CTARC Report-Back on Bring & Buy Swops - 22 Oct '16

We were very pleasantly surprised to see the great responses to our proposed Bring and Buy Swops facility, which promises to be an attractive function of our monthly meetings from now on.

A number of club members brought along various bits and pieces to our October monthly meeting at the clubhouse, ranging from components and chassis to entire rigs. These items sat smugly in the clubhouse for the duration of the meeting, at the conclusion of which certain items were happily claimed and paid for by those who had been eyeing them throughout John /ZS1PB's very interesting talk.

I saw Tony / ZS1TK walking away with a fine Icom R71 receiver, Jaques / ZS1JPB toting some fine Phillips antique gear. Charles / ZS1CJO was hugely pleased to acquire a very nice little bug key. Even Nick / ZS1ZD managed to find space in his shack for a couple of solid metallic speaker boxes.

But wait! There's more! Not every ham was able to sell everything immeadiately, and we are confident that these items may return on occasion to subsequent meetings. Furthermore, we know of at least two members who were planning to bring some stuff but couldn't make it to the meeting.

A request, please, for bringers of goods to PLEASE PUT THEIR NAMES ON THE EQUIPMENT so the prospective buyers know whom to ask and to pay the money to! Some wannabe buyers had to wander around the meeting holding items above their heads, asking to whom the goods belonged. Also, if it doesn't sell, PLEASE TAKE IT HOME AGAIN!

All in all, a very satisfying afternoon.

Hands-on investigations of rigs, handies, mikes and headphones

Seriously vintage baekelite speakers and gear

The smle says it all - Charles has caught the CW bug!

This exquisitely retro piece of gear is as yet unclaimed...

In the background, ZS1TK tests his R71 on the club's antenna. It performed!!

Finally, to those who encounter Acquisition QRM from their significant
others when they carry heavy boxes into their QTH, we offer this
inspirational quote...

Report-Back on October Meeting - 22 Oct '16

The Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre held it’s October 2016 Meeting on the 22nd, starting at 14h00. The meeting, which was very well attended, was opened by Paul / ZS1S, who welcomed us all. He took the trouble to welcome back a number of old friends who had not been at the club for some time, as well as a number of newcomers, some of whom have just written their RAE and yet others who are involved with technical subjects at UCT. We do hope the newcomers will be joining our club, which now has a paid-up membership (and excluding life members) of over seventy strong.

We remembered Richard / ZS1RIC who is currently attending his wife in hospital, and we welcomed back Hugo / ZS1HSF, who has returned from a spell in the white house.

Noel / ZS1FW then gave a report-back on the recent JOTA field station set up in Meadowridge on Saturday. See that report [here].

Noel also gave us feedback on the recent antenna work party held at the clubhouse on the 8th October - details [here].

We were shown the new CTARC name badges that the club hopes to have produced and have ready by the November meeting – details [here].

Details of the forthcoming November 2016 meeting (details here) and January 2017 meeting (details TBA) were mentioned.

We were all reminded to get in the nominations for the Len Wells Ham Spirit Trophy – details [here] – which must reach Dennis / ZS1AU by 31 October.

There was also a brief mention of a recent Memorandum of Understanding being drawn up between the SARL and ICASA.

The very successful Bring and Buy / Swop Shop was also announced and is discussed [here].

Then it was time for Paul to introduce John / ZS1PM, an electrical engineer (now retired) from UCT who has had a long and fascinating career, both in amateur radio and in the field of professional RF engineering.

John described his introduction to radio when a neighbour, Herbie Taylor / ZS1JK came on air with a signal sufficiently strong to blank out the green “magic eye” tube on his parent’s radiogram! This lead to a visit to Herbie and an introduction to the world of radio. In 1949, the CTARC was called the Cape Town Branch of the SARL and used to meet in the Cape Town YMCA Hall.

Through Herbie, John met Max Adler / ZS1ACD, who was a gifted musician and piano accordion player. John was so impressed by a performance given at the Hotel Cecil in Claremont that he took up lessons with Max and later joined his band of accordion players in Johannesburg, where he was to meet his future wife!

John described a visit as a schoolboy to the radio station in Milnerton, which was the radio communications receiver link to the UK. At the time it had five 100m tall masts with wire beam antennae. The transmitter station was a little further away at Klipheuwel. The link consisted then of just two duplex voice channels and an RTTY channel. The Milnerton receivers were 1930’s Marconi rigs with separate tuning controls for RF Stage, Oscillator and Mixer – none of this new-fangled ganged-tuning nonsense!

In those days, what with all the war surplus equipment still available, radio components were in plentiful supply. Certain companies foresaw the potential of the hobby market and Jack Twine started the Hamrad company. Later on he was joined by the Morris bothers and Hamrad moved to larger premises.

In those days, ham transmitters were home-made. 807 and 813 beam tetrodes, and 809 and 811 triodes were used. Antennas were most wire -  folded dipoles, long-wire and ground-plane verticals. There were few beam antennas in Cape Town then. When John moved to Constantia to a larger property, there was enough space for him to put up a 270 foot long wire  antenna. Later on in his talk, John was to show us his homebrew 100 mW crystal-controlled transceiver with which he was able to work Joburg – via Tippy Marais (ZS1CL)’s beam antenna!

1957 was a peak in the solar sunspot cycle - (a maximum that has never been  achieved since then) and correspondingly there was a great interest in amateur radio. John would work the Eastern Coast of the USA on the long path and have QSO’s with good signal strengths with just 50w of power into his LW antenna.

In those days, even before Springbok Radio came on the scene, there was just the “A” programme (English) and the “B” programme (Afrikaans). For a little variety, L. M. Radio would magically rise out of the static on 11.7 MHz in the early mornings in the summer months. Receivers were Hallicrafters SX28’s (which had been made in quantity for the war effort), Hammarlund, Eddystone, the legendary National HRO and, for those with the necessary folding stuff, the Collins 75A series, which were accurate down to 1kHz and stable enough for SSB (although most ham transmissions were on AM at the time).

John built a dual band double conversion receiver for 7 and 14 Mhz (21MHz was to only become available later). He also was building homebrew transmitters and made his first contact with the USA in 1954 using 50W. Later he was to acquire an enormous transmitter (christened “Big Bertha”!) that had been a beacon transmitter, which he converted to the ham bands. Sufficient was its output power that he could walk around the garden at 100 metres distance holding two fluorescent tubes that would light up! Prudently, Big Bertha’s usage was limited to occasional test transmissions.

A cubical quad antenna for 28 Mhz was used by John to work New Zealand with regular success.14Mhz contacts with New Zealand were more difficult.

When John graduated, he travelled to the UK and worked there, then, after a spell in Cape Town working for IMC he went to the National Institute for Telecommunications Research up in Johannesburg at Wits University. Working under Dr Hewitt, he met and worked with Dr Trevor Wadley. One of the first projects was an Ionosonde instrument, used to measure the height of the ionosphere at different frequencies thoughout a 24-hour cycle. The MUF (Maximum Unsable Frequency), (HPF) Highest Possible Frequency and OTF (Optimal Traffic Frequency) charts put out by the NITR and – extremely useful to radio amateurs – were published in Radio ZS for many years.

John then spoke about the Tellurometer, Dr Wadley’s invention (and a first for South Africa in the world) that was to revolutionise the practice of Surveying. Up until then, surveying was carried out by measuring angles and using Trigonometry to work out the distances between beacons.The Tellurometer measures the transit time of a (GHz) radio wave between two points. Making allowances for the speed of the wave through the medium, one can calculate the distance accurately.

In 1959/60, John worked on the first solid-state Tellurometer (you can appreciate how surveyors would have appreciated not having to lug “valve” equipment and associated large batteries up to mountain summits!). Throughout his talk, we were made aware of the gradual improvement of radio components, from bulky valves, through whiskery germanium transistors, through to silicon transistors, through to integrated circuits, with the consequent effects on the possibilities of miniaturisation. 

So too were there developments in accuracy and calibration. Initially, equipment was calibrated against the WWV time signal. Later on a Hewlett-Packard frequency counter at the NITR provided  accuracies in the order of 1 Hz at 20 MHz. While much of the ancilliary circuitry could become solid state, the source of GHz frequencies had to remain hollow-state - the Klystron (and its appropriately bulky power supplies) - for some time.

The Tellurometer is still very much in use to this day, though the technology has become far more portable. Many specialised variations have been developed for specific surveying applications.

John also touched briefly on the technology behind the legendary Wadley Loop, which was to revolutionise receiver tuning, stability and design methods, as illustrated in the Racal series of receivers.

After his talk, John kindly answered some questions from the floor, and then it was coffee, biscuits and the chance to peruse the items brought for sale or swop. All in all a great meeting. Thank you so much to John for his very informative talk, and to all others who attended and participated. We look forward to seeing you all at the November Meeting!

Paul / ZS1S opens the meeting and welcomes all

A well-attended meeting - and they kept on arriving!

Noel / ZS1FW gives his report-back on the JOTA event

Pauk introduces John / ZS1PM (on left)

John's talk provided a fascinating insight into the development of
radio in South Africa, for young and old alike

Above: "Big Bertha", John's massive transmitter that started off as a
beacon transmitter, and was later converted to the ham bands.

The late Trevor Wadley, inventor of the Wadley Loop
and the Tellurometer

John shows us his homebrew crystal-controlled transceiver

Afterwards, the chance to socialise and chat

Danny /  ZS1BL, with some of the UCT crowd who attended

   

CTARC Forthcoming Meeting - 22 Oct '16

The October 2016 Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre members meeting, (usually held on the fourth Saturday of each month), is on Saturday 22nd October, at 14h00, at the CTARC clubhouse in Rondebosch.

Directions to the CTARC clubhouse are [here].

At the meeting, John / ZS1PM will give us a talk about the exciting developments in electronics at the time when transistorised designs superseded those using valves (vacuum tubes). He will mention his work on the first transistorised Tellurometer, done under the guidance of Drs Hewitt and Wadley at NITR (National Institute for Telecommunications Research). Dr Wadley was the inventor of the Tellurometer, the “Wadley Loop”, and more.

We were privileged to hear John speak at the CTARC's Seventieth Anniversary luncheon held at the Wild Fig Restaurant in June this year.

We look forward to seeing you at the October Meeting!

CTARC Club Badge - 19 Oct '16

Announcing the CTARC club badge!

Show pride in your club and wear the new name badge. It's in stylish gold with black lettering and measures 50mm x 70mm wide. It has CAPE TOWN AMATEUR RADIO CENTRE, your CALLSIGN, your FIRST NAME and the CTARC LOGO. Ideal for club functions and anywhere hams get together.

Cost is R50-00, and payment must accompany your order.

Badge orders will be taken by Paul /  ZS1S at the October monthly meeting at the CTARC clubhouse, on Saturday 22 October at 14h00.

Alternatively, e-mail our club secretary, Anne (here), with your Callsign and First Name and proof of a R50-00 EFT into the CTARC's club account (details here). The e-mail subject line must please be "BADGE" and your CALL SIGN.

Badges will be ready for collection at the November montly meeting, our End-of-Year Function on Saturday 26 November at 12h00.

CTARC New Swops Service at Club Meetings - 18 Oct '16

Thanks to a suggestion from one of our members, the club is introducing a regular "Bring and Buy" sale at every monthly meeting held at our clubhouse.

Please feel free to bring a few surplus (amateur radio related) goods and place them on the side table together with your call sign, price and (if you wish) contact details. We are sure your equipment will generate great interest and will soon find a new home.

At the end of the meeting, please make sure you (or the new purchaser) remove the equipment, and take it home. Otherwise we will soon be unable to fit into our clubhouse!

Also please note that said transactions are done entirely at your own risk. Neither the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre nor its committee can be held responsible for the safekeeping of said equipment. Nor will the committee enter into any negotiations or disputes between buyer and seller. The service is operated in good faith to allow radio amateurs to exchange or trade their surplus amateur radio equipment with each other.

Of course, we will continue to run our Swop Shop slot during our regular Sunday morning bulletins, and members are welcome to continue submitting radio-related equipment swops to appear in our bi-monthly newsletter, Ragchew. And we will also continue to hold our annual Mega-Fleamarket in March each year.

A report-back on the Swops aspect of our meeting of 22 October 2016 is [here].

CTARC Report-Back on JOTA Event - 17 Oct '16

In response to very positive feedback from last year's event, the CTARC put up a field station again for the JOTA weekend on Saturday 15th October 2016, at the Meadowridge Scout Hall, off Ladies Mile.

Noel /ZS1FW reports that the event was well-attended by Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, who responded with enthusiasm at the chance to make supervised contact on with others on HF and VHF. An HF wire antenna was erected and some contacts were made despite the rather disappointing solar figures.

A morse code key and oscillator were also set up at the station, which also generated great interest.

Thanks to all who assisted with the setup, running and take-down of the station afterwards.

Photos will be added here presently

CTARC Committee Meeting - 17 Oct '16

There will be a meeting for members of the CTARC committee, at 19h00 on Monday, 17 October 2016, at the CTARC Clubhouse.

Please diarise accordingly.

CTARC Forthcoming JOTA Event - 14/16 Oct '16

This year the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre will again run a field station for JOTA (Jamboree On The Air).

The JOTA event involves many thousands of members of the Scouts and Girl Guides association being given the opportunity to make supervised radio contacts with other Scouts and Girl Guides internationally, via radio amateur stations.

This year the CTARC will, as with last year, set up a field station at the Meadowridge Scout Hall. Noel /ZS1FW, who is managing this event for CTARC, envisages setting up the station on Friday afternoon, and operating on Saturday, taking the station down either on Saturday afternoon or Sunday.

Interested hams who would like to take part in this worthwhile and rewarding activity are please to contact Noel via the CTARC email address

CTARC Report-Back on Work Party - 8 Oct '16

At 10h00 on Saturday 8 October, members of the CTARC committee held a work party to tackle antenna and clubhouse matters. ZS1SA, ZS1FW, ZS1BL, ZS1PGC, ZS1ZD, ZR1HPC and ZS1MTF were present.

Paul / ZS1S and Matt / ZS1MTF tackled the main tower rotator and feedline, as well as the patch box inside the shack, which Paul spent a large part of the day repairing and rewiring.

Noel / ZS1FW and Nick / ZS1ZD assembled the Force-12 yagi antenna usually used for field day events. While it had been used on the Lighthouse Weekend event, it was noted then to have issues on 15m and 20m bands. So a thorough check was made on dimensions and with Pauls / ZS1PGC's RigExpert antenna analyser.

We were really assisted by ZS1PGC, (who gave a fascinating talk on the instrument at our September meeting). With his RigExpert analyser, he was able to provide accurate indications of SWR and points of resonance for that antenna across the bands for which it is designed. Danny and Noel made adjustments to the antenna and big improvements were made in the SWR. Extra rivets were added where needed and all elements were properly colour coded with tape.

We packed up at about 14h00 as the rain was about to happen. An interesting time was had fitting the newly-adjusted antenna elements back into the clubhouse...

Grateful thanks to all who assisted, to Peter for his great help with the RigExpert analyser, to Rob & Anne for the snacks and to Danny for the cooldrinks!

Hylton / ZR1HPC does a spot of vacuuming

Paul /ZS1S and Matt /ZS1MTF on the clubhouse roof

In the adjoining field, a team spreads out their own ground plane...

Paul works on the main mast's rotator, badly in need of a service

Noel lays assembles the club's Force-12 antenna on the lawn

Connecting up the driven elements of the beam

Peter /ZS1PGC takes readings on his RigExpert antenna analyser

ZS1MTF and ZS1S work on the feed-line to the main antenna

Paul /ZS1S works on the feed-lines coming into the shack

The Force-12 Antenna suspended above ground
to assist with the SWR readings

Noel /ZS1FW and Danny /ZS1BL fix rivets on the elements

CTARC Work Party - Sat 8 Oct '16

Committee members are kindly reminded that we meet at the clubhouse on Saturday 8 October at 10h00 to continue with maintenance and refurbishment of our Force 12 antenna.

CTARC Ragchew October 2016

The October 2016 edition of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre's bi-monthly newsletter "Ragchew" has been published. Grateful thanks to Anne for this bumper edition!

You can download the October Newsletter as a PDF directly [here].

Alternatively it can be found on our Newsletters page