January 2024 Meeting - BBQ, Sunday 28 January

The January meeting is a combined meeting with all branches invited at QE2 Park Paekākāriki, enter via Wellington Road then Queen Elizabeth Road and meet in the open area indicated by the red cross in the photo .

BYO food, drinks , portable chairs , ground rug etc. There is some seating in the park. For those bringing a BBQ it must be GAS (no wood or charcoal).

XYLs YLs & family also welcome.

Bring bikes to explore the tracks around the park .

Date: Sunday 28 January

Time: From midday

Location: QE2 Park, Paekākāriki

29 September 2022 General Meeting - SDR and Network Analyser

Rob ZL2WAL will take on his experiences setting up and using Software Defined Radio (SDR) based on the RTL Dongle.

 

Also:

The VHF Group has inherited a HP8753C spectrum analyser and S-parameter test set.

This will be on-site and available for members to try out at this month’s meeting,  the plan being to make it available for members to use on an ongoing basis by arrangement.

March Main Meeting (Online) - Jojn ZL2 XJ on Mesh Optimisations

This month’s meeting is an update on the work being done by the Wellington mesh steering group. The group has put together a plan to reactivate and enhance the various nodes around Wellington with the aim of making it reliable and a valuable asset for remote operations and AREC use. There are mesh nodes on many of the VHF Group’s sites and members’ homes, so it will be good to have them working again.

Christmas Picnic Dinner

In place of the committee meeting this month we will be having a picnic dinner, come along and join the committee for a picnic dinner at Willowbank Reserve in Tawa:

John ZL2TAU Silent Key

Sadly we hear that John ZL2TAU (Salvin John) passed away over the weekend.  We offer our sincere condolences to John's partner and his family.

John had just made it to 80 years and had been an amateur since his early 20's, certainly a double old-timer.  John was very active in radio both professionally and as an active amateur.  John has been involved in construction, repeaters, VHF DX, and site investigations and negotiations over the years, and was a very strong supporter of the VHF Group.

A couple of recommended DMR radios..

I asked for some recommendations of a good radio to buy at the November meeting.  

A couple of radios were recommended by people who had very recently been studying this subject and had purchased these radios.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

 

The RT73 mobile dual band DMR was recommended. Very small, powerful, very good. It was noted that this radio could hold all the DMR IDs in the world, so every contact came up with callsign and location.  Some rave reviews on AliExpress and some tips to follow.