Remember please, Anne is
always needs articles to publish in Ragchew! This is especially the
case during the lock-down. Thank you to those numerous contributors in
this edition!
You can advertise ham-related items - for
sale, swop or wanted-to-buy - in Ragchew, including colour photos,
details and prices. To do so, please contact the editor [here].
Download the November 2021 Newsletter as a PDF file [here];
Ragchew is also on our Newsletters Page
Thanks to Chris for his efforts and to all those who attended!
The Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre set up a station at its traditional Green Point Lighthouse venue for the 2021 ILLW event, from Saturday 19th to Sunday 20th August 2021.
Owing to the Coronavirus safety restrictions, our club wasn't able to use the actual Lighthouse or associated buildings this year as we usually do. No mains power plus the temporary loss of access to the large room and lighthouse tower we usually enjoy there made setting up a multi-rig, multi-band, multi-antenna HF station too cumbersome to do this year. However, none of these limitations prevented Chris ZS1CDG from setting up a field station at the venue to make contacts through the QO-100 geostationary satellite. Strict Covid precautions were maintained throughout the event.
A resounding success! The event was attended throughout the weekend by numerous radio amateurs as well as members of the public, who were curious to see radio hams making many international contacts via the satellite. As ever, it was a great opportunity to promote both our club and the hobby to many visitors. It was also a lot of fun!
Among those present were Chris ZS1CDG, John ZS1EQ, Graeme ZS1GAK, Fred ZS1FZ, Stan ZS1HC, ZS1KU, Lem ZS1LEM, Celso ZS1MYG, Peter ZS1PC, James ZS1RBT, Paul ZS1S, Rob ZS1SA (CTARC chairman) & Anne, Tony ZS1TK, Phil ZS1WW, Bryce ZU1BM, Kiara ZU1ISS and ZU1KAT. We were also delighted to see Syd ZS5AYC & Adele ZS5APT who had traveled down here from Natal.
A video of the CTARC ILLW event is [here].
Hats off to Chris ZS1CDG for setting up the event and thanks to all those who attended and operated the station. We look forward to the ILLW again next year where (oh, how we hope!) we will be able to run a full HF station again at Green Point Lighthouse.
A more comprehensive report and photos are in the September 2021 edition of Ragchew, the CTARC's newsletter .
The Annual General Meeting of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre was held at 14h00 on Saturday, 24 July 2021. Owing to the current Coronavirus restrictions at the time, the meeting was held in virtual format on the Jitsi platform. This was the first such AGM for our club to be conducted this way.
The elections were conducted successfully and the previous Chairman, Rob ZS1SA was re-elected for another year. The Committee was also re-elected, with some changes to members' portfolios. The new CTARC COmmittee for 2021/2022 period may be seen [here].
Danny ZS1BL has stepped down from the Committee after some five years of faithful service.
Owing to the virtual nature of the meeting, awards could not be physically handed to the recipients but will be done so at the soonest opportunity.
A fuller report will appear in the next edition of Ragchew.
The outdoors meeting at the CTARC Clubhouse, which took place on Saturday, 22 May 2021, is reported on by Tony ZS1TK on Page 6 of the June 2021 edition of Ragchew.
It was to be the last actual meeting at the CTARC club house before the new Covid-19 regulations and restrictions took place.
Download the June 2021 Ragchew [here].
On Saturday, 27 March 2021, the long-awaited ham boot sale / flea market took place at the CTARC Clubhouse.
At first the weather threatened rain, and indeed there was a small shower early on, but it cleared up sufficiently for the flea market to go ahead without further disruption.
Committee members pitched up early to set up the event, barrier-tape the perimeter to ensure compliance with Covid-19 requirements. Other folk started arriving and by 10h30, the official start of the flea market, browsers were champing at the bit.
All people at the meeting had to wear a mask, maintain social distancing and sanitise their hands appropriately. They also were required to sign a Covid declaration form, which process was capably managed by our indispensable club secretary, Anne. She also sold fine embroidered CTARC face masks, setting new standards for sartorial elegance at our club meetings. While we all are getting tired of face masks by now, at least where we do need to wear them we can represent our Club with pride!
We're glad to report that everyone cooperated with the Covid safety requirements, which gives us hope for the possibility of further clubhouse meetings, subject to the official lockdown re-assessments.
In contrast with previous flea markets, catering and liquid refreshments were not provided this year, but members brought their own food and flasks of coffee.
While current circumstances reduced the number of vendors and attendees compared to previous years, the event was most successful. Tony ZS1TK counted fifty-two visitors in all. Around fifteen people were selling items. A number of happy campers walked away with nice bits and pieces, components, rigs and antennas. There were, as always, some great bargains to be had.
At around 14h30 the fleamarket started winding down and was done by about 15h00.
Most grateful thanks to Rob and Anne for managing the event work so well, and to all committee members for their contributions. And to all the buyers and sellers who were there too!
A more comprehensive report (with photos) is included in the April Ragchew here.
Below are some photos of the event, kindly provided by Tony ZS1TK. Unfortunately as folk wore masks (as requested), identification of them remained difficult for the captions...
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| The flea market provided some interesting items... |
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| ...and for once the tables weren't crowded with competing bargain hunters! |
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| Anne, Paul ZS1S and Rob ZS1SA |
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| Everybody brought and braai'd their own food. |
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| Rob ZS1SA |
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| Anne registers Hans-Jurgen ZS1HJH and Wolfgang ZS1WLH |
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| Committee members set up the meeting area |
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| A Hallicrafters HT-44, a Johnson Viking Ranger II and an Icom IC-78 |
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| The weather was good and many folk were there |
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| In the heat of the afternoon, the trees provide welcome shade. |
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| Chris ZS1CDG [on right] |
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| Paul ZS1S always brings lots of interesting bits & pieces |
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| Tony ZS1TK [left] - lots of equipment on offer, including a Trio TS-700 and an Ameritron Linear Amp & PSU |
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| Grant ZS1GRC |
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| Left to right: John ZS1EQ, James ZS1ZKZ, Tom ZS1TA and Dirkie ZS1X |
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| Several raffle prizes were announced by Danny ZS1BL and Paul ZS1PSK, with Andre ZS1F and Mike ZS1CO walking off with prizes |
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| Mike ZS1CO collects his raffle prize |
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| The two catering stalwarts, Elsabe and Anne, take a well-earned breather after having fed the ravenous multitudes |
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| Afterwards we sat around in a circle discussing the flea market. |
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| General consensus was that it was a great success. We will do it all again next year!
Batch 1 * Batch 2 * Batch 3 * Batch 4 * Batch 5
Pics by Z1TK * Pics by ZS1PC |
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| Some very fancy test equipment. The brass item is a beautiful telegraph signalling indicator from Before the Rinderpest... |
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| Oscilloscopes, specturm analysers, plug in modules |
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| Mysterious test widgets still wrapped in bubble wrap. |
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| Wouter ZS1KE had some interesting items. The item on the left is a construction microscope. A test-bed PSU is on the right |
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| An Open-Tracker APRS unit, a Barlow-Wadley XCR-30 receiver, an Atlas 210x HF transceiver, a Triplett multimeter [in AVO box behind] and a small receiver long-wire ATU. |
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| On the left is an elderly AM/FM tuner, on the right is a National VP-5100A Oscilloscope. |
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| Peter ZS1PJB [right] shows some heavy-duty RF components, capacitors and valves. ZS1MM [middle] looks on with interest. |
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| Peter ZS1PJB and Alan ZS1BBR. |
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| Tom ZS1AFS and Sue ZS1AFR had a table-full of goodies for sale... |
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| ...including an Icom HF transceiver and an SWR meter |
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| Avron ZS1LA [on left]. |
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| Dirkie ZS1X with lots of antennae, an MFJ ATU, test meters, etc. |
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| By midday, the flea market was in full swing. |
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| Chris ZS1CDG and James ZS1ZKZ |
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| Dave ZS1DFR, in consultation with Paul ZS1S, discovers the MTBF of his ice cream is not all that it's cracked out to be... |
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| Love at first sight! This fine Marconi Apollo marine boat-anchor receiver, with Nixie valve frequency display, saw service on the SA Agulhus |
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| A frequency counter, a VHF rig and a Puxing UHF handie |
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| A fine Heathkit HA-14 HF SSB linear amp & PSU |
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| A remote-controlled masthead antenna switch |
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| Jars of connectors and components |
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| CRT monitors and computer peripherals |
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| Something PSU-related... |
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| Plugs and sockets, including a typically unavailable Jones plug and socket |
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| More copper wire and inductors |
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| Circuit boards of indeterminate function... |
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| Meters, a soldering iron and a Tachometer! |
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| Filters, chokes, switches... |
