essential gear.
3) Dave 2DW: From an October 1978 Break-Out article by Trevor King ZLAKW: A longer wire picks up more electro-magnetic energy than a short one. And: a short aerial converts all the electro-magnetic energy pumped into it. Aerial fundamentals.
4) Mike 2MY: a switch mode computer power supply converted into a 3-5-12 Volt bench supply.
The evening was rounded off by Dave 2MQ’s demonstration (with projector and screen) of a dual SDR receiver unit. The two radios are synchronised but one can be phase shifted. Interesting to connect one to a vertical and the other to a horizontal antenna and compare the outputs.
180 deg. phase shift could be used as a noise blanking device? Unfortunately the bands were ‘dead’, the experiment may be repeated at a future date.
Karl ZL1TJ