Our annual summer BBQ was slightly later this year, but Sunday 7 February at 12 noon proved to be perfect weather. The venue was the Chair’s QTH (ZL1AXG) at 2 Derry Hill, Churton Park, Wellington.
Summer BBQ incl. XYLs
November meeting: Campbell Island (ZL3HV) and Bio of Trevor King (ZL2AKW)
Our next Branch meeting is scheduled for Sunday 15 November, from 1pm – 3pm at the Waitohi Centre (Johnsonville Library).
Peter Fisher ZL3HV will speak on his experiences on Campbell Island (including no doubt his encounters with these sea mammals) and his amateur experiments there a few years ago.
Trevor King ZL2AKW will also give an autobiography drawing on his life experience and how amateur radio was interwoven into this. Trevor was originally to give his talk a couple of months ago, but this was interrupted by a return to Level 2 with the Covid-19 outbreak in Auckland.
All are welcome to attend our meetings. The Club will provide tea or coffee in the café upstairs after the meeting for members and guest speakers.
Note that there will be no shed workshop in November or December 2020. A new round of shed workshops will kick off in February 2021.
18 October Meeting – Blackwood Cup Competition
Our Sunday 18 October meeting (from 1pm – 3pm) at Waitohi (Johnsonville Community Centre) featured our annual Blackwood Cup competition. This was the 90th year of the cup being awarded, so it has a long history. There were only three entries this year, but the winner as voted by members was John ZL2JPM for his QRP three unit combination.
One of those winners from 1974, Derek ZL2AKS, asked the club to dispose of his equipment, as he is moving out of town to a retirement village and will not be operating on HF any more. Bernard ZL2BD oversaw the sale of this equipment. A list of equipment was sent to members. We celebrate Derek’s long-term commitment (60 years) as a member of the club.
We held a moments silence for Don ZL2BL, who became a Silent Key earlier in the month.
Ian ZL2HUT also gave a presentation on Radio Spectrum Management. Ian explained how the radio spectrum is managed, via various legislation, policies, regulations and rules.
September 2020 Meeting – Don Robertson AREC National Director – followed by RemoteDX AGM
Due to the fact that we were still under Covid-19 Level 2 status, we were unable to meet on Sunday 20 September as planned at Waitohi (Johnsonville Library). Instead we had a face-to-face meeting at Bernard ZL2BD’s QTH at 1 Winsley Tce, Churton Park.
Don Robertson, National Director of AREC spoke about the restructuring of AREC and the opportunities available to members to be active in AREC and SAR.
We were also took time to discuss challenges Porirua City (Titahi Bay Branch 42) is facing with their proposed District Plan and to celebrate the Branch 74 (Wellington VHF Group) 50th anniversary. Branch 50 NZART assisted in getting the VHF Group underway, back in 1970. A celebratory cake cemented the celebration at 3pm alongside tea, coffee and egg sandwiches.
The Chair briefly updated members on the remainder of 2020’s programme of activities and members were queried as to who was planning to attend the Christmas Dinner.
At 2pm we moved into the AGM for RemoteDX. This included receiving the annual report from the Chair, approving the minutes of the previous AGM, confirming the annual financial statements, electing the next committee, considering minor amendments to the constitution, discussing the forward direction of RemoteDX and committing to a couple of substantial summer projects.
The meeting concluded with afternoon tea.
