Kapiti Amateur Radio Society Inc.

Welcome to Kapiti Branch 69

We are officially known as Kapiti Amateur Radio Society Inc, and we are an Amateur/Ham Radio club based right here on the Kapiti Coast. Our callsign is ZL2KB, and we are Branch 69 of the New Zealand Associations for Radio Transmitters (NZART)

Along side the hobby of amateur radio, our club is involved in a number of activities in the local community, including the deployment of backup emergency communications in the event of a major natural disaster. We are also ready to assist with any LandSAR (search and rescue) call outs that are coordinated from the Kapiti area.

We have members of all ages and encourage anyone who is interested in Radio Communications, Computers or Electronics to come along and see what we are involved in. Club contact info and our physical location can be found here.

 

---

Upcoming Events:

27 January 2018 – Inter-Club BBQ
Site 7  – Queen Elizabeth Park (access via Paekakariki Entrance) – approx. Mid-morning
Bring your own food/drink, but the BBQ is provided. The site we have chosen has quite a bit of shade, but anybody who has an easily erected gazebo is encouraged to bring it along.
Only gas BBQs are allowed – no charcoal ones.
Indications are that there will be some from the Wellington VHF Group, some from Titahi Bay(Branch42) and possibly a few from Palmerston North (Branch 20) so should be a great day for all. If you have any questions, please contact Jeff ZL2JG, Tony ZL2AJS or Phil ZL3JM

 

24/25 February 2018 – Jock White Memorial Field Day
ZL2KB is lucky enough to be given permission to operate from the Otaki Aerodrome once again. Thank you to Kevin ZL2DUS for arranging this.  As per usual we will operate in the grass area from the Caravan, directly behind the main hanger.
For those that didn’t attend field day last year, the Gate to the airfield is now on the right hand side of the runway, which eliminates the need to cross the end of the runway as we had to do in previous years.

As a reminder :
The airfield is a live and fully operational Aerodrome, which means aircraft may be taking off or landing at any stage. For everyones safety, please stay off the runway!

 

---

Latest Club News:

 

05/01/2018 – DSTAR Repeater Online.
The DSTAR Repeater is now running again. Thanks for your patience.

 

26/12/2017 – DSTAR Repeater Offline
The DSTAR Repeater has been taking offline. This is due to a technical issue with the gateway linking radio, which is what connects to the DSTAR Network. Hopefully it wont be off the air long, but we will update the website again when its back up and running.

 

02/12/2017 – Fusion Wires X Project (Update #3) – Frequency Change
Kindly note that due to some unwanted QRM, the Wires-X frequency has been changed to 144.630. If you need assistance with re-programming your radio, please see Nate ZL2NAT or Richard ZL2FY. The CTCSS Tone of 88.5 still applies to the new frequency.

 

03/11/2017 – Multi-Mode DMR/DSTAR/Fusion Reflector
XLX750.nz is a new multi-mode reflector, run from right here from NZ.
This reflector supports DSTAR, DMR and Yaesu Fusion transmissions all at the same time using different modules.
With this setup its also possible for a person to be talking on a DMR radio and another person on a DSTAR radio and they will be able to QSO with good quality audio.
To do this, connect to DCS750D on your DSTAR Radio and it will link to Brandmeister TalkGroup 53099 for DMR users on Brandmeister HotSpots.
Other links are in the pipeline as well so stay tuned, and see ZL2NAT or ZL1OZ for more information.

 

31/10/2017 – Happy Halloween!
Q. Who was the most famous ghost detective? A. Sherlock Moans.
Q. What is a ghost’s favorite band? A. The Boos Brothers
Q. Who are some of the were-wolves cousins? A. The what-wolves and when-wolves.
Laugh,  it burns calories!…

 

25/10/2017 – DSTAR Repater Fixed!
The DSTAR repeater was brought down from the hill last week, and has had the settings tweaked to try and minimise the “R2D2” packet loss.
It has also improved the coverage around Kapiti/Horowhenua and is allowing Handheld Radios to be used in a lot more places than before.
Please let Nate ZL2NAT know of any issues going forward.

 

19/10/2017 – New Mesh Network (AREDN)
A new Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) Mesh Network is now available in some parts of NZ, with further expansion to happen in the not to distant future. There have been several improvements on the way this new Mesh communicates and the throughput (speed of the network) has improved tenfold compared to the old Mesh Network. As a result of this new technology, we will now have the capabilities to run services such as Video Streaming or IP Cameras, VoIP Telephony, Websites and much more.
At this stage, the ZL2KB equipment that is already implemented as part of the existing Mesh Network is being upgraded to AREDN, and whilst we have been told that the old Mesh Network and AREDN are compatible, we strongly recommend that you re-flash your equipment to take advantage of the new technology as well. Please see ZL2FY or ZL2NAT for more info on switching over, and we welcome inquiries for any other members that would like to be a part of the Mesh.

 

17/10/2017 – CW Learners Group
A CW Learners group has started recently and is going well.
CW (Morse Code) is generally transmitted on 21.010MHz from approx 19:15 each night (except Tuesday nights where its done at the Clubrooms) for about 30 minutes and is decoded via 685 Repeater. If you would like to join in or help out, please let Phil ZL3JM know.

 

24/06/2017 – Fusion Wires X Project (Update #2)
The Fusion Wires X service is back up and running again. However to minimise impact on the 685 repeater, it is running in Simplex mode from the clubroom mast. It gives good coverage around Kapiti and is currently using  144.610MHz with CTCSS tone of 88.5 on TX. Click Here to review the manual on how to use the service.

 

---