This is a fortnightly newsletter about the New Zealand Net. If you would like to be notified by email when a new edition is published, please contact ZL1NZ.
Browse our newsletter Archive and List of Net Tips.
Featured key
These dual-lever paddles are the CW-ONE-Jr model, made by Japanese key maker GHD but sold by Japanese ham radio store CQOHM under their own label.
The CW-ONE-Jr sells for around 11,000 yen, or about NZ$145.
* If you have an interesting key for this feature, please send me a nice clear photo and a few words describing it.
Quick notes
A belated Happy 80th Birthday to Manny VK3DRQ, pictured here on the big day late last month. And keep scrolling for some video of Manny working on his tower a few days ago.
The NZ amateur radio band plan recommended by NZART is posted on the wall of my shack. I have always found this graphic (available from the NZART website) hard to read – and recently I decided to do something about it. Using Photoshop, I increased the contrast between text and background, took out unnecessary information and enlarged the CW bands to something approximating their actual size, among many other changes. Here’s a link to my version which you are welcome to use if you like it.
60m for NZ amateurs? As you may have heard, NZART is in discussions with the Government about a permanent 60m amateur allocation, now that other users of this band have shifted out. This could see NZ hams getting the same privileges as other IARU Region 3 countries, namely 2.5 kHz of CW from 5351.5 to 5354 kHz plus some SSB and digital sub bands. Guess I will need to update my band plan chart!
Photo flashback
Here’s a nice QSL from Keith Stewart ZL1RD in 1949. Does anyone know what WBE (below the callsign) means? Looks like an award, perhaps “Worked British Empire”, but I have not been able to find anything about it online.
Missing one vital ingredient
ZL1ANY and ZL2KE were QSX 3535 at Branch 46.
Stephen ZL1ANY and Steve ZL2KE were at Wairarapa’s NZART Branch 46 monthly meeting on Monday 12 April when they tried to check into the NZ Net but there was a problem. The branch meeting ended at 9.00 pm and they quickly tuned into 3.535 to check-in but a key or keyer was nowhere to be found. The radio gear in the photo is mainly used by Wairarapa Search and Rescue (Branch 46 shares the rooms with SAR, located next to Hood Aerodrome, Masterton).
However they did manage to copy all of the Net and created interest from one of the members who will soon join our Net, in RX mode for a start. Of course Steve and Stephen put in a request for a set of paddles to be available!
I am reminded of that old song performed by Slim Dusty:
But there’s-a nothing so lonesome as losing your battles
When you sit at the rig of a club with no paddles
World Amateur Radio Day this Sunday
World Amateur Radio Day, held on 18 April each year, is celebrated worldwide by radio amateurs and their national associations which are organised as member-societies of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). It was on this day in 1925 that the IARU was formed in Paris.
On World Amateur Radio Day, all radio amateurs are invited to take to the airwaves to enjoy our global friendship with other amateurs, and to show our skills and capabilities to the public.
IARU has chosen “Amateur Radio: Home but Never Alone” as the theme for World Amateur Radio Day 2021. The theme acknowledges that during our physical distancing to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus, amateur radio stands out as welcome respite for its variety of activities and opportunities – even helping overcome online fatigue and social isolation.
Birthdays in April
Samuel Morse (left) and Guglielmo Marconi
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born on 27 April 1791 (230 years ago) and Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi was born on 25 April 1874 (147 years ago).
Video: Manny installs a weather station
Video and drone flying by Manny’s son Christopher
Morse at the museums: Kapiti Coast Museum
Here are lots of Hallicrafters receivers, along with some Eddystones, National HROs and others. Plus some nice looking keys of course. They are on display at the Kaipiti Coast Museum in Waikanae.
Have any of our Net members visited this museum? They have the amateur radio callsign ZL6KCM and it would be interesting to learn about their station.
Net tip: QSV
A recent NZ Net Trivia question asked for the Q Signal that means “Send a series of Vs”. The answer is QSV.
So, when would you use such a signal? Here’s one example:
Let’s say another station is preparing to send you some traffic, but you’re having trouble copying. You might send “QSV” and then see if you can tune the station in better, change your filters, etc., while they are sending the test signal VVV VVV VVV.
In question form, “QSV?” means “Shall I send a series of Vs?”
No, QSL does not means “Send a series of Ls”. Hi Hi.
See the full List of NZ Net Tips.
Advertising archive
In 1973 this would have been considered a very tidy station. Apparently it was so beautiful your spouse would practically beg you to move your Heathkit SB-Line out of the garage and into the living room.
One question though: where are all the cables? My boat anchor station has approximately 3568 cables connecting everything together, so either this design has some very discreet cable ducts, or the gear isn’t actually hooked up. 🙂
Suggestions?
If you have suggestions on how to make the NZ Net better, or things you’d like to see covered in these updates, please contact ZL1NZ. You might even like to write something for the newsletter.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you soon on the NZ Net!
—
Neil Sanderson ZL1NZ, Net Manager
New Zealand Net (NZ NET)
3535.0 kHz at 9pm NZT Mon-Fri
Open the menu by clicking the “burger” icon at top right.
Many menu items can be expanded to reveal subpages by clicking on the arrow. Click again to collapse the menu item.
