Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

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.

The April meeting of the Wellington VHF Group will be held at the Band Rotunda, Oriental Parade, Wellington, starting at 7:30pm. The Band Rotunda room is under the Fishermans Table restaurant, and the access id from the footpath to the right of the restaurant entrance, down the steps.

(The change in venue is due to the usual meeting place at Tawa being used by the Council for a Disaster Recovery test programme).

The meeting will cover the NZART Remits, and be followed by a “show-and-tell” session, and photos of the work that is going on up at Belmont.

Whilst in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA on business, a QSO on a local 2M repeater with some friendly locals indicated that the regular monthly meeting of the Virginia Beach Amateur Radio Club was due to be held that week at a venue only a few miles from where I was staying.

At the March Main Meeting this coming Thursday 27 March, Mark Foster ZL1VMF will speak on his involvement with the Fire Police. Mark served as a Volunteer Fire Policeman within the New Zealand Fire Service for the last 5 years, in both Auckland and Wellington, and currently serves with the Hutt Valley Volunteer Fire Police Unit.

Fire Police are a support component of the Fire Service and are called out to provide assistance to both the Fire Service and occaisionally the Police, for duties such as crowd and traffic control, scene protection and other ancillary tasks that free up operational firefighters and police to other duties.

Through the Fire Police Mark has attended several significant events. He will talk about his experience within the Fire Police to date and the role that Fire Police play in the greater emergency services arena. He will also be bringing along one of their vehicles to show. For more information the Unit has a website: www.hvfp.org.nz.

For more information on Wellington VHF Group meetings, including how to get to our venue, please review our meetings page.

You are invited to the Wellington VHF Group Fox Hunt 2008.

As we have for the last few years, the February meeting is a "Fox Hunt", to celebrate and take advantage of Summer and Daylight Saving.

Meet in the car park (between the Tawa Community Centre and Woolworths) from 6:30 pm. Please register and pick up your checklist with the rules and frequencies in use. We hope to have 2 or more foxes on 2 m, and 2 or more on 70 cm.

Fox Hunt starts at 7:00 pm.

Meet back at Tawa Community Centre by 8:45 pm, as pizzas and chips will be provided from 9:00 pm.

You will need:

Tawa Community Centre, Cambridge Street, Tawa. at 7:30pm. (Talk-in on 710 repeater).

Our Guest Speaker for the 29 November meeting is Wing Commander Steve Alexander, Director RNZAF Communication Information Systems.

A brief report post our AGM night this last Thursday, with more to follow.
The night was very well attended with seating at a premium. Some notes below...