New Zealand Net News Nr 23, 22 February 2020

This is a fortnightly newsletter about the New Zealand Net.
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Highlights

It’s been pretty quiet on the net lately, but many of our regulars have sent me messages to say they would be travelling in February – probably a good way to avoid the January crowds and get some fine weather.

The weather’s been a bit too fine for many of us. Can’t remember the last time it rained in Auckland. But this is Field Day weekend, so that could change dramatically. 🙂

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Field Day this weekend

Good luck to all in the Jock White Field Day this weekend. For how many hours afterward will you be hearing CW?

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Net tip

I’ve noticed recently that our net stations have been doing a FB job of zero-beating the net frequency. Thanks all for your careful QNZ.

Nowadays, of course, “zero-beating” is typically done with some sort of visual indicator on the rig, or by simply trusting the frequency display when it says 3535.000, which hopefully is near where the Net Control Station is transmitting.

But for those of us using boat anchor equipment, zero-beating is exactly what it says. At my station I do this by listening to a calibrated receiver, while I adjust the transceiver VFO (using a dummy load). The transmitter’s signal beats against the transmitter’s 700Hz sidetone which is also fed into the receiver. As the frequencies converge, the beat frequency diminishes to virtually zero. Good fun, and it’s a regular reminder of the way things were done in the early days of amateur radio.

If you do find yourself a bit off-frequency, the Net Control may tell you:

QNH xxx (Your frequency is xxx Hz HIGH)

or

QNL xxx (Your frequency is xxx Hz LOW)

Net Control is never off frequency (unless they’ve completely misread their dial!). If they are not on exactly 3535.0 it is probably due to local QRN or QRM.

In such cases, please zero-beat the NCS. Otherwise you may not be heard.

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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!

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Neil Sanderson ZL1NZ, Net Manager
New Zealand Net (NZ NET)
3535.0 kHz at 9pm NZT Mon-Fri