M.A.R.S - Manawatu Amateur Radio Soc

NZART Branch 20

Citizens Band Area

Frequencies

Repeaters

147.125 MHz + split with IRLP node 6943

145.725 MHz - split

438.525 MHz - split

Club HF

3.570 MHz LSB

29.225 MHz FM

53.200 MHz FM

Club Net's

Thursday 8pm

147.125 MHz + split

Sunday 9am

3.570 MHz

National System Manawatu- 70cm

439.975 MHz - split

PRS Repeater

Ch 8
TX:477.35 RX:476.6

Branch 70 Net

145.725 Mhz
Repeater

8pm
2^nd
Monday of each month
Feilding Branch 70

Branch 16 - levin

147.575 fm simplex

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New Zealand Amateur Radio Day 2012

This will be held on March the 10th from 1000 to 1400 hours.

Branches are encouraged to set up a station in a prominent area in their local community, and to make contact with other NZARD stations and home stations. Make sure you seek the appropriate permissions to establish a station, with the council or businesses as appropriate.

Media inclusion is to be encouraged. Be sure to have pamphlets at hand. Contact NZART HQ for pamphlets.

A good idea is to have some hams operating equipment, and other hams available to talk to public and explain what amateur radio is and our place in the community, and how easy it is to get an amateur licence. After the event follow up with anyone that showed interest, and assist them with gaining their amateur licence.

The purpose of NZARD is twofold. To expose our hobby to the community and to prospect for potential amateur operators.

Please take photos and write a short activity report, and submit to Breakin for publication.

To see lasts years pictures chick here

Increase in Amateur Power Limit

As announced by our President, Roy Symon, ZL2KH, in the November Official Broadcast, NZART is pleased to advise members that Radio Spectrum Management has agreed to our request that the general power limit for Amateur bands be increased. From 30 November 2011, the power limit for most bands will rise from 500 watts to 1000 watts peak envelope power (pX), as defined in ITU Radio Regulation 1.157. The only exception to this increase is for those bands (130 to 190 kHz, 505 to 515 kHz, 26.95 to 27.30 MHz and 921.00 to 928.00 MHz) which currently have lower limits and, in these cases, the current limits will continue to apply.

This is a very satisfactory conclusion to the HBARC Remit to the 2011 NZART Conference and will assist NZ Amateurs to:

* participate in weak signal work including EME, meteor scatter, DXing etc;

* remain competitive, despite our remoteness, when participating in contests.

For further information on licence conditions, please see the updated Amateur General User Radio Licence (GURL) on the RSM website

Don Wallace, ZL2TLL, NZART Administration Liaison Officer

Local Interference source located and assisted a fellow hobbyist with checking interference

A while ago I noticed some new interference shortly after the installation of an electricity Smart Meter at my QTH. About a month or two after installation SP Ausnet returned to install the antenna section of the meter and it was after this occurred I became aware of new interference on mainly 10 & 15m. It can be picked up from around 15MHz through to somewhere above 50MHz but is strongest I think in the 20 to 30 MHz range. It has an approximate varying bandwidth up to around 40khz and it kind of sounds like a washing machine! Today John VK3TVZ and myself used a handheld radio and loop antennas and confirmed the noise to be from the Smart Meter.

Today we also headed over to the QTH of another hobbyist (Peter VK3OJ) to checkout some interference for him which we believe to be a Plasma TV based on our experience with observing such interference in the past. Fortunately in a way for him it's only focused mainly in the North, NNE and North East of his QTH so otherwise the Yagi nulls it out. We beleive there is more than one TV at play and did some inspection on foot and in car through the surrounding streets and did approximately pin point one possible location and approximated another but there is nothing that can really be done! There was no strong PLI to track but we did managed to track on power pole carrying LV and HV that was buzzing a little on UHF and fairly strong up close on VHF but from his QTH was relatively weak.

We however accidentally discovered Peter has the same Smart Meter as me as when we were scanning around for interference from the car I picked up the same washing machine sounding interference on the same frequencies as home and then confirmed he has the same model Smart Meter and antenna setup as we visually inspected and used the Handheld with loop antennas. I do not believe the interference is very long range at all, I would estimate a 25m radius from the meter. The noise is not picked up through the mains. Some photos below and a video regarding the Smart Meter, note there is a little PLI in the background of the video.

for pictures and videos click below text copied from

http://vk3ldr.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/local-interference-source-located-and.html