Happy New Year to you. The website club net roster has been updated and we’ve added some basic info about upcoming meetings for the next few weeks that we’ve been made aware of.

In other news the website software has been updated and we have added a SSL Certificate to the site. This means the site is now served up using a HTTPS connection and you will see a small padlock against the website address in your web browser.

Why do this? Have a read of this helpful article on the CERTNZ website.

Following the announcement about the ECU, DCC have decided to dispose of it. Sincere thanks to the DCC and the CDEM group who have been very supportive of our use of the ECU for club events and particularly AREC and our involvement with LandSAR operations and Training. The end of a happy era!

A great link from Dave ZL4LDY who also advise there is a Straight Key Night test coming up.

Prof Mark Stirling of Otago University Geology Dept ran a very enjoyable, interesting and informative evening for us last night (11 Nov). He presented slides, talked to them and fielded many challenging questions from the floor. Sincere thanks Mark from the Amateur Operators across Otago.
He was presented with a sample of Central Otago produce with a label from The Shaky Bridge! Wicked. Absolutely delighted

Apologies for our dodgy internet which failed to deliver the Zoom re Supercapacitors. This can be found at aucklandvhf.org/technical-articles along with other interesting vids.

At our recent AREC Meeting, some issues were raised regarding the DCC ECU. TT and Stew ZL4DC met with Glenn Mitchell to offer assistance but it seems DCC are reviewing it’s use of the vehicle. More news as it comes to hand.

AREC National are working on a register and ID’s for its Members.

Our Resilience Project is pottering along and we hope to see the DTMF control of (Solar) power to 4 of the repeaters at Highcliff soon. Another project to add a 5 watt APRS service at Saddle Hill is also planned.
Other projects are being considered but the big one is to see as many of us able to operate ‘Off Grid” on VHF, UHF or HF when a major event occurs and power and telecommunications are lost. Contact Terry if you would like suggestions as to how you might get there.

Finally TT, Russ ZL4JW and Dan ZL4DE are working on a paper to present to Emergency Management Otago and Southland as to Emergency Communication Issues and Options to help deal with a major event.

Apologies the website was down for around 32 hours when a database error occurred. I’ve worked to fix this issue and the site is now back up and running.

There’s been some updated content posted to the site including a revised club net roster through until the end of the year and historical info added to our page that displays past club office holders. The latter has had the last ten years added to it.

If you spot anything amiss let me know. Cheers. ZL4PH

We have survived 2 Club nights at our Clubhouse and it’s great to meet and mix again.

A new Calendar is up under Meetings for most of July, we look forward to seeing you there.

The Highcliff site Solar array was given a good test during the month when the AC power was removed from the UHF DMR repeater. This was backfeeding DC into our new battery bank with the Solar just doing a morning top up Bulk Charge.

So we ran 665, APRS and the UHF DMR totally on Solar for nearly a month but Martin restored the backup just before the winter solstice as the battery charge was heading down hill.

Load during this time was 1.9 Amp, 24/7 and it all performed well.

Allan has a new PCB to integrate with the Solar DC System. This will allow remote switching of our services to balance load vs solar and battery capacity.

The 22nd July Meeting will focus on AREC matters. We would like to see as many as possible attend to help judge future AREC directions.

We have had some great talks and discussion re the current wave of VNA units, it’s really interesting learning to make use of such clever kit.

And a number of our crew have taken delivery of new Solar regulators to make further steps towards a Solar Shack. 

If anyone would like to head down the same track, please contact ZL4TAE