RODNEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB NZART BRANCH 71 WWW.ZL1ROD.ORG Monthly Branch Meeting Agenda, Minutes and Newsletter WELLSFORD LIBRARY 8 DECEMBER 2018, 10:00 CLUB CONTACT RICHARD PAUL ZL1DP RENTDRIVE@XTRA.CO.NZ 09-425 7233 PRESIDENT PAUL KAUFMANN ZL1PAK PAUL.KAUFMANN.NZ@GMAIL.COM 09-422 0098 SECRETARY ANDREW CRANNA-POWELL ZL1ACP ANDREW@ZL1ACP.NZ 0275-67 6699 TREASURER PAUL SOLE ZL1VPS AGENDA INTRODUCTIONS, APOLOGIES, ROLL CALL CONFIRMATION/ACTIONS FROM PREVIOUS MINUTES CORRESPONDENCE IN/OUT FINANCIAL REPORT MEMBERS AREC REPORT REPEATER TRUSTEES REPORT GENERAL BUSINESS CLOSE OF FORMAL SECTION OF MEETING EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT SEGMENT 1
Meeting Roll Call Name Callsign Status Name Callsign Status Alan Dale ZL1ABL P Mike Conner ZL1MRC A Andrew Cranna-Powell ZL1ACP A Paul Kaufmann ZL1PAK P Bert Toomey ZL1AQX A Paul Sole ZL1VPS Cecil Tunnicliffe ZL2BCB A Richard Paul ZL1DP P Gary Ball ZL1FAB P Rob Leinwand ZL1RD A Gavin Douglas ZL1GAM P Ron Crawley ZL1RON A John Smart ZL1BEY A Ross Boswell ZL1DRB P Ken Robinson ZL1KEN Rowan Smiley ZL1UIS A Mark Windram ZL1UHS Sandy Johnston ZL3AXL P Silent Keys Name Callsign Visitors Name Callsign 2
Confirmation/Actions from Previous Minutes November Meeting Minutes and Newsletter have been received and accepted as distributed. Moved ZL3AXL, Seconded ZL1FAB. Correspondence In Newsletters and other electronic correspondence have been forwarded to the members by the Secretary. Correspondence Out Various emails by the Secretary have been sent out, mainly newsletters from other branches. Financial Report Finances to 8.12.2018 - by ZL1VPS N/a Members AREC - Report and Activities Nothing reported Repeater Trustee s Report and Activities The repeater is working well and is putting out a strong and clear signal. Alan receives the repeater at S9 +10dB in Wellsford. Richard now also receives the repeater with a handheld. The weekly Net meeting is on Thursday at 19:30 on 147.300MHz. Duration about 30-45 minutes. A Repeater s real time health report and status are available online: http://zl1rod.org 3
General Business Website Gary is always looking for comments from club members about what changes to the website they would like to see. Please email Gary or Andrew or Paul with your ideas. Also hints for good Youtube videos are welcome so the video s links can be uploaded to our webpage and all our members can view and profit from it. Mailing-List Mailing-List is running and well used. Please remember telling Gary if you want the invitation email for joining. Gary's email address is: webmaster@zl1rod.org Morse Code We had a discussion about if and how we could use our repeater to have a morse code net. Having a closer look at we found that there are a few issues and challenges like: Battery consumption / TX Duty cycle / Tail / Tone (BFO). To name a few. Alternative methods have also been discussed and ideas like sending morse code via the internet (e.g. http://morsecode.me) came up. Meeting Room Bookings We received from the Library booking confirmation for the following 2019 dates: 16 Feb, 9 Mar, 13 Apr, 11 May, 8 Jun, 13 Jul, 10 Aug, 14 Sep, 12 Oct, 9 Nov, 14 Dec. Christmas Gifts The Christmas gifts were well received and appreciated. The gift basket for the Library staff consisted of goodies, chocolates, Puhoi soap and lottery scratch tickets. 4
Roger Davis got his honey edition of Jack Daniel s, a Puhoi shaving soap bar and a lottery scratch ticket. Our Club Christmas greeting cards were nicely crafted by Alan ZL1ABL. Group Photo Here we go Smile for our traditional group photo at the last meeting of the year 5
Christmas Lunch We had the traditional Christmas Lunch at the RSA in Warkworth on Friday 14 th December. We started gathering at 11:30, had some good talks and then a small lunch at 12:30. Unfortunately the RSA was not able to provide lunch on Saturdays so Gary, Gavin, Ross and Sandy were not able to join us. We got nevertheless 8 people at the table! : Mark, Richard, Mike, Alan, Ken, Bert and Luis (left to right). Luis was visiting Paul on a trip from Spain and was keen to meet a bunch of NZ radio amateurs. Office Holders Reminder that each office holder shall update and maintain his personal what I am doing list. This handwritten list will be compiled into an office holder activities overview by the end of the year. This will help explaining about the work and activities involved in the office duty. 6
General Information PO Box : Rodney Amateur Radio Club (Attn. Paul Kaufmann) PO Box 404101 Puhoi 0951 Contact Person: Richard Paul, ZL1DP email: rentdrive@xtra.co.nz phone: 09-425 7233 or 022-1767458 Webpage : http://zl1rod.org Internet Banking & Subscriptions : Webmaster: Gary Ball ZL1FAB email: gary@theballz.co.nz A/C Name: Rodney Radio Club A/C No.: 12-3095-0115508-000 Include your CALLSIGN and NAME Internet and Digital Information: SDR from Ross ZL1DRB: http://sdr.med.co.nz:8073 (for HF) http://sdr.med.co.nz:8902 (for VHF) Here another Kiwi SDR with nice HF reception: http://kiwisdrzl1kfm.ddns.net:8073 Sending morse code via the internet: http://morsecode.me Please do also check out our webpage zl1rod.org for the latest news and available downloads. Formal meeting closed ~12:00 NEXT MEETING / AGM: Date CHANGED from 2 nd to 3 rd Saturday 10:00 - Saturday 16 th February 2019 Meeting Room, Wellsford Library Education/Entertainment Section 7
Videos shown: Top 5 Free Software for Amateur Radio For viewing next: Surprise not known at time of writing :-) Presentations: Gift basket was presented to the Library staff. Alan showed us his 70 Years - Certificate of Merit from the OTC and a copy of his printed NZ Radio Operator s Certificate of Competency. Sandy showed his homebrew paddle with electronic keyer. Gary brought his straight key with a speaker driven by a Colpitts oscillator. Paul brought the new FT240-31 and FT240-43 ferrite toroids and a L-meter for measuring the cores. 8
Member s Contributions Ross ZL1DRB Ross informs us about Peter Aikin ZL1TX who does computer, infrastructure and repeater works for public authorities. Peter programmed our spare repeater and has offered Ross to re-tune the spare diplexer accordingly. Alan ZL1ABL Alan showed us his 70 Years - Certificate of Merit he has received from the OTC Here a copy of Alan s printed NZ Radio Operator s Certificate of Competency. 9
Sandy ZL3AXL Sandy brought his homebrew paddle with electronic keyer. A nice design that is also available from the Internet. Paul ZL1PAK I showed my new FT240-31 and FT240-43 ferrite toroid cores that can be used for Baluns / transformers (#43 type) or as RF chokes (#31 type). By using a simple L/C-meter we could see clear differences in the permeability of the 2 different ferrite types. 10
73 de ZL1PAK Gary ZL1FAB Gary brought his straight key connected to an AF Colpitts oscillator and loudspeaker. A nice design also if you want bring the keyed signal into the sound card of your PC! Gavin ZL1GAM Gavin most likely will move to the North and hence not be able to cover our repeater. Gavin has been asking if we might introduce a Club s HF-net, the like we already have on VHF. This way he might be able to stay in contact with us and it might also be a possibility for other HAMs that moved out of the region. In the name of all, the Club would like to thank members who share their latest acquisitions and information with us. This makes our meetings more interesting and gives us the opportunities we would else not have. 11