Tim's Amateur Radio Page.

Amateur Radio.

I was licenced in 1992, in Christchurch, New Zealand, as ZL3VTV. I changed callsign to ZL1TN during July 2004.
Becoming active very soon after on the 2m band, and learning very fast about antennas and how to build and erect
a good antenna, I managed to get my parents to allow me to put up a 27 foot pole in the backyard for my 2m
antenna, a locally produced collinear vertical. By this stage I had a 25 watt rig, and I was getting
coverage over about an 80km radius. As Christchurch is flat, there were few places I could not be heard

This antenna pole soon had other various antennas, mainly yagis, and mainly for the VHF TV and FM bands
as I did a bit of listening sround there. I was soon known around home as "Radio Guano", as the antenna
was directly above the clothes line, OOOOOOOOPS!

Over the next few years I experimented with a few satellites, in particular AO-21, which is now no longer working.
I had many contacts across the Tasman via this satellite, and nearly always spoke to a few regulars there.
Every now and again, I had a chat with another satellite operator on the other side of Christchurch
on the AO-21 satellite, when nobody else came up.

I had also started to become interested in the 6 metre band, and I bought my IC551D back in 1995,
a move which I have never regretted.

During early 1996, I moved to Auckland, ZL1, although I retained the ZL3 callsign.
For a couple of years I also held the callsign VK5ZKC, which I obtained in Adelaide, South Australia,
which enabled me to operate portable on several trips to Australia. This call has since lapsed.
I now also hold the call VK4TIM, which I have used in Brisbane during the last couple of months.

In recent years I have become interested in Television, and I am currently building a transmitter
for 23 cm FM (1240 to 1300 MHz), This is now operating, output power is around 1 Watt.
I have the loan of a 70 cm VSB transmitter, but here in Auckland, there is too much QRM on the 70 cm TV band
to get interference free pictures.

In New Zealand, our 70cm ATV frequency is 431.250 MHz (nominal) vision carrier, and we use +5.5 MHz
intercarrier sound.
Before February 2002, we used 443.250 MHz nominal. The band 440 to 449.750 was withdrawn from
Amateur use.
The problem we had here in Auckland, was two wideband FM STL links, one is on 444.675, the other is 444.825 MHz.
You guessed it! severe herringbone patterning on any TV picture!
An earthquake sensor transmitting on 449.38125 MHz from very close to the TV repeater seems to
cause significant problems to the repeater's receiver. These services were licenced in the 70cm band
without us being notified!

In addition, to all of these things, I have built a transverter for the band 922 to 928 MHz (32 cm),
and set the first distance record for contacts on this band, at 154 km, during a VHF/UHF field day
in December 1998, from Maunganui Bluff, a site 260km by road north of my home.
Building this transverter was a real learning curve, yet very rewarding.
I have had plently of fun with the 925 MHz band, which after the last contest, has been used for several
hour long chat sessions with a couple of other people around and about Auckland.

The bands I am active on are:

I can most often be found chatting on a local simplex frequency on 2m, (147.400 MHz), or on 6 metres.

Six Metres, The Magic Band.

New Zealand Repeater and Beacon List.

There are many other interesting Amateur Radio pages on the web. Check out some of these links: