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

March 2020

7.050

Christchurch Amateur Radio Club

HAMLARKS

Christchurch Amateur Radio Club. NZART Branch 05

HAMLARKS March 2020 PAGE 2

Branch 05 Club re-occurring events

MAIN BRANCH MEETING First Wednesday of the month 7.30pm, except January. All visitors welcome. At The Clubrooms, 5 Idris Road, Fendalton. Branch 05 Website www.chchhamradio.org.nz ACTIVITIES and PROJECTS 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

This month we are still arranging a few options for talks. If all else fails we will have a Homebrew show and tell evening, to be confirmed! Watch out for updates on the Hamlarks email list.

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



From the President ZL3TAO

Tony ZL3TVP gave a very interesting presentation at our February meeting. Hamcram last weekend gave us 7 new members. This weekend the ZL3AC team has set up in the Bexley Red Zone to compete in the Jock White Field Day. Elsewhere in Hamlarks you will find details of the Easter Eggs and Nut Bar VHF Activity on 5 March. I have heard that several members are setting up SSTV (Slow Scan TV). You will probably find the Hamcrammers on one of the repeaters – you may be able to move to simplex and have a decent contact with them. On Monday 24th Feb at 7.30pm the monthly Focus meeting is homebrew. Bring along you summer project to show and tell.

The Museum Project ZL3TAO

One of my retirement projects is to catalogue the items in the club museum. I am going to be at the club every Friday morning at 9.30, break for coffee at 10.30 and finish in time for lunch. I am starting on Friday 6 March. I feel many of the items may have a story to tell and this needs to be recorded before those that know the stories can no longer tell us about them. David, ZL3ASN is going to join me. He is going to polish and dust the old radios and then gently apply voltage to see if they still have smoke in them. At this stage he is not proposing to repair any that are faulty. Members are welcome to join us. Ian ZL3TAO



Secretary Rory’s Ramblings - ZL3HB

Two months into the year already. Time definitely goes faster as we get older!! All good at the club as far as I know!! Have been trying to get along to a Tuesday night for some weeks but haven't made it yet so maybe things are happening that I don't know about?? I'm sure someone will tell me if that is so. So I will take it all is good and you are all happy with the way the club is ticking along. But don't be complacent as that is a time when little niggles can get under peoples skin. Be good and kind to each other and all will be well! My own life has been turned upside down & inside out in the past weeks which is one reason I haven't been along there and it is all good. And another Hamcram with 7 sitting and 7 passes so that is great. RadioTek is on hold at the moment while Kelvin does a board redesign so hopefully another one probably around May sometime. Have you noticed how the plants are growing out the front. Really starting to look good so we should all be proud of our clubrooms. Some signage is being discussed so that should happen in due course. And the repeater changes with Fusion & 840 revamped is adding to the mix of what you can do out there. That's about it for this month so will get to see you at a Tuesday night sometime? Cheers Rory ZL3HB

ZL3AK “Lifer”

Congratulations to Des ZL3Ak on his

promotion to life membership last month.

Well done Des, well deserved for all your

contributions to the club.



Easter Eggs & Nut Bar VHF Activity - March 2020

Thursday 5 March, 7pm to 9pm, carry on later if you want to

Anywhere on 2 metres – HamCrammers will probably be on repeaters

All modes- FM, SSB, CW, AM, SSTV, DMR, DStar, Fusion, Repeaters etc

Contact other stations once on each mode

Nominate yourself or others for Awards

Have fun, it’s not a contest

Bonus points for working HamCrammers

Email logs to [email protected] by 21st March

Come to the April meeting (1st April) to see if you have earned an

award.

Suggested frequencies CW 144.15 MHz SSB 144.2 MHz AM 144.25 MHz SSTV TBA FM 146.5 MHz

The army “gets modern”

"They're too long. You're supposed to be on

shortwave."

mailto:[email protected]



ZL3AC 2020 Jock White Field Day - ZL3KB

Another great event, Branch05 supporting the Jock White Field day. Thanks to all that gave a hand erecting the aerials and bringing them down again, that “end of contest” chore is made so much better with friends! As I spent most of the time on the 40m station, I cannot speak for the 80m band conditions, but I know life on 7MHz was wild and woolly! The total 40m QSO count appeared to be the highest in the country, so let keep our fingers crossed. Thanks to all that helped, and the operators ZL4FZ, ZL3TOM, ZL3KKW, ZL3EC but a special thanks to Wayne ZL2AYB for all his pre event organisation.



To those who have not paid - Subs reminder, please NOTE!

Annual Subscription

Chch Branch 05 Subscription for 2020

Single Membership $25 if paid by 31st March $35 if paid after 31th Mar

Family Membership $35 if paid by 31st March $45 if paid after 31st Mar

Junior Membership if still at school - free. Need parents email address

Our Club Bank Account number is: Westpac 03 0826 0145 249 00

If you pay by internet banking, please please use your Call Sign as the transaction reference number so that our treasurer can identify you.

If you are posting your Subscription, please send to: Christchurch Amateur Radio Club, P.O.Box 1733, Christchurch.

Evolution of CCTV systems. Guest talk ZL3TVP

A mild Summer evening brought out some 50-odd people (or was it “50, odd people”?) to the Branch 05 clubrooms for February’s formal monthly club meeting, followed by Tony Van Poppel’s talk. Under the gaze of his tripod mounted, Solar Powered CCTV camera, we were as good as the best-behaved class of little school children. Tony’s career had been as a long distance tourist coach driver with a spell of ambulance driving and he flew the odd plane hither and thither without crashing it, so that was all good. However after the health scare of a stroke, he moved to a new career in the fire alarm and security sector. Over time, Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) became his main area of expertise.



The cameras used in the 1960’s and ‘70’s were originally large ugly boxes. By the 1980’s when Tony got involved, the footage, if recorded at all, was onto modified VCRs which still only allowed limited recording times, tapes could only be played back on those machines, and it required keeping a substantial library of videotapes. Recording quality wasn’t the best with a typical 4 camera set-up and halved again in 8 camera systems, sharing the same VCR using a multiplexer. From 1998 fully digital systems started to be installed. Most record to Hard Drives however IP (Internet Protocol) is becoming more common nowadays. Earlier IP cameras were limited to about 1.3 MegaPixel, but

up to 6MP and even 8MP are now available. Tony pointed out though, that in low-light conditions, more Mega-Pixels is not always better. Some surveillance cameras now have a dual function in that they can also film in “Near Infrared”. This has some disadvantages though as IR images are in Black-and-White and things like car number-plates are un-readable in IR.

Some of the newest IR systems have a colour correction ability though. Many CCTV systems are coming out of China and previously there have been proprietary systems which locked clients into using all the same branded cameras and recording systems. Then along came TVI which has become a de facto standard and can be transmitted over co-ax or Cat 5e or Cat 6 internet/phone cable. Tony reckons that TVI makes for a much easier ‘Plug-n-Play’ system and has the advantage that older analogue cameras can also be included. Internet Protocol (IP) systems do require the client’s IT support staff to be a bit more in the game for the initial set-op, and to be on the watch-out for any old woolly-wombat, who seeing an empty ethernet port, reckons they’ll plug THEIR office computer into it. The IP systems do allow Power Over Ethernet (POE) which saves using a specialised co-ax which has the power wires running alongside, to power the cameras.



“Don’t underestimate the importance of LENS quality” Tony said, as he detailed a case where a $98 camera performed better than a $600 model, once installed in a real-world situation. “Alarm Verification” and “Analytical CCTV” (including Automated Number-plate Recognition) are growing in importance. Shopping malls are starting to make more use of these sorts of features. Some clients like orchardists, require entirely Off-Grid solutions, so are installing Solar Powered cameras that connect using 4G wireless, to protect their crops from increasingly professional fruit thieves that in rural areas, can strip thousands of dollars worth of fruit, unnoticed. Thanks to Tony ZL3TVP for his interesting talk in how CCTV is (hopefully !) helping to keep us all a little bit safer from the bad guys out there. Review and photos by Catherine ZL3CATH

Hamads

For Sale ICOM 5100A Dual Band VHF/UHF D-Star Mobile or Base . Touch Screen GPS etc. and Bluetooth module included. 1 year old surplus to requirements . Original box and in as new condition. Never been used mobile. $675 ono Contact John ZL3ADF Ph 03 352-6323 Wanted HP 5328A frequency counter power supply. These units were sold around the late 80’s most of them ex air force and were popular at the time. So either a complete unit that may be not working in other areas but have a good power supply. John ZL3ADF Ph 03 352-6323 or 021 186-5667 For Sale I have a very low mileage Yaesu FT1802 for sale. I'd like to see $250. My contact details are 021 365550 or email at [email protected] Oliver ZL3OOC For Sale. On behalf of CMRS. Kenwood TRC-70 commercial HF SSB transceiver. Complete with instruction manuals. Make an offer. Ph 3832471 or 027 637 6497

mailto:[email protected]



February 2020 SOTA – ZL3RIK

10 SOTA activators ascended 10 separate summits on Banks Peninsula on February 1st for the first ever ZL3 SOTA party. This was no mean effort in the organising well in advance by Geoff, ZL3GA & Mark, ZL3AB both of whom have been guest speakers at the general meetings at BR05. We all aimed (successfully I might add), to be qrv by midday local time which equates to 2300z & start by using freq 146.500 on the 2 meter band & then dropping down to HF for ssb & CW contacts further afield if possible. Well yes; the band conditions were good but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature to provide nice calm weather with sunshine to boot. SHE DID NOT OBLIGE!!! Cloud cover was so low to the extent that most all us who took photos of our poles & antennas ended up with the same results. An antenna pole that disappeared up into the clouds. Personally I lowered mine down to about 4 meters because of the wind & I think most of us did the same thing. One of the activators remarked later that we should all go back & do the same summit again to see the views that we didn't see!!! However, enough grizzles & gripes because despite the cold conditions we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the camaraderie that ham radio brings.

All of us started descending our summits by about1:20pm (0030z) to make our way to our favourite cafe at Little River to share tall tales & true of the legendary past over mochas, lattés & tea & fill the rumbling tummies.



The next day ZL/G4YBU activated two of the summits we did & endured temperatures of 36 degrees Celsius. Go figure. Tim told some of us later that it was so hot his cell phone shutdown & his paddles malfunctioned. Did we enjoy the cold weather?? Nope. Did we enjoy having drops of water dripping down on us from our masts & antenna? Nope. Did we enjoy having to uncomfortably shield our mics in our jackets from the cold strong winds? Nope. Would we do it again?? YOU BETCHA WE WILL... Total summits activated = 10 Total qso's made 150 plus with a couple more logs to be downloaded so it could climb to 160 quite easily. A special thanks to all our chasers for your contacts & support. Rick ZL3RIK

YOTA promotional poster

If you would like a larger copy, contact



Hamcram Feb 2020 – Mike ZL3MWD

Just in case you haven't heard, we had seven passes (100%) in the latest HamCram - great result. Keep an ear out for Lizzy ZL3LIZZ, Dylan ZL3DJC, Daniel ZL3DHS, Brendan ZL3BAM, Michael ZL3SAL, James ZL3KDOT, Zealan – ZL3NotYet (awaiting further paperwork before his callsign is issued).

Even more news, we have 2 candidates (with possible third) for next HamCram. Looking at mid to late May or mid to late June. Many thanks to the support crew who gave up a weekend. There will also be a "Easter Egg & Nut Bar" Activity (7pm - 9pm) on 5th March - it is not a contest but contacting as many of these as you can may earn you a bonus :-)



SOLDXitP with Geoff Clark ZL3GA / YJ0GA

That’s Single Operator Lightweight DXpeditions in the Pacific, if you didn’t know. That’s right, unlike those mega DXpeditions that cost squillions and ship container loads of gear in advance of the team of a dozen people arriving, Geoff’s system is “fly in/fly out” and with all gear being able to be carried by just two people amongst their normal luggage.

One carry-on bag contains the radio, a Yaesu FT 450 D (100 watt with built in antenna tuner), plus anything else with a Li-ion battery, with stuff to rig antennas all fitted in a standard suitcase with room for “some” clothes as well. It’s the tropics, all y’need is some shorts, shirts and jandals, Geoff reckons. But avoid the rainy season... rookie mistake. A SOTABeams pole folds to just 600mm long and weighs 1.3kg, that and 31 feet of wire and a 4:1 un-un can achieve a lot. Don’t forget some wire for radials, plus some co-ax. 50 to 75 feet will be

plenty. Much cheaper than a CrankIR. Often you can use locally harvested bamboo for your poles. Except in Niue. There is no bamboo in Niue, apparently. I dunno why. Maybe they have marauding troops of Giant Pandas roaming around who ate it all ? Who knows. Try to engage with a local Ham in advance (if for nothing else than at least them having cut the bamboo canes in advance and allow them to dry out before your arrival, and for picking you up at the airport of course !) Warning: “Pacific Time” is a REAL thing, so ensure to apply for any required licences well in advance. Remember to take cash for spending as ATMs are few and far between. Having an understanding YL/partner was essential, so places with some ability for shopping, rate highly. While escaping the Christchurch Winter,



remember to take time to see some of the sights and seek to do some good among the locals while you’re there to play radio, he said. Geoff and his wife have returned several times to Vanuatu where they have supported some local school and pre-school groups, his wife helping out there. As well as a myriad of local native languages, French is spoken in some areas, but English is almost universal. Locals will often be interested in Amateur Radio and curious to learn more. In most places, the electrical system and wall outlets is of the standard type for Australia and New Zealand. Diesel power generation is supplemented in some, especially more remote areas by Solar power systems. Buy a local SIM if where you’re staying doesn’t have decent Wifi. And remember that 20 and 40 metres are the standout bands for the tropics. Get up early in the mornings as the “Greyline is unbelievable”. Geoff never had much luck with the evening Greyline though. It occurs just too close to Beer-o’clock for him. Try to get on with local officials, they’re important people there, and if necessary just “go with the flow”. Ask if lawn around your particular accommodation unit and antenna can be unmown for the time you’re there. Plan ahead by bringing a roll of $2 Shop “Danger” barricade tape you can string up around your antenna and guy ropes. For solo DXpeditions there is not much chance of any sponsorship or marketing, and that would spoil the casual nature by putting you under pressure to meet certain preset goals. NN1M logging software is highly recommended and be sure to update your Clublog every 24 hours and get your LOTW updated as soon as possible. Generally Dxing will be mostly weekdays with Contesting on the weekends. Try to co-ordinate your trips with major contests. As your time concludes announce you are going QRT, on DailyDX, DX World, Twitter, Clusterspot etc as this will help to prevent Pirates piggybacking on you. Geoff finished off by warning that DXpeditions can be contagious. He reckons be sure to take notes while you’re there, as it’ll help you improve for next time. If you can’t make you mind up where to go, then Norfolk Island is highly recommended. Thanks Geoff for a great talk. Review by Catherine ZL3CATH, from Nov 2019



Minutes of the Branch 05 meeting

Christchurch Amateur Radio club meeting 5th Feb 2020 Apologies from ZL3MJS, ZL4FZ, ZL3EP. Moved by Ian ZL3TAO. Carried. Minutes of December meeting moved to accept by Rory ZL3HB, seconded ZL3TMB. Carried. Reports AREC Canyon SAREX tomorrow Last Wednesday was a training night Mt Arrowsmith SAREX on JWFD weekend. Inventory of gear & contact list being redone. Have been two Wandersearch training sessions Repeaters Herbert trip replaced batteries and found suspect aerial connector. Another trip needed. Need to change solar controller to MPPT type Site needs two days of cleanup & maintenance on tank etc. National System still has some drainpiping. 705 has some intentional interference 840 now a multimode digital repeater 720 a new Fusion repeater running locally & going to Mt Grey in time QSL Bureau No new cards in but a lot to collect. Tuesday night All good & still going strong Band report Signals there if you look for them.

Huts on the air HOTA happening out there General Business Des ZL3AK was awarded life membership of the club to acclamation. Bruce ZL3TDF mentioned the club TS-480 has a fault on CW and asked if anyone knows who can fix it. Tony ZL3HAM was suggested. Estate receivers for sale and offers closing by 14th Feb. VHF field day on 5-7th Dec. Team went to Mt Pleasant. Won the 6m band. 5 log entries. SOTA on Banks Peninsula last Saturday. 10 summits climbed with 40km winds & 8-10 degrees so challenging. 160+ QSO’s so worth it. Hamcram coming on 15/16th Feb. 5 candidates so far. Club website offline while being moved to a new host. Simon ZL3SI is chasing publicity for the club on local radio stations. Mary Lovell has been made a life member of Br 68. Jock White Field Day two weeks away and will be in the red zone again. Tuesday CW practice aimed at contesting and SOTA Meeting closed at 8.07 PM. Tony ZL3TVP then gave an interesting talk on security cameras past and present with some of the technology and issues arising from their use.

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