The Wellington Amateur Radio Club (Branch 50 NZART) recently acquired several projects from RemoteDX (an allied organisation wound up in May 2024). The club also initiated a DMR repeater project earlier in 2024. As a result of emerging projects, the committee will use a project management approach that involves, each project having associated with it a simple project plan that identifies the associated team, project leader, starting budget and a programme of work with clear staging points. Projects will provide the committee with regular quarterly reports and projects will be subject to periodic review. As a general rule, while projects may receive a starting grant, they should be self-funding in the medium to longer term.
This section of the website will outline current club projects, and provide members with brief status updates on current projects.
Current Club Projects
- DMR Repeater Project (Project Lead: Zane ZL1CZ)
- This project is up and running in an initial developmental and experimental stage.
- See the Repeater page for more details on using the repeater, currently temporarily located in Newlands.
- SDR Receiver Project (Project Lead: Malcolm ZL2UDF)
- This project was handed over to Branch 50 from RemoteDX.
- An SDR receiver is located and operational through KIWISDR.com at Tangimoana.
- See the SDR Receiver page for more details on the project
- ENAMS HF Noise Monitoring Project (Project Lead: John Moriarty ZL2JPM)
- This project was handed over to Branch 50 from RemoteDX.
- This is an IARU supported monitoring device, providing data to support conclusions on interference to amateur HF bands
- The HF Noise Monitoring station is currently located in Paraparaumu
Brief Status Reports (as at 30 June 2024)
- Remote HF Station Project (Under consideration by committee)
- This project was handed over to Branch 50 from RemoteDX
- The committee will be considering the future of this project during 2024
- DMR Repeater Project
- The DMR repeater is located at a temporary site in Newlands and is fully operational. The repeater provides access for Wellington based amateur operators to all FreeDMR and Brandmeister TalkGroups.
- Possible permanent site locations are currently being investigated and a staging plan and operating budget
- A project plan is being finalised at present
- Donor funding system are under development. Regular users (whether Branch members or not) will be encouraged to make a donation to the club in support of running costs.
- Donations to the club bank account should be labelled “repeater donation”. A suggested donation amount would be $30 per annum.
- SDR Receiver Project
- The project team will be increasing the resiliency of the existing SDR by way of replication.
- A project plan is being prepared to support the existing Remote SDR receiving station
- Further exploration of low latency remote SDR receiver is likely to proceed with a separate Special Interest Group (led by Ted ZL2TB) depending on the level of interest of members and initial experimental results
- ENAMS HF Noise Monitoring Project
- A project plan is being prepared to support this project.
- The location of the monitoring system is likely to change during 2024.
- The monitoring system has been in operation since 2021 and provides information to potentially enforce greater regulatory controls on radio frequency emissions, which represent a major challenge for amateur users of the HF frequency spectrum.