Chairman’s Report 2011
Following our usual practice the Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Repeater trustee were elected by the committee at the first committee meeting. They are: Mike Harkness (Chairman), Ian Milne (Secretary), John Armstrong (Treasurer) and Martin Balch (Repeater trustee). Other members of the committee are: Brian Chalmers, Ron Johnston, Vern Hall, Ate Heineman, John McLellan, Les McBean, Keith Simon and Terry Thomas (Vice Chairman). An external reviewer was to be appointed.
This year marked a turning point, Hina Hina Hill was fully commisioned and apart from a problem with the power supply, which Martin refers to in his report, it has been functioning well. Overall our system, which serves a challenging part of the coastline with equally challenging weather, provides an excellent sertvice although coverage in the Tow rock and Nuggets areas is patchy. The committee is aware of these problems and is considering options, one of which may be to site a repeater at our old site in Emerson Street. The power cable to Hautai Hill has been located and was partially uncovered by Terry and Michael, but it will need to be buried deeper, probably later this year. Development of our blog site is underway and we encourage members to forward material for it. It can be accessed at: otagomaritimevhfassn.blogspot.com.
Overall, the association and equipment are healthy, but we would still like more members from the Oamaru and South Otago areas and greater involvement in the Association by more members. One place to start would be to post copy, links and/or images on our blogspite or forward them to John at omvhfassn@gmail.com. Martin notes in his report that eventually we will need to find funds for new equipment, but this should not be for a few more years.
Finally, I would like to thank the committee for their support escpecially Ian for putting our records into a coherent order; our volunteer operators: John McLellan, Kevin Hughes, Heather and Keith Simon, Martin Balch, Ted Gilbert and Martin Finnie, and our members who have provided on-the-water weather reports. Martin Finnie has, on occasions, done the evening weather round-ups from Moeraki. At present Moraki is unmanned because John, due to ill health, has retired to Oamaru. We wish him and Pauline well and will miss his experience and help on the air.
Michael Harkness
