Category: About

Welcome to RemoteDX

remoterigThe Quartz Hill User Group (a committee of the Wellington Amateur Radio Club Inc) operated ZL6QH from Makara from 1997 – 2007.  The arrival of a collection of wind generators on the site saw us departing as a result of the S9+40 interference!

For several years we searched for a replacement site. Eventually we came to the realisation that we weren’t going to find a site that would host a collection of long wire antennas (with 300m legs).  We needed to rescale the vision! We came up with the idea of remote sites with a smaller footprint … using antennas such as fixed beam antennas on the higher HF bands and four square arrays on the lower bands.

With the support of our host branch (Wellington Amateur Radio Club Inc – Branch 50 NZART) the then Chair and Secretary/Treasurer of the Quartz Hill User Group (Mike ZL1AXG and Doug ZL2AOV) visited branches in the area to gauge interest in the creation of a new special interest group.  There seemed to be quite a bit of interest with around 50 people signed up to receive email updates.

A plan was hatched to launch a new incorporated society in November 2016 that would administer any remote site(s) and related support technologies including the high speed regional broadband network used to transport signals into our home QTHs.  RemoteDX is not about creating a new NZART branch, but rather it is about creating a regional support structure for joined up amateur radio projects in the region.

This site provides information about RemoteDX Inc, its current projects, and future projects planned to support amateur radio within the Wellington region.

Mike ZL1AXG
(updated May 2019)

The New Quartz Hill User Group Remote Site Project

Screen Shot 2015-10-24 at 5.36.43 PM
One gate has closed forever, but another one is about to open …

QHUG has been looking for a new site for some years without luck.

However, in the last 12 months considerable rethinking has gone on.

Firstly, it was realised that we did not need to necessarily pursue a large site with several hundred acres of antenna farm, but rather we could get by with more compact high-gain HF arrays (e.g. Four Square Arrays) for the lower bands.

Secondly we realised that we didn’t need to travel a long way out of town to operate in a contest or DX.  We could simply build a compact remote site and transport signals back to Wellington over a high speed data network.

This website is dedicated to describing the project build for the new remote site.

It will keep you informed about:

  1. Project purpose
  2. Project developments and the timetable of work
  3. Project teams and their activities (e.g antennas, off-grid power, mesh data network)

All the key events in the life of the project will be documented here, culminating in the return of ZL6QH to the major HF contests!

Once our build of a remote site has been completed we will set up a new website with a new name that is more focussed on our new core mission.  In the mean time, check out how the ZL6QH remote station is progressing here!