Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

The ONTRACK National Train Control Centre at the Wellington Railway Station communicates with the locomotive drivers out on the track using a VHF radio network. This month we were fortunate to have John Skilton, Manager Signals and Telecommunications Engineering at ONTRACK, and Stu Lusty from Kordia, speak to us about the upgrade of this train control VHF radio system and the new technologies that are being employed. An interesting and informative evening followed.

Image courtesy ZL2KG

Doug Ingham ZL2TAR, well known broadcast engineer, speaker and author, delivered on promises to both inform and entertain on the subject of High Definition TV. It's true - you definately don’t want to race out and buy any HDTV gear until you’ve heard Doug’s presentation.

Doug's presentation was very informative, answering a range of sometimes hairy questions from the floor ranging from 'Which one should I buy?' through to discussion on Freeview and the differences between PAL, NTSC, CYMK vs RGB.

Doug ZL2TAR enlightens his audience, who are watching with great intent.

The next SIG, is planning for the Onslow College Adult Education Programme Ham Radio Classes. Due to the non-availability of our leader John ZL2HD on the original SIG date, it has been decided to swap the Meal & Movie and the SIG dates.

The Ham Radio Classes planning SIG will now be 7:30pm 3 July at the QTH of David ZL2SX. The Meal & move will now be 6:00pm 10 July at the Reading Cinema, Courtney Place.

Regards
Brian ZL2BRF

Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs) are essential safety equipment that can save your life if you get into trouble at sea or on land. When a beacon is activated, Maritime NZ's Rescue Co-ordination Centre receives the satellite information, finds and locates the beacon, and co-ordinates a rescue mission.

This month we are very fortunate to have Rodney Bracefield from the Maritime New Zealand Rescue Co-ordination Centre coming to speak to us about EPIRBs and how the related systems work. This promises to be a fascinating evening.

The April meeting was our remit night, and all the remits were discussed and a position formed. Two delegates were nominated and the matter of expenses was covered. Due to conference being far away, we agreed to contribute to the costs of one delegate.

Bruce ZL2WP, NZART President also gave us some good input on the remits, and helped us to understand some of them.

Bruce and Brian ZL2BRF also presented a certificate from NZART to David ZL2SX for his outstanding service to NZART as a Councillor, FMTAG chairman and other jobs.

The next General Meeting of the Wellington VHF Group will be held on Thursday 29 May at the Tawa Community Centre.

Our guest speaker will be Mr Rex Aubrey of the New Zealand Red Cross. Rex is actively involved in assisting the Red Cross from a communications and technology perspective and this has synergy with what Amateurs are already active with in the world of AREC - Rex is well known to many AREC participants through his involvement in Search and Rescue and we look forward to hearing his presentation on this most relevant of subjects, considering recent events in Burma and China.