Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

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.

Promoting amateur radio and new members The Group published a Promotion pamphlet, both in Q-Bit journal and on the Group’s website, thanks to the efforts of Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ. Later in 2008 radio classes were run at Onslow College Evening School, culminating in 5 new licenced amateurs. John Andrews ZL2HD organised the classes, and Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ provided the course material, and they were supported by a group of dedicated tutors. In it’s first full year of operation, the group’s Callsign Service has resulted in a total of 16 new licencees, the 5 new amateurs mentioned above plus 11 resurrected licences. The group is running classes again this year, but at a different venue, Tawa Community Centre. These are led by Peter Ford ZL2VK and aimed at the youth age level, with classes run in the afternoon after College hours. These classes are now underway.

Meetings and Speakers A full programme of meetings was held this year, with interesting speakers arranged for all the indoor meetings.

* October – Annual General Meeting, and show-and-tell
* November - Land Search & Rescue Communications, John Yaldwyn ZL4JY
* January - Annual Picnic & Bar-B-Que
* February - Radio direction-finding, aka the “Fox Hunt”
* March – RF test strategies and instruments, Lex Grubner, RF Test Solutions Ltd
* April - Tetra digital radio and the KorKor network, Tony Philp-Wright, CapCom Ltd
* May - “Preparing for KiwiSAT”, KiwiSAT Update, Terry Osborne ZL2BAC
* June - “Digital Mobile Radio”, P25, Tetra, D-Star, John Yaldwyn ZL4JY
* July – The POTS replacement programme, Telecom digital network, Rob Wallace ZL2WAL
* August – Military Interoperability and communications, SqnLdr Paul Drysdale, RNZAF
* September – A new HF propagation method, Steve Fogerty ZL2ASF

In May your committee appointed a Meeting co-ordinator to plan and organise meetings and speakers, and to provide early notice of upcoming topics to members. Thank you to John Andrews ZL2HD for accepting the challenge to improve this area of service to our members. One of John’s first improvements has been to establish a meeting and event calendar on our website, with specialist help from John Yaldwyn ZL4JY. Please check there for what’s going on.

Special Interest Group Meetings We ran a special interest group each month which focused on different activities from time to time. During the year members have built a batch of 10MHz Clock Sources for use as marker generators, constructed two batches of “Softrock” software defined radios, gained experience with surface-mount components, and modified 900 MHz mobile radios for our 32cm band.

Picnic meeting, Sladden Park A firm favourite with members, the picnic was a great social gathering, as a montage of photos in the February issue of Q-Bit show. Many different activities, great food, and great company were had by all.

Website Our website continues to provide an up-to-date resource for members. It continues to attract high levels of attention, measured by the level of “hits” in all subject topics. A number of inquiries were made via the on-line form, including several from overseas amateurs. Members are increasingly using the site to facilitate payment of subs and trading table purchases. A project is underway to add an indexed library of technical articles from past Q-Bit journals. Our thanks are due to Mark Foster ZL1VMF for hosting the website on his server free of charge to the Group, and for his management as Webmaster and site editor.

Support for KiwiSAT The Group has a strong desire to support the KiwiSAT initiative, and we have in the past donated $5000 specifically for the Tecstar Solar Cells. This year we donated a further $4000 specifically for the Battery Charge Regulator (BCR). We look forward to the time when KiwiSAT is operational and providing services from space for our members.

Contribution to Amateur Radio at National level We are fortunate that several members of our Group have volunteered to positions of responsibility in governance and administration of amateur radio at a national level. John Andrews ZL2HD, Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ and Lee Jennings ZL2AL were elected Councillors in ZL2 district, although it was disappointing that ZL2AL resigned so early in the term. Doug Ingham ZL2TAR continues his good work as Secretary and technical resource of FMTAG, Don Wallace ZL2TLL as ALO, Jeff Sayer ZL4JS as Director of AREC, and John Yaldwyn ZL4JY as ZL2 Manager for AREC. Our thanks to these keen workers for their contributions made on our behalf.

Support of IARU activities Your committee approved a $3000 subsidy to cover travel and accommodation expenses for our three members of the IARU liaison committee to attend the IARU conference at Christchurch in October. They are Fred Johnson ZL2AMJ, Don Wallace ZL2TLL, and David Andrews ZL2SX. In providing this subsidy, your committee recognised the strategic importance of the work of IARU, and the on-going contribution these three members make to the protection and enhancement of amateur privileges.

Public safety Our AREC section continued their support of Land Search and Rescue and Police with emergency communications, providing both equipment and operators. They were employed in several searches, were additionally placed on standby several times, and participated in several training exercises (Sarex). As always they achieved the highest professional standards, necessary in today’s emergency response theatre, after all the reason for being there is safety of life. Thank you to John Yaldwyn ZL4JY our Section Leader, his two deputies Rick Smith ZL2TVY and Jeff Sayer ZL4JS, as well as those other members who participated from time-to-time.

Civil Defence is being replaced throughout the country by Emergency Management Groups, in our case the Wellington Emergency Management Office (WEMO). Our current role is to assist with the re-organisation of communications for WEMO, and to advise on the use of the variety of communications methods now available. Thanks to our two advisors who are working with WEMO, David Andrews ZL2SX and Dick Greenbank ZL2TGQ.

Branch members also contributed to the community by providing eight Radio Marshalls for the “Bike the Trail” event from Brown Owl, Akatarawa, to Hikoikoi, Petone. The main function was the safety and security of the 1500 participants, plus spectators. This also provided an opportunity for training in message handling, making use of the 710 repeater. Thanks to Mark Foster ZL1VMF for co-ordinating this effort, to Rick Smith ZL2TVY for providing the communications base, and to those members who turned out for the event with their mobile and portable radios.

Money matters The Group’s reserves are recovering from the effects of the approx $22,000 expenditure on refurbishing Belmont tower and clearing the pines that were encroaching on the power line corridor. This recovery has been assisted by the Corridor Fund appeal initiated by Brian Fearnley ZL2BRF, so a special thank you to Brian and to all those who have donated to this special fund. We have benefited from the increase in income due to the lift in member subscriptions, and also the trading table continues to consistently produce significant income.

Trading Table During the year Trading Table activities continued to provide parts and components to members and to return a useful income to the group. Several Trading Table Specials were made available, including DXR Antenna cable pack, Softrock SDR kits, T700 UHF mobile radios, and shack-clearance sales. Thanks to Doug Ingham ZL2TAR for his continued stewardship of this valuable activity. Thanks also to Tim Goode ZL2RST for the DXR packs, Peter Ford ZL2VK for organising the import of the Softrock kits, Peter Cobb ZL3TC and Peter Ford ZL2VK for their work on the T700’s, and to those members and corporate sponsors who made donations.

Awards The Group sponsored and ran a successful National System Award 2009, which was organised by Dick Greenbank ZL2TGQ. On this occasion the theme was public conservation areas, including parks and marine reserves. The award was run during January and February, to suit holiday travellers. One feature was that special event station ZL2WA was manned on a roster by members from around the country. We extend a special thank you to the following operators, Murray Willis ZL1HI, Doug Ingham ZL2TAR, Steve Jepson ZL2KG, Cliff Walker ZL2ALY, Phil King ZL1PK, and Dick Greenbank ZL2TGQ. Hamilton Branch approached us with a proposal for them to run the award in 2010, to make it an annual event. They have an interesting theme, so look out for this early in 2010.

VHF-UHF-SHF Contest The Group undertook a review of, and proposed some changes to, the rules of this contest on behalf of the VHF/UHF community. These were decided at VHF Convention and subsequently publicised. Your committee have in addition, decided that the Contest Rules be hosted on our website.

Q-Bit Journal The journal continues to provide communication for members, some of whom who live afar and are not able to attend our monthly meetings, and also to present the opportunity for members to publish articles of both technical and general interest. In addition to every member receiving a copy, 30 complimentary copies are distributed to members of NZART Council, and other NZART Branches via the Newsletter Exchange, bringing the total production each month to over 190 copies. Our thanks to Gavin Cross ZL2TVM our Editor for his efforts in publishing this every month. Many members comment on the high quality of the production as well as the high quality of the content. Of course the latter relies on input from you, the members, so keep those articles coming! Thanks also to the small, dedicated team who turn out each month to assemble, label and stamp Q-Bit for posting, your help is essential.

Repeaters & Beacons Our stations at Maroanui, Mt Egmont, Wharite, Colonial Knob, Belmont, Mt Victoria and Hawkins Hill continue to meet the needs of members and other amateurs, but sometimes require significant amounts of effort and funds to keep fully operational. Some of our equipment is reaching the mature stage of life, when replacement will need to be considered.

Ngaio Reservoir. This is a new site for the Group, on a hill situated in the suburb of Khandallah, and known to some as Khandallah High. It has a dominating view of Wellington CBD and the near suburbs. After a long period of contact and negotiation with WCC, David Andrews ZL2SX, our Site Negotiator, was successful in obtaining long-term access to this site for us. Thank you David for your perseverance. Our initial use of this site is to establish a new 70cm repeater there, Ngaio Reservoir 955. This project is now being constructed and completion is scheduled before Christmas. This repeater will provide extensive coverage of central Wellington, including penetration of the CBD, which will be particularly useful for our emergency services, (AREC, CD).

Many thanks to the following Repeater and Beacon Trustees, who have attended these sites during the past year to keep our communications going. Peter Cobb ZL3TC; Gavin Cross ZL2TVM; Steve Jepson ZL2KG; Paul Miller ZL2BEZ; Dick Greenbank ZL2TGQ; Doug Ingham ZL2TAR; Cyril Ingham ZL2TAK; John Andrews ZL2HD; David Andrews ZL2SX; Jeff Sayer ZL4JS; John Yaldwyn ZL4JY; and for shared responsibility for Maroanui, Graeme Frederick ZL1BU; and Kelvin Brooking ZL1KU.

Projects In May your committee appointed a Projects Co-ordinator to bring resources and effort together in timely fashion to progress ongoing maintenance and new projects. This was not to take away the fun, but to actually increase the involvement and teamwork of members and to ensure progress in all our projects. Thank you to Peter Ford ZL2VK for taking on this particular task. The Group have this year carried out, or are currently working on, many projects. These are;

Completed this year:

* Fit CTCSS to Mt Victoria 950 repeater
* Publish a Digital ATV Strategy
* Review and re-write the Group’s Constitution

On-going:

* Website, add an indexed library of technical articles
* Back-up batteries for Taupo National System, Maroanui
* 2m antennas, Colonial Knob
* 32cm repeater, Colonial Knob
* 70cm repeater, Ngaio Reservoir 955
* External battery locker and new DC mains wiring, Belmont
* Replace Belmont mains power pole transformer
* Install APRS receiver, linked to 6625 Data repeater, Hawkins Hill
* Portable dual-band yagi kit for use with KiwiSAT, and other field-day and small-signal activities

Introduction of Digital ATV With the move of Broadcast TV to digital terrestrial television, ATV also needs to change to digital. With this requirement in mind your committee decided to provide the technical leadership to help with this change. In June they commissioned a strategy document to be developed and published. This booklet has now been completed and distributed to our members, as well as to NZART Council and Branches. Our thanks to the two contributors for their effort, knowledge and experience in this high tech area, Ralph Sanson ZL2TV and Doug Ingham ZL2TAR.

Advocacy Your committee maintains a watching brief on spectrum, regulatory, licencing and other issues that can affect amateur radio. We must be prepared to make submissions, write papers etc, and to be active advocates to guard our spectrum and licence assets. This year we have dealt with, or are currently dealing with the following issues.

* MED, Scoping Paper on Digital Dividend. Your Group developed and sent a 13 page report on two areas of concern, 6 meters (50-54MHz) and Channel 39 (614-622MHz).

* MED, 806-960 MHz band re-planning Your Group submitted a response concerning 32cm.

* Digital ATV. We developed and published a strategy for the introduction of digital amateur television.

* MED, Channel 39. MED have stated their intention to take away this allocation. We have assisted the NZART ALO with his submission in response to this challenge.

* Wellington City Council, District Plan Change No. 74, concerning antennas and masts. We are currently working on this challenge.

Sponsors The Group is indebted to our sponsors for their assistance with accommodation, donations and services. A big thank you to the following: 4RF Communications, Andrews Display Equipment, Levin Communications, Blakjak Web Hosting, SurveyLab, Harris Stratex Networks, Microwave Systems Ltd, Abbey Systems, TouchSystems New Zealand, Wellington Emergency Management Office (WEMO), Kordia, The Trotter Family Trust, Taupo Branch NZART, and Peter Williams ZL2ARW.

Summary The Group is in good heart, with an increasingly wide range of activities involving members. Our volunteer efforts have been of service to the wider public community, our activities have provided fellowship for members, and we certainly have had fun. I am indebted to the members of the management committee for their guidance and their efforts throughout the year, which have helped make all these things happen.

Dick Greenbank ZL2TGQ
President