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ZL2AA Gisborne Amateur Radio Club

NZART Branch 11

BOX 275 GISBORNE (Call Book Incorrect)

Breaking News

24.1.10 IRLP fault found. NOT fixed. Thanks to Roger, me and Tom the noise when receiving IRLP has been traced to the computer sound card output which has the same noisy signal as transmitted from 680 when IRLP is in use A new sound card is being sought to try but this may not be the problem as it is believed that this card is from the original computer. Thanks to Robert and with his and the other trustees agreement I can email Alan in Hamilton who may be able to fix the fault remotely or suggest what can be done . Also the broken data plug was replaced and modulation and sensitivity of the 680 repeater checked. ZL2HC

NZ amateurs are to lose the use of the UHF television channel 39 as part of the switch over to digital television. They may receive the use of a channel near 60MHz for amateur television instead. They will also have full use of 50 to 51MHz and secondary use of 53 to 54MHz. See the MED, NZART or Wellington VHF Group web sites for further details

Meeting

The February meeting will be at 19:30 on Monday, February 8th at the Bryce Street Scout Hall, Gisborne. There is no formal program planned. Members are invited to bring along your holiday experiences , tall tales , pics , or exhibits.

Read past meeting notes...

Membership

Meetings are held at 7:30 pm on the second Monday of each month (except January) in the Bryce Street Scout Hall, Mangapapa, Gisborne.

Dues for 2009 remain at $35, with a special $10 rate available to students. Dues may be paid to the treasurer at any meeting.

Repeaters

The club sponsors three 2 metre voice repeaters 680.685 and 690, a link to the National System 9875, and cooperates with another local UHF repeater 950. The club also has an ATV repeater and digipeater (mainly used for APRS).

680: Serving Gisborne city from Kaiti Hill, the 146.80 repeater, it also provides IRLP Node 6105. We look forward to hearing from you.
685: With coverage of the gorge to the north...
690: The area's high level 146.90 repeater on Whakapunake, providing good coverage from Poverty Bay to Hawkes Bay.
9875: The National System link located at Whakapunake.
ZL2AA-1 (GBD): A high level digipeater also on Whakapunake.

National System Comes to Gisborne

Gisborne is now connected to the National System! Roger ZL2RC, Ian ZL2IMM, and Hamish ZL2HC made a trip to Whakapunake on Sunday, 30 March 2008 and switched on the National System. Roger had installed the equipment at the club's Whakapunake site on Sunday, February 10th and left it running in test mode as a local 439.875- repeater.

Nets

There is a very informal net meeting Sunday evenings at 2100 on the Whakapunake 146.90- repeater. Join us and catch up with the rest of the club members.

There are also a number of members that gather on 1.855 MHz (160 meters) on Sunday evenings at 2100.

Mailing List

http://groups.google.com/group/branch11 is a mailing list for discussion of all facets of amateur radio in the Gisborne region. Warning if your call sign is your email address eg.ZL2**@***, then if you send a message to someone on xtra the xtra spam filter will stop it getting through and put it in the Trash folder. If you are on xtra might pay to check on their web site, maybe people are sending messages to you but they are being stopped.

ATV

The Gisborne Amateur Television Repeater is on the air most Sundays from 1930hrs to 2015 hours, picture only at present and while on, if not being used by amateurs, radiates a test pattern on UHF Channel 39. ZL2HC generally transmits a series of slides to other interested amateurs over the hour and usually starts one transmission at 1930 hours. To check your receive system at other times try to receive the Maori channel on UHF Channel 38, just below the amateur channel. If you can the amateur channel should be watchable when it is on.

APRS

There is currently a resurgence in APRS activity (map view) in the Gisborne area. The recommended settings for use in the Gisborne area now copy the WIDEn-N paradigm in use in most of the world.

See the APRS page for information on possible APRS from Arowhana. You can download the minutes of a meeting of interested amateurs from the bottom of the page

Jim ZL2IA has a weather station on APRS, so you can see what the weather is just up the coast at Makorori. Other members are checking out the possibility of more weather stations around Gisborne.

Activities

JOTA 2008: Thanks to Alister ZL2AIX, Robert ZL1UE, Basil ZL2UT and several other amateurs the branch put up what I think was a very good show. While low key on the Saturday due to the A&P show Sunday appeared to have a good turn out of amateurs and members of the scouting community.

The three computers with high speed connection to the Internet attracted great interest in the JOTA chat rooms(always in use), VOIP and other amateur activities such as APRS. While the hf seemed fairly quiet IRLP via the local repeater allowed many contacts world wide with almost constant use while NZ wide activity on the national system sure gave the newly installed extension in this area a real test.

With a possible change to a different location next year hopefully even more amateur activities can be displayed while providing such a good service for JOTA and JOTI.

SAREX: On February 29th Alan ZL2AOP, Alistair ZL2AIX, Steve ZL2RI, Dot ZL2BAI, and Rolly were among the hams that supported the search and rescue exercise staged in the Mount Arawhana area. The terrain has been described as "tiger country" with steep ravines, shale and difficult growth. The headquarters were at the Arawhana station and comms in the caravan with moble cookhouse right alongside.