Category: News

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Mag loop construction guide – online Zoom event – all welcome!

Magnetic Loop Antenna Capacitor Kit of Parts

Mag Loop antennas are becoming increasingly popular transmitting antennas for the lower frequency HF bands. This is because of their rather small size being suited to city residential sections or apartment buildings and the improved receive signal to noise performance over traditional wire antennas.

Online Shed Workshop

An online Zoom workshop on Sunday 6 September from 1300 hours NZST will cover the design and DIY construction of a 40m Magnetic Loop Antenna. (Mag Loop).

The workshop features a PowerPoint presentation by Bernard Robbins ZL2BD and an opportunity to have questions answered. The full content of the presentation will be published on the website ZL2WB.com in the week following the Zoom meeting.

To register for the workshop email us

Purchase the High Voltage Butterfly Capacitor for $80 incl. postage

Branch 50 NZART recently launched a trading table. The branch plans to sell a range of kitsets and books to amateur radio operators. Our kits will be designed to get more people active in our hobby on the HF bands and to make construction projects easier for the ordinary amateur operator – simple kits that make a difference to your operating experience.

The 40m magnetic loop capacitor is now available for sale through our trading table. It is just $80 including shipping for the full kit. To order go here. To download more information or the manual go here.

Don’t take too long to place your order as the level of interest has been high from ZL amateurs, and we have only a few left in stock. There may be a delay of a few weeks before these are back in stock once sold out.

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CANCELLED: Branch 50 Meeting: 16 August @ Waitohi Johnsonville

WARC members admiring a Begali key. Trevor King ZL2AKW is on the far right

MEETING CANCELLED AND TALK POSTPONED. THE PANDEMIC LEVEL HAS BEEN RAISED TO LEVEL 2 AND WAITOHI MEETING ROOM IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

Trevor King, ZL2AKW, a former NZART President and Council member, has a long history of involvement in amateur radio, Trevor is also an honorary life member of Branch 50 NZART and has been coming along to our meetings for over 50 years (see Trevor on the far right in the photo above).

Trevor will be sharing about his career and interest in amateur radio over the years.  Trevor was first “on the Air” as a 14-year-old schoolboy living in Palmerston North.  That was back in 1948.  He was initially assigned the call-sign ZL2AGC.   

It is worth pointing out that Trevor was one of the founding members of the Branch’s earlier Projects Group that brought a number of kitset projects to NZ amateurs, and was also actively involved in contesting (with a special interest in CW) and in the Quartz Hill User Group.

Trevor’s Bio will contribute to our Member Bios collection that will shortly be made available to members  through our website (via login only).   

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Shed Workshop: An introduction to a low cost SDR Spectrum Analyser

SDR Spectrum Analyzer

Our Ted Talk for the year (from Ted ZL2TB) was scheduled for Sunday 2 August from 1pm to 3pm at Ted’s QTH, 14 Quigley St, Newlands. Thirteen members enjoyed Ted’s introduction to his low cost SDR Spectrum Analyser (available for around $500) that can be procured through the internet. This device can be used for all sorts of purposes, with slightly differing models having slightly different features.

Ted gave a practical demonstration of potential use cases that reflected his personal interests in the VHF, UHF and microwave spectrum, such as looking at the output of the FM radio stations on Mt Kaukau in Wellington, the transponder outputs (including half transponders) from satellite signals able to be received in Wellington. Given the affordability of the device and potential to examine a broad spectrum all at once, this session was of interest to members.

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50 Years for Wellington VHF Group

Wellington VHF Group was formally formed in August 1970, as a sub group of Wellington Branch 50. This August marks the 50th anniversary of this meeting, where Bill Hamer ZL2CD moved that the Group be formed.

According to the latest Q-Bit, the VHF Group is planning to hold a celebration to recognise reaching 50 years this August. They are looking for expressions of interest in the event.

They will hold their regular Thursday night meeting on the 27th August and dedicate the evening to short talks on events and projects that the Group has initiated, such as the Wellington Walkie, the UHF National System, Belmont repeater, ATV, various repeaters and other projects, even the DMR National System and the Colonial Knob project.

On Saturday evening, 29 August, they plan to hold a dinner as the main social event.

If you are keen to participate, the Wellington VHF Group would love to hear from you and if you have ideas to add, they would like to hear from you.

Please email the secretary@vhf.nz