Wellington VHF Group, Inc: Online.

Expecting to battle atomic powered megacycle measuring maniacs and other assorted time nuts the 85th Doug Gorman Frequency Measuring Contest went to air at 9 pm on Monday evening 6th Spetmebr 2010. That’s 2100 NSZT, 0900 UTC, 967798815 GPS time which is fifteen seconds ahead of UTC, or UTC plus 34 seconds for TAI* to you and 1283763600 Unix time**. Hey, you need to know these things when measuring frequency to a third of a part per billion. But enough of that already!

The contest is named after the late Doug Gorman MBE ZL2IY who filled various roles for NZART including that of General Secretary and Officer Commanding AREC. This year the Wellington VHF Group Branch 74 offered to take over the contest from long time organizers, Branch 63.

After taking a moment to remember those amateurs and their families in the Canterbury Area affected by the weekend’s earthquake, the contest rules were read out on 3895 kHz in voice before switching to Morse for the remaining formal parts of the contest proper. The rules are published elsewhere on the site and results will appear in the near future.

While contestants had the fun of first finding five frequencies at the top end of the 80 metre band and then measuring them it was the organizer’s job to radiate these frequencies with nothing less than atomic precision! And it turns out that even with today’s modern technology of high performance GPS disciplined frequency standards that's not easy. (More after the jump).

Monday 6th September 2010 at 2100 NZST (0900 UTC)

This year the contest will blend the old school rules with some improvements suggested by contestants, in particular Papakura Branch and Murray ZL1BPU, along with observations made by past contest organizers Gavin ZL2ACT and Neil ZL2TNG. Please read the rules carefully as there are some key changes to the format.

The Hamilton Amateur Radio Club Branch 12 NZART from 1 January 2010 to 7 February 2010 presented the National System Award 2010 - Historic Places, based upon the original idea by Wellington VHF Group, and in association with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. This was a FUN award to demonstrate the coverage and use of the National System, to promote our history and category 1 historic places.

Image Courtesy Hamilton Branch

During the Award participants visited 662 Category 1 Historical sites, 70% of the registered category 1 historic places. 181 unique call signs were listed in the 26 logs received by the custodians and the logs accumulate to over 7400 points (see Award Structure for how points awarded). 6 participant’s logs demonstrated that they had worked all branches in New Zealand. The highest individual log accumulated 686 points, with 1033 points logged against one individual’s call sign. Details are in the appendices.

This from David ZL1DK of Papakura Branch:

Logs received from 35 in the phone section up from 21 last year and 24 in the CW section up from 16 last year. A list of all known participants will be posted on the web page below later this week.

Again, thanks to all who participated.

The management committee has authorised the Contest Rules to be hosted and maintained on the VHF Group website. The rules can now be found in On The Air, Contests. The current Rules took effect in June 2006.

Band Frequency
Callsign Locator Points

2 m (144 MHz)
ZL1TPH RF73ij 50
23 cm (1296 MHz)
ZL1TPH RF73ij 353
3 cm (10.3 GHz)
ZL1TPH RF73hb 228

TOTAL SCORES
ZL1TPH RF73ij 403
ZL1TPH RF73hb 228

BEST DX
2 m
ZL1TPH-ZL2IP 298 km
23 cm
ZL1TPH-ZL2IP 298 km
3 cm
ZL1TBG-ZL1TPH 60 km

6 STATIONS ACTIVE: ZL1AKW, ZL1AVZ, ZL1TBG, ZL1TPH, ZL2ALW, ZL2IP

THE NEXT CONTEST

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.

This from Doug ZL2TAR:

Band Frequency
Callsign Locator Points

6 m (50 MHz)
ZL4DK RE54fe 95

2 m (144 MHz)
ZL4DK RE54fe 528
ZL1SWW RF73kd 131
ZL2ALW RF73hb 2

70 cm (432 MHz)
ZL4DK RE54fe 218

23 cm (1296 MHz)
ZL1SWW RF73kd 18

TOTAL SCORES
ZL4DK RE54fe 841
ZL1SWW RF73kd 149
ZL2ALW RF73hb 2

CHECK LOGS

BEST DX
6 m ZL3ADC-ZL4DK 310 km
2 m ZL1SWW-ZL3TY 693 km
70 cm ZL3CU-ZL4DK 303 km
23 cm ZL1SWW-ZL1TPH 34 km

21 STATIONS ACTIVE:

*** Update - Award period has now finished - thanks to those who participated! ***
HOLIDAY FUN - NATIONAL SYSTEM AWARD 2009

The management committee of Wellington VHF Group invite you to participate in this award to highlight the coverage of the National System, incorporating NZART Branch areas, and DOC public conservation land areas. Collect NZART Branches and DOC conservation areas.

Field Day Contest - Saturday 01 December and Sunday 02 December. GET ON-AIR & JOIN THE FUN !!

All bands 50 MHz and up. Operating periods are 1700 to 2300 on the Saturday, and 0700 to 1300 on the Sunday, NZ local time.

Click here for the full Contest Rules available from the NZART website.