CTARC Forthcoming October Meeting - 28 Oct '17

Noel / ZS1FW

The Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre will hold its October 2017 meeting on Saturday, 28 October 2017 at the clubhouse. in Rondebosch.

At 13h30, (please note the revised time of start of meeting) Noel / ZS1FW will present a New Hams orientation lecture on "Hamspeak", or Amateur Radio Terminology. Come and learn all about these colloquial 'shortcuts' in our hobby.

This has proven to be a very well attended event before the monthly meeting, and both old and new hams are encouraged to attend.

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Paul / ZS1S

For the main part of the meeting, starting at 14h00,  Paul / ZS1S will give a presentation on his recent visit with Fred / ZS1FZ, to the Hamfest at the port of Friedrichshafen in Stuttgart, Germany. This is Europe's (and certainly Germany's) largest gathering of radio amateurs of the year and is a major event on the international radio amateur calendar.

At Friedrichshafen, all the major Ham Radio suppliers (and many smaller entrepreneurs too) are represented, and make use of the opportunity to showcase exciting and innovative new radio products and services. Many radio clubs, both local and international, are present too. In addition, an enormous swop-meet takes place where everything and anything ham-related is usually on sale.

It promises to be a very interesting talk indeed.

​Come early to get a good seat and don’t forget the monthly Ham gear Bring and Buy opportunity after the meeting, where you can bring along surplus radio  equipment, components and assorted widgets for swop or sale. As always, please remove your unsold items from the clubhouse after the meeting.

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This event has now taken place. The report-back on the meeting is [here].

CTARC Forthcoming New Hams Presentation - 28 Oct '17

The CTARC committee has received several requests for presentations intended to assist new radio hams to get to grips with aspects of our hobby.

Noel / ZS1FW

As we have been unable to arrange a New Hams Presentation speaker for our September meeting, our next New Hams session will take place on Saturday 28th October beginning at 13h00, an hour ahead of the regularly scheduled main meeting, at the CTARC clubhouse.

All new / recently qualified radio amateurs are warmly encouraged to attend.

This session, conducted by Noel / ZS1FW, will be on the subject of  Ham Radio Terminology.

CTARC New Hams Orientation Session Report - 25 Jun '17

CTARC Chairman, Rod / ZS1SA, conducted
the orientation session for new hams

On  Saturday 24 June 2017, the CTARC held the first of a series of orientation sessions for the new radio hams in our community. The lecture, by Rob / ZS1SA, started at 13h00, an hour before the main monthly members meeting at 14h00. The meeting was well-attended

Rob covered the following syllabus:

• Correct station identification;
• How to correctly establish cntact on a VHF FM repeater;
• Round Table proceedures and net operation;
• Reporting emeregencies;
• Repeater etiquette;
• Proper microphone techniques;
• Repeater- and Simplex frequencies;
• CTCSS.

Rob's PowerPoint presentation file of the talk is [here].

The common-sense procedures appropriate to using the shared resource of VHF amateur radio were well presented. During and at the end of the lecture, attendees had the opportunity to get their questions answered.

At 14h00 we were joined by the larger group of CTARC members for the main meeting.

Further details of subsequent orientation sessions will be announced on the CTARC bulletins, in RagChew and on this Blogspot.

CTARC Forthcoming New Hams Presentation - 24 Jun '17

The CTARC committee has received several requests for presentations intended to assist new radio hams to get to grips with aspects of our hobby. Our first session will take place this coming Saturday 24th June beginning at 13h00, an hour ahead of the regularly scheduled meeting, at the CTARC clubhouse. 

All new / recently qualified radio amateurs are warmly encouraged to attend.

Our first session, conducted by Rob / ZS1SA, will be on the subject of VHF Operating Protocol

The syllabus will be:

• ·        How to correctly establish contact on VHF FM repeaters & simplex channels;
• ·        Round-table radio net procedures;
• ·        Allowing breaks between overs;
• ·        Proper microphone technique;
• ·        Correct station identification;
• ·        Use of the Proword “Break”;
• ·        Repeater and Simplex Frequencies;
• ·        CTCSS.

(Note, this meeting has taken place. The Report-back is [here].)