About
Welcome to Wellington Amateur Radio Club (Branch 50 NZART)
We generally meet on two to three times a month. Our regular monthly meeting is held on the third Tuesday of each month (except December) at 7pm. We meet in Room 1A of the Johnsonville Community Centre. We hold a Christmas Dinner event in December and sometimes a BBQ lunch in January that replaces regular meetings.
A social group also meets every 4th Tuesday of the month at a member’s home at 1.30pm. We also organise Special Interest Group meetings to support members with common interests (e.g. DMR hotspots), technical workshops and construction workshops. Our workshops tend to focus more on practical build sessions. This might include building a Flowerpot Dualband antenna, a Tape Measure Beam, or a 49er CW transceiver. Workshops normally take place on the first Sunday of the month at 1.30pm. Venues can vary, so check our website or newsletter for details.
Anybody is welcome to attend any of our meetings. All meetings conclude with refreshments. No charge is made for meeting attendance.
Our trading table
We operate a club trading table with items available to purchase by members or members of other branches of NZART. This includes a number of books on amateur radio written by members. We also have equipment for sale from estates and members. Stock varies, but details can be found under “Trading Table” on this website.
We compete ...
Once a year, in October, members compete for the Blackwood Cup with their homebrew projects. Competition for the cup has been a feature of our club since 1930.
The club on-air HF net (callsign: ZL2WB) is on 7055kHz LSB on Sundays at 0930 hrs local time. There is also a members net on Tuesday’s and Friday’s at 0830 hrs on the same band and frequency. Members and visitors who are amateur operators are welcome to sign in. Listeners are always most welcome. Using the online KiwiSDR service (www.kiwisdr.com) can help with receiving stations and makes our nets accessible to non-amateurs.
Want to get into the hobby?
We have a programme to help people become amateur operators, to get the knowledge you need over a short period of time to get a licence and get your own call sign. Please contact Paul (our HamCram convenor) for more information on our HamCrams or on sitting the examination by self-study. We tend to offer two HamCrams each year. Our next HamCram is in September.
Membership and Subscriptions
The subscription for the 2026/27 year was set at $10 (in March at our AGM). Our bank account is: ANZ Bank, Johnsonville, 06-0541-0859045-00
To join our club, you will need to complete the membership form. See our Join Page.
You will be sure to fit in
Our club has been going since 1928 so we have a long heritage and a membership with a diverse range of interests.
The radio interests of our members span CW to Phone, RTTY, high speed WiFi, Meshtastic, POTA and SOTA operation, radio construction, and search and rescue and emergency services (AREC) support. I am sure that you will find a niche in our club. Come along and introduce yourself. It doesn’t matter whether you are a licensed amateur or not. We would like to meet you.
73
Daniel ZL2DTL
Chairperson
Wellington Amateur Radio Club