Wellington Amateur Radio Club - ZL2WB

A Special Meeting to amend club rules in light of Covid-19 and the phasing out of cheques by major banks was scheduled for Sunday 21 June from 1pm - 3pm. This was the first face-to-face meeting since Covid-19 set NZ back in 2020. Details of the amendments to our rules were sent to members in advance. Club members accepted the proposed changes proposed to the Rules, which can be found on this website under Club Business. The special meeting was followed by our regular monthly meeting where Frank ZL2TTS spoke to a Powerpoint presentation on HF propagation. Frank is one of our most active DXers and he discussed key considerations in successfully making DX contacts at the bottom of the solar cycle based on propagation via the ionosphere. This was also the first time we have met at Waitohi Hub - in the maker space meeting rooms. A number of members met in the cafe afterwards for coffee and snacks.

YOTA OC - Youngsters On The Air Oceania is now live on Facebook! Go and check it out at https://www.facebook.com/groups/YOTAOC #YOTA_YoungstersOnTheAir #YoungAmateurRadioOperators 5-26 IARU YOTA is a quickly growing group of young radio amateurs from around the world. It is our goal to get more young people interested in amateur radio and grow the amateur radio community. We will do this by hosting online and on-air events and also physical events like camps and the like.

Rx only active magnetic loop antennas On Sunday 7 June Bernard ZL2BD provided us with an onlie Zoom shed workshop talk on active RX magnetic loops. As with all of his presentations, this was well researched and he had experimented with 5 different loops in drawing his conclusions. A report is available below, and a presentation and commentary will be made available shortly on this website. Magnetic Loop Antennas in general have encountered a resurgence recently for Amateur Radio. A key attribute that seems to have been rediscovered by many is the small physical size of antennas for the 3.5 – 30 MHz HF bands. This makes them an attractive solution particularly in urban environments where space for antennas is quite restricted. Another important attribute is the improved signal to noise performance on receive compared to larger conventional wire antennas. Using an Active Mag loop receive-only antenna is another variation of Mag Loops that provides the benefits of a low-noise receiving system without having to meet the stringent low ohms loop and high voltage tuning capacitor that is required for transmitting. [wpdm_package id='4241'] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwZbhKOE7Sk&t

Following general branch news and catch ups from members, our Zoom meeting of Sunday 17 May focussed on a presentation from Glenn ZL2KZ on his trip through the Panama Canal. He gave us lots of facts and figures about both the old and new locks. The following snap was taken of our Zoom meeting by John ZL2XJ: Zoom meeting Sunday 17 May

Due to Covid-19, the committee decided to proceed with an email survey of members on recommendations to be put at a zoom meeting of the Committee in lieu of a face-to-face meeting of members. The following represents the draft minutes of the 2020 AGM: [wpdm_package id='4215']