Chairman’s Report 2013
Otago Maritime VHF
Association Incorporated
At the first committee meeting In August 2012 the following
were re-elected to the committee: Michael Harkness (Chairman); Ian Milne
(Secretary); John Armstrong (Treasurer) and Martin
Balch (Repeater trustee). The committee were: Vern Hall, Ate Heineman, Ron Johnston, Les McBean,
Gavin Palmer, Keith Simon and Terry Thomas. Vern also represents the Otago
Yacht Club Inc; Ate the Port Chalmers Fishermen’s Cooperative, Les McBean the
Port Chalmers Yacht Club Inc and Ron Johnston, theTautuku Fishing Club Inc. Ian
is not seeking re-election and on behalf of the association I thank him for
putting the association’s records in order and for the many hours he spent
revising the rules. Barry Crane agreed to be our external reviewer, and it was
decided to appoint an Honorary Solicitor as and when required.
We are a small association with a total membership of 214
individual and commercial members and 10 group members. The latter include
groups with diverse interests from recreational fishing to search and
rescue. Use of the term ‘group’ to
describe the latter has led to some confusion, which we hope the revised rules
will clarify. A copy of the proposed
revisions is posted on our blogsite. During the year 20 new members joined the
association and 2 individuals resigned.
The association may be small in number, but our network
covers one of the longest and most exposed coastlines in the country (see the
attached map prepared by Terry Thomas). The hub of the network is the repeater
on Swampy, a prominent hill to the north-west of Dunedin, which can reach from
Cape Wanbrow (south of the Oamaru boat harbour) to Hinahina hill (south of
Balclutha). The network allows calls to be monitored anywhere along the coast
and sometimes one can hear Ted Gilbert in Oamaru or Keith Simon at Taieri Mouth
responding to calls outside their immediate areas. The blue areas on the map
indicate areas of poor coverage because of ‘shading’ from hills, which the
proposed new channel 60 will address. The coast from Allan’s Beach (the south
side of the Otago Peninsula) to south of Taieri Mouth is one of these. This
year there have been about 30+ incidents requiring SAR callouts, many in the
Taieri Mouth area. Fortunately there
have been no fatalities. External funding will be sought for this development.
The proposal from last year’s AGM to install notices at boat launching sites is
in hand.
The
network has required some maintenance in the past year, but nothing on the
scale of the power cable to Hautai Hill. Martin, Terry, and Greg Stoop carried
out some long-overdue maintenance at Hinahina, which included uprighting the
mast. In the next 12 months the mast at Hautai Hill will need to be inspected, and our landlord at Cape
Wanbrow (Downer Ltd) has asked us to upgrade our repeater to avoid interference
between the other services at this site. This will require installation of
isolators and cavity filters.
I would like to thank the
committee for their support especially Ian, John, Martin and Terry and our regular
volunteer operators: Martin Balch,
Ted Gilbert, Kevin Hughes and Keith Simon. We are also grateful for help from Martin
Finnie who continues to give the evening weather round-ups from Moeraki, and
Rowan Leck and Terry who have provided relief cover. We are very short of
volunteer operators. If you are prepared to help or know of someone who is able
to help operate this important service please let one of the committee know.
Michael Harkness
Chairman
