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The success of the club on air is down to a lot of hard work and dedication from its committed and experienced members, a friendly yet single-minded bunch of Kiwis and adopted-Kiwis. We are, in no particular order:
Lee ZL2AL Lee is the club’s cheerful founder, chief strategist and crack spud sniper, as well as a keen contest operator and the club’s QSL manager. A highly accomplished DXer and contester, Lee keeps us all aligned and motivated.
Lee is on the DXCC Honor Roll with 335 entities confirmed and 5BDXCC, DXCC Challenge, 5BWAZ and 5BWAS. Lee has been a ham for 55 years as VE3CDX, VE3OE, VE3LJ, ZL1BET and, since 1973, ZL2AL. He led DXpeditions to ZL7AA in 1993 and 1997. He was a team member of the 1996 ZL8RI DXpedition to Raoul Island and 1999 ZL9CI DXpedition to Campbell Island, and a member of the ZM2K Contest Team in the early 1990s. He led the recent DXpedition to ZL7T. He is a member of the ARRL A-1 Operators Club and the sole ARRL DXCC Field QSL Card Checker for Australasia.
John ZL2QM is our resident antenna expert with decades of “mucking around with antennas” as he puts it. John’s biggest monster antenna accomplishment to date was designing and building a 3 element wire delta loop for 80M strung between two 200 foot hills near the ZM2M site. The antenna was suspended on a ½ km of nylon rope and the base of the antenna was over 100 feet off the ground. It worked so well the team won the Jock White Field day that year nationally. Unfortunately, however, it took so long to construct that we never did it again!
Peter ZL2LF has been an active DXer and contester/team member of the ZL2GT Field Day team for many years. He was a member of the ZL7AA DXpedition to Chatham Island in 1993 and again in 1997.
Peter is the contest group’s technical wizzard, keeping the radios in top operating condition and dreaming up new ways of using equipment more effectively.
Stan ZL2ST has been a ham for over 50 years. He is on the DXCC Honor Roll with at least 342 entities confirmed. Stan was a team member of the 1993 and 1997 (ZL7AA) and 2001 ZL7C DXpeditions.
Stan is a member of the ARRL A-1 Operators Club and was a member of the ZM2K Contest Group in the early 1990s. He led the Napier Branch 25 ZL2GT Jock White contest team and was NZART’s Contest Manager for years.
Stan normally handles the contest entry paperwork for us, doing a great job to resolve those cryptic notes and typoos some of us drop into the logs.
Wayne ZL2WG has become increasingly interested in DXing and contesting since being licensed in 1993 and joining the contest group in recent years. He was a member of the ZL7T DXpedition to Chatham Island in 2009.
Wayne has been learning new tricks with every contest and will no doubt soon be showing newcomers the ropes. He enjoys QRP digital operating and DXing from home.
Mike ZL2CC immigrated to New Zealand from the UK in 1967 but returned to the midlands for his eldest daughter's illness in 1979. He sat the UK Amateur Radio exam in '83 taking the call G1NFD then upgrading to G0LBP before returning to ZL and being issued ZL2CC.
Mike was a member of the ZL7T DXpedition in 2009, and wrote the HF DX column for NZART’s Break In magazine. Mike has over 200 DXCC entities confirmed so far. He has a penchant for fullwave wire loops that play well on the low bands.
Aside from ham radio, Mike has a passion for the Wild West and sometimes looks like John Wayne.
Mike ZL2FAR & ZL2MY was first licenced as EI7CR in 1974, then G0WMP in the 90’s and emigrated to ZL in 2001. Mike’s another CW fanatic and loves playing with wire antennas and his K2/100. He is a keen contester who loves to collect old transceivers and new USB oscilloscopes.
Mike is a very special and gifted member of the team as he specializes in running massive pileups through the middle of the night/very early morning period while the rest of us softies sleep like babies.
Phil ZL2RVW hails originally from the English midlands, close to Mike ZL2CC, but for a good few years now has lived in Gisborne. Phil has been a ham since 1981 with past callsigns G6HPM and G4RVW. He participated in the 2009 ZL7T DXpedition. He holds DXCC and is a keen DXer and contester when he is not out fishing. His booming voice is an asset for SSB contests.
 Chris ZL2DX has been an active DXer and contester, originally with the ZM2K team. He has operated under his own call from ZL7, ZL8 and ZL9 from his postings with the Department of Conservation to these islands in the 1970s and 1980s.
Chris is a member of the ARRL A-1 Operators Club, a founding member of the ZM2K Contest Team and was a team member of the ZL8RI DXpedition to Raoul Island in 1996. He is currently very active on EME with more than 60 countries worked on 2 metres“off the moon”.
 Gary ZL2iFB became G4iFB (and GW4iFB, GJ4iFB and GM4iFB) while at school in 1979, and emigrated to ZL in 2005. Gary is the team’s webmaster for ZL7T and ZM2M/ZL4T dotcoms. He’s a member of the First Class Operator's Club (FOC), ARRL A-1 Operators Club, Quartz Hill Contest Club (ZL6QH), Chiltern DX Club (CDXC), M6T Contest Group, Windmill Contest Group (G0FBB), Gravesend NFD team (G3GRS/P), the Red Dragons Contest Group (GW8GT), ARRL and NZART. He belonged to the RSGB HF Contest Committee in the 1980s/90s when contest logs were checked laboriously by hand. Gary has DXpeditioned as GJ4iFB and GJ2A, VK9NI, E51FB, and XT2DX and 9L5A with the Voodoo Contest Group. Gary’s first love is CW, particularly CW DXing and CW contesting. He is fast approaching 300 DXCC countries worked from ZL since 2005 and is one of the most active South Pacific CW DXers, thanks largely to working from home. He is also the deputy ZL coordinator for the IARU Monitoring Service and runs an email reflector to collate S Pacific reports on ham band intruders.
 Holger ZL3IO joined the group during 2009 after moving to Hastings from Berlin. Holger is an extremely accomplished contester and DXpeditioner. His previous callsigns since becoming a ham in 1982 include: Y31IO, Y58IO, DL7VTM and DL7IO.
Holger has DXpeditioned as 3D2IO, 3D2IO/R, 8Q7IO, 9H3M (ex-9H3TY), 9I2Z, BV7/DL7IO, EA8/DL7IO, F/DL7IO, FW/Y58IO, H44IO, HU1M, J48IO, J48M, HU1M/3, UZ3/Y31IO, UJ4K/Y31IO, UZ9OWD (op), UJ7K/UZ9OWM (op), SO1HH, SV8/DL7IO, T28IO, TN2M, YJ0AIO, ZB0/DL7IO and ZL/DL7IO (!).
Holger has already worked 200 DXCC countries despite living in a typical small urban lot at the moment but he has just started building a superstation on a new elevated site looking out across Hawke’s Bay towards the Americas. His plans for towers and 4-squares are fast coming to fruition, to be followed at some point by a new house for his young ham family.
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