NZART Headquarters Infoline Issue 23S
26-February-2010
NZART Website: http://www.nzart.org.nz/

Greetings
Welcome to Headquarters-Infoline Special covering the failure to get fully
funded annual Kordia accounts for site leases.

Find HQ Infoline on the Web at:
http://www.nzart.org.nz/infoline/index.html

*Attachment for Branches:
==NZART Headquarters Infoline 23S.doc
----Next Official Broadcast is on SUNDAY 28-FEBRUARY-2010
----Next Infoline is to be e-mailed on SUNDAY 07-MARCH-2010
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Kordia Co-Location Agreement

I regret to report that negotiations with respect to fully funding the
annual Kordia account for site leases have been unsuccessful. A change late
last year to the Equipment Schedule introduced by Kordia, charging for rack
space as well as the antennas, has almost doubled the annual fees payable.

Negotiations over the last two years have seen the annual amount payable
reduce from over $27,000 per annum ($27,350), down to a total of just under
$10,000 per year ($9966.00). Despite offers of financial help from Branches
with equipment in Kordia sites, totaling $3966, the shortfall which would be
a debt your Association would have to pay, is $6000 per annum. Council, at
its face-to-face meeting in Wellington over the weekend of February 20/21
concluded that this was unsustainable.

There are a total of 11 Kordia sites around New Zealand where we have
repeater equipment located: Te Aroha, Mt Egmont, Wharitie, Mt Erin, Mt.
Grey, Blue Duck, Fitzherbert, Whakapunake, Kuriwao, Mt Murchison and Mt
Cargill. The negotiations with Kordia resulted in the offer to "pay for
some" and stay at the rest for free, provided that the space is not required
for future Kordia equipment and systems. Arising from this offer, it was
determined that there were three sites we could not do without in order to
keep the National System going: Mt Egmont (Taranaki), Blue Duck and Mt.
Cargill. These three sites do not have any viable alternative site which
equipment could be relocated to without major re-engineering of the National
System.

For the three sites we need to keep the National System viable in its
present form (Mt. Egmont, Blue Duck and Mt. Cargill), the annual cost is
$9206 including GST. This does not include power which paid for all 11 sites
which is currently another $760 per annum incl. GST.

As a result, I regret I have had to advise Kordia that NZART is unable to
sign the Co-Location Agreement. The consequence of this is that we will have
to shut down and remove the amateur radio equipment from all 11 sites at the
earliest opportunity unless your Branch can meet the on-going cost - see 1
below.

Where to From Here

1. Kordia are willing to enter into individual site agreements with Branches
who want to retain their repeater site and can afford to meet all the costs.
If your Branch wants to do this, please contact me for details of the person
in Kordia to make contact with.

2. Kordia have agreed to a six month time frame in which all amateur
equipment is to be removed. This is effective from 28 February 2010.

3. NZART has received an offer from TeamTalk to host amateur repeaters at
their sites at no charge where possible. If your Branch has a repeater in a
Kordia site, and can relocate to a nearby Teamtalk site, then this may offer
a solution. If this is a solution in your area, I can provide contact
details for TeamTalk . Note that TeamTalk are already hosting amateur
repeaters at several locations throughout New Zealand and we are grateful
for this excellent cooperation.

4. In the longer term, we have the possibility to re-engineer the National
System to totally bypass Kordia owned and operated sites by making use of
TeamTalk and other sites. This involves more equipment, shorter links
between nodes, and some use of higher frequencies (23cm and up) and a
considerable amount of re-engineering. However it is achievable and should
be a goal to work towards.

If I can provide more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Vaughan Henderson ZL1TGC
NZART Vice-President.
Email:
Phone: 021 844 804
Phone 09 418-1071


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Infoline on the web http://www.nzart.org.nz/infoline/

Regards, Jamie Pye ZL2NN, Editor