Amateur of The Year 2009
Message from NZART President and
Nomination

At the NZART AGM held recently in Auckland, I was delighted to award the "Amateur Of The Year" to Peter Aikin ZL1TX. Hearty congratulations to Peter. It is amateurs like Peter who keep our hobby in good heart - and the award was designed for amateurs who contribute as much as he has.

I am including the nomination I received so that all can see the magnificent job that Peter has done.

Roy Symon, ZL2KH

President, NZART (Inc)

Nominee for Amateur of the Year, Peter Aikin ZL1TX

The Committees of the Wellington VHF Group Inc, Branch 74, and Whangarei Amateur Radio Club (Inc), Branch 28, hereby jointly nominate Peter Aikin as "Amateur of the Year 2010".

In recent years Peter has made an outstanding, indeed remarkable, contribution to the hobby of amateur radio, particularly in Northland and also at a national level.

In Whangarei, the Bay of Islands, and the Far North there are seven repeater sites with fourteen amateur repeaters. Peter has made his specialist skills available for the benefit of all Northland amateurs through upgrading and maintaining these sites and equipment.

In particular he was responsible for re-engineering the National System equipment throughout the region when that was required a little while ago, even procuring surplus Tait T800 gear from the U.K. for the purpose. In addition, he assisted with the Dargaville repeater 147.175 MHz, he made a transmitter for the Whangarei Data repeater, then became involved in the Kaikohe/Kerikeri repeaters, and finally became involved with the Far North repeaters.

The cavity filters which he built for the Whangarei ATV repeater are just one of the many examples of his dedication to precision workmanship and cost saving to our hobby.

As a further benefit to amateurs in the North, he has been able to recognize and accumulate retired equipment, which can be re-purposed for use by amateurs. One example was his rewriting of the software to reprogram the firmware in a commercial RT to operate as a 2 m and 70 cm dual band amateur radio. Many of these have now been converted by him and are in daily use by amateurs. This project was published in Break-In.

Peter has contributed to his local branch, with continued enthusiasm and leadership within the repeater and radio equipment areas. He is now again leading the charge in the introduction of digital radio, building a new D Star unit from surplus commercial equipment.

Peter has presented technical papers to several VHF Conventions, and has led seminars and discussions on technical matters. The VHF/UHF community has appreciated his input.

Branches 28 and 74 are proud to nominate Peter. In summary he has made a significant contribution to the wellbeing of the hobby both in the North and in VHF/UHF, in keeping with the finest amateur ideals, and is a worthy recipient of the award of "Amateur of the Year".

Yours Sincerely,

Signed:

Wellington VHF Group Inc, Dick Greenbank ZL2TGQ, President

Whangarei Amateur Radio Club (Inc), Brian Winger ZL1BSW, President