Month: August 2019

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Visit by Regional Councillor to Wellington

This is your chance to meet one of our new NZART regional councillors: Dan Vandenberg ZL2DRV.

Dan Vandenberg ZL2DRV

Councillors Central District

Phillip Dodds ZL4XYZ
Benjamin Isaacs ZL2BCI
Daniel Vandenberg ZL2DRV

The time and venue have now been confirmed for Tuesday 10th September  2019 at 19:30 at the Branch 42 club rooms.

There will be a talk in on the club repeater on 6750 if you are lost.

Branch 42 street address can ben found here:  http://www.nzart.org.nz/contact/branches/42/

The issues that have been flagged for discussion include:

  • New members – the problem with getting younger people into the hobby
  • would council consider having live broadcasts of their meetings again?
  • Will our subscriptions increase in the near future?
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August 2019 Meeting – Favourite amateur radio books

Members brought along their favourite amateur radio book or books and talked about them.

Ten members turned out to our Sunday 18 August meeting at Mike ZL1AXG’s QTH. To kick off the meeting we watched a Youtube video about the HAARP experimental ionospheric research centre in Alaska. Then each ember talked to their favourite amateur radio book.

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Shed Workshop 4 August

Bernard talking about fake transistors, discovered during prototyping of the Active Antenna Kit

Bernard ZL2BD and John ZL2XJ launched the first of a pair of shed workshops covering the construction of an active antenna.

Bernard discussed why amateur operators should be interested in active antennas, the basic design elements that underpin the electronics, and the nature of the kit construction that members will be undertaking.

The designs all incorporate a FET followed by a bipolar transistor. They must transfer the very high impedance of a short whip antenna to the 50 ohm input of a typical receiver. They may also include filtering to reduce broadcast interference (BCI). They are fed using 12v over the coax, so they require a filtering system to separate RF from DC back in the shack.

We will meet on 1 September from 2pm -4pm since it will be Father’s Day and some may want to go out to lunch with family. We will be constructing our devices, so members will need to bring a soldering iron. The kits will be provided free of charge to members. If you didn’t attend the first session, please contact one of the committee to confirm you are coming to be sure we have sufficient kits available.

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Active Whip Antennas Explained

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