The 2021 AGM of the NZART Branch 30, Otago branch is next Wednesday starting at 8pm at the clubrooms. There are no “notices of motion” and the committee has recommended no change to subscriptions.  Written nominations have been received for all committee positions

The agenda is as follows:

The Otago Branch of the New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters Inc.
(Inaugural meeting 9 August 1928)
P.O. Box 5485, Dunedin, 9054.
Clubrooms: 109 Macandrew Road, South Dunedin.
Charities Commission Reg No. CC 40410

The Annual General Meeting of Branch 30 will be held on Wednesday 16th June, 2021 starting at 8pm at the club headquarters, 109 Macandrew Road with supper to follow.

AGENDA

• Opening welcome
• Apologies
• Silent Keys
• Minutes of the previous AGM.
• Reports (Verbal – Brief!!)
o Presidents (ZL4DK)
o Financial (ZL4JH)
o Repeater (ZL4JH)
o AREC (ZL4SLG)
o Contesting (ZL4QD)
o Examination (ZL4DK)
Other reports will be available in writing.

• Election of Office bearers Written Nominations have been received for all positions as below.

o President ZL4DK
o Vice President ZL4TAE
o Secretary ZL4JH
o Treasurer ZL4JH
o Committee – not less than 3 nor more than 5. ZL4MD, CB, UC, KT, ERU

• Appointments to key positions.

o AREC ( Note only – Outside appointment)
o Awards
o Archivist
o Charities Liaison
o IT Managers
o Club Contact
o Contest Manager
o EMC Manager
o Examiners
o Jota Liaison
o Librarian
o QSL Manager
o Repeater Trustees
▪ Mt Cargill
▪ 665
▪ APRS
▪ Mosgiel Link
▪ DMR/EE122
▪ Rudd Road/HWB
o Webmaster

For list of incumbents, see our website

• General Business
• Supper

R.M. Balch ZL4JH
Hon Secretary

We are planning a BBQ at the clubhouse on Sat 27^th Mar at 1200 Hrs. The club will supply salads, juices, breads. BYO cookables. Check on 690 in case the weather is truly awful. We have no Plan B. A gold coin donation please.

Due to unavoidable circumstances…. Kays Wanda Track presentation is delayed a week till 31 March and the Yagi Fabrication Night project is now delayed to 19^th May. Those intending to participate have been sent an email. Materials will be supplied at very attractive $$$ and all payments are to be made to BR30. We have 17 Yagis planned with others interested in a Vert polarised model or a 10 element model later in the year.

The AF8 Team are planning to resume their Roadshows across the South while Level 1 persists. See Meetings Calendar for more info or https://af8.org.nz/af8-roadshow/

Solar cycle 25 has sprouted wings with improving HF propagation. A recent report in PW magazine indicates research showing SC 25 to be a biggie but another researcher has a different view HERE. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23328940.2020.1796243 Read this!  And I found a 2016 issue of Echo Ireland which expressed the view that SC 25 was likely a flopper. We’ll see.  And MS News reports on 15 historic very bad snowstorms in the USA. 13 occurred around a Solar minimum. The two in 1967 & 69 were around a solar max so may have been random outliers.

EE122 is operational in FM Mode only. Adam pressed our donated Icom FR3000 into service. This machine will handle tracking data from the AREC and LandSAR radios. The DMR repeater continues to be examined. EE122 and a set of fans mounted on the door were switched to the Solar 12v last week. Total standby load is now near 2 Amps. https://aprs.fi/telemetry/a/ZL4AA-11

Solar components for our HWB Cross-bander are on the way and work may start next week. We plan to use the cabinet from the Linear Repeater (after mice-proofing) to house equipment.

Our AREC team have been very busy with numerous alerts this summer. Only some turned into events we needed to attend. The biggest was the search in and above Gabriels Gully (good outcome) and we also had crew at the unsuccessful search in Invercargill. Both events used and SARTrack with GPS equipped radios and again proved very valuable to the Incident Management Team. 

The ‘Dreams are Free’ Team once again cleaned up the Feb VHF Contest on top of the December event. Our biggest catch was working Greg ZL1GSG at Turoa Skifield pretty much every Hour on 2m. Greg heard us on 70cm but we didn’t make contact. Next contest, look out for ZL4AA.

David Karrasch ZL1DK is planning Morse Practice transmissions over the National System. Soon.

Finally, our AGM is planned for 16^th June and Ross is investigating a venue for a Dinner Out on 23 June.

73, TT, ZL4TAE

TT ZL4TAE

The upcoming events on our ‘meetings’ page has been updated (thanks Terry!) and we’ve added a link on the homepage to the ARRL

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