CTARC Christmas Greetings - 25 Dec '20

To all our CTARC members and to radio hams world-wide, we convey Seasons Greeting and a Happy Xmas for the 25th December and hope for a far better New Year in 2021! Stay safe, everyone!

CTARC Tony Baard ZS1APB Silent Key - 24 Dec '20

It is with sadness we must announce that the key of Anthony P Baard ZS1APB went silent early this morning, 24 December 2020, at the Intensive Care Unit of a Cape Town hospital.

While not a current member of CTARC, Tony was well known to many of us in the Cape Town radio amateur community. He took part in the 7P8DX DXpedition to Lesotho along with Shaun ZS1RA and Barry ZS1FJ. He attended several of our monthly CTARC meetings and was a regular call sign (ZS1 "All Points Bulletin") on our call-ins on two metres. He worked in a technical capacity at UCT.

Tony will be sadly missed. Our condolences go to his wife Rene, the rest of his family and his friends.

CTARC QO100 Satellite Frequency Calculator

Our Remote Station at Morningstar has a UHF transceiver and dish antenna that can reach the QO100 geostationary ham satellite, enabling QSOs with many hams worldwide who also can reach it.

Peter ZS1PT has devised a handy calculator spreadsheet to work out where to transmit on the QO100 transponder input and where it will output on the other frequency. He has kindly made it available to the CTARC. Thank you, Peter!

Download the spreadsheet [here].

The file is also available on the CTARC Website's Downloads Page.

CTARC Ragchew - December '20

The December 2020 edition of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre's bi-monthly newsletter "Ragchew" is now published. Grateful thanks to the editor, Anne, for another fine edition.

Remember please, Anne is always on the look-out for articles to publish in Ragchew! This is especially the case during the lock-down. Please submit them to the editor in MS-Word format.

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 at zs1ct@ctarc.org.za

Download the December 2020 Newsletter as a PDF file [here];

Ragchew is also on our Newsletters Page

CTARC November Meeting Photos - 29 Nov '20

Yesterday, Saturday 28th November, the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre held its final social gathering of the year. The meeting was well attended, considering the unique circumstances. The weather was good and the breeze outside contributed to the safety as CTARC members met outside the Clubhouse for a bring-and-braai. (For safety reasons, the clubhouse door remained locked so people remained outside.) Covid-19 safety regulations were adhered to - visitors were registered, wore masks (except when tucking into their food!) and practised social distancing.The braai arrangements worked well - people brought their own food, plates and braai utensils. Liquid refreshments were provided at no costs until the stocks ran out.

 

A fleamarket was set up with some interesting bits of equipment available at nominal prices. Because of safety regulations this was only for CTARC members, some of whom walked away with bargains! The next big fleamarket will be in March 2021, where everyone else will also get the chance to bring and buy.

Special CTARC Calendars for 2021 could be purchased from Anne for a reasonable price. The proceeds of such sales will go to assist Club funds.

Thank you to Anne and Rob for organising the event, to the Committee for setting things up before the meeting (and taking things down again afterwards), and to all the members who attended, to make this an enjoyable and safe final meeting of the year. A special thank you to all, who by wearing their masks and keeping a safe distance, kept the meeting safe for all who attended.

Future club gatherings, under the current regulations, are still possible and safe provided we adhere to the anti-virus guidelines.

We look forward to seeing you all in the new year which (we all do hope) will bring some sense of normality once more. Details of forthcoming meetings will be announced through the usual channels.

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...

The flea market provided some interesting items...
 

...and for once the tables weren't crowded with competing bargain hunters!

Anne, Paul ZS1S and Rob ZS1SA

Everybody brought and braai'd their own food.

Rob ZS1SA

Anne registers Hans-Jurgen ZS1HJH and Wolfgang ZS1WLH

Committee members set up the meeting area