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

April 2012

The annual SAREX was this month (March) and a number of branch members were involved.  Len organised a great team with a few newbies in the mix - myself being one of them.  It was a great opportunity to polish my procedure and messaging handling skills.  I expect we will see alot more snappy procedure from our AREC members on the repeater in general QSO’s so we keep in practice.

I came across some manufacturer news this month which I found of interest and I am sure you will as well.  Yaesu Musen has been an Amateur Radio name since Mr Sako Hasegawa started making amateur equipment in the Yaesu area of Tokyo in 1959.  In 1998 Yaesu Musen acquired the Standard Radio Equipment brand from Marantz Japan and changed the name of the Company to Vertex Standard in 2000.  Vertex Standard is the name we see on Yaesu equipment today.

In 2008 Motorola purchased 80% of Vertex Standard in a joint venture,  but at the beginning of this year (January 2012) the Joint venture was dissolved.  The Vertex Land Mobile division remains with Motorola, the Amateur, Marine and Aviation division is transferred to the New Company ‘Yaesu Musen’ which is now back under the ownership of the Hasegawa family.  I expect this will see the original Yaesu Musen name return to new products in the future.

In an interview, Dennis Motschenbacher K7BV,  who is vice president for Yaesu north America,  mentions Yaesu are investigating digital modes.  He says since D-Star is now a number of years old and technology continues to improve there are options for something better than D-star in the future.  Yaesu are developing a new dual band digital handheld supporting digital technologies more recent than D-Star.

The interview can be seen on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJzSkWjxuGY

Further information can also be found on Wikipedia - darn, now you know my sources.

So far this year I have completed for work 2 trans tasman trips through to Sydney and I have another planned for April in a couple of weeks time.  I work for a privately owned Australian company called Professional Advantage, we have about 300 staff in Offices in North Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Fargo North Dakota and London in the UK.  There are 2 staff living in New Zealand working from home myself being one of them.  http://www.pa.com.au/.  My role is technical,  supporting software provided by Microsoft.  I work with a number of different parts of a financial suite including:  the Windows operating systems on the desktops and servers, the SQL database and the associated infrastructure.  My work can be: new installations of the financial suite, upgrading of the financial suite to the latest version, installation of additional modules, moving of the suite from old systems to new systems, and also fault finding.  At home in Potts road I have a work phone which is IP based and connects as my extension to the PABX in North Sydney, my office at home functions like a cubicle in the office in North Sydney.  When people ring my extension or my direct line they often ask where I am.  With the tools we use for communication and support,  the work I do would be no more efficient if I were actually in the office.  I do miss the face to face contact with my colleagues but I make sure when I am in Australia I do spend time in the office to catch up with people socially.  Usually there is little time for ham radio activity when I am away, although last trip I did get through to the Wyong Fieldday which is always interesting  From where I stay with my son Benjamin in the south of the City,  it takes me about 1 hour to get to work by walking and taking between 2 to 3 different trains each way each day.

Forward warning of a trip to Foxton, your committee has been investigating a Saturday trip to the the National Museum of Audio Visual Arts & Sciences 0f NZ Trust Inc museum and theatre “MAVTech” http://www.foxton.org.nz/foxton-attractions-mavtech.html.  The dates and times have yet to be set, watch your newsletter and the website for further details.  This afternoon trip is open to everyone not just club members.  So, if you are in the area and want to come along please register when the event is publicised.

Cheers

Richie

ZL2KP / VK2IAX