Category: News

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.

Choosing a portable HF receiver (PL-330)

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We are still at Covid Alert Level 2. Wellington City venues are not available for use, and to host at a member’s home would be challenging under existing requirements. Therefore, the Committee has decided to postpone the meeting. The Committee will review options on 23rd September.

At this meeting Ted ZL2TB and John ZL2XJ will give a presentation on the Colonial Knob high speed broadband node upgrade.  This is our most complex node in the network, with links northward to Mt Field and  Titahi Bay, to the East – in future to Mt Climie, and to the South the node connects to our Johnsonville node with a link onward to Ngaio.

This will be a chance to have a refresh on the possibilities of the high speed broadband network and see how our upgrade has benefited the mesh network.

Tea and coffee will be available after the meeting in the cafe upstairs, courtesy of the club.  All welcome!

Those who have heard Bob ZL2AVM speak about his days at sea or as a young person experimenting with amateur radio in Cornwall, will know that he always gives a great presentation.   

Those who came along to Bernard ZL2BD’s QTH at 1 Winsley Tce, Churton Park, on Sunday 15 August got to hear his latest talk on his career in Commercial Television Broadcasting. In turns out that ships and television transmitting stations weren’t so different after all!

Storms, and in particular, lightning strikes were a major concern, but fortunately Bob manages to escape being electrocuted, and hence was able to tell us his wild tales.