![]() Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all our members and Radio Amateurs, both local and far a field. Wishing you lots of new toys and contacts, from the MARC Committee The ICASA accounts have been sent out. The licence fees remain at R27pa. Please make sure that you pay your account by 31 January 2009 to avoid interest accumulation, If you have not received an account yet, you can still make the payment to: ICASA, Bank: Nedbank, Type of account: Deposit Account, Branch #: 14624500, Account #: 1462002927, Reference #: Your licence number NB - do not forget to quote your licence number
RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION 2009
Learn how to work with Microchip PIC’s, how to programme them and use them in Amateur Radio projects A 4 hour course presented by John Williscroft ZS6EF . At the end of the course you will be able to work with PIC’s and programme them for other projects.
Durban: Saturday 21 February 2009 Fee includes
FEES HOW TO REGISTER 1. Send
an email to rta@sarl.org.za with
the following details: 2.
Transfer the required amount to the SARL account 3. Email
the deposit slip/bank confirmation to
rta@sarl.org.za Once the above have been received will you receive a confirmation. Ensure that all your name details are correct and as you would like to have on the MicroChip certificate you will receive at the end of the course. TIMING The course starts at 09:00 and will end at 14:00. Light refreshment will be provided WHAT TO BRING TO THE COURSE A CD is provided for you to take home. Only a notebook and pen are required should you wish to take additional notes.
- each member (past and present) with an existing email address has been
allocated a personalised email forwarder, where your email address
is your We can allocate full POP3 emails to members who do not have email addresses at the moment. You will need an internet connection however to access these, and this can be done a number of ways, like connecting to the internet using your cell phone as a modem, connecting directly with your cell phone, using internet cafes etc. Please contact the webmaster directly if you are interested and/or need more information (contact details are found in the "contact" link at the top of the page) Ham Bulletin Readers 04 Jan - Robin
Seal, ZS5MRS We will try and post some of these bulletins here on the web, when and if they are available for publication. They will be available on the downloads page What's new on this site?
Is your account with ICASA up to date? Here is an extract from their site to address this matter. Please click here to download the spreadsheet file to see if your name is on their "not paid" list (3.5MB) You only had until 28 November 2008 to sort this out! "In terms of sections 38(1)(c)(i) and 40(1)(a) of the
Public Finance Management Act (1 of 1999, as amended), the Authority
must update its database to ensure efficiency in the administration of
payments received in respect of spectrum licences.
Part of the review will include phasing
out from the database, entities who do not confirm their most recent
details or those who have supplied incorrect details. New APRS maps New APRS maps of Namibia and Botswana have been uploaded to our map download section. They ave been calibrated, and the calibration files are included in the compressed files.
On this site you will find links related to MARC and sister amateur radio clubs. Please feel free to browse around and be sure to come back for regular updates. Remember to click your "Refresh" button periodically. This clubs members are mainly located in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands on the east coast of South Africa. |
Some upcoming Club events 17 January
2009
14/15 February 2009 Repeater
maintenance If you have anything to post here, please email the info to zs5ml@marc.org.za, and I will upload it here. Gilboa Repeater Repair #2
The uhf hub repeater at Gilboa was starting to become a bit scratchy again, after our initial temporary repair, using the original shortened pole which had snapped. The good thing about this was that it ensured that the temporary repair did not become a permanent repair... Shaun, ZR5S organised a work party for 27 December. 3 vehicles then converged on Mt Gilboa on Saturday morning: Stanley (ZR5SEM) with family, Shaun with his son, Errol (ZS5EGW) and Mickey (ZS5QB) in his vehicle, and Mike (ZS5ML) in his Land Rover. It was very windy and a bit chilly on top, and we immediately saw why the repeater was not operating too well - the lower transmit antenna had settled at 30 degrees off vertical. Shaun had brought a sturdier cross beam and new U-bolts to sort this. We then removed the old pole, inserted a sturdier galvanised pole with the new Diamond X200 on top, in place of the old X700, which was too long for the winds experienced here. While we were busy, Shaun cleaned the battery terminals and connected the new battery protector, which will isolate the battery when it drops to below 10.5V, to ensure it's longevity. Stanley's wife, Rachel, managed to get a fire going in the strong wind and braaied some sausage, and provided us wors rolls. These went down extremely well - thanks Stanley and Rachel! We eventually left the mountain Just after 15h00 after testing the radios and antennas. Click here for more photos.. Epilogue: On the following morning, when I switched on my radio to join the Sunday morning net, I noticed that the UHF link repeater was dead. On checking the Gilboa telemetry on the internet, I saw that the power to the repeater had tripped at 01h00 on 28/12/08, probably due to lightning (we experienced thunderstorms and rain throughout the night). The APRS side was still working though, so we were confident that it was not a direct lightning strike. Shaun then went up to Gilboa at midday. The circuit breakers were tripped, including the one in the locked Vodacom DB board - hopefully they can restore it on Monday. After Shaun removed and replaced the radio cards in the UHF repeater, it came back to life. A special thanks to Shaun and family for sacrificing their Sunday to sort the repeater. We can be grateful that the damage was not more serious Projects in Progress We have secured the site at Gilboa, and have set up a UHF Hub repeater, as well as an APRS repeater. Special thanks go to Bob, ZS5CU who donated the aluminium box, and Bert, who supplied the mast base, and the rest of our gang, Shaun, instrumental in donating antennas and organising and programming the repeaters, Mike Boast, Stanley and other Mike in providing hard labour in preparing the box, erecting the antenna and digging trenches for the electricity feed. Progress is being made to link four of MARC's Vhf repeaters to improve communications throughout the Midlands. The four repeaters include; Greytown, Estcourt, Underberg and Worlds-View. So far, Estcourt and World's View have been linked, with the bonus of Gilboa providing fantastic linked UHF coverage, in the midlands, reaching parts of Durban, and even Lesotho, 150km away! Vhf repeater upgrading has started. The Estcourt, Underberg, Hilton and Worlds-View repeaters have been brought up to commercial spec. Next in line is the Greytown repeater. The club's PC has been upgraded to accommodate APRS, Packet and PSK31 software. This is an ideal way to introduce this fascinating mode to the clubs members/visitors. Voice coverage now extends from Harrismith to Cato Ridge, and when the Highway 600 repeater is linked, coverage will extend all the way along the N3 to Durban
The
Amateur's Code 1. The Amateur is always
Considerate... 2. The Amateur is
Loyal... 3. The Amateur is
Progressive... 4. The Amateur is
Friendly... 5. The Amateur is
Balanced... 6. The Amateur is
Patriotic... |
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Last Modified:
03/01/2009 12:41