There are two
major items to report on this year.
Hautai Hill power
Development and
expansion of Nature’s Wonders, our hosts business, brought about a necessary
power cable upgrade. As work progressed it became obvious the old cable had a
number of previous repairs, was inappropriate for the job and could not be
legally re-installed. With the considerable
assistance from the landowners, Perry with his son Martin, a new trench was dug
between the power source in their new wool shed and the “igloo” (our equipment
hut), on the top of the hill, 350 rugged metres away. Many members and some
non-members were involved in this project. We were also well assisted by the
Bendigo Valley Sports and Charity Foundation who responded favourably to our
funding request. Without the generous assistance
of the Read’s and their heavy equipment, and the volunteer spade gangs, this
would have been an extremely expensive project.
The trenching was a major exercise with heavy digging through a mix of broken
and solid rock.
(Photographs may be viewed on an earlier post.)
(Photographs may be viewed on an earlier post.)
Fill-in Repeater testing
This is subject to
a second report which will go before the committee initially. The test site was
the Emerson Street
water tank that was previously our linking site and still has some equipment
installed. Unfortunately, someone took
exception to the testing leading to the early abandonment of the tests. In the
short time we had available, tests showed signals at Kaka Point were similar
but other areas to the south were significantly improved – Taieri Mouth was
slightly improved, while over the city beaches, the city, parts of the Taieri
and importantly, the Upper
Harbour signals were
significantly improved. The remaining critical areas – Tow Rock, Nuggets
anchorage etc. were unable to be tested.
Maritime Radio
access to “User Group Repeaters” for SAR purposes
This subject had
been raised at National Search and Rescue meetings. I had a meeting with Maritime Radio staff to
discuss the subject. The outcome is while it could happen sometime in the
future, it will not happen in the short to medium term.
Weather Sked Operators
We have maintained
the full service during the year despite the ever decreasing number of
operators. This is a common problem that is occurring around the country with
volunteer Coast Stations. Moeraki no
longer has a permanent operator with John McLellan in the “Rendall on Reed”
rest home. Martyn Finnie provides Moeraki
reports to the evening sked when he is available. In Oamaru Ted Gilbert
maintains a constant listening watch ably assisted by Jim Fraser and Archie
Thomas, while Robert George helps when necessary with reports from the upper
harbour. Sadly, during the year, we
have lost several of our strong supporters. Heather Simon lost her long battle
with cancer. Her familiar voice, friendly assistance, and watchful eye from her
kitchen over that notorious Taieri Mouth bar is sadly missed by all. John
McLellan’s wife Pauline has lost her long battle with failing health. While her
voice was rarely heard on the air, Pauline was always in the background
supporting John and no matter how ill she was, hot buttered scones and other
delicious goodies were always on the table for visitors. Bruce Walker, the
Chief Signalman at Harbour Control
and one of our original weather watch reporters passed away suddenly last
Friday after a brief illness.
That leaves only
Keith and me carrying the duty shifts with Rowan Leck
from Marine SAR recently stepping in to assist when we were both away.
To our repeater sites.
Swampy summit
linking site.
No work apart from
routine checks by our landlord.
MM 66 on Cape Wanbrow.
No work but testing
work is planned as it does not seem to have the coverage it should. This is
waiting for a convenient time when Terry and I are in Oamaru and have the
several hours necessary available. Otherwise, the installation is working well.
MM62 on Hautai
Hill
Apart from the
reduced coverage from our high aerial, everything tests fine and works
satisfactorily.
MM 64 on Hinahina
Hill
Has not been
visited and continues to work well.
Generally, the system continues to provide
excellent service to our prime target areas.
All equipment is in good condition and
working well but it must be recognised that with the exception of the Cape
Wanbrow and Swampy Summit installations, most of our aerials, aerial
infrastructure and repeaters radios are now fully or near fully depreciated and
over 10 years old. There is no immediate need to replace any of the equipment
and we hold adequate spares but within 5 years, we will need to be budgeting
for some replacement/upgrades.
Martin Balch
Repeater Trustee
