MAY NEWSLETTER
ali.a...@xtra.co.nz
FIRST LIGHT
The Official Newsletter of Branch 11, NZART
Gisborne NZ. 11th May 2009
STEPHENS ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE
Latitude 40 deg 40' South - Longitude 174 deg 00' East
Welcome Members , Associates and Friends ,
The next general meeting will be May 11th at Bryce St scout hall 7.30 pm. It was proposed at the last committee meeting that guest speakers , videos , demos and other items of interest of a radio nature , and normally about 40 minutes duration , will begin at 7.30 pm sharp and any club business will be conducted after this period . This will allow any persons who are not directly involved with club business , to leave at an earlier time, ie visitors etc. The feature video for this night , presented by ZL2RC , will be on ships , museums and radio apparatus . We will also be welcoming Michael White G3WOE , who is currently touring our country .
REMITS
The club will consider the following remits of interest
Remit 1 : Proposes that branch members don’t need to be NZART
members.
Remit 2 : Deals with AX.25 packet data on the National System at
night.
Remit 3 : Deals with APRS data on 144.650 MHz and/or 144.575
MHz.
This meeting is also an opportunity to make sure our delegate , ZL2CC to
Conference is fully informed of what we, in Gisborne, think are the
important things facing NZART today.
As I write this , SMART is being upgraded . SMART is the online
system provided by the government which we can use to update
details about our Amateur Radio licenses. If you are having
problems using SMART (http://www.rsm.govt.nz/smart/ ) after 27th
April don’t hesitate to contact a committee member for assistance.
Your Committee .
The following are members elected to the Branch 11 committee.
President Michael Mather ZL2CC.
Rowley Haisman (vice pres ) ZL2APH.
Secretary Alan Mackintosh ZL2AOP .
Treasurer Douglas Birt ZL1BFS .
Ric Coleman ZL2RIC .
Peter Omer ZL2TRG .
Alistair Gemmell ZL2AIX .
Hamish Dobson ZL2HC repeater trustee .
Roger Sewing ZL2RC repeater trustee .
NZART Conference 2009—Queen's Birthday Weekend
29 May - 1 June 2009
The Hawkes Bay Amateur Radio Club Inc (Branch 13) and the Napier Radio
Club Inc (Branch 25) invite you to join us for what promises to be an exciting
weekend on the amateur radio calendar.
The venue is the Hastings Racecourse in Hastings city. The last time a
Conference was held in Hawkes Bay was 1984. The members of both radio
clubs are looking forward to meeting and hosting old friends again in 2009.
Hawkes Bay is Wine Country. With our 37 wineries and unique Art Deco architecture,
Hawkes Bay has become a fun place to travel for a holiday.
Napier and Hastings were rebuilt in 1931 after the famous but deadly earthquake
of that time. Boutique art galleries, great restaurants and bistros are
numerous and Hawkes Bay hospitality is legend.
The Annual General Meeting on Saturday morning will be opened by Lawrence
Yule, the Mayor of Hastings. A Recruitment forum will begin after the
AGM and afternoon tea. There will be pre dinner drinks in the Cheval Room
before you will enjoy a sumptuous buffet dinner.
We expect to run the following forums: Recruitment, OTC, WARO, Icom,
DX, AREC, Contest, SPAM, VHF. Others are planned and will be in the
programme timetable.
FOR SALE .
*Aerial; magnetic base, quarter wave whip for 2m (or higher- just need to cut whip length to suit frequency). RG-58 coaxial cable, 14' 5" (440cm) long with SMA male plug. Magnetic base 2 13/16" (7.2cm) dia. -- $30 each.
*TNC, Kantronics KAM-Plus, v8.2. Dual port (HF/VHF), with manual and cable. -- $200
*Radio, Transceiver, Alinco DJ-C5 dual band (2m/70cm) "credit-card" sized hand-held, approx. 2 1/4" x 3 3/4" x 1/2" (5.7cm x 9.5 cm x 1.3cm), with manaul (when found) and charger (110V AC, but "wall-wart" can be replaced with a 240V AC unit, with DC output of 9V DC @ 500mA). -- Offers.
*Transceiver, Motorola PT-300. 1960's single channel, crystal controlled, FM portable set, currently on 33.18 Mhz simplex, with CTCSS tone option. Requires a lot of D sized batteries, RF output 4W. Will tune to 10m and 6m ham bands. Have two units- one not working. -- $30 pair
*Transceiver, Regency L61A. R/T set for the US 30-50 Mhz land mobile band. Single channel, FM, currently on 29.6 Mhz. 40 plus watts output, power lead, and service manual. Also have a second unit (needs new receive crystal, if used on 29.6 Mhz). -- $30 pair
*Transmitter and Receiver; Ritron DT-450, UHF, single channel, up to 10W (transmitter). Mathced pair, currently on 450.98 Mhz simplex. Data or voice. Manuals. -- $30 pair.
more to follow.............
Roger ZL2CC .
Roger has also laboriously listed all the surplus magazines and valves from Father Phils collections, and these are in the two attachments to this newsletter. Ed.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL AMATEUR COMPUTER USERS
Time for the Annual Internet Clean Up!
Its that time again!
As many of you know, each year the Internet must be shut down for 24
hours in order to allow us to clean it. The cleaning process, which eliminates
dead email and inactive ftp, www, and gopher sites, allows for a better
working and faster Internet.
This year, the cleaning process will take place from 12:01 am GMT on May
24 until 12:01 am GMT on May 25. During that 24 hour period, five powerful
internet-crawling robots situated around the world will search the Internet
and delete any data that they find.
In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you do the
following:-..........
1. Disconnect all terminals and local area networks from their Internet connections.
2. Shut down all Internet servers, or disconnect them from the Internet.
3. Disconnect all disk and hard-drives from any connections to the Internet.
4. Refrain from connecting any computer to the Internet in any way.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED !
We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet users,
and we apologise. However, we are certain that any inconvenience will be
more that made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of the Internet.
We thank you for your cooperation.
( Humour contributed from Ham Hum . )
STEPHENS ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE
Stephens Island , 183 metres above sea level , the highest in NZ is where I lived as a young boy and where I cut my teeth in the world of radio and became entranced by the magic of speaking into the ' Ether '. If you refer to the photo of the Island itself ( top photo ), you will see in the foreground the light , and next along is the principal keepers house , then the 2nd keepers , and the third , in the bush , was our house . In the far distance is the " Palace " a mansion of a house which fell into disuse. Further on, out of sight is a diesel winch descending a trolley on a steel rope 600ft to sea level and the ' block ' , a diesel winched steel derrick , with a basket which was lowered on to the deck of a launch ( The Enterprise ) to bring stores and personell aboard. ( The solar panels in the above photo were non existent in my time. ) Pretty hairy in a rough sea !!
Lighting and power was by diesel generator with kerosine fridges and copper boilers for washing , with wood stoves for cooking. We made all our own butter , bread , and killed our own meat and milked our own cows ( my job ) . School was by way of correspondence with the correspondence school in Wellington. The light was powered by a diesel generator and had to be manually lit every night.
All the keepers were honorary wild life officers for the unique wild life that was there , rare frogs, tuataras, wetas , bird life etc .
Every morning , noon and night , transmissions on a big AM Radio Telephone, located inside the light base , were made to ZLW , the coastal marine radio station in Wellington to give weather forecasts , rainfall , cloud observations , shipping news , ordering of supplies , etc. It was the use of this radio that excited my interest in radio and led me into a career in marine radio. It was also our only contact with the outside world.
If you look at the picture of the Island itself you will see beneath the light , a very steep ridge to the left foreground jutting out and know as the ' razorback ' . It was a hairy journey indeed , down to the sea to get any fishing done , which I did a lot of. Editor .
The International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend
It all started in 1994 during a wet wintry evening when two members of the
Ayr Amateur Radio Group, John GM4OOU and the late Mike GM4SUC, after
a club meeting were talking about creating an event in the summer when
club members could get out on a sunny weekend and play radio. Various
themes were considered; ports, airports, historic Scotland sites, the Firths of
Scotland, castles etc. but it was finally decided that lighthouses of Scotland
would be ideal.
Following research it was discovered that the lighthouses of Scotland were
controlled by the Northern Lighthouse Board in Edinburgh who were not
only responsible for the lighthouses of Scotland, but also around the Isle of
Man. Approval was sought and obtained from the Northern Lighthouse
Board to establish amateur radio stations adjacent to their property. In February
1995 an invitation was sent to all Scottish clubs and the Isle of Man
club to join in the fun of a weekend, to be called the Northern Lighthouse
Activity Weekend, by establishing an amateur radio station at a lighthouse
during the third weekend in August. This first year's event saw 11 stations
established at lighthouses, operating primarily on the HF bands, with each
station making approximately 750 QSOs over that weekend.
The following year, the Scottish clubs were involved in a weekend activity
with the theme of Scottish Firths (river estuaries), so two years elapsed before
the next Northern Lighthouse Activity Weekend. During this period
Anne-Grete OZ3AE enquired through a letter to Practical Wireless if there
was any lighthouse activity on amateur radio. Following discussions with
her it was decided that Danish stations could join in the fun of the weekend.
Quickly Germany, South Africa and France asked to join, so the
name of weekend was changed to The International Lighthouse/Lightship
Weekend. It was at this time that John, GM4OOU, due to pressure of
work, had to cease his connections with the event.
The weekend became an annual event taking place over the third full
weekend in August and has slowly grown in popularity - in 1999 there were
204 lighthouse/lightship stations in 36 countries, and in 2008, 406 stations
took part. Full statistics and guidelines for participation can be found at on
the ILLW web site at http://illw.net.
The main reason the event has become so popular is because it is NOT a
contest. It is a relaxed fun weekend without the pressure of a contest. The
guidelines are simple and the onus is on the operators to act within the
spirit of the weekend which is simply to expose amateur radio and the
plight of lighthouses to the public. This is why it is important for the ham
station to be as close to the lighthouse/lightship as possible and with the
controlling body’s approval. A few years ago the International Association
of Lighthouse Keepers decided to have an annual open day for lighthouses
all around the world to encourage visitors to visit their lighthouses.
They decided that no better day could be decided upon other than the
Sunday of the ILLW. This move has been highly successful as the media
have become involved in a number of the countries that take part in the
event.
This year’s event takes place on 15-16 August 2009 so if you haven’t done
so already, find a lighthouse nearby and get a group together or do it solo
and fire up a lighthouse station. In most cases if you don’t intend operating
from within the lighthouse itself or one of its cottages, you really don’t need
to get any approval. Most first time entrants are so enthused with the event
that they return year after year. A report from the Burlington ARC, Canada
summed their first participation in these few words:
“The greatest delight of the day was the active participation of the visiting
children who showed a remarkable interest in the whole idea of amateur
radio, especially the use of Morse Code. It was an honour and a delight to
participate in this adventure and we look forward with increased enthusiasm
to next year's participation.”
As can be seen from the ILLW website, Mike Dalrymple passed away in
December 2005. He was the Treasurer of the Ayr Amateur Radio Group
and one of the existing members (Peter Sturgeon MM0BQP) has taken
on Mike’s roll as the PR man and main co-ordinator for the ILLW. The
event is now dedicated to Mike’s memory as is the official web site http://
illw.net where you will find the event guidelines, an on line entry form and
lists of participating lighthouses since 1999.
- VK2CE
Lighthouse Weekend: 15-16 AUGUST 2009
For the new folks in the Club, the idea behind Lighthouse
Weekend is to operate within a reasonable distance
of a Lighthouse. All bands and modes can be used . It is Not a contest.
Important dates.
15 - 16 - 17 th May 2009 , SAREX GISBORNE , Search and rescue excercise.
6-7 June—Hibernation Contest
7th June—NZART HQ Info-Line
21st June—NZART HQ Info-Line
28th June—NZART Official Broadcast
4th July—NZART Memorial Contest
5th July—NZART HQ Info-Line
19th July—NZART HQ Info-Line
25th July—Waitakere Sprints (Phone)
26th July—NZART Official Broadcast
1st August—Waitakere Sprints (CW)
1-2 August—Brass Monkey Contest
8th August—Boat Anchor Sprint
15-16 August—Lighthouse Weekend - ILLW
3-4 October—Microwave Contest
11-17 October—"GET READY GET THRU" Disaster Awareness
Week
12-16 October—14th IARU R3 Conference (Christchurch)
17-18 October—JOTA / JOTI
17-19 October—Admin Council of IARU (Christchurch)
November—GlobalSET Exercise
Super Capacitors
You are probably like me and thought you had those super capacitors
sorted out. Up to 2 Farads or so at 5V rating. Great for maintaining voltage
on a memory chip or two.
WRONG.
I have just looked at the web site of one of the manufacturers of these capacitors.
This company calls them Ultracapacitors or Boostcaps.
The company have axial connection devices at 350 Farads but only 2.5Volt
rating. These have a maximum current rating of 390 Amps for 1 second or
20 Amps continuous.
If you want to get more serious they have units with threaded or welded
connections that are 3,000 Farad at 2.8 Volts and around 4,000 amps for 1
second or 150 Amps continuous.
In case you think there are only low voltage packages they also sell 500
Farad 16.2 Volt packages (also 4,000 / 150 Amps with screw terminals) and
all sorts in between.
By the way I was not game to check on the price!
- ZL1PK .
Internet Links
Path Profile via Google Maps
http://www.heywhatsthat.com/profiler.html
Impedance, impedance matching and high-frequency power transmission
http://www.g3ynh.info/zdocs/index.html
APRS maps (restored from Brenda)
http://www.zl1amw.wallace.net.nz/maps/
Well folks, I hope you have enjoyed reading this newsletter. Your feedback is most welcome on ideas , content , presentation , whatever .
I will leave you with this thought..........
Anyone can become angry. That is easy .
But to be angry with the right person , to the right degree , at the right moment , for the right purpose and in the right way ..... now that takes skill. !
73
Alistair ZL2AIX Editor