Branch 50 (Wellington) NZART – Known as the Wellington Amateur Radio Club
Our first regular meeting of 2022 was to have taken place on Tuesday 22 February at The Collective Hub, 1/33 Johnsonville Road, Johnsonville.
Given the Omicron outbreak it has been decided to cancel this meeting.
Richard ZL2FY, one of our Central Region counsellors was to have attended. Richard will be invited to attend a meeting later in the year.
Future meetings in March and April will shift to Zoom online meetings.
Rather than have our own Branch 50 NZART BBQ this year, the committee decided to join with Branch 74 (Wellington VHF Group) and Branch 69 (Kapiti Branch) at their Combined Branches BBQ.
The Combined BBQ was held at QE2 Park, Paekakariki on Sat 29th Jan from 1200pm onwards. Mike ZL1AXG and Frank ZL2TTS attended the BBQ. There were 14 amateurs and XYLs in attendance.
The 2021 Wellington Draft District Plan is out for feedback from residents and organisations. Branch 50 NZART will be responding to the draft District Plan, as we have done so in the past. The plan gets updated once every 10 years, so this is our opportunity to make sure that the plan reflects the benefits of amateur radio in our community (e.g. through support for emergency communications) while addressing potential adverse impacts of “amateur radio configurations” on neighbours and the wider community.
A draft submission can be found below. This will be discussed and refined prior to submission (due no later than 14 December 2021). Club members are asked to send suggestions for amendment of the submission to the Committee (committee@zl2wb.com).
Our October Branch meeting was held on Tuesday 19 October from 1pm at The Collective Community Hub, 1/33 Johnsonville Rd. We normally meet on a Sunday, but we needed to find a venue that would allow the appropriate physical distancing. A Tuesday slot was available in the larger space at The Collective Community Hub.
The meeting featured our annual competition for the Blackwood Cup. There were only two entrants this year, a QRP magnetic loop controller (entered by John ZL2JPM) and the simplest possible morse code practice device (entered by George ZL2AG). John took out the prize for the second year running. Congratulations!
In addition Mike ZL1AXG gave a presentation on “Selecting a portable shortwave receiver” and demonstrated his recent purchase of a Tecsun PL-330 receiver.
Tea, coffee and biscuits were available as usual following the meeting.
