Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

Over 30 members of Wellington Amateur Radio Club, Titahi Bay Amateur Radio Club, and the Wellington VHF Group attended a special joint meeting on the topic of radio Amateurs’ involvement with Emergency Management Services for the corridor of Wellington, Tawa, Porirua, Titahi Bay, through to Pukerua Bay.

This meeting followed previous briefings to the VHF Group by firstly Mike Mendonca, Director of City Operations, Wellington City Council, then Trevor Farmer, Manager of Porirua Emergency Management Office, Porirua City Council.

July Meeting is at the Porirua Emergency Management Office. This is in Porirua, Opposite Subway. Please call on 710 on the night if you need directions.

Porirua Emergency Management Office is located at Porirua City Council, 16 Cobham Court.

Despite Google Maps thinking otherwise, it's at Location 'D' as shown in the below map (the middle dot, labelled as Porirua City Council).

Change in Program! New speaker!
Mike Mendonca from WCC City Ops will talk about his time serving NZ Forces overseas and his work with the Council, including WEMO and City Ops. Mike is a great speaker and has some good stories to tell.
24 June 2010 at 7.30pm at the usual venue in Tawa.

The May meeting followed up the formal business with a Show and Tell.

We had six speakers and two new guests introduced themselves- they have migrated to Wellington with their SAR search dogs, cats and radio gear from Finland. Previously they had worked for a small Finnish company called Nokia! Teemu is now ZL2MRJ and Mira is ZL2GEE.

The talks:

At the May General meeting the Group voted on the remits for NZART Conference in June.

The results are:

Remit 1: For
Remit 2: Against
Remit 3: For
Remit 4: For
Remit 5: Against
Remit 6: For
Vote on NZART President's Entry Level Licence Question (part of remit 4): Against

The delegates were given discretion.

ZL2TVM and ZL2HD were appointed as delegates.

At the May 2010 meeting of the Group, Gavin ZL2TVM was elected as a Life Member for his outstanding and long service to the Group. This was carried with acclamation.

Gavin joined the Group around 1999 and became a contester, spending time on hill tops and setting up gear. He was very active in the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and often had new projects to share with members. Gavin served as secretary for some time and has been Q-Bit Editor for the last ~5 years.

Tonight's meeting of the Wellington VHF Group will be a mix of NZART AGM Remit discussion and voting, and a general Show-and-Tell. Bring along your latest project, whatever its condition, i'm sure it'll generate some discussion! 7.30pm at the usual venue in Tawa.

The April General Meeting of the Wellington VHF Group was held on Thursday 29 April at our usual venue, the Tawa Community Centre. On the conclusion of general business and the official part of the meeting, John Yaldwyn ZL4JY, Chief Technology Officer of 4RF and long time member of the Wellington VHF Group, gave an interesting presentation on the latest innovation from 4RF.

The following report by ZL2TGQ...

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.

The 1284 MHz transmitter was used for this test transmission, and had an output level of 5 mW, which was more than adequate for “across-the-room” communication. The signal was received on a commercial digital receiver, with a simple quarter-wave (55mm) whip antenna.

Left: Doug ZL2TAR with 1284 MHZ transmitter modules, Right: Members studying received picture quality.

The equipment was next displayed to over 200 Amateurs at the combined Branch EXPO 2010 held at Lower Hutt on Saturday 27th March. Here, in addition to a local digital receiver close by the transmission equipment, a remote digital receiver was located outside the main hall in the foyer to greet visitors arriving at the EXPO. On this occasion the frequency used was once again 1284 MHz, with the 5 mW power boosted to 300 mW by a linear amplifier constructed by ZL2TAR.

Transmission equipment, 1284 MHz transmitter (L), 430 MHz transmitter (R), with a local digital receiver and display to the right.

Many compliments were expressed, both on the progress of the DATV project, and the quality of the received video.

Come along and have your say at the 2010 WVHFG Members Forum!.

A few thought provoking potential subjects for open discussion:

• Recruitment
  
• More Public Service activities
  
• On-Air Activities, nets, contests, fielddays
  
• Speakers & Topics
  
• Construction Projects
  
• Special Interests Group
  
• Digital Radio - and a Digital National System?
  
• The future of the National System
  
• The Future of Amateur Television
  
• The Future of Amateur Radio?
  

Bring your bright ideas - lets discuss them!! Chocolate cake provided. 7.30pm at the Tawa Community Centre, this Thursday 25 March.

REMINDER: Wellington Radio EXPO 2010 - THIS SATURDAY

As reported by Southgate ARC, the annual event will again be held in Lower Hutt this coming Saturday. For more information see also NZART's official site.