The next Quartz Hill Activity Day is on Saturday 7 October 2006, starting at 9:00 am.

As usual, the objective is to catch up on project and maintenance work as well as providing an opportunity to look around the station, try out the big antennas and meet up with the Quartz Hill team. Visitors are always very welcome and there is no requirement to participate in the more "physical" activities.

Remember to bring some lunch, appropriate clothing for summer or winter weather (!) plus boots and gloves if you intend participating in the outdoor project activities. Please contact Brian ZL1AZE 021 569981 for the gate code or if you require assistance with transport.

The list of tasks for the day are as follows - priority in []:

Check the smoke alarms and 1st aid kit. [High]

Continue work on the installation of new 15M yagi antennas - for the short path to USA (supported between poles 9 and 10) and the short path to EU/AS (supported between poles 9 and 12). [High]

10M NA and 10M EU/AS yagi antennas - finish the repairs to the feed line connections on the feeder pole below the antenna. [High]

Pole #8 - need to replace the top southern stay that is badly rusted. [Medium]

Rhombic - Install a permanent solution to replace the temporary repair that has been applied to a broken vertical feeder wire at the southern end of the rhombic. [Medium]

Investigate the insulation leakage across the coaxes to the Rhombic, Europe SP Vee #1, NA 20M yagi and 160M NW sloper antennas. [Medium]

80m sloping dipole for USA - need to repair damage to RG6 coax sheath (near the point where the coax has rubbed against the NIWA mast stay wires). [Medium]

Install the new East facing 160M sloping dipole. [Medium]

Investigate the high SWR on the NW 160M sloping dipole [Medium]

Reinstate the pulley and halyard rope on the NIWA mast. [Medium]

The LDF-450 heliax coax to pole #8 has low insulation resistance due to moisture in the dielectric. Need to check the integrity of the cable inside the building and check for any faulty joints near the Western gantry. If necessary the cable can be cut back and tested at the gantry. [Low]

10m Europe yagi - the tuning of the driven element needs to be adjusted to bring the minimum SWR back into band (it is currently below 28 MHz). [Low]

Take the rubbish outside the car port to the tip. [Low]

The Oceania DX SSB contest is also on next weekend so some of us will be staying on after the activity to participate in the contest. If anyone and is interested in being part of the ZL6QH team then please contact ZL1AZE by Tuesday 3 October (if you have not already done so).

Posted by ZL1AZE on October 03, 2006