New Zealand has an active group of people in the SHF area. In 2005, the north Island of ZL was more active that the south, but now the south seem to be more active than the north.

Activity ranges from the 33 cm (925 MHz), 23 cm (1296 MHz), 12 cm (2400 MHz), 9 cm (3400 MHz), 6 cm (5760 MHz), 3 cm (10368 MHz), 1.2 cm (24048 MHz), 0.6 cm (47088 MHz) bands, with more recent activity on 76 GHz and 122 GHz.

Left: Wayne D Knowles, ZL2BKC (Recently became a Silent key Dec 29th 2022) running 2 m, 70 cm, 24 GHz, on the December 2022 VHF contest.

Right: Greg Stortz, ZL1GSG operates 24 GHz with his designed the antenna system. To the right of the picture shows part of his 1 m dish that runs a Vivaldi horn feed that runs multiband up to 10 GHz. The location is the Turoa Side of Mt Ruapehu. The mountain in the distance is Mt Taranaki (Egmont). Also running on the December 2022 VHF contest.

Predominantly, people in ZL and VK run transverters for most bands, except 23 cm where the IC-910H and IC-9700 are quite prevalent along with a small number of Kenwood TS-2000X units. Transverters range from kitsets from VK5EME (Mini-Kits in Australia) along with SG Labs and Kuhne (DB6NT), with a small number of older Down East Microwave units. Some have also repurposed ex-commercial equipment such as the older DMC / Stratex DXR series / MAS ® equipment.

Construction is quite popular with ZLs to get something on the air. Between ZL and VK there have been developments in the microwave area, such as the well regarded ZL PLL from Wayne ZL2BKC, as were the suite of transverter kits from VK3XDK that ranged from 2.4 GHz up to 10 GHz as alternatives to the mainstream products. Antennas range from linear or loop Yagis on 23 and 12 cm to dishes and horns used on the higher bands.

Choices of IF rigs were the Yaesu FT-817, but very popular with microwavers is the IC-705. The IC-705 makes life easier when it can reduce one of the microwave metrics when establishing contacts. Those metrics being on frequency, pointing the right direction, and QSO timing. The waterfall aids in finding stations who may be off frequency.

With the impending arrival of the IC-905 in ZL, this should make for more activity on the bands.

It's 2000 km from Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, to the Australian continent.

Several of the ZLs hold both Internal and external (international) records for distance between ZL and VK. Call signs to note who have done this on various bands to overseas from north to south include ZL1IU (23 cm & 12 cm ZL to VK), ZL1TPH (12 cm & 9 cm ZL to VK), ZL1GSG (3cm EME), ZL1SWW (23 cm ZL to VK), ZL1AVZ (12 cm ZL to VK), and ZL3RC (3 cm ZL to VK).

Records held within ZL include ZL1TBG (33 cm - 620km), ZL1TPH (1.2 cm – 240 km), ZL1SWW (6 cm – 622 km, 0.6 cm 68 km), ZL1GSG (3 cm – 622 km), and ZL2BKC (76 GHz – 17 km).

This site is the Simon Watt-Wyness, ZL1SWW Field Day operation located at Cape Rodney (GL: RF73IR) in the north Island of New Zealand. Franc Dunatov, ZL1SLO is to the front left and Simon ZL1SWW is further back behind the laptop. Active on all bands up from 6 m up to 24 GHz. We run out of tripods to run everything so we just pop on the band we need to communicate at the time.

New Zealand is quite hilly, and this can work for and against you in the microwave bands. Due to the terrestrial challenges, most activity will occur on some hilltop unless you are one of the lucky ones with a QTH with a good high altitude. It is because most of this activity occurs on the contest weekends where people get to high spots to run their gear.

This site is also up at Cape Rodney running as a contest station ZL1AA (Club Station). This time with Mark ZL1BNO and Simon ZL1SWW. Bands here from 6 m through to 47 GHz. Altitude 375 m ASL @ RF73IR. Plenty of fenceposts to mount gear on.

These contests run every two months, but one contest precludes microwave bands, and is limited from 6 m to 6 cm. Some stations will run between 7 to 11 bands single handed, which makes for a busy time! Every now and then, small pockets of activity happen on the microwave bands to test gear and make sure everything is running for the next contest!

<Reference>
More information of communication distance records can be seen on the NZART site at https://www.nzart.org.nz/info/vhf-records/2022-nz-records

About the writer:
Simon Watt-Wyness, ZL1SWW
https://www.qrz.com/db/ZL1SWW