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August Meeting – What antenna can I put up in Wellington?

Tower and quad

John ZL2HD spoke at our Wednesday 17 August about the kinds of antennas, masts and towers that are permitted within the Wellington City boundaries.

John outlined efforts involved in trying to protect Amateur Radio interests in the face of city council moves to regulate the proliferation of cellphone towers and streetside cabinets.

The process has continued since 2010, when cellphone masts started proliferating.  The council had no control over placement of antennas on the roadside utility corridor.     Wellington has separate definitions for antennas and aerials in its District Plan – antennas are what telcos use, aerials are thin bits of wire that radio amateurs want.   Masts are fine.  Towers are something else again.

The upshot: “Masts or supporting structures of any height are permitted if they are below 102mm in diameter (guys don’t count so long as they’re not thick); “fatter things” (including lattice masts) cannot exceed 18m in height on a residential site, or rise beyond 5m above the “building profile.” The building profile is determined by a surface at 45 degrees to the horizontal starting two metres above the ground on the property boundary.

Rural sites have their own rules, seasides and ridgelines are special cases. Heritage areas are a separate problem. Existing installations survive (the cutoff being October 2013).  Thin supporting structures are possible right up to the boundary, and trapped verticals are thin enough to be fine.

NOTE WELL:  It is important that you check the city council’s rules and variations when planning to erect aerials, antennas, masts or towers.

 

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July Meeting – Favourite wire antennas

End-fed 1/2 wave
End-fed 1/2 wave

At the July meeting (Wednesday 20 July 2016) members Frank ZL2TTS and Doug ZL2AOV gave brief 15 minute talks about their favourite wire antennas.  Frank told us about his 40m and up dipole (20m long) fed by open wire feeders.   He showed how the feeders were routed between the antenna and the shack, and material used for separating the wires and anchor points.   Doug talked about his all band (80m and above) end-fed antenna (40m in length) fed by a balun and coax (with a good earth connection at the feed point).

The talks provided for some useful thinking about alternative antennas at city sites where installation of a collection of antennas – one for each band is simply not feasible.

These ideas (open wire feeders and end-fed antennas) provide a means of avoiding the problems of lossy small diameter traps or large diameter traps that tend to come to grief in Wellington winds.   We can all bemoan the lack of sunspots … but nothing beats a better antenna in getting a contact!

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Mid-winter Nosh ‘n’ Natter @ Wright’s Hill Fortress

Bring food to heat up!
People brought food to heat up!

Wednesday 15 June at Wright’s Hill Fortress, 7.30pm.

Club members Don ZL2BL and George ZL2AG were our hosts for this event.

The Fortress is at the top of Wrights Hill Rd, and while the views from the top of Wright’s Hill are impressive, we weren’t up there for the views.  Instead we went underground to the rabbit warren of concrete-lined tunnels built in the second half of World War II as part of a protection system for Wellington from foreign invaders.   The big gun installed at Wright’s Hill could send shells around the harbour and further afield.

Members got to have a chat, peruse the old war recruiting materials, and then venture out of the meeting room to check out the restored radio shack, complete with ZC1s and other vintage equipment.   Overall it was a very enjoyable evening and not as cold as we had anticipated underground!

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What do other branches do on Field Day?

Field day operations

At our May WARC meeting on Wednesday 18 May we were given a presentation on how the Patea/South Taranaki branch has approached NZART Jock White Field Day over the last 53 years. Glenn Kingston ZL2KZ, one of our own WARC members, has travelled north each year (with just one or two exceptions, such as when his XYL came down with a high fever) to assist with Field Day operations in South Taranaki.  Glenn showed photos of two Field Day sites used over the last 50 years.

For some time now, the South Taranaki branch has based their Field Day activities at a primary school located along the sea coast north of Patea.  A 60′ aluminium tower (sourced by a member who worked at the Motonui synthfuel plant) is stored on site.   This is erected each year using a local farm tractor or RV as available.   This skyhook allows for an 80m folded dipole antenna to be mounted at near a quarter wavelength above ground.  A 40m antenna is mounted lower down the mast. More recently a secret weapon in the form of a vertical incidence 3 element 40 metre yagi pointed skyward has been added to the line up of antennas.  The yagi has deployed knowledge provided by another WARC member (John Gabites ZL2AQ SK) about the incidence angle for working ZL in Field Day events.

Can WARC get back to its form in the 90’s and 00’s and win the ZL2 Patea Trophy back again from the South Taranaki and Napier branches?   Can we find a low noise sight that will perform as well as South Taranaki’s coastal location?  Can we find another 60′ skyhook like we had access to at Quartz Hill and Athletic Park?  Can we get an enthusiastic team together to operate in the 2017 contest?