Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

At the NZART AGM held recently held in Auckland, Roy Symon ZL2KH as NZART President awarded Amateur of the Year to Peter Aikin ZL1TX for his outstanding contribution to the hobby, particularly in Northland and also at a national level.

Peter is the drive behind a large number of repeaters in his extended area including the National System stations, local data repeaters, the Whangarei ATV repeater and many others in Northland and the Far North.

Peter is a member of Branch 28 Whangarei Amateur Radio Club and also the Wellington VHF Group. He was nominated by both Branches.

At the NZART 2010 AGM in Auckland the remits were discussed and voted on.

Remit 2 had been withdrawn by Council but the submitting Branch held it's right to have it presented.

The outcome of the voting is:

Remit 1 Free ARX Services to NZART members - by count. For: 629, Against: 737 Lost on votes.

Remit 2 Review of Family membership - Carried with amendment to replace "principal member" with "licenced member".

Remit 3 Release of Call Letters X,Y,Z- Carried

Remit 4 Seek Mandate for Entry Level Licence - Carried

Remit 5 AREC meeting times at Conference - Lost

The organising committee of the Easter 2011 VHF Convention has been announced and have started work already. The venue at Tawa College has been booked and work with the Wellington Expo Committee started to see that this is going to be suitable for the Expo.

The plan is to run Wellington Radio Expo and the VHF Convention together, with the Convention having its kick-off at 1pm on the Saturday after the Expo finishes. There will be a Friday evening informal Social event, but the forums and technical sessions will be on the Saturday.

This from Peter ZL2VK:

On Saturday, 10th April, 2010, the Belmont repeaters were switched off while work proceeded to remove the old and rusty door from the repeater hut and replace it with a nice new green one.

The old, rusted door.

On Saturday, 10th April, 2010, weather permitting, there will be some major works occurring at the Belmont repeater site. To ensure the safety of the equipment, all the repeater equipment will be turned off for the duration of that work. That will be from approximately 9.00 am until 12.00 noon.

Note that not only is the two metre repeater, 710, affected but also the National System and its links will be turned off over that period.

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.

“Bike The Trail” is an easy, scenic, 25km bike ride down the Hutt River trail from Harcourt Park at Brown Owl to Hikoikoi Reserve, Petone. In 2009 over 1500 of the public participated.

This year the event was scheduled for Sunday 28 February, which turned out to be an eventful day for a more global reason than a local bike ride.

The VHF Group was again asked to support the safety arrangements of this event by providing Radio Marshalls for fourteen stations throughout the course. Planning started early, led by Mark ZL1VMF our coordinator, and this year included a meeting with the Resilience Trust, who were to provide the first-aid response. It was decided that we would provide an additional Marshall to travel in their first-response vehicle, to improve co-ordination.

Our team assembled in the car-park of Melling railway station at 0800, to receive a briefing from Mark ZL1VMF, and were issued with their hi-viz safety jerkins. Thanks to our generous sponsor these are emblazoned with Wellington VHF Group and Amateur Radio Communication labels, good for publicity purposes!

No sooner was the briefing completed at 0820, and Marshalls on their way to the various course stations, when Civil Defence advised the organisers that they would not be able to use Hikoikoi Reserve as the finish of the event. This was due to risk associated with the tsunami warning resulting from the severe earthquake earlier in Chile. Hikoikoi is situated at the mouth of the Hutt River, almost at sea level.

The organisers quickly reverted to their contingency plan to run only the top half course from Brown Owl to Stokes Valley. The original plan effectively offered two courses, the shorter 12km Stokes Valley to Hikoikoi, and the full 25km Brown Owl to Hikoikoi. Included in the original arrangement was a fleet of trucks to ferry riders and their bikes back to their point-of-origin after the party (free BBQ, music) at the finish.

The contingency plan included re-deploying the trucks to Stokes Valley to take starters from there up to Brown Owl, to enable all starters to get a ride. This of course meant that all participants would now travel the Brown Owl to Stokes Valley sector.

A good number of cyclists opted to ride the trail back to Harcourt Park (as opposed to taking the provided transportation) to extend their ride back to ~25km. We were forced to improvise some additional protection for cyclists passing the Hull Creek Pumping Station, as the volume of southbound cyclists occupying the cycle-lane adjacent the narrow bridge was forcing northbound traffic onto the road - a dangerous situation when you consider how narrow the road is (and that this is an 80km/h stretch!). Photo by Andy ZL2ADR.

Using our 710 repeater, Mark ZL1VMF soon had the Marshalls re-deployed, and Rick ZL2TVY, our Base Marshall, had the roll-call on 710 repeater complete before the start time.

The event went well, with 1400 participants. The usual bumps and scrapes generally only required sticking–plaster and a re-assuring word. Only one serious injury required the attendance of an ambulance. This incident was capably handled by Ross ZL2UAC, at Marshall Station Four. Our 710 repeater provided generally good coverage of the course, although a few difficult areas will be investigated for the future.

Radio Marshals at the debrief, Stokes Valley. Zoe, one of the Event staff, pictured at far left.

A big thank you to those who gave their time for this event. First of all Mark ZL1VMF our able coordinator, plus Radio Marshals: Bruce ZL2ABC, Rob ZL2WAL, John ZL2AST, Dick ZL2TGQ, Ross ZL2UAC, Peter ZL3TJ, Robin ZL4TRS, Phil ZL2OWL, Randall ZL2RJP, Andy ZL2ADR, Paul ZL2UGR, Richard ZL2AJC, Rick ZL2TVY, and Tom ZL2TDD. We look forward to an opportunity to contribute to our community again at the 2011 event.

Article and Group Photograph with thanks to Dick ZL2TGQ. Mark ZL1VMF (as Head Marshal) would also like to recognise the volunteers from Resilience Trust for their cooperation from both a planning and execution perspective, and Upper Hutt and Hutt City Councils for their support.

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.