Category: Equipment

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18 June – Monster Shed Workshop – Construction of Flowerpot Antennas

We will be having a MONSTER shed workshop on Sunday 18 June at The Collective Community Hub, 1/33 Johnsonville Rd, to construct flowerpot antennas. The event will commence at 1.30pm with an introduction to the build by Bruce ZL1ABC. Teams of 4 to 5 people will work through a number of “stations” in building their antennas. We need to be out of the building by 4.30pm.

Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available throughout the afternoon.

This is a special shed workshop for any amateur (or prospective amateur operator) interested in building their own Flowerpot Antenna (see https://vk2zoi.com/articles/dual-band-half-wave-flower-pot/).   Members of other Wellington region clubs are most welcome to participate in this activity!

Pre-registration with Mike ZL1AXG is required to ensure materials are on hand.

The cost of the antenna will be posted by the end of May on this website. The cost is expected to be under $20. Payment can either be made into the Club’s trading a/c in advance, or cash will be accepted on the day.

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Shed Workshop: Sunday 23 April – VHF/UHF handhelds

We met on Sunday 23 April from 1pm – 3pm at Bernard’s QTH, 1 Winsley Terrace, Churton Park. 15 people showed up.

We were able to welcome several of our HamCrammers and those on the wait list for the next HamCram as well as regular and other new members.

Topics covered included:

  • A general overview of the broad range of interests within amateur radio
  • A discussion on future topics for shed workshops that are of interest to those starting out in amateur radio
  • A quick guide and Q & A on options for handheld transceivers for VHF/UHF

The Shed Workshop concluded with tea, coffee and nibbles.

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Shed Workshop on 6 March: The ZC1 test jig & a replacement vibrator

For anybody who has been around in amateur radio for a while, the ZC1 will be well known. It was developed by Collier and Beale during WW2 for use by the NZ armed forces. As it covered both 80m and 40m, it was highly prized by hams, in an era when commercially made equipment was hard to come by.

On Sunday 6 March 2022 Bernard ZL2BD gave a talk (on Zoom) on a ZCI test jig that he built, and has used to test the working of several ZC1s. The club owns a ZC1 that is for sale to any member interested in purchasing it and was tested using this test jig.

Bernard also demonstrated a replacement vibrator that doesn’t require modification of the ZC1 power supply. He is still working on variants to perfect this.

11 members and visitors joined in on the Zoom session, which was very well received by those attending.

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ZC1 Mk II - Service and Test Manual

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Two low cost items for the shack – a Signal Generator and a Hotspot

Our April meeting was held on Wednesday 17 April 2019 at the Lutheran Church Hall, King St from 7.30pm.

Mike ZL1AXG demonstrated his recently acquired $103 Signal Generator (KKMoon FY6800). This goes nicely with his new cheapie Hantek 5102p Oscilloscope. He put the signal generator through it’s paces, demonstrating different waveforms, amplitude and modulation effects, frequency changes, etc.

Malcolm ZL2UDF also talked about his D-Star Hotspot that plays into a 30w 2m transceiver to open up D-Star to all comers in Lower Hutt.