MINUTES OF THE NAPIER AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
Meeting Wednesday 6 May 2015 – Clubrooms 123 Latham Street
Chair: Laurie ZL2TC, the meeting started at 7:30 pm.
Apologies: ZL2VM, ZL2AL, ZL2LF, ZL2US.
Present: Wally ZL2MO, Revell ZL2SS, Peter ZL2CD, Dave ZL2DW, Blue ZL3TT, Stan ZL2ST, Mike ZL2MY, Ray ZL2RB, Marty ZL2PX and Karl ZL1TJ.
Minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed correct: ZL2TC, ZL2ST.
Arising: Dave ZL2DW: The April ECI net was run by Laurie and himself. There was sufficient participation. Dave suggests a permanent notice in Break-Out, Karl to arrange.
Correspondence: The annual NZART Branch circular: Membership list, Call Book update form, Examination supervisor application form and Candidates check form, Remits to be discussed etc..
A letter from NZART regarding the proposed Public liability insurance scheme. Email correspondence with ZL2DW as Branch 13 Secretary regarding QSL card handling. Email correspondence regarding donation to Branch 88, Tauranga Emergency Communications Group (TECG). Email correspondence with Lee regarding the club programme and the club project
Finance: Accounts for payment were presented by Wally for materials used for the ongoing refurbishment of the clubroom’s kitchen and bathroom. Payments were made for the club project.
Another reminder from our Treasurer that (our very minimal!) subs are now DUE!
General business: Dave ZL2DW explained the current QSL card distribution procedure. He also brought up the proposed joint public liability insurance scheme. NZART reports that the annual premium for the 9 participating branches would now be $ 275.14. No firm decision resulted from the following discussion. Lee has indicated that, due to ill health, he is no longer able to fulfill the requirements for Branch Examination Supervisor. Lee is presently in hospital, he expects ongoing treatment and recovery to pre-empt taking an active part in club activities for some time. Laurie to take over the club (antenna switch) project. Laurie also to seek interest from members to take over the Examination supervisor job. Wally reported on the search and costing for a replacement generator. The AREC account would be used for the purchase.
NZART AGM Remits: After establishing who out of those present were entitled to vote, which, due to some being affiliated to Branch 13 and some not being ‘financial’ with NZART, turned out to be a disappointing three, Laurie presented the three remits and recorded the vote. The outcome: Remit 1, one in favour, two against, Remit 2, one in favour, two against, Remit three (the amendment to the Constitution): one in favour, one against, one abstention. Stan moved and Wally seconded that our delegate (Laurie) is authorised to use his discretion to vote as he sees fit on the day.
The meeting closed 9:30pm.
Due to Lee’s incapacitation the scheduled DX-pedition video was replaced by ‘Show and Tell’.
Dave ZL2DW explained with diagrams the building and refining of a 160m half wave dipole across a gully (on his daughters farm). The antenna has an automatic tuner and works well on all bands except 80m. Karl presented his SDR receiver augmented with a 120MHz converter to bring in HF frequencies. Laurie, who does a fair bit of ‘hamming’ in the micro wave regions, presented his homebrew transverter which will turn a 2m transceiver into a 2.4GHz transceiver. Also a homebrew 2.4 GHZ loop yagi antenna, a piece of precision hardware with an estimated gain of 17 to 20 dB.
Best performance so far 300Km to Mt Egmont.
Karl, ZL1TJ Secretary