2003 QUARTZ HILL ANNUAL REPORT
Our “radio playground” at Quartz Hill is now 7 years old and continues to be a source of challenge and enjoyment for everyone involved - whether it be contesting, working DX, experimenting with antennas, social events, maintenance tasks or just being out in the rugged coastal environment.
Recent discussions with Meridian Energy indicate that there are no immediate plans to start building a wind farm at Quartz Hill. So it looks like we will continue to enjoy access to the site for some time yet. Here is a summary of the main achievements and activities over the past 12 months:
· Quartz Hill continued to produce leading scores in international HF DX contests. ZL6QH was first in Oceania for the 2003 Worked All Europe contests and has claimed a new Zone 32 record in the 2003 CQWW CW contest. Bob ZL2AMI continues to dominate the Oceania RTTY contest scene through his operations from Quartz Hill.
· Bob ZL2CA and Andrew ZL2BBJ conducted further LF test transmissions on 137 kHz. The latest transmissions were received by stations as far away as Alaska and USA.
· The antenna farm was improved by adding new vertical antennas for the 160m and 80m bands, and realigning the old Australia vee beam to create a second vee beam for the short path to Europe.
· We had a very successful BBQ and open day in January 2004, attracting around 30 people, including a number of visitors from out of town.
· ZL6QH reached the milestone of 100,000 QSOs on 19 December
2003. Approximately 25,000 QSOs were logged during the year (up from 21,500 in 2002).
· The total number of QSL cards sent out is now 19,500. We have recently transferred the ZL6QH log to the Logbook of the World (LOTW) system to allow electronic QSLing. We are very grateful to Ralph ZL2AOH for managing the processing of QSL requests.
· Growing Interest in the ZL6QH web site (www.zl6qh.com). The number of "unique" visitors to the site increased from 122 in April to 538 in December. We are most grateful to Mike ZL1AXG for the provision of the site.
· The number of financial supporters has climbed to 30, up from 25 in 2002.
· We achieved a healthy surplus of $1,211 for the 12-month period ending 31 December 2003. The income and expenditure for the period was $3,182 and $1,971 respectively. The final bank balance was $2,567, after bringing forward the balance of $1,356 from the previous year. The surplus was largely due to generous donations of $450 from Chris GM3WOJ and $600 from Trevor ZL2AKW (estate proceeds).
Thank you to everyone involved for your support in 2003 - in particular Meridian Energy, the Quartz Hill supporters group, Vertex Standard (for the ZL6QH colour QSL cards), and the Quartz Hill management committee (Mike ZL2BCW, Doug ZL2AOV, Andrew ZL2BBJ, Bob ZL2CA, Wilbert ZL2BSJ, Bob ZL2AMI, Brian ZL1AZE and Ralph ZL2AOH).
Brian Miller ZL1AZE
Chair of Quartz Hill Management Committee
5 February, 2004