Shed Workshop – Vintage Radio #2

At our shed workshop on Sunday 5 May, George ZL2AG opened up his garage and museum to the club to host the second shed workshop on vintage radios. The talk this time was given by Don ZL2BL.

Don first spoke about his restoration of a vintage Eddystone HF receiver. This had been somewhat hacked about by a previous owner, but he has restored it to near the status of the original.

He then talked about a couple of vintage AM radios – one he had restored and one still to be restored. They are illustrated in the photo below

George ZL2AG also had a mystery piece of electronic equipment for us to ponder on. This is clearly something developed for military or government purposes. Our guess is was that it is something like a range finder unit, since it is marked “E”, “N”, and “H” on the three banks of dials. Perhaps “East-West”, “North-South” and “High-Low”?

Two low cost items for the shack – a Signal Generator and a Hotspot

Our April meeting was held on Wednesday 17 April 2019 at the Lutheran Church Hall, King St from 7.30pm.

Mike ZL1AXG demonstrated his recently acquired $103 Signal Generator (KKMoon FY6800). This goes nicely with his new cheapie Hantek 5102p Oscilloscope. He put the signal generator through it’s paces, demonstrating different waveforms, amplitude and modulation effects, frequency changes, etc.

Malcolm ZL2UDF also talked about his D-Star Hotspot that plays into a 30w 2m transceiver to open up D-Star to all comers in Lower Hutt.

Shed Workshop: Vintage Radio

At our shed workshop in the afternoon of Saturday 13 April, George ZL2AG opened up his garage and museum to the club to host a workshop on vintage radios. We were intrigued by the progression in designs – from expensive crystal sets (with galenium cat’s whisker diodes, through to feedback designs like the TRF, before the age of superhets.

George ZL2AG talking to his homebrew vintage-style radio, with John ZL2XJ and Don ZL2BL assisting

There were also changes also in the shape of cabinetry – from cathedral, through to tombstone and chest designs. George was lamenting the sharp fall off in interest in vintage radio, and was concerned about where all the beautifully restored vintage sets will end up. Tea and coffee was served at the conclusion of the workshop. A further workshop on vintage radios will take place in May.

A most unusual German set, with 3 valves in one enclosure

AGM – 20 March 2019

Our first AGM as a regular Branch of NZART (not separately incorporated as a society) was held at 7.30pm on 20 March at the Lutheran Church Hall in Mt Cook with a good attendance. The agenda covered:

  • Receipt of annual report from the Chair (Mike ZL1AXG)
    Annual accounts were presented by our Secretary/Treasurer (Malcolm ZL2UDF) with special thanks to our Honorary Auditor (Glenn ZL2KZ)
  • Election of officers (Mike ZL1AXG Chair, Malcolm ZL2UDF, Bernard ZL2BD, John ZL2XJ)
  • Demonstration by George ZL2AG of his rare item – a German WW2 long-wave receiver.
  • There was to have been a video on low cost Logic Analysers using the open source Sigrok softare by Mike ZL1AXG, but technical issues getting the projector and computer to talk to each other got in the way of this presentation.

Download accepted annual reports and accounts