Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

Those who've been keeping an eye on our Events Calendar will have noticed that as per tradition, our January meeting was again a BBQ at Sladden Park.

Members of the group used this opportunity to show off their "divergent ideas of entertainment" (to steal a phrase from ZL2SX). Various things, including rockets, kites, potato guns, motorised surf boards, speed boats, jet skis, have all been seen at WVHFG BBQ's; we were sure there'd be something of interest!

And indeed, we weren't disappointed; it was a lovely sunny afternoon with great folks and some fun to be had.

Crowds of Folks settling in for a BBQ Dinner.

ZL2ABC has an interesting view of 'Maritime Mobile'...

Arrrr me hearties!!! OVER!

Many members of the Group along with their families enjoyed a lovely, warm and sunny Thursday afternoon at the Riverside. thanks to all those who attended and made it a success!

Attached are some additional photos taken during the recent open day at the new Ngaio repeater site.

Solemn contemplation over a lemonade...	Dick ZL2TGQ declares 'it's all good'
Final Adjustments care of Peter ZL3TC	Official "Opening Ceremony" is completed with Dick ZL2TGQ, President of the Wellington VHF Group, cutting the ribbon.

This new addition to Group facilities was open for inspection on Saturday 5th December, from 11:00am to 3:00pm. More than thirty visited the site in typical wind-less Wellington conditions, to check out the new equipment, the views and the refreshments.

The photo shows the first group to arrive, L to R, Doug ZL2TAR, Peter ZL3TC (Trustee), Bruce ZL2ABC (on roof), Patrice, Michael ZL1MT, David ZL2SX (Trustee), Gavin ZL2TVM, Jill ZL2BHJ, John ZL2WW, Peter ZL2VK, Henry ZL2TUQ.

Wellington VHF Group were again privileged to be involved in the annual Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) event, this year in its 52nd iteration. Once again our friends at the Paparangi Scout Group were hosting a JOTA station at their scout hall in Paparangi, on the outskirts of Newlands; we operated using the special callsign ZL2JOTA for the duration of the event.

With this week being Disaster Awareness Week it seems appropriate to draw attention to GetThru.govt.nz - and to highlight the importance of being prepared to all members - and infact all of us. Wellington VHF Group provides Radio Expertise to Wellington Emergency Management and radio hams across NZ (and across the world, for that matter) provide volunteer technical expertise and communications facilities when the need arises.

Get ready now so you can get through!

Our site now features direct links to the Get Ready, Get Thru website and will for the next little while, sport an additional banner at the bottom of the page - for this worthy cause!

Being held in conjunction with Kapiti Branch 69 AREC. The SAREX location will be the Tararua State Forest Park, Reikorangi, Waikanae. The SAR HQ will be at the Kapiti Coast District Council Emergency Management Centre, Fytfield Place, Paraparaumu. We'll be using HF and VHF radio communications working with teams in the field who will be practicing communications, off track navigation, GPS usage, SAR team leadership and team work, SAR procedures, first aid, and day and night search methods.

2009 is the The 52nd JOTA , and the World Scouting Movement's communication theme for this year is environment. The leaders of the Paparangi Scout Group (who we’ve supported at the last two JOTAs), have invited us to hold another event this year, with a goodly number of Scouts already keen to get involved.

Paparangi are a great group to be involved with, and a lot of fun. To give you an idea of what's on the cards.... :

What is Jamboree-on-the-Air (JOTA)?
The JOTA is an annual event in which Scouts and Guides all over the world speak to each other by means of Amateur radio contacts. Scouting experiences are exchanged and ideas are shared, via the radio waves.

When is JOTA?
The 52nd Jamboree On The Air will take place on 17 and 18 October 2009. Please mark your diaries.

How to take part?
Wellington VHF Group will be setting up an Amateur radio station in the Paparangi Scout Hall in Newlands.
We're looking to operate a variety of bands and modes; Set up 80m, 40m, 2m and the National System as a start.
We'll also hopefully be able to provide some exposure to other Amateur Radio activities of interest; Foxhunting and Morse Code are usually an interesting diversion!

We need people to assist us at Paparangi. However, even if you can't make it - you can help by contacting your local Scout Group and finding out whether you can inspire them to get on-air during the course of the weekend. The aim is to get as many scouts as possible calling “CQ Jamboree” on the Scout Frequencies! And get them chatting with their fellow scouters from all across the country - or the world!

JOTA is a lot of fun, and also good practise for those of us who need to remember what it's like to bring along and set up our rigs, erect antennas, run feeders, sort out power supplies, batteries etc, but Amateurs are good at this stuff! That, and we get to enlist the help of enthusiastic Scouts to do the fun stuff, like creating antenna poles out of pioneering timber.

Mark Foster ZL1VMF is co-ordinating our effort for JOTA 2009, so get in contact with Mark to register your interest in helping out, and be part of this fun event, encouraging youth interest in Amateur radio. Mark is also our Webmaster, so you can get hold of him via the VHF Group Web Contact Form.

This from Peter ZL2VK:

The Belmont "shack" has stood the ravages of time by unfortunately the door has suffered with considerable rust that makes it extremely difficult to open and close. The door frame has become quite distorted as a result of the corrosion.

The current state of the Belmont Shack.

IMAN is the incident management software that LandSAR Wellington uses for search operations. It is the alternative to paper based systems and works on both stand alone and networked computers.

We now have a Google Calendar tracking Events @ The Wellington VHF Group.

This has great potential - keep an eye on it for upcoming events and for those who use Gmail (etc) already, you can integrate this into your own Google view.