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Blackwood Cup Winner for 2023

Since 1930, the Blackwood Cup has been awarded by the Wellington Amateur Radio Club to a deserving member. In recent years, the cup has been awarded to the winner of a competition for homebrew equipment. This year’s Blackwood Cup run-off was held at The Collective Hub in Johnsonville from 1pm – 3pm on 1 October 2023.

Four members (Daniel ZL2DTL, Eben ZL2EF, James ZL4JOCO and David Marshall) brought along a presentation on their homebrew construction project(s) to have a go at winning the Blackwood Cup. Note that an entry can be a presentation on any electronic or radio related project completed over the last 12 months. Voting was by secret ballot of all club members attending the meeting. The voting was very close, but Eben ZL2EF won the day with his presentation on the construction of two VHF/UHF yagi antennas for different purposes. Eben’s presentation went into some of the theory behind spacing and number of elements. One of his antennas had no reflector.

George ZL2AG was the 2022 holder of the cup.

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Emergency Communications Exercise – Special Event

On Saturday 16 September you will have the chance to practice sending messages in an Emergency Communications exercise involving Branch 50 and Branch 42 (Titahi Bay) of NZART.

Ross ZL2UAC will be net control. Operations will be on DMR repeaters (Wrights Hill Wellington and Colonial Knob, Porirua) from your home QTH. 

You should have been contacted by email this week if you had earlier indicated an interest in emergency communications, were in one of our HamCrams, or a member of Branch 50 or Branch 42 NZART. Pre-registration is no longer required. AREC membership is not required.

You will be operating on VHF/UHF DMR repeaters locally and based from home. You will need to check in with Net Control at 4pm. You will need to provide a SITREP when you are called in. Please read the document “Radio Voice Procedures” attached to the email, that will explain the requirements for a SITREP.

It should be fun!

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3 September Antenna Construction Workshop

We held a second construction session for dualband Flowerpot antennas on 3 September from 1pm to 4pm at The Collective Hub, 1/33 Johnsonville Rd.

Those who missed out on our Monster Workshop in June, or who had gained their callsign in the July HamCram were able to come away with a VHF/UHF antenna with a lot more gain than the typical handheld rubber ducky antenna. Seven more flowerpot antennas were completed on the day. This brings the total to around 30 flowerpots completed in 2023.

Cost was $20 for the kit of parts.