First Shed Workshop of 2022 – Xtal Filters

The Nano-VNA is a powerful tool for assessing the characteristics of all types of filters, including crystal bandpass filters. 

At the first shed workshop of 2022, Mike ZL1AXG discussed the construction of multiple crystal filters for HF rigs. This included a 12 MHz crystal filter for the Simple SSB 80m rig he is constructing in modular form (and this reflected the fifth presentation on that transceiver construction).

He also revealed a further 12 MHz filter and 2 filters at 4MHz for other  planned construction projects. In this workshop, Mike covered crystal selection, design options (including lattice filters in general and Cohn and QER filters) and the challenges of achieving a nice shape and a passband that doesn’t have too much ripple. 

He also demonstrated a “universal jig” for use with the nano-VNA and discussed when things go wrong with filters (in this case an LPF, or rather the test set up).

Combined Branches BBQ – Saturday 29 January 2022

Rather than have our own Branch 50 NZART BBQ this year, the committee decided to join with Branch 74 (Wellington VHF Group) and Branch 69 (Kapiti Branch) at their Combined Branches BBQ.

The Combined BBQ  was held at QE2 Park, Paekakariki on Sat 29th Jan  from 1200pm onwards.    Mike ZL1AXG and Frank ZL2TTS attended the BBQ. There were 14 amateurs and XYLs in attendance.

Christmas Festivities

Our Christmas Lunch was held at the Petone Working Men’s Club, 47 Udy St, Petone on 6 December at 12 noon. Around a dozen OMs and their XYLs attended.

The final club event for the year was for the Social Group get together on Tuesday 21 December. As usual we gathered at George ZL2AG’s QTH at 1330 hours to share what we had all been up to.

Final Shed Workshop for 2021: Portable MagLoop Tuner

John Moriarty ZL2JPM demonstrates his QRP portable mag loop antenna

Our final shed workshop session for the year was held on Sunday 5 December from 1pm – 3pm at John ZL2JPM’s QTH at 9 Ramphal Terrace in Khandallah.

John ZL2JPM talked in more detail about his portable microprocessor controlled QRP mag loop antenna that he briefly introduced to us at the October meeting. John won the annual Blackwood Cup for 2021 based on this entry.