HAMLARKS - chchhamradio.org.nz · Christchurch Amateur Radio Club. NZART Branch 05 . HAMLARKS...

August 2019

7.050

Christchurch Amateur Radio Club

HAMLARKS

Christchurch Amateur Radio Club. NZART Branch 05

HAMLARKS August 2019 PAGE 2

Branch 05 Club re-occurring events MAIN BRANCH MEETING First Wednesday of the month 7.30pm, except January. All visitors welcome. At 5 Idris Road, Fendalton. Branch 05 Website www.chchhamradio.org.nz ACTIVITIES and STUDY NIGHT Every Tuesday 7:30pm at 5 Idris Road, Fendalton. All visitors welcome. DAYTIME MEETING (Branch05) Meet third Thursday of month, 1PM at Branch05 clubrooms. All visitors welcome. COMMITTEE MEETING 1st Monday after branch meeting 7.30pm At 5 Idris Road, Fendalton AREC MEETINGS Normally the 2nd Wednesday of the month 7.30pm. At 5 Idris Road, Fendalton DEADLINE FOR HAMLARKS COPY 11 days before the main branch meeting. WEEKLY CLUB VHF NET Every Sunday 8:00 PM on 145.625MHz repeater if available, otherwise 147.050MHz repeater. OFFICIAL NZART BROADCAST Last Sunday of the month 8:00 PM on 147.050MHz repeater. CW PRACTICE Boyd ZL3LE every Tuesday at 8pm. 3550 kHz. Listen in your shack or come along to Branch 05 clubrooms. Views expressed in "Hamlarks" are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the Committee of the Christchurch Amateur Radio Club. The Editor reserves the right to edit articles submitted for publication for reasons of clarity or length. No part of Hamlarks may be reproduced without the express consent of the Editor.

Speaker for next branch meeting To be advised

http://www.chchhamradio.org.nz/



Secretary Rory’s Ramblings - ZL3HB

Apparently last Thursday was only 5 months to Xmas!!! You had all better go shopping now before you run out of time - the year is going so fast!! But car parks take a little longer! A great working bee last Saturday 20th. Soil/shingle by garage skimmed off & put in the hollow and top skimmed down by end fence. Bruce's digger sure made it easy. Now for some chip to tidy it all us so may need another bee to spread it in due course. And the gutter on car park side cleaned out. Miserable day but at least we got it done. Thanks folks. The club is looking into buying a linear for the shack and along with that goes an upgrade to the antenna to handle more power. Quite some discussion as to whether we need it or how much use it will get so if you have an opinion let us know. But we are a radio club so being able to communicate effectively is important. And the clubrooms do seem to be OK noise wise so listening is OK. That may change in time with the current state of crap electronics proliferating!! What else would you like to see the club do? Ian is organising regular evening events on various subjects so get along and see what is happening. I'm not there as much now I live 70Km away but that's just the way it is. Take care all & keep warm. Rory ZL3HB.

Hamads FOR SALE 3 aerials for sale, if anyone wants to make me an offer 1x VHF aerial (with 3 elements), 2x UHF (12 element aerials) Phone Ron Godkin (ZL3TO) 3589481 Wanted I am looking for some conduit wire in the 3 appropriate colours. Have bought an old heritage cottage with steel conduit and want to retain it's originality but would like to replace the old rubber coated wiring in the conduit. If any of you have any 1mm, preferably stranded but would consider solid conductor TPS, please let me know at 0211314599 or [email protected]. Thanks Rory ZL3HB.

mailto:[email protected]



Outstanding subs ZL3TAO

There are still quite a few with subs outstanding - all the committee have a list of those outstanding - give one of them a call or email Peter ([email protected]) if you are not sure.

Outstanding UC student achieves 100% Congratulations to UC Masters Student Nazir Ikhtiari who scored 100% in his Amateur Radio exam earlier this year. His NZART special badge was presented by the director of Wireless research centre Fred Samandari.

Remember August VHF Activity Hour!

Give the first time Hams a chance of a contact on the air. Saturday 10th August at 2pm. FM simplex or repeaters. You may work a station on simplex and each repeater – i.e. you can work the same station on 705 and 675 as well as simplex.

mailto:[email protected]



Working Bee

Saturday 20th at 9am - working bee Bruce ZL3TDF had his digger there to remove some soil before some extra gravel is laid in the car park. Plenty of other jobs were also done as well.

A huge thank you to Rod ZL3NW, Rick ZL3RIK, Wayne ZL2AYB, Rory ZL3HB, Bruce ZL3TDF and his digger, Ian ZL3TAO, Graeme ZL3GSL, John ZL3JGM, Blair ZL3TOY, Ron ZL3RON + others



Extra Club Activities for August ZL3TAO

Thursday 8th August at 7.30pm Hamcram+ to get our new hams started on their first 50 contacts. We are also giving them the option of choosing a mentor. Saturday 10th August at 2pm VHF Activity Hour – FM simplex or repeaters. May work a station on simplex and each repeater – i.e. you can work the same station on 705 and 675 as well as simplex. Ideal for the Hamcrammers to get a few contacts in the log. Logs to [email protected] by 17th August to be eligible for a prize. Thursday 15th August at 1pm Daytime meeting – content to be advised. Wednesday 28th August at 7.30pm Homebrewers meeting. Show and tell what you have been building during these winter nights.

Hamcram July 2019 On the weekend of 27/28 July we held another successful event, where seven prospective hams took part in the weekend course to gain their license. On the Sunday afternoon, they all sat the exam, and we had six passes, with a “promise to return” from the seventh.



Branch meeting July 2019 presentation report – ZL3CATH

After a surprisingly warm winter’s day, the mild evening, was ‘almost warm’ and saw about 40 people turn up at the Branch 05 meeting on 3rd July 2019. Ian MacPherson ZL3TAO presided over the proceedings with Rory Deans ZL3HB alongside as co-pilot. Once the business was dispensed with, Alastair Gee ZL3GEE commenced his talk. He’d forgotten we had a projector, so without power points, he had only his entertaining talk to mesmerise us with. Alastair, you may recall, is one of the club’s newest members, having passed at the recent HamCram study weekend and licensing exam held in April. But he’s been busy for awhile before that, having been a registered electrician working in the industry for over 30 years. He’s been involved since the beginning with AML Switchgear, a Christchurch based manufacturer and supplier of custom designed heavy duty switchboards, and associated automated control systems. In his ‘spare time’ (yeah right!) Alastair is also president of Master Electricians NZ, a professional trade organisation with over 1,200 member companies employing over 6,000 individual workers.

Wearing his Master Electricians’ hat, and with an aging population in trades’ memberships, the difficulties of obtaining and retaining enough



qualified staff were described. There have been suggestions from the government that “dumbing down” the requirements for electrical registration could help solve the problem by getting more folks working in the electrical trades. However Alastair didn’t like that idea much at all. Currently the system involves an apprenticeship of between 3 and 4 years full time, with night-classes and students required to submit completed Logbooks. Upon completion of their qualification, Alastair said there were good opportunities for earning money in the trade, or alternative pathways into Engineering, Programming and Manufacturing. One concern was “retentions” where insufficient funds are kept securely to pay subcontractors, who can be left in the lurch, unpaid, when big companies go bust on a construction project, and the smaller electric subcontractors take a huge loss as they go unpaid for their labour and materials. ‘Green Energy’ is a thriving area, with Solar Panel installation for example. Another area is the monitoring of energy use and efficiency, needed more and more nowadays for various EECA and Green Building Certifications. Not yet, is there a special certification for auto mechanics or electricians who may be working on EVs (electric cars). These often run on many hundreds of volts and with huge currents available (e.g. 375 Volts at 1,700 Amps for the Tesla model X). Currently the installation requirements of cool-rooms at wineries are one of the bigger jobs that turn up, with a recent installation being three switchboards each capable of 3,500 Amps EACH. (That’s a seriously big refrigerator, dude!) Nowadays though, older mechanical control systems have been replaced with HMI touch screens (Human Machine Interface). It was also mentioned how the Master Electricians Trade Show was on 25th July 2019 at the Twiggers building of Addington Raceway. Free entry from 09:15 hrs local time, until 19:15. An enthusiastic audience kept Alastair Gee befuddled with questions well into the supper break time. Thank you for your talk. By Catherine ZL3CATH



Report on Satellite Meeting 24th July ZL3TAO

Murray ZL3MH gave a short presentation on his satellite experiences. The project will probably be constructing a J pole to receive SSTV from the ISS. After that we will probably have a construction afternoon at the club where members can construct a J pole for themselves (cost under $50 hopefully). Following that a 7 element crossed yagi for 2m and a 13 element crossed yagi for 70cm will be constructed. Switched phasing harnesses will be built to give vertical, horizontal and both circular polarisation modes. Again construction afternoons at the club will give members the opportunity to build their own. Note that these aerials are also suitable for terrestrial operation. Azimuth and elevation rotators would be a useful accessory.

Cafe council

A regular Monday morning cafe group meet up at Ris'tretto Espresso cafe in Barbados St, Edgeware. Dennis (ZL3DEN) with his back to the camera & clockwise. Tony (ZL3TVP), Brent (ZL3TUI), Morris (ZL3MEM), Rick (ZL3RIK) & then Kath ZL3CATH). Perhaps Simon Hill at the photographer(?)



Minutes of the Branch 05 meeting

Christchurch Radio club meeting 3rd July 2019 Apologies ZL3NW, ZL3AHL, ZLTMB, ZL3KKW. Moved to accept by Ian ZL3TAO. Carried. Minutes of June meeting moved to accept by Rory ZL3HB, seconded Alan ZL3BWG. Carried Correspondence Amsat Jnl & Q-bit. Reports AREC All quiet Gareth ZL3VP is handing over the national treasurers job. AREC national has a new group of people for the future. Repeaters All working 705 now on lower aerial for further testing. Will revert to combined. Reports that drainpipe effect may be on National System at times. QSL Bureau No new cards in Tuesday night continues strong as ever. Band report 40m good at present & 80 OK. General business Keith ZL3H asked if anyone had been to Bletchley Park in the UK for directions. Will have a working bee on Saturday 20th to prepare for shingle. Memorial contest will be run from the clubrooms on 6/7th July by Wayne ZL2AYB. John Banfield ZL3KJ is in Burwood hospital if anyone wishes to visit him. Malcolm McNeil ZL3UP is SK. Face TV has asked whether we want to participate in a programme. Feeling is NO. Discussion re buying a linear for the club and most are in favour. But we will need to upgrade aerials first. Rob ZL3RX moved “that we bring various HF linear options & costs with recommendations to the next meeting ” seconded Mark ZL3BA. Carried. D-star repeater is progressing slowly – but do we really want it. Another branch may be interested. Further discussion needed. Discussed possibility of setting up a satellite station. Talk to Murray Healy & Rob Ramsey. Meeting closed at 7.55 PM Alister Gee then gave a talk on the electrical industry and associated matters.



From P.O.Box 1733, Christchurch, New Zealand

HAMLARKS - chchhamradio.org.nz · Christchurch Amateur Radio Club. NZART Branch 05 . HAMLARKS...

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