CTARC Bullying of the Major Cape Town Radio Clubs by the SARL - 21 Jan '14

Extracted here below is an open letter to the South African Amateur Radio Community from the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre and the Oakdale Klub (Amateur Radio):

Recently the Western Cape Repeater Working Group (WCRWG), the group that is supposed to serve the Cape Town radio clubs by installing and maintaining the repeater system in the Western Cape decided that they wanted to convert the existing wide-band (25 kHz FM deviation) repeaters to narrow-band (12.5 kHz FM deviation). There appears to also be some local Hamnet support for this.

The two largest clubs in Cape Town, the Cape Town ARC and the Oakdale ARC lodged a complaint with the WCRWG, for the following reasons:

1. The repeaters in the Cape Town area are becoming less used than they previously were as our Amateur population in the area gradually ages and diminishes. Some repeaters go more than a day without any use. Therefore there is no reason to convert the existing repeaters to narrow band, which will only be necessary if we are going to add more repeaters.
   
2. The WCRWG is continually seeking donations in order to maintain our existing repeaters. In fact, reports over the past few years have indicated that the WCRWG is operating almost hand to mouth and does not even have funds to properly repair a repeater building that is leaking rain into the building, let alone install (and maintain) additional repeaters.
   
3. With the aging Amateur population in the area, mostly using reliable but older VHF equipment, having to convert their equipment to narrow-band is beyond the financial and technical abilities of many. Narrow-banding most of these older receivers is unfeasible. A substantial number of Radio Amateurs will then be off the air.
   
4. The conversion to narrow-band will result in less available Radio Amateurs being able to assist in the event of a disaster, not more.
   
5. There is no justifiable reason to convert the area’s repeaters to narrow band at this time.

Special General Meeting with SARL President

A special general meeting of the major clubs, WCRWG and the SARL president took place on 23 November 2013 to discuss the narrow-banding issue. It was noted that the SARL held the licences of the WC repeaters, although they had been financed by the clubs and individuals in the WC.

The SARL President stated that the conversion to narrow-banding the Western Cape repeaters would take place even though it was pointed out that this conversion was NOT a requirement of ICASA.
It was stated from the floor that this forced conversion would cause a loss of membership in SARL. The SARL president’s response was “They always say that”. Is that not shocking arrogance from our SARL President?

The SARL president also informed us that ICASA will not issue repeater licences to clubs or individuals that the SARL has not approved and the SARL will no longer approve of wide-band repeaters. It came out later in the meeting that these changes would be concluded by 2017, only three years away.

The Cape Town ARC and the Oakdale ARC have opposed the move to narrow-band at this time.

Regardless of the five very valid reasons set out above, the SARL intends on forcing us to convert. We believe there could be a hidden agenda behind these discriminating actions. We find their condescending behavior towards our members regrettable.

Signed,

Noel / ZS1FW, Chairman Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre
Dirk / ZS1VDB, Chairman Oakdale Amateur Radio Club

21 January, 2014

CTARC has a Blog! - 20 Jan '14

Welcome to the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre's blogspot!

It is intended to provide the following:

• Notification of forthcoming CTARC events;
• Feedback and photos of past CTARC events;
• Links to recent editions of Ragchew, the CTARC's bi-monthly newsletter;
• Links to our club's history and archival publications;
• (Hopefully) interesting articles and commentary on our club and the greater Radio Amateur community;
• Remembrances of members and friends who have become Silent Keys

This CTARC blogspot differs from the CTARC Website in that here we can post time-specific notifications quickly, whereas the website is for more generic club information.

We welcome your contributions and photos of CTARC members and activities. Please e-mail them to the CTARC Secretary for the attention of the webmaster.

Both the website and blogspot be under perpetual construction, so please revisit both regularly.

CTARC Some History

Bernie, ZS1BW, kindly sent us the following...

A LITTLE LOCAL HISTORY

Going back in time is a good way to show newcomers what it was like in the ‘Good Ole’ Days’. Those were the days when clubs were called ‘Branches’, you paid your SARL subscriptions and nominated which ‘Branch’ you wanted to support. The SARL HQ was then based in Cape Town, Sorry about the picture quality but they were not taken with a digital camera Hi!

Here (below) we have the Cape Town Branch committee: (also 1975/6 vintage)



Above, left to right: Ivo Waher /ZS1DD, Geoff Tinker /ZS1LM, Mike Obeler, /ZR1AG, Howard Green /ZR1BQ, (Yes, we had ZR’s back then)













Front row, left to right: George Doudney /ZS1SP, Greg Roberts /ZS1BI, Uli Denning /ZS1UD (Chairman), Ian Simpson /ZS1IS, and missing is Dave Perry /ZS1SG. (Dave must have been somewhere in the mountains with his beloved repeaters when this photo was taken.)

The Cape Town club had quite a number of venues for the monthly meetings but eventually settled with a clubhouse of their own in Rondebosch.

There is such a lot in the history of Amateur Radio in the Cape. It would fill too many pages for this newsletter. I think it would be a good idea to get it down in black and white for the benefit of those who follow in our footsteps. I’m asking all old timers with faded memories to put something down on paper so that whatever it is can be recorded for future generations. There must be hundreds of photographs but they need some sort of explanation so get your pens and paper out and make a start. Don’t worry about spelling mistakes, the computer looks after that side. Get your copy to me in whichever way you prefer. Contact Bernie / ZS1BW [here].

CTARC Lighthouse Weekend - 24 Aug '97

We received this QSL card from John ZS1AGH who, while operating ZS1WTC with Ron ZS1RON, confirmed a QSO with Pieter ZS1PDT at Slangkop Lighthouse. The date was 24 August 1997 and the time was 12h36 UTC, on the 40m band.

This must surely be one of the earliest Lighthouse Weekend contacts in Cape Town!

CTARC Ragchew - Jan 1996

Here is the Ragchew of January 1996, kindly recovered by Frank / ZS1CM and handed to the CTARC Chairman on Saturday 27 January. Click on the pages for bigger versions.