Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

Digital ATV (DATV) On-Air

At their Group Meeting held on Thursday 25th March, Members were impressed with the inaugural transmission of digital ATV.

This project has now reached the stage where two sets of transmission equipment have been commissioned, one on 1284 MHz and the other on 430MHz. This result comes from the import of modules from a German supplier and a fair bit of work by, in particular, ZL2TAR, ZL2TVM, ZL2TGQ and with advice from ZL2TIQ.

“Bike The Trail” – a public service event

“Bike The Trail” is an easy, scenic, 25km bike ride down the Hutt River trail from Harcourt Park at Brown Owl to Hikoikoi Reserve, Petone. In 2009 over 1500 of the public participated. This year the event was scheduled for Sunday 28 February, which turned out to be an eventful day for a more global reason than a local bike ride.

January Picnic

Our picnic was again held at Sladden Park, adjacent to the Hutt River. Although the day had started out overcast and windy, by mid-afternoon it had changed to blue skies and little wind, followed by a perfect evening.

Helping new Amateurs

Our Group will be running radio classes again this year, commencing in the first semester, to be held at Onslow College Evening School. John ZL2HD has taken the lead on organising this. Thanks John.

As you can see in an article elsewhere in this issue, a lot of work has been put into the development and production of both an up-to-date and modern Question-bank and an up-to-date and modern Study Guide. These can help anyone to become a radio amateur. Fred ZL2AMJ has primarily led this work, with several other helpers. Thanks Fred and team.

ZL2JOTA & ZL4JOTA. The Group was invited to again contribute to the Jamboree activities of the Paparangi Scout Group during the weekend 17 – 18 October. Led by Mark Foster ZL1VMF, Rob Wallace ZL2WAL, and Tom Clarke ZL2TDD, a JOTA station was set up at the Paparangi Scout hall. A UHF radio was set up and many contacts were made throughout N.Z. via the National System. A VHF radio was used to contact VK, W and other overseas countries via IRLP on the local 730 repeater.

The 2008-2009 period has been a busy time for the Group, and as we approach another Annual General Meeting it is time to review our activities for the past year. Brian Fearnley ZL2BRF was President from November 2008 to April 2009, and then emigrated to Australia. Dick Greenbank ZL2TGQ was subsequently appointed for the period May to October 2009.

Membership The number of financial Members has grown steadily during the year as new people have joined, with now 161 in N.Z. plus 5 overseas, making a total of 166.

Participation and Teamwork

In my last month report I appealed to members to get involved in projects and activities.

I was pleased to host a working bee recently where a team literally got their hands dirty on the Ngaio Reservoir repeater project. This involved stripping down, cleaning, sanding, painting, and finally reassembling a rack cabinet that will house our repeater. (This rack cabinet was donated to us some while ago, and has been in storage).

Here’s a snapshot of the team at work on a sunny Saturday afternoon, l to r, Ross ZL2UAC, David ZL4TAC, Jim ZL1TYF, Henry ZL2TUQ, Peter ZL2VK, and Joanna ZL2TJB.

By the time that you read this, a second team will have carried out some heavy maintenance at the Belmont site, re-running the underground mains, levelling the shack, and fitting the replacement door and frame. I will have further infomation about this in my next column.

Together these two activities have started off our summer season of work at repeater sites. If you want to get involved in the fun, please contact Peter ZL2VK our coordinator.

Training Classes commence

I am pleased to report that radio training classes have commenced, with six teenagers and two adults registered. Thankyou to our keen mentors/tutors for their time and effort with this.

Supporting KiwiSAT and small-signal activities

Last month I reported our plan to manufacture a portable beam antenna suitable for use with KiwiSAT.

Your Committee have agreed to underwrite the cost of development, including tooling and manufacture of components, and I am pleased to announce that John Andrews ZL2HD has taken the lead on this new project. This project will result in the design and production of a kitset, dual-band, crossed yagi, portable antenna. Further details will be reported by the team as work progresses.

Digital ATV

Our strategy document for introducing digital ATV has been published. I wish to record my thanks to Ralph Sanson ZL2TV, and Doug Ingham ZL2TAR, for the effort they have put into this and for their knowledge and experience in one of our more high tech areas of amateur radio.

See the “Brief and Strategy” paper elsewhere in this issue, and please also refer to “Digital Amateur Television Transmission Standards” Q-Bit, July 2009.

Support for IARU activities

Your Committee has approved a subsidy of up to $3000 for our three members of the IARU Liaison Committee to attend the full programme of the 14th IARU Region 3 Triennial conference which is being held in New Zealand this time, at Christchurch on 12-16 October. The subsidy is to cover travel and accommodation expenses for Don Wallace ZL2TLL (NZART ALO), Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ, and David Andrews ZL2SX, who are all members of the IARU Liaison Committee.

In granting this, your Committee recognises the strategic importance of the work of the IARU Region 3 organisation in relationships with the regional telecommunications organisations, and the Intenational Telecommunications Union, and culminating at the World Radiocommunications Conference, WRC-11.

We are reminded just how important this work is in maintaining our spectrum privileges, especially at a time when our own privileges are under direct threat by our N.Z. regulator, MED.

73,
Dick Greenbank ZL2TGQ
President

Group Member to represent N.Z. at International Conference

I am pleased to note that N.Z.A.R.T. Council has chosen to distinguish one of our members to represent N.Z. Amateurs at this international conference. Doug ZL2TAR, long-time member and technical scribe, has been selected as the New Zealand delegate to the Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (GAREC) Conference 2009, being held in Tokyo 24-25 August.

At their meeting on 11 June 2009 the executive committee of Wellington VHF Group Inc commissioned a strategy for the development of digital ATV for the Group.

The strategy document has now been released. We thank the two authors who have contributed Ralph ZL2TV, and Doug ZL2TAR, for their efforts.

We are arranging to publish this in the next issue of Q-Bit Journal. In the meantime, anyone who wants can obtain a copy in portable document format (PDF) on request from the President. Email zl2wa@clear.net.nz, or use the Automatic Email Form on our website.

The management committee has authorised the Contest Rules to be hosted and maintained on the VHF Group website. The rules can now be found in On The Air, Contests. The current Rules took effect in June 2006.