Category: News

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Visit by Regional Councillor to Wellington

This is your chance to meet one of our new NZART regional councillors: Dan Vandenberg ZL2DRV.

Dan Vandenberg ZL2DRV

Councillors Central District

Phillip Dodds ZL4XYZ
Benjamin Isaacs ZL2BCI
Daniel Vandenberg ZL2DRV

The time and venue have now been confirmed for Tuesday 10th September  2019 at 19:30 at the Branch 42 club rooms.

There will be a talk in on the club repeater on 6750 if you are lost.

Branch 42 street address can ben found here:  http://www.nzart.org.nz/contact/branches/42/

The issues that have been flagged for discussion include:

  • New members – the problem with getting younger people into the hobby
  • would council consider having live broadcasts of their meetings again?
  • Will our subscriptions increase in the near future?
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August 2019 Meeting – Favourite amateur radio books

Members brought along their favourite amateur radio book or books and talked about them.

Ten members turned out to our Sunday 18 August meeting at Mike ZL1AXG’s QTH. To kick off the meeting we watched a Youtube video about the HAARP experimental ionospheric research centre in Alaska. Then each ember talked to their favourite amateur radio book.

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Shared lunch @ Mike ZL1AXG QTH

Branch 50 had its annual mid-Winter shared lunch on Sunday 23 June 2019 at Mike ZL1AXG’s QTH (2 Derry Hill, Churton Park, Wellington).

Plates of hot and cold food were shared alongside memories of Ralph ZL2AOH (now regrettably Silent Key as of Friday). There were also tales of the diminutive alternative to the Magnetic Loop, the Poynting Vector Antenna. When it was shared that the antenna was just 3/100 of a wavelength long, there was some disbelief about its properties. However, Bernard ZL2BD and Mike ZL1AXG noted that there seemed to be genuine research about this antenna, and given it is intended to receive magnetic waves (as opposed to electric waves) this may indeed improve reception. Also discussed were the challenges in making conical elements that are quite sizeable (albeit short).

There were also memory prompts from the past from members

  • A device of unknown purpose (Magnetron?, Phaser?)
  • A Creed latching relay (somewhat larger and heavier than you might think)
  • tales of great DX as a schoolboy when visiting the local ham radio operator in Cornwall, and a special QSL card from a Penzance Pirate
  • Two giveaways …
  • A tale of a repair of a Japan Radio Company (JRC) transmitter