Club News
CARDS JOTA events a great hit!
CARDS ran two stations for JOTA, one near Culverden north of Christchurch and the other from Rimu Park West Christchurch. Below are Paul ZL3TPA and Brian's ZL3RJ's reports on their operations. The picture opposite is of some scouts and Brian ZL3RJ with the morse key.
Rimu Park
The Scout hall at Rimu Park was the venue for one of CARDS two JOTA sites. With the help of Paul Zl3TPA, and Mike ZL3TMB, we set up a vertical groundplane for 40 to 10 metres a horizontal for 80/40 and a long wire for the general coverage receiver. For VHF we had a dualband half wave for 6 and 2 metres and a collinear for 70cm.
The Scout hall had five open partitioned booths down each side and we used four of the booths for operating. In the first we had a display with the HF general coverage receiver demonstrating RTTY, PSK31, SSTV, HF weather, and FAX. THere were also 2 VHF receivers on APRS and Packet.
The second booth held the HF operating position with two HF rigs, one on 80 metres, and one on 40 metres. The third booth had the VHF operating position with 4 rigs, one on 2 metres IRLP, another on 6 metres and the last two on the 70cm
national system and 70cm SSTV respectively.
The scouts and cubs came though in groups of 12 and with help at various times from Lorna, ZL3AAZ, John ZL3JA and Jeremy ZL3UQT, each group was shown and given the chance to do some (supervised) operating. Contacts were sparse but those we had were extremely good and lasted some time. The Stations contacted were in the USA, Australia, Belgium, England and of course New Zealand.
Other outdoor activities were also provided including sending messages using PRS radios, morse code with lights and semaphore with flags.
A fun but exhausting time was had by all.
Brian Zl3RJ
Culverden Report
The station was in the old domain grounds on the left as you approach the outskirts of Culverden township. Located 96 km by road from Christchurch, it is located inland from the sea and ringed by hills on all sides. G.P.S location (Metric) E 172,50,39.2 seconds S 42,46,34.2 seconds. The Station assembled by Paul Layt ZL3TPA, Harvey Cook ZL3CH, and Jim Nelson ZL3ND.
Participants were 16 brownies aged 7 - 9 years, and 2 guides, aged 11 - 13 years. They were very excited about the whole idea and were really looking forward to it. They arrived at 5:00pm on Saturday to camp for the night. Parents provided supper, breakfast, morning tea and lunch for all of us and the camp wrapped up 3:00pm on Sunday.
There were a number of structured activities for the kids to complete at the end of which they received a certificate. Activities included
Learning about radio and how to transmit. PRS CB sets were used for this. Three base stations and two portable sets were set up around the campsite and everyone had a go practising what to say and how to press the PTT button
Writing out questions to ask person on the radio
Learning about Q codes, the J code and the phonetic alphabet
Morse code sending. The history of Morse code and learning how to send their names.
Creating QSL cards. Using a large rubber stamp for the ZL3CAR CARDS club call sign and drawing their own cards and messages.
Logging contacts on laminated world map and finding stations geographically based on their call signs. Drawing the weather on the map.
Used a laptop computer to receive SSTV pictures
Many of the activities fitted in really well with the brownie Technofunk badge and the Tuned In theme. The leaders also had a range of activities from these for the girls to do. This allowed us to take small groups of three into the station so things were not to hectic or crowded.
Certificates were handed out for, Chatter Box, Longest distance contact x2 (Belgium), Best operator, Best Morse sender. All participants received a JOTA 2002 QSL style card from Scout Association.
The VHF station used an 8 element beam into the CARDS 720 IRLP repeater. HF was on a FT757GX2. Aerials used were a trapped 80/40/15 dipole and a 20 mtr extended zepp. Two laptops were used to provide satellite tracking, PSK31, SSTV, RTTY, FAX. Best picture received was from Nth Carolina which was a puppy dog. The kids loved it.
Stations worked included: Belgium, ON4AAE Eric Roeselare,
Australia, VK2SBB, VK2XR, VK2SAS, VK2SHD, VK3KHS, VK2SBF, VK2NBT Newcastle, VK3SAB, VK2SBF,
New Zealand, ZL4FZ, ZL2DS Levin, ZL4OO Alexandria, ZL3VV Omaka Chch, ZL4AA Aromoana Dunedin, ZL1ROT, ZL2ROG Rotorua, ZL3RJ Pine Acres Chch, ZL3RR Woodend Chch.
An excellent time was had by all.
Paul ZL3TPA | 
