CTARC Committee Meeting - 18 May '15

Committee members are reminded that there will be a Committee Meeting of the CTARC at 19h00 on Monday 18 May 2015.

Please make every effort to attend.

CTARC Report on April Meeting - 26 Apr '15

On Saturday 25 April 2015, The CTARC's members met at the clubhouse at 14h00 for their monthly gathering. In spite of overcast weather as we approach Autumn, the meeting was well attended.

After a welcome and a few administrative announcements by our chairman, Rob /ZS1SA, we were given a most interesting talk and professional PowerPoint presentation by Mike / VK2UCT. He is a consulting engineer on a visit to Cape Town from Sydney, Australia. Mike grew up in Cape Town and worked for the University of Cape Town for a number of years. He was also a member of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre, and editor of Ragchew. When in South Africa, he held the call sign ZS1MO and operated the University of Cape Town Amateur Radio Station, ZS1UCT. We're most grateful to Mike for his excellent contribution, and wish him a safe journey back home and good DX when he departs from Cape Town on Tuesday.

After the meeting, the club's members stayed for the usual chat and discussions. We look forward to the next CTARC meeting, which will take place at 14h00 on 23 May 2015 at the usual venue.

Daver / ZR1FR and Tony / ZS1TM look particularly concerned that the Club's video projector
is about to explode spontaneously! Fortunately, it didn't.

Our club chairman, Rob / ZS1SA, reads out some administrative announcements
before the main part of the meeting.

Mike is a member of the Wireless Institute of Australia, the main body that represents
the interests of Australian radio amateurs and their individual radio clubs.

Mike /VK2UCT's original shack when he was first starting out in ham radio.

ZS1UCT goes on air!

Mike's shack in Sydney, Australia

Mike's current operating position at his Australian QTH

 

VK2MB is Mike's radio club in Sydney

The well-equipped operating position at VK2MB

Just as we do in South Africa, the Australian Hams get involved in the annual Lighthouse Weekend activities.

Using the CTARC's unique Lecture Pointing Implement (a whip antenna...), Mike indicates
Sydney area's repeaters on a map

The above map in more detail. Sydney and surrounding areas
has a sophisticated repeater network. There are around 27 repeaters in the area,
some of which are linked to ECHOLINK. Some are 2-metre repeaters,
some work on 70 cm and there also a number of  D-STAR repeaters.

Extremes of weather, natural disasters (e.g. droughts, bush fires) and long distances
between remotely located farms in certain cases, have made the development of
efficient emergency communications a necessity. Austrlia's WICEN
is their equivalent of RSA's Hamnet.

WICEN operators in action

The sacrifices made by Australian and New Zealand's military forces in the First World War
and in subsequent conflicts are remembered on ANZAC Day, which recently held its
Centenary commemoration.

VK2MD also commemorates Marconi Day on 25 April, in celebration of early radio
experiments done between Sydney and the UK in 1918

 

Mike was also the Edtor of Ragchew when he was active at the CTARC.
Here he holds a couple of editions he produced!

After the meeting we had the usual discussions over coffee and biscuits

Paul / ZS1S, shows a slide with the committee members of the CTARC when Mike was
serving on the committee.

Richard / ZS1RIC and Paul / ZS1PXK

Barry / ZS1FJ

Gerald / ZS1GRM and our newest CTARC member, Geoff / ZR1GFT

CTARC Membership List - Apr '15

This is the list of the callsigns or names of the current membership of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre.

If you are a member of our club and your name or callsign DOESN'T appear on this list below, please contact our Secretary, Anne via our club's contact info page.

Anne B (Secretary)
Ian Stanbridge
S Scheff.

ZR1FR
ZR1GFT
ZR1HPC
ZR1TPH
ZR1WLH

ZS1AAX
ZS1ABY
ZS1ADD
ZS1AGF
ZS1AGH
ZS1AU
ZS1AX
ZS1BL
ZS1BW
ZS1CL
ZS1CO
ZS1DB
ZS1DEA
ZS1DEA
ZS1EVP
ZS1FK
ZS1FP
ZS1FW
ZS1FZ
ZS1GE
ZS1GRM
ZS1HA
ZS1HJH
ZS1HSF
ZS1KH
ZS1LS
ZS1MTF
ZS1OA
ZS1PDY
ZS1PE
ZS1PM
ZS1PT
ZS1PXK
ZS1QO
ZS1RA
ZS1RAP
ZS1RIC
ZS1S
ZS1SA
ZS1SBM
ZS1SG
ZS1TA
ZS1TK
ZS1TM
ZS1TS
ZS1VK
ZS1X
ZS1XG
ZS1ZC
ZS1ZD
ZS1ZL
ZS1ZX
ZS6BMF

ZSL1103

CTARC ZS1LS Wins Arthur Hemsley Two-Metre Trophy - Apr '15

On Saturday evening of 18 April 2015 At the South African Radio League 90th Anniversary Awards Dinner held in Bloemfontein, various operating awards were announced.
One of these, the Arthur Hemsley Two-Metre Trophy was awarded to Allan Saul /ZS1LS, who is a club member of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre.

According to the SARL Awards Directory (Second Edition), the Arthur Hemsley Two-Metre Trophy is awarded by SARL Council to a Radio Amateur for his/her individual achievements with transmissions in the 144 MHz amateur band. This award is made for extraordinary performance on EME or modes such as Tropospheric propagation. It is not for the longest distance worked but rather for persistence in achieving something special on the two metre band.

Very well done, Allan!

Throughout the years, this award has been handed to the following participants:

1966 Mike Bosch ZS2FM
1967 Mike Bosch ZS2FM
1968 L de Doux ZS6IF Later ZS2LL; silent key
1971 Dennis Brown ZS6EK
1972 G Doudney ZS1SP
1973 Bunny Hilton ZS2DH
1974 Herman van Rees ZS5CG
1975 H Day ZS6D
1976 L Coombe>Davis ZS2DD
1977 L Lincoln>King ZS2BZ silent key
1978 Louis de Bruyn ZS5LP
1979 Fred Anderson ZS6PW silent key
1980 J Ludlow ZS5ZY
1981 Southern Transvaal Branch
1983 Dave Woodhall ZS6BNT
1984 “Van” van der Watt ZS6LW silent key
1985 Dave Perry ZS1SG
1986 Cape Town Branch
1987 Pretoria Branch
1989 Phillip Venter ZS4PV
1990 "Van" van der Watt ZS6LW silent key
1992 Mike Parker ZR5ADQ
1995 Kobie Furstenburg ZS6ALE silent key
1997 Alex Gogos ZR2T
1998 Paul Smit ZS6PJS now ZS6NK
1999 Mike Bosch ZS2FM
2000 Mike Bosch ZS2FM
2001 Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society
2002 not awarded
2003 not awarded
2004 Lee Hanegraaf ZS5LEE
2005 Hannes Enslin ZS6JDE joint
         Daniel Hubbard ZS6JR joint
2006 Hannes Enslin ZS6JDE
2007 not awarded
2008 Glenn Kraut ZS2GK
2009 Pine Pienaar ZS6OB
2010 Peter Tottle ZS2ABF
2011 Nasri Gasant ZS1NAZ joint
         André Pretorius V51B joint
2012 André van Deventer ZS2BK
2013 Jan “Pine” Pienaar ZS6OB
2014 Allan Saul ZS1LS

CTARC Course Leader for RAE Sought - Apr '15

Once again, the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre appeals for a club member (or potential club member) to coordinate our proposed Radio Amateur Examination course. That person would be assisted by CTARC committee members in running the course and giving the lectures.

While another RAE course is currently being presented at the Oakdale Club - Amateur Radio, we receive numerous requests from potential Radio Amateurs in the Southern Suburbs, for whom the trip to Cape Town's northern suburbs is inconveniently far to travel.

Our club has successfully run RAE classes before, and we can certainly do it again!

CTARC Ragchew April / May 2015

The April / May 2015 edition of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre's bi-monthly newsletter "Ragchew" has been published.

You can download the newsletter as a PDF directly from [here]

Alternatively these can be found on our Newsletters Page

CTARC Forthcoming Meeting - 25 Apr '15

On Saturday 25 April 2015, the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre will hold its April 2015 meeting at 14h00. The venue is, as always, the CTARC clubhouse at the Belvedere Community Centre, off Laidlaw Lane in Rondebosch

Visiting Australian radio amateur, Mike / VK2UCT (formerly ZS1MO), who hails from Sydney, will give us a talk on the amateur radio scene where he now lives.

It promises to be a very interesting meeting indeed. Please diarise the date!

CTARC Committee Meeting - 13 Apr '15

Committee members of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre are reminded that there will be a committee meeting at the clubhouse on Monday 13 April 2015 at 19h00.

Please note that the meeting is a week earlier than usual.

Do please make every effort to attend.

CTARC Clubhouse Clean-Up - 4 Apr '15

Please note we will hold a clubhouse clean-up and sorting-out meeting at the CTARC Clubhouse on Saturday 4 April 2015, starting at 10h00. Committee members are welcome to attend. At least Rob, Noel, Danny and Paul will be there.The more, the merrier!

CTARC New ICASA Radio Regulations Published - 1 Apr '14

A new set of Radio Regulations have been published by ICASA in Government Gazette 38641 (Volume 597) of 30 March 2015.

You can download this particularly interesting Government Gazette here.

Your particular attention is drawn to the increases in Spectrum Allocations made available to Amateur Radio Stations, as well as the increase in legally permitted power... See page 91 of that PDF for the details.

On certain frequencies, the maxmum legal power in dB relative to 1 Watt PEP is... 30 dBW !

That translates to approximately 1 kiloWatt.

On other allocated frequencies, the maxmum legal power in dB relative to 1 Watt PEP remains at 26 dBW 

(That translates to around 400 Watts)