On 19 April 2017 Bernard ZL2BD and Frank ZL2TTS gave us a talk about and subsequently demonstrated this game changing SDR Txcvr from Icom!
Linear amplifiers
The 15 February regular monthly meeting was held at the Lutheran Church Hall, King St, Mt Cook.
Frank ZL2TTS spoke on selecting a linear amplifier. This gave rise to a fair bit of discussion on the relative merits and problems with different types of high power amplifiers that amateurs in New Zealand are using, and the merits of homebrew and commercial equipment.
July Meeting – Favourite wire antennas
At the July meeting (Wednesday 20 July 2016) members Frank ZL2TTS and Doug ZL2AOV gave brief 15 minute talks about their favourite wire antennas. Frank told us about his 40m and up dipole (20m long) fed by open wire feeders. He showed how the feeders were routed between the antenna and the shack, and material used for separating the wires and anchor points. Doug talked about his all band (80m and above) end-fed antenna (40m in length) fed by a balun and coax (with a good earth connection at the feed point).
The talks provided for some useful thinking about alternative antennas at city sites where installation of a collection of antennas – one for each band is simply not feasible.
These ideas (open wire feeders and end-fed antennas) provide a means of avoiding the problems of lossy small diameter traps or large diameter traps that tend to come to grief in Wellington winds. We can all bemoan the lack of sunspots … but nothing beats a better antenna in getting a contact!
Quartz Hill Developments
Doug ZL2AOV writes in his report on the WARC February 2016 club meeting:
“QHUG members are expecting “a very active year” – Bernard ZL2BD made a Powerpoint presentation showing his summer work fitting out the fibreglass box with solid-state linears and power supplies, switching regulators to provide 230v DC, 24v and 12v DC for the various items, plus a solar panel regulator and wiring harnesses for the huge battery bank. Progressive testing is imminent – any noise problems will be dealt with as they arise. Other jobs to do are: complete the antenna switching and the SCADA software to operate remotely (SCADA = Supervisory Controller & Data Acquisition). Frank ZL2TTS has been working on this. Cooling circuitry also needs assembly and installation; the enclosure’s front panel will be modified for this. Noted that Ralph ZL2AOH is stepping down as QHUG treasurer after many years.”