Branch 50 (Wellington) NZART – Known as the Wellington Amateur Radio Club
Wellington Branch 50 NZART has three teen members: Daniel ZL2DTL (13), Alek ZL3ALK (15), and Findlay ZL2JVM (16), who all gained their operator’s certificate during 2023. Mike ZL1AXG arranged for them to visit the shack of Todd ZL2SP in Porirua.
Todd has a collection of HF beams and some very nice HF equipment. The three new amateurs were able to rotate the big antennas, tune the wide open HF bands and make contacts far afield. The team thoroughly enjoyed the morning out at Todd’s QTH!
Since 1930, the Blackwood Cup has been awarded by the Wellington Amateur Radio Club to a deserving member. In recent years, the cup has been awarded to the winner of a competition for homebrew equipment. This year’s Blackwood Cup run-off was held at The Collective Hub in Johnsonville from 1pm – 3pm on 1 October 2023.
Four members (Daniel ZL2DTL, Eben ZL2EF, James ZL4JOCO and David Marshall) brought along a presentation on their homebrew construction project(s) to have a go at winning the Blackwood Cup. Note that an entry can be a presentation on any electronic or radio related project completed over the last 12 months. Voting was by secret ballot of all club members attending the meeting. The voting was very close, but Eben ZL2EF won the day with his presentation on the construction of two VHF/UHF yagi antennas for different purposes. Eben’s presentation went into some of the theory behind spacing and number of elements. One of his antennas had no reflector.
George ZL2AG was the 2022 holder of the cup.
