Newsletter

May 2010

Papakura Radio Club

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5th May General meeting. 12th May Project Evening. Picaxe & 2.4 GHZ 19th May Committee Meeting 26th May Daytime Meeting / Technical Evening After the general meeting there will be a discussion and vote on the NZART Remits and an internet demonstration. See page 6 for more info on remit 4. See your latest Break-In for a full list of remits and notes.

++++++ Listen on nets for updated information.+++++++

Papakura Radio Club (Inc.)

Minutes of the General Meeting 7th April 2010 at 19.30 Clubrooms, Wellington Park.

Minutes of the April General meeting Apologies: ZL1AJL, ZL1ABR, ZL1AOX, ZL1QK, ZL1RP Welcome to: Manukau Branch 21 members. Matters arising:

Internet to follow in general business. Bank account to follow in general business.

Inward Correspondence: Newsletters from Branches were received. Mercury Energy $57.12 Westpac-00 $3,553.30

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ASB Accelerator $24,808.74 PDC re Compliance Schedule 238 and Building Warrant of Fitness Issues Inland Revenue IR 9 2010 Income Tax return for Clubs or Societies NZART Branch Circular (Includes voting list, Remits, NZART Awards, Callbook Branch update form. Outward Correspondence: Nil Finances: Not available. General Business: 1/ Building WOF was discussed and it was left for Committee member Roly, ZL1ASN to follow up on this and report to the next general meeting.

2/ May Meeting: Remits and Internet Demo??. Subject to the Internet con-nection being available, Nigel ZL2SEA will give a presentation on the Echo-Link HF connection that will become available to club members in a short while. 3/ The Bank term deposit issue was discussed and it appears that there has been no progress in this area. This will be reported on at the next general meet-ing. 4/ Bowls Challenge was discussed and Geoff was to organise. The meeting closed at 7.55pm Steve Miller ZL1FS followed with a presentation of his exploits to Europe and travel experiences aboard a Greenpeace vessel travelling from the English Channel, through the North Sea and into the Baltic Sea to Helsinki in the Gulf of Finland. A very interesting trip. Supper and a chat with our visitors followed.

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NZART AGM and Conference 2010. Over this years Queens Birthday Weekend, the combined Auckland Branches are hosting the 2010 NZART AGM and Conference. Being held at the Alexandra Park Function Center in the heart of Auckland this is an excellent opportunity for locals to attend an AGM and Conference. Con-sider the saving on travel and accommodation that this offers us in the area. Maybe the best idea is to car pool and that way you can enjoy the company of others while traveling to and from. During the AGM we discuss the past years NZART activity and progress. Hear from officers and discuss their reports and consider the remits that have been put for members to vote on. This year we hope to have all the NZART business over by lunchtime on the Saturday so we can get an early start into the forums. After lunch and hopefully after the AGM we plan to hold an Open Forum to discuss Amateur Radio matters in general and this will be a very interesting fo-rum indeed. There will not be much time to discuss in detail the many topics expected but it is hoped that many good ideas will surface that clubs can take home and act upon. Promotion of our hobby is one that will be discussed and sharing resources with other clubs in your area. If the AGM were to continue past lunch this Open Forum may be re scheduled or cancelled. After afternoon tea we are holding the AREC Annual meeting followed by a presentation on mobile operating by club member Richard ZL1BNQ. This meeting will be followed by a forum on Battery Maintenance and one on Soft-ware Defined Radio SDR by club member Ian ZL1AOX. We then break for pre-dinner drinks and the evening meal and entertainment. On the Sunday we start off with some annual meetings. There will be Amsat-ZL with club member Ian ZL1AOX then KiwiSAT, WARO and OTC prior to morning tea at 3 different locations in the complex. Forums continue with DXing, SPAM and Digital Modes introduction by club member Murray ZL1BPU. Prior to lunch, Murray continues with Digital Modes and the Contest Forum starts. After lunch forums continue with Digital TV, IRLP, EchoLink with club mem-

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ber Paul ZL4AX, APRS, VHF/SHF, D-Star and Antenna Engineering. As with previous forums, some are run at the same time as others to enable the pro-gramme to fit within the time frame available. You will have to choose which forum you attend and or when you jump from one to another during the Confer-ence. This years Conference is designed so there is something for all. Running along-side the forums is the Alternative Programme... a bus trip on Saturday and Sun-day to many of the attractions around Auckland with visits to many places that we may know about but have never had or taken the time to visit. Here is that opportunity. Visit the 2010 NZART AGM and Conference website... go to the NZART home page and click on the link in the index on the left hand side. We look forward to seeing you there... if you would like to discuss this activity you can contact Ian ZL1AOX, Richard ZL1BNQ or myself, David ZL1DK and we will assist where possible.

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2010 Jock White Memorial Field Day Contest Results

PRC members had four field day stations running during the recent 2010 Jock White Memorial Field Day contest. Not by design, but each of the stations en-tered in different sections and we did really well, getting three firsts and a sec-ond in the sections entered. . Below are the PRC members results. Single Station 40 & 80 1st ZL1VK (ZL1BYZ & ZL1DK) Br 65 Single Operator 2nd ZL1AOX Br 79 CW Only 1st ZL1RP (ZL1RP & ZL1PZ) Br 10 80 m Only 1st ZL1BL ZL1ALZ & ZL1FAV) Br 17 See the NZART web site for full list of results.

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From Infoline Issue 205 Remit 4 Procedure at the NZART Annual General Meeting The voting on Remit 4 does not give council a mandate re entry level licence. If passed it merely instructs Council to seek a mandate: REMIT 4 Hastings Branch 13 Non - Transmitting "That Council seek a mandate from the full membership before proceeding with the implementation of an entry level licence" What I propose to do at the AGM is as follows: 1. Have the remit discussed and voted on. 2. After the remit is voted on I will then call for a poll from all branches as to whether they want an entry level licence or not. This should settle the matter once and for all. By polling all branches at the AGM - and counting how many votes they record which way - the matter of an entry level licence should be settled. When discussing Remit 4 at branch meetings, could all branches please decide whether they want an entry level licence or not - and instruct their delegates accordingly. The article about an entry level licence that appeared on page 14 of the March/April 2010 Break-In is intended as a discussion document and may not neces-sarily be the final version should an entry level licence be wanted. Roy Symon ZL2KH NZART (Inc) President It is important that our delegate be aware of your views on this matter. Come along to the meeting and make it known. See your copy of Break-In for a full copy of the remits and notes covering them.

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NZART Conference Award 2010 To promote the 2010 NZART Conference, this award is open to all amateur operators. The award will run from 1st May 2010 until 8.30am 4th June 2010 (incl.) To obtain the basic award, 30 points are required. Same call allowed once daily, 0001- 2400 NZT Points will be issued for contacts with any operators in “The Auckland Area” The “The Auckland Area” is the area covered in the Auckland White Pages phonebook. QSO’s on any band/mode. Logs require: Date/Time/Band/Mode/Call sign and Operators name contacted and points claimed. Endorsements for 50/100/150 or more points. Cost: Basic Award $5.00 Endorsements $1.00 extra Logs to be send to: The Awards Manager PO Box 72-397 Papakura 2244 Auckland To be received no later than 1st July 2010.

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ZL2SEA-L HF Connected Internet Link Node Number 200195 This HF Link is used in conjunction with the K1RFD EchoLink® and Echo-Producer Program. It can be selected to operate on 160 m, 80 m, 40 m and 20 m and is open for all licensed Radio Amateurs using the EchoLink system and who are licensed to use the selected frequencies for the type of license that you hold. It is important that you operate within the regulations and guidelines for your country so please check before using the system. Using The Link Using the link is very easy as simple to use as the commands to change the fre-quency are done via the text box. For help type into the text box AA? and click on the send button and the list of 4 letter instruction codes will appear and fre-quencies available. Allow the system time when you send your text commands. When the frequency has changed you will be given a verbal and text indication that the system is ready to use. As you would normally do before calling CQ Listen Listen Listen Just in case the frequency is in use. Access to Connect Required Due to the possibility of some Amateur Radio Connecting to the ZL2SEA HF Link and operating outside their Amateur Radio License. Access to use the ZL2SEA Link is by application. Please read the "What License do I need to Operate the ZL2SEA HF Link?" Web Page and E-mail Address To apply to operate the ZL2SEA HF Link, please email your request. By apply-ing you confirm that your License meets the requirements. E-mail Nigel at zl2sea at qsl dot net Please Note 1. Your Audio level controls the ALC of the HF radio. 2. Audio level MUST be strong in Blue and JUST TOUCH YELLOW on PEAKS. http://www.qsl.net/zl2sea/

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Internet access and remote control of Club Station At the Committee meeting on the 21st April, David ZL1DK advised that Tele-com had activated our ADSL line into the Clubrooms. As it is planned to demonstrate the Internet access at the May Meeting, approval was given to purchase a suitable computer to run the Club Station. On Friday Ian ZL1AOX and Paul ZL4AX went to PBTech in Penrose and purchased an ex-leased computer made by IBM complete with a brand new mouse for $235.01.

The computer is an IBM ThinkCentre P4 3G with 512 MB of memory and a 60 GB Hard drive with Win XP Pro installed. It has 2 x 9 pin serial ports, 1 printer port, 6 USB ports on the rear panel, and 2 USB ports on the front panel, Net-work port, VGA monitor port and soundcard ports on the rear and front. I have installed Echolink and EchoTR from Nigel ZL2SEA which work well. Ham Radio Delux was also downloaded and installed ready for the station con-trol which will be set up by Nigel ZL2SEA. All the on-board software has been updated from the internet and Micro-soft Security Essentials installed to look after the health of the machine. The ADSL wireless modem/router was installed on Monday 26th April. More details to follow

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Ian ZL1AOX

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Internal View of Computer

Radio Electronics Group (inc) Sale Saturday May 8th from 10 am to 2 pm Location: Glenview Club, Peacocke Road, Glenview, Hamilton A new and used equipment sale. $2-00 lucky number entry. Complimentary self service tea or coffee. Kitchen will operate to take food orders. A social evening meal at the same venue will commence at 6 pm. Contact Details: Trevor Service ZL4GJ email trev99@clear.net.nz Ph 07-8437365

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Calling All Radio Hams Hibiscus Coast Radio Society Branch 80, formerly Hibiscus Coast Amateur Ra-dio Club. Calling all members and former members to help celebrate the 30th Birthday of the above Club to be held on 21st August 2010 at Rotary House Silverdale at 7pm for a special Dinner. Cost $30.00 The Club was originally started May 1981 by Fred Medland, Jumbo Godfrey, Des Stony, Alan Wooller and Chris Billings at the inaugural meeting as some of foundation members. The Club has upgraded with a lot more communication aerials and also have upgraded the Headquarters. Ongoing long running projects is for helping our local community in time of need also, and assisting other community groups. Anybody wanting tickets please send name or phone P. Kinnell 09 426 8152 or 1921 East Coast Road, RD3 Silverdale 0993. These will be posted out as soon as money is received to be paid by end of July. Admission by ticket only.

Rally New Zealand... Friday May 7th up north... Waipu Gorge, Brooks, Bull and Cassidy.... Service Park in Whangarei and on Queens Wharf,Akl.

Saturday 8th Franklin... New Franklin, Baker, Te Akau Coast, Hampton Downs SSS.... Service Park on Queens Wharf, at Hampton Downs and again on Queens Wharf

Sunday 9th South... Te Hutewai and Whaanga Coast.... Service Park on Queens Wharf, at Raglan and again on Queens Wharf

I have for sale (on behalf) a Kenwood TR 751 all mode 2m transceiver.

Anyone interested can contact me on phone 2984124 for further info.

Geoff. ZL1AKY

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SACC Hillclimb. April 11th was the day for an AREC activity. This was the South Auckland Car Clubs Otorohaea Trig Road hillclimb. Otorohaea Trig Road is located to the southwest of Huntly and as the name suggests, rises up and over a hill with a Trig Station on top. We have done this many times before and know what is required. This is one of the few activities where we require the use of an AREC STSP repeater. STSP stands for Short Term Special Purpose... STSP and these repeaters are housed in a box. There is a kit which includes the box...radio and filters, a bag containing the aerial, guys and pegs and a battery. I started out early on the day as I had to collect the bus from work and get a couple of tables and 3 chairs on the way from the clubrooms. I planned to be underway from Papakura by 7am. I was somewhat earlier than that and started off on the way south. The trip down was good with just a bit of fog and I arrived on site just after 8am... the first one there. Bob Holt ZL1BBZ was positioned at the repeater site and set it up on the day. We had 6 operators for the day. Jack ZL1IJ was at the start, Dave ZL1DJP, Fred ZL1FAV and Bob ZL1BBZ were the mid point operators. Cliff ZL1RP was at the finish and I was in base. Communications were excellent for the duration of the event even with Dave having to stand on the other side of the road with a handheld radio away from his vehicle so he could see the rally car numbers. This was sorted out later when he used some PRS handhelds he had. The day was cool earlier on but warmed up and became quite dusty for all in the field. During the day there were a couple of minor incidents that required vehi-cles being towed out and on one occasion a car had rolled and needed to be pushed back onto its wheels. There were no injuries, just a drain on some driv-ers bank balances to repair their cars. The day finished at around 4.30pm and after the results had been sorted and printed, the officials vacated the bus and I was soon on the way back home. Thanks again to all who assisted. David ZL1DK

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Degaussing On a recent break to the Shakespear ARC Park on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula I took a walk around the cliff tops overlooking the Tiritiri Channel and came across this building below. Memories flooded back as I remembered many years ago on the HMNZS Inverell coming up to the degaussing range to get our little ship measured and degaussed.

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HMNZS Inverell was a Bathurst type minesweeper built in Australia during the second world war. When I joined the navy it was in mothballs and the govern-ment in its wisdom thought it would make an excellent coastal defense ship as the NZ government was bringing in a 50 mile economic zone (1965) round NZ and needed larger ships to patrol it. The mine sweeping gear was removed from the after part of the ship and the space made available converted into further ac-commodation for the larger crew. I spent two years aboard mainly seasick most of the time. She rolled and bucked like something insane. When you think of degaussing you probably think of the degaussing coils in TV and other cathode ray tubes and believe it or not these ships had degaussing coils for the same reason but for a different purpose. As a steel ship is being built or is in a dry dock or is in any position for a length of time it gradually be-comes magnetized by the earths magnetic field, especially if it is being worked on with many hammers etc. Mines took advantage of this with proximity fuses so that when they detected a change in the magnetic field around them caused by a passing ship they exploded sinking the ship. So up in the Tiri Channel lying on the bottom are some coils that when a ship passes over them cause a current to flow that can be measured in the shore sta-tion. Current is then passed through the ships coils to neutralize the ships mag-netic field. The ship does several passes over the coils with the ships current

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being altered until no effect is seen. In the photos you can see the buoys mark-ing the coils and the cables going out from the shore to the undersea coils.

Cliff ZL1RP

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The Jumbo Trophy Indoor Bowls Challenge. The Jumbo Trophy was fought for amongst Auckland clubs again on Wednes-day the 21st of April. A group of 6 met at the clubrooms in Papakura to make the trip north to Albany. There was Ian ZL1AOX, Geoff ZL1ALK, Nigel ZL2SEA and wife Dianne , Paul ZL4AX and myself David ZL1DK. On the nite there were radio teams and Albany Indoor Bowls club members and the mat allocations are from a draw that sees radio teams playing other radio teams and one of the local teams. With our 6 members, we set up 2 teams from Papakura... Team 1 and 2. The smart ones choose team 2... Geoff, Paul and my-self. Ian lead team 1 with Nigel and Dianne. Well... on the nite... oh what a nite! Team 1 went well with a a final score that placed them in 3rd position. The other team that was also there collected the all day suckers! We went from bad to worse and did not win a game during the evening and in the final of our 3 games we didn't even win an end... oh dear! As is normal, an excellent nite with the pleasure of catching up with other hams and those members from the Albany Indoor Bowls Club that we have come to know over the years.

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The 2010 Australian Shires Contest Held the first full weekend of June every year.

Starts: 06.00 UTC Saturday, June 12, 2009 Ends: 06.00 UTC Sunday, June 13, 2009 I. Contest Period: 24 hours for all stations, all categories. II. Objectives: The objectives of this contest are for amateurs around the world to contact as many VK shires as possible in the contest period. (ie VK amateurs are to work the world including VK, whilst the rest of the world can only work VK) III. A) Bands:. 80 Metres 3.500 - 3.700 MHz, 40 Metres 7.000 - 7.250 MHz, 20 Metres 14.000 - 14.250 MHz, 15 Metres 21.000 - 21.350 MHz, 10 Metres 28.000 - 28.600 MHz. Please note there is no 75m dx window per-mitted. B) Modes: SSB and CW only

2010 SANGSTER SHIELD QRP CW CONTEST

When: - Saturday, 15 May 2010 and Sunday, 16 May 2010 Times: - 2000 NZST until 2300 NZST each evening Band: - 80m Mode: - CW only. The contest was established in 1927 at the time the late Mr. Ralph Sangster pre-sented to the radio Amateurs of NZ the trophy, known as the Sangster Shield, for annual competition to be won by the most efficient station. It is pertinent to note not only did the efficiency of the station be taken into account, but also the efficiency of the operator concerned. The terms of the gift of the trophy were that the competition was to be con-ducted on the 80 metre band using an output power of not more than 5 watts and to be solely restricted to Morse operation.

The 80 Metres VK/ trans-Tasman Contest is on again on Saturday (8th May).

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Papakura Radio Club Inc. Branch 65 NZART Club Directory 2010

Wellington Park, 1 Great South Road. PO BOX 72-397 Papakura 2244 PHONE 2965244

Club website: http://www.qsl.net/zl1vk Elected Officers President ZL1DK David Karrasch Ph 2985271 021 560180 Vice President ZL1FAV Fred Vermeulen Ph 2665155 021 728158 Secretary ZL1AOX Ian Ashley Ph 2981810 027 2632440 Treasurer ZL1MR David Wilkins Ph 2999346 021 685847 Committee ZL4AX Paul Godolphin Ph 09 2391188 021 1582521 ZL1ALZ John Balsillie Ph 2336182 027 4948818 ZL1BNQ Richard Gamble Ph 5371238 021 729270 ZL1ASN Rolly Adams radams@clear.net.nz 027 4785040 AREC Section Leader ZL1BNQ Richard Gamble Ph 5371238 021 729270 Deputy Section Leader ZL1DK David Karrasch Ph 2985271 021 560180 CD Liaison ZL1AOX Ian Ashley Ph 2981810 027 2632440 Newsletter Editor ZL1RP Cliff Reynolds email cjreynolds@xtra.co.nz Hall Custodian ZL1BUP Fred Johnson Ph 2986789 Our newsletter is published monthly and normally distributed just prior to the club meeting. Please have articles etc to editor Wed latest before general meeting. Do notify any change of address. After a period of grace, newsletters are only sent to financial members. Meetings General Meetings are held at the Club rooms on the 1st Wednesday of each month, starting at 7.30pm. Look at your calendar and mark these nights. The speaker follows the GM. Project Evenings are on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month. Committee Meetings are held on 3rd Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm, unless advised. Day Time Meetings are on the 4th Wednesday at 1.30pm. Activity Nights are held on the 4th Wednesday starting at 7.30pm. AREC Meetings are on the 5th Wednesday night, also starting at 7.30pm Subscription Full membership and newsletter $25.00 Family Membership and newsletter $35.00 Student or Country DX membership $15.00 Working Bees As required. Branch 65 21 Award For contact with 20 Papakura Club members and the ZL1VK call after 1977. Cost $2.00. Band Mode endorsements available. Apply to the Club Secretary. ZL1VK Club Nets 147.325 MHz Sunday at 8.30am. Controller ZL1QK Bill Stone. If the repeater is not available, listen 146.475 simplex. 3.755 MHz Sunday at 9.00am. Controller ZL1AMN Dave Johnston. Morse Code Practice 3.550 MHz Monday and Thursday 7.30pm John ZL1ALZ. 1960 2010