Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

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.

This from Peter ZL2VK:

Last Saturday, 22nd August, a keen and hard working group assembled at our presidents work QTH and set about refurbishing an old repeater rack for use on the proposed Ngaio Reservoir 70 cm repeater. The framework and panels were all sanded down and given a new colour scheme.

Hard workers!

David Andrews ZL2SX with the results of some hard work.

The new repeater and power supply have been ordered and are due "any time". This repeater, planned for 439.550, will provide enhanced coverage of the Wellington City area.

Following on from the 2007 VHF Forum, a paper was published in Q-Bit and on the www.vhf.org.nz website. A number of comments were received and these made up the basis of that paper and was published in June 2008.

At Convention in 2009, John ZL2HD outlined the ideas in the paper and outlined the following recommendeations. The CTCSS Reccomendations is an informal document that those considering CTCSS on their repeaters should read and consider using the recommendations. This is rather than creating rules for CTCSS usage.

Fred ZL2AMJ has updated his Amateur Radio Study Guide and this has now been published.

Please let the webmaster know if you notice any problems with the update - otherwise, enjoy!

Hi Everyone,

Just a reminder to those going to the VHF Convention in Hamilton over Easter , you need to register before March 21st .

The registration form can be found on the NZART Website. (Mirrored on our site as the original has been taken down it appears) - a 15kb PDF.

As referenced in the latest Q-Bit, Wellington VHF Group now have a pamphlet available to help in the promotion of Amateur Radio.

You can add the appropriate contact details and print as many copies as you wish. It prints OK in black and white. The text has been developed with input and advice from commercial marketing experts.

A single print run will produce the outside and inside pages on two separate sheets. The sheets can then be shuffled and re-positioned in your printer so that a second print run will print on the appropriate front-and-back blank faces - giving you two pamphlets for two passes of the sheets through your printer.

The cost of each pamphlet is negligible - just the cost of the paper plus the ink used. A single-fold is used because it is so very easy to do.

You are invited to make comment on the design and the use of this pamphlet. We need more keen and enthusiastic radio amateurs. Your ideas are sought so that more promotional material is made available. Comments and ideas please to the VHF Group Secretary.

Pamphet in PDF format - 236K
Pamphet in Microsoft Word format - 220K
Pamphet in Open Document format - 207K

(If you wish to customise the 'contact' area of the document the .doc / .odt versions may be of use)

This from David Andrews, ZL2SX:

Hi all.

[On Tuesday] the last of the people who attended the Amateur Radio classes the group ran at Onslow Colleges, sat and passed the exam.
We can be proud that all who started completed the course, and passed their exams with marks between 85% & 100% !!

The New Calls are :-

Chris Conradie ZL2CCO
Alison Handley ZL2GAL
Ron Lovell ZL2BLU
Lynne Wallace ZL2LKW
Rachel Wallace ZL2RAC.

Congratulations to them and all concerned with this progress in advancing Amateur Radio!

Special thanks to Fred [ZL2AMJ] for his work preparing the training material and the actual exam papers.

Thanks too to the tutors at Onslow College.

The Belmont tower was re-erected by the contractors, United Group Ltd, on Tuesday 10 June. As can be seen in the photographs it once again stands resplendent. From an initial inspection the contractor's work looks well done.

After the recent decision made around required maintenance of the Belmont Repeater site, work has begun in earnest. Some photos here for those interested. (Apologies for anyone who noticed the photos were missing overnight!)

Under the leadership of project manager Fred Kennedy ZL1BYP, a team of New Zealand Radio Amateurs are constructing KiwiSAT, a true New Zealand designed and built orbiting satellite.