Oct 15: Jamboree on air at the Scout Hall, Howick.  We had our well attended monthly meeting at 11h00.  This was followed by Jota in the hall.

Oct 8:  A handful of members pitched and moved the shack contents to a store room provided by Ian ZS5AZ.  Present were ZS5EL, ZS5AZ, ZS5DM and YL, ZR5SF and ZS5ML

Sep 17:  We held our AGM at Rural Metro, our first meeting at Rural Metro.  It was most successful, and all found the venue first class.  Thanks you Des, ZS5DDM for making this happen.  The meeting itself was well attended and painless.  The same committee was elected, with the addition of Evert, ZS5EFP.  The committee will be convening a meeting shortly to determine committee portfolios. 
In addition, it was decided to disband the HHN.  The current editor does not have the time to continue with it, and there are no volunteers to carry on with it.  If a volunteer steps forward, it can be continued again.
The following awards were handed out:
Cindy Cup: ZS5EFP, ZR5S, ZR5SF
HHN Cup: ZS5GEL
Robin Cup: ZS5EL
Bennett Cup: ZS5SF
Walter Reid Cup: ZS5JNB
Chairman's Cup: ZS5CU

Eric and Graham managed to secure the Richmond site at Burne Valley.  We will be installing a repeater here as soon as we have secured all equipment.

Sep 15:  Shaun ZR5S made a trip up the mountain and switched the repeater back on.

Sep 13:  Gilboa repeater went off air.  Tripped circuit breaker or blown power supply?

Aug 20:  MARC members helped with comms on the Capital Climb.  Another most enjoyable event for those who participated.  This was followed up by our monthly meeting at the Natal Carbineers.

Aug 13:  Went up to the Burn Valley repeater site.  A very nice site for a repeater!  We will now negotiate space and attend to the paperwork to send things into motion.

Aug 06:  The trip to Burn Valley for a site inspection for our new repeater site was postponed due to adverse weather conditions.

July 16: We held our monthly meeting at the Natal Carbineers.  David ZS5JNB held a fascinating talk on his balloon project.  Watch this space, there will still be a lot of interesting data on this project!

July 16:  The orbiting of ARISSat One has been delayed for a few weeks. According to ARISSat One Project Manager Gould Smith, WA4SXM, the former Suit-Sat will not make an appearance in space until sometime in August. In a news release, Smith said he and ARISS Hardware Engineer Lou McFadin, W5DID, participated in a teleconference call this week with NASA to review the Roscosmos spacewalk procedures for the release of ARISSat One during E-V-A 29. For those who never heard the term before, E-V-A is an acronym for Extra Vehicular Activity and is NASA-ese for describing a spacewalk. Smith now says the discussion centered on preparation procedures including the battery being charged and assembled into the satellite. Also discussed were the procedures to remove the protective quilts from the solar cells and turning on the safety switches prior to deployment. During a later teleconference Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, announced that the ARISSat One battery will be charged in late July and a test of the system will be conducted from the ISS from 30 July at 19:15 to about 12:00 or 14:00 UTC July 31. The standard ARISSat One 2 metre downlink band plan should be transmitted as well as the FM signal also down linked on 437,55 MHz.

July 9:  Had a great family day at World's View!  The work party was a great success, and was well attended.  Photos can be viewed here.

July 3: ZS5ML travelled to Greytown and switched the link back on.  Now the 145.775 Greytown repeater is linked to the rest of the network again.  Hilton is still unlinked, as as is Estcourt.

July 3: Our next work party will be at World’s View at 09h30 this coming Saturday, the 9^th of July. The necessary material has been supplied. This work party will hopefully finish the work to be done. The following is on the agenda - the shelving has to be installed. The existing electric plugs and cables will be replaced with new equipment. And the interior will be painted.

URGENT NOTICE TO ALL AMATEUR LICENSEES - ICASA has cancelled over 34 000 radio licenses that have remained unpaid for the past 365 days. This includes all amateur radio licenses that are unpaid. Check that you have paid your license and if you do not have a valid printed license or an official receipt call ICASA at 011 566 3313 or 011 566 3319 between 08:30 - 16:00 Monday - Friday. PLEASE HAVE YOUR LICENSE NUMBER HANDY. If your amateur license was cancelled call now and ICASA will re-instate it if you can prove payment. If you have not paid, do so now using the information and account number on your last license.

A YEAR OF THE MOON IN 2½ MINUTES - And a new on-line time lapse video of the Moon produced by the Goddard Space Flight Centre's Scientific Visualization Studio compresses one month into 12 seconds and one year into 2,5 minutes. Constructed, using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, the video shows how the Moon wobbles in its orbit, the way that it changes in libration and axis tilt and its numerous phases. You will find the video at YouTube by taking the shortcut of tinyurl.com/3ffmhbe.

July 2:  ZS5EFP is making progress with the repeater set up, but the pin outs on the Motorola radios are different to the documented ones, and the repeater interface boards also need modifications, as they don't function as per documentation.  Thanks Evert for your hard work, especially since this is a lot more complicated that plug and play!

June 29: ZS5EFP made a long trek to Estcourt and switched off the repeater there.  All is quiet now.  The link radio will be replaced.  The faulty Hilton repeater is still in place and will only be replaced once ZS5EFP manages to set up one of the new repeaters.  The Hilton 145.6625 repeater will remain tone guarded in future due to the increased rf experienced.  We will also try and install an additional cavity filter.

June 28:  The lock ups are happening during the day as well now.  ZS5ML travelled to Greytown and switched off the link radio, removing the 145.775 from the equation.  In spite of that, the interference was still there, but we decided to keep it unlocked until we had resolved the matter.

June 23:  The rest of the repeater network is starting to lock up again especially at night.  As Hilton has been unlinked, it is something on the rest of the network. We are hoping that it is not the uhf link, as the uhf repeater at Gilboa is on a high site with lots of RF.  World's View is not suspected, as no input interference is heard.  The likely faulty repeaters are Estcourt, Greytown and then Alverstone.

June 21:  The repeater network has been locking up periodically for about 2 weeks, especially at night.  Hilton was suspected, as was Greytown.  We could not monitor Estcourt direct, but decided to switch them off one by one, starting at Hilton.  ZS5EFP then switched off the Hilton link, and all was quiet!  We can hear the Hilton repeater, no in stand alone mode, lock up from time to time.  It will be replaced with one of our new repeaters.

June 18:  We had our monthly meeting today.  It was great to meet one of our new members, Burl ZS5BRS, and 3 Hamnet members from Highway who came up for the digital presentation by Shaun ZR5SF.  Thanks Shaun for the wonderful demonstration, and for the documentation which you can download here, and here is the link to Ham Radio Delux

June 10:  The work party for World's View was cancelled because of the wet weather still experienced early Friday evening.  The walls would not dry up sufficiently by Saturday morning to enable them to be painted.  It will be reconvened after our monthly meeting.

June:  Membership subscriptions are due once again, as our financial year end is at the end of June.  Membership fees are unchanged, and stay at R150pa. Those who want printed copies of the HHN posted, please add R100 to your subscription.  The normal discount of 33.3% applies to pensioners.  Here is a breakdown of the complete list

5 June:  ZS5ML and ZS5GEL fetched the Greytown repeater from Pmb today and then installed it at our Greytown site. It seems to be working well.  Please test it (145.775, no tone) and send us your feedback.  A special thank you to Evert for having repaired it

29 May:  10 of our members helped as radio marshals in this great event.  It was a great day in the field as usual.  Thanks to all of you who helped!

More pictures can be viewed here

28 May:  A very well attended swopshop was held in Monteseel at the qth of ZS5JF.  Thanks to HARC for organising these events.

19 May: 9 students wrote the RAE in the new lecture room at Rural Metro - thanks Des for organising this.  Thanks also to Evert and Shaun for organising the RAE classes and exam.

14 May: Work party at World View - quite a bit was achieved.  Quote from Shaun ZR5SF: "we have scraped the whole building, painted the roof and tomorrow the fence will be done. so all that now remains is the painting inside and out and the electrics.  we had a great turn out ZS5AZ, ZS5PJ, ZU5DM, ZU5SAM , ZR5NC and myself all put hands to the grindstone."

17 April:  The 2011 SARL AGM was held.  More details can be found on their website

17 April:  Shaun uplifted the Estcourt repeater.  It is suspected that it has a dry joint - it was locking up the repeater network quite often.  Evert will be attending to it, as well as the Greytown repeater.

16 April:  Had our monthly meeting.  It was a pleasure to meet Ruth, ZS2QK, who joined us.  We will be holding the next work party at World's View on 7 May.  All are invited - there is quite a bit of work to be done (electrics, shelving, painting etc)

2 April: The work party at World's View was a success:  The grass was cut, fence repaired and the building was pressure cleaned.  Those who helped were Shaun ZR5SF, Neville ZR5NC, Des ZU5DM and Gwen and Mike ZS5ML.  David, thanks for popping by.  Here are two before and after pics:

More can be viewed here

1 April:  The new radio regulations have been published in the Government Gazette.  They are effective from today, 1 April 2011.  They are available from the member's section on the SARL website
Please have a look at them and post comments to artoday@sarl.org.za, or on the SARL forum.  They contain errors, but basically they contain two major changes - ZR and ZS will be on even footing, Class A, and the ZU (Class B) hf band plan will be restricted to 40m and 80m while only candidates younger than 20 years will be allowed to sit the exams, and they will have to convert to a Class A licence before the age of 25. 

20 March:  Gilboa is up again.  We replaced the power supplies there this morning.  This means that the World's View, Hilton and Estcourt repeaters are linked again.  We tested the antennas, and they passed with flying colours.

I uplifted the Greytown repeater so that it can be seen to, at least the tx on the link radio.

The Underberg link is still sick.  Phillip and Craig were hoping that the bad link was due to a deaf Gilboa - unfortunately this is not the case.  Phillip, please check the swr on the uhf antenna at Underberg when you fetch the radio.  I remember that you came through shortly after installing the repeater.  It was a bit scratchy, but not too bad.  It got scratchier with the next overs until you were not triggering Gilboa anymore.  Hopefully the repair will be simple and cheap

The Alverstone 600 repeater sounds like it has gone faulty

Please let me know if you can hear ZS5SIX on 50.321MHz  When it was at Shaun's ZR5SF qth, I could not hear it here - not sure how long the skip distances are with 6m (Joost, do you know?)  Bob could just hear it in the early hours of the morning today.  Hopefully it will be heard from stations further afield.

13 March:  Evert ZS5EFP repaired the Estcourt repeater by replacing the uhf link radio.  It is working very well, as confirmed by Tony in Estcourt and Ronnie and Rod in Ladysmith.  Thanks Evert!

Good news is that Ruth, ZS2QK, has moved to Pietermaritzburg.  Shaun lent her his hand held, and we heard her on air.  He will install her own radios this week, so listen out for Ruth.

Bert ZS5MQ was in his shack at Baynesfield on the open day today.  I know that many went there today, and I trust that Bert had a great day.

27 February: Maritzburg Marathon:
 

Shaun ZR5SF reports: "I would like to thank all the Hams that helped at this morning's marathon. We managed to operate with two unmanned stations. I really hope next time we call for volunteers we will have a better response, it must be remembered that it is at events like these that the good name of Amateur Radio is portrayed. A special thanks to Traffic Officer Ian (ZS5AZ), pity we don't have a photo of Ian's hard work in the middle of a really busy intersection. A lot of interest was shown in the APRS System and it was mentioned that we should use it in all the events that take place. Shaun ZR5S did a sterling job at pacing the front runners. Thanks again to all."

Shaun ZR5S:  "Michelle took some photo's of today's event. 5sf said a lot of interest was shown and that amateur radio proved useful in 2 ways, comms amongst the tables, and tracking. 5sf should be sending a photo or two for our website soon. The one photo shows the whole system together. My bike with Skytracker mounted to the back, computer monitor showing www.aprs.fi, 2x Shaun's and the MARC banner. The image attached is of another ham's bike (extremist). Mine was not so well kitted out. I had my handheld clipped to my belt with earpiece/boom mic in my helmet. I used my handheld today for comms for this mornings 42km marathon run. Used the boom mic/ear piece in my helmet. Works fine at low speeds. Noisy when riding fast. We had one ham guy at each table. I had my Sky-tracker connected onto the back of my klr650. zr5sf had a big monitor at the finish and race organizers and the public could see the race progress. We had our M.A.R.C. banner up and lots of people where interested. Race started at 05h00. Woke up at 03h30. Had to be at the start by 04h30. It was dark and chilly (16deg/C). But it was very enjoyable. Lots of fun. Going to do it again. After the first male came in, I then found the first lady runner and came in with her. Then they wanted me to see where the last runner was. After that I went home. The others had to stay longer. We got served breakfast, cooldrink, egg burger and chips. [15:55:01] ZS5JC Jan: now for that i can join you next year on my bike. [15:56:09] Shaun Rudling: Yes, it would be better to track the male AND female at the same time. 1'st gear on the klr650 was suited well for the running paste of the lead runners. Sweeping up the rear with the stragglers will prove difficult on a bike. Even a little scooter would wiggle left and right at that slow pace. One always learns on the day, how to improve things for the next event. We learnt today that the default beacon rate for the Sky-Tracker is not ideal for the slow running speeds of this type of event. The tracker will need to be set to beacon out more often in future."

More photos of the event can be viewed here

20 February: DIGIMODE ACTIVITY IN THE 40 m CW SEGMENT At WRC03, the ITU allocated frequency segment 7 100 - 7 200 kHz to the Amateur Service in Region 1. This extension of the 40 m band allowed IARU Region 1 to modify the Region 1 band plan. These changes became effective on 29 March 2009. Some of these changes include extension of the exclusive CW segment by 5 kHz, and is now 7 000 - 7 040 kHz; the segment for Narrow Band Modes (Digimodes) with a maximum bandwidth of 500 Hz was extended by 5 kHz (doubled) and moved to 7 040 - 7 050 kHz and the segment for All Modes (Digimodes) with a maximum bandwidth of 2 700 Hz was extended by 7 kHz and moved to 7 050 - 7 060 kHz.

Although the separation of the segments is by frequencies that are easy to remember (7 040, 7 050, 7 060 kHz), there is still a lot of PSK31 activity around 7 037 kHz. Radio amateurs are requested to adhere to the guidelines as stipulated in the IARU Region 1 HF Band Plan.

20 February: SA AMSAT this week announced that the main payload on the KLETSkous CubeSat will be a linear UV transponder with a bandwidth of 20 kHz. The UV mode which is 70 cm uplink and 2 metre downlink was chosen in line with internationally recommended practice as it will minimize interference. The aim is to have it operating over Africa without the need of an access tone to open the transponder.

A multi city team is working on the designs and will soon finalise the specifications. Fundraising for the project has started in all earnest and radio amateurs are invited to make contributions to the fund. Visit www.amsatsa.org.za for bank details and more about the KLETSkous project

20 February: RAE. Our RAE courses for both the ZU and ZR courses will commence on Sunday, 6th March. Please contact Shaun ZR5SF if you are know of anyone who is interested. His email is zr5sf at marc.org.za

20 February: Repeaters: Underberg. The uhf link radio has a corroded board which needs to be replaced. The vhf repeater, which belongs to Craig, ZS5CID, has also been removed, as there are no members there making use of it. Once the huf link has been restored, members can get in via the the local uhf link between Underberg and Franklin.
The Estcourt repeater has lost it’s transmit link. The receive is still working ensuring that our members up there can still hear us on 145.700MHz, as confirmed by Tony from Estcourt. Unfortunately they cannot respond as we cannot hear them. We will uplift the link radio at our next opportunity.
Similarly, the transmit link side from Greytown was very distorted, but the receive was working well. But recently the vhf repeater itself died. We need to visit the site to find the cause. This could take a while.
In the mean time I will patch though hf on 3.620MHz when I can. Next weekend I will not be here, and I’m not sure whether Ian, who is up as bulletin reader next Sunday, can read the bulletin as he will be busy with the Maritzburg marathon.
We will be replacing one of our repeaters with a new one in the near future. Our repeaters are very old and some have been repaired so often making further repair more difficult.

15 February : Founder of the SA Maritime Mobile Net Silent Key.  For the past twenty six years his voice kept yachtsmen and women company as they sailed the oceans, providing them with regular weather reports and assisted those who ran into trouble. Alister Campbell, ZS5MU, went silent key on the afternoon of 14 February 2011.
Alistair's interest in marine matters started many years ago when Alistair helped a friend build a yacht. Once the yacht was completed and on the water they kept in contact via amateur radio. It wasn't long before other yachts started checking in with Alistair and the South African Maritime Mobile Net was born in October 1979.
With Davina, ZS5GC, at his side they devoted themselves tirelessly to the building up of the South African Maritime Mobile Net which is now internationally renowned and held in high regard in the yachting fraternity.
Alister believed so much in the importance of the net that he groomed Graham Griggs, ZS2ABK, and others to carry on the tradition and when his health started failing handed the reigns over to Graham.
In 2000 Alister and Davina were awarded the ICOM Excellence Award by the SARL. This award is bestowed annually by Council on the amateur who through his/her activity in the Amateur Service has brought international recognition to South Africa.
In 2005 Alister was awarded the Nokia Siemens Community Service Award by the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust, and, on the 25th anniversary of the net the SARL awarded a special certificate.
We extend our sincere condolences to Davina and family. The couple showed South Africa and the world what real amateur radio spirit is about. Alister's voice is silent but will live on in our memories and in the memories of those whose lives he saved through his action on the daily net.

13 February:  We held our SARL HF Field competition at Albert Falls Dam.  Evert, Wendy and family and Gudrun and Mike camped over from Friday afternoon, and we were joined by the Marx and Jacobs families, as well as Shaun and Michelle and Craig, ZS5CID who camped over on Saturday night.  Day visitors included Joost and Marjoke, Eric and Graham from Richmond, Tony from Estcourt and Ian - there were 19 hams with family members on Saturday.
Many contacts were made and conversations carried on well into the night with the great company.  It was a really good weekend.  Thanks to all who came along, an missed those who could not come along.  Have a look here for more photos

24 January: Shaun went up to Groenekloof during a break in the weather and retrieved some faulty equipment.  Internet is restored there which means that APRS, D-STAR etc is working again.  Thanks Shaun!

22 January: Groenekloof. Shaun ZR5S and I, ZS5ML went up to Groenekloof yesterday where Shaun installed the new pc, plane and ship plotter, APRS and D-Star. When I left there at 18h45, all was working well. I left Shaun the to finish the settings. At home I saw that my aprs tracks stopped 45 minutes later and phoned Shaun. It turned out that he was still on site - the 12V charger was faulty and the battery voltage had dropped too much. This also affected the internet connection. Shaun was still there after 21h00! It will need another visit to complete.

RAE - We are looking at running another RAE course. Please contact Shaun ZR5SF if you are know of anyone who is interested. His email is zr5sf@marc.org.za

1 January 2011: The radio amateurs and the Lions Club of Eshowe are planning to observe Saturday 15 January as an opportunity for Lions Clubs to exchange greetings on the air via Amateur Radio. The birthday of the founder of Lionism, Melvin Jones, born in 1879 at Ft. Thomas, Arizona USA is commemorated on 13 January.
The Eshowe Lions will be on the air from 14:00 CAT and want to exchanging greetings with other Lions and radio clubs in South Africa and/or the rest of the world - no prizes - but exchange QSL cards and 'make friends.'
If there are Lions and radio clubs around the country interested in joining the radio amateurs and the Eshowe Lions Club on Saturday 15 January 2011, please contact Willie, ZS5WI, at zs5wi@telkomsa.net, and give him your information.

27 December 2010: Shaun ZR5SF and Ian ZS5AZ went up to Gilboa today and restored the power.  It looks like both power supplies are U/S, and need repairs.  Thanks for your efforts and speedy repairs!  The network was down for just over a day (it was back on air at 14h40)

26 December:  Battery power carried the Gilboa repeater until 08h00 today.  The link is now off and the repeaters are in stand alone mode.  Unfortunately our visiting travellers can't enjoy the safety of our linked network until we can get up the mountain to rectify the problem.

23 December:  Gilboa power was lost during the night, probably due to the storm.  Hopefully it is just a tripped circuit breaker.

4 December: We held our year end function at the Cumberland Nature Reserve, off the Table Mountain Rd, a few km NE of Pmb on the Umgeni River.  The weather and setting could not have been better, not to mention the fine company.  It was well attended by 27 in total.  Shaun ZR5SF and Ian ZS4AZ did a superb job in organising the meat, rolls and soft drinks.  Ian's chicken pootjie was also really great, just like the company (yes, I know, it was mentioned before)
Getting there was a bit of a mission for some, as the northbound traffic on the N3 was routed through Pmb, causing all kinds of problems and delays.  But all made it in the end, and the general consensus was that we should use this venue again next year.  If it does, I will definitely be also camping next to there next to the stream, as Ian and Shaun did this weekend
The raffle for the new 15A power supply, generously donated by Brian ZR5BCB, was won by John ZS5GB from Gilletts.
Some more pictures of the day can be viewed here

1 December:  The SARL presentation to ICASA at the public hearing was well received. The Chairperson, Dr Marcia Socikwa, thanked the SARL for the input which  she described as of  great assistance in preparation of the final regulations.
ICASA did not confirm nor deny  if only the Amateur section and the general section applied to radio amateurs, the SARL is therefore preparing a supplementary submission to ensure that  other sections of the draft regulations do not adversely impact. The SARL will submit the supplementary submission on Wednesday 8 December. It will be available for comment on Monday 6 December.
Download the SARL presentation here

21 November  We had a successful weekend at Midmar Dam.  Only 2 MARC members (one party) camped over this year, and three parties from HARC.  The hf competition side was secondary this weekend as there were only few volunteers, conditions were not that great and our long wire antenna was not that successful.  The positive side was that those who were there had a very relaxing time, catching up with news of our different clubs.

Our meeting was well attended.  Brian ZR5BCB donated a new 15A power supply which is being raffled off.  Please contact Ian ZS5AZ if you want to buy a ticket or two.  Thanks Brian! 

At the meeting we voted for the winning logo and slogan.  "We do it wirelessly" and the following logo:

were chosen, both submitted by ZS5ML.  There were many great designs and slogans, and more will be used.  We will still decide on a final design (or designs).

Ian ZS5AZ and Lara's kids, Holly-mae and Morgan, sent in most designs (26, I think).  For their sterling efforts they were awarded the two prizes!  Thanks for the dedication.  It was just unfortunate that only 25% of our members bothered to vote.  One indicated that he could not download all the designs due to bandwidth limitations on his internet connection.  Maybe more had this problem?

I hope that all those who could not attend this weekend will be able to attend next year's event - you really missed a fantastic day/weekend.

14/11/10 Logo and slogan design competition.  Please click here to view all the entries.  Please select you 5 favourite logo and slogan entries, ie 10 in total, and send these to competition@marc.org.za by Thursday, 18 November.  The winning logo design and slogan will be announced at our next meeting on Saturday, 20 November, at Midmar dam at 11h00

12/11/10  Call signs have been allocated to our successful RAE candidates.  Looking forward to hearing these new call signs on air:

12/11/10  Brian ZR5BCB restored the power at 09h15 - thanks!  It looks like lightning took out the power supply.  The spare one is now installed.

12/11/10  Gilboa Lost power at 22h47 CAT on 09/11/10.  On 12/11 at 06h25 battery voltage is 11.8V  - it will shut down today when the voltage drops to 11.5V

05/11/10  Well done to the following candidates who passed the RAE exams.  Hope your call signs will be issued soon so that we can hear you on air :-)

4/11/10  The radar weather page is back on the weathersa site.  Here is the link for Dbn

31/10/10: The MARC competition for a slogan and emblem design for banners, letterheads etc will end on 12 November.  The designs will then be published here, and you will then vote for the best design and slogan.  The winners will be announced at the meeting at Midmar on Saturday 20 November, and the winners will receive R200. 

18/10/10: Shaun ZR5SF: "Howick JOTA was a huge success, so much so that we have been asked if we would do it again next year. All the participating scouts were very keen and interested in how and why radio operates ( I think we might have a few new hams here). A very big thank you to Stan and Rachel, Joost and Marjoke for all their help in making this a successful event. There is talk of the 1st Howick Scouts hosting the regional JOTA next year, this will be a huge event and I will be calling on hams to help out. Lastly, to all the scouts that participated, WELL DONE!! "

12/10/10: To all MARC members, past members, friends of the club and to any person who has been affiliated with MARC at some time.  We need your help!!!

The committee has embarked on an exercise to update all the past and present members' recorded details as well as the details of any one who was or is affiliated with the club in any way. Please take the time to open the update form and complete it as fully as possible. All that is required thereafter is that you click on the submit button at the top and your details are then captured. You will see that we have asked for family details (for birthday greetings as well as getting to know your family better), there is a section for recognising the club membership focus in respect to common modes of operation and interests, and at the end there is a section where you can tell us, your committee, how you would like us to steer this club in order to best suit your needs.

9/10/10: The Following list provides the Examination numbers of students that are going to be writing their RAE Examination on the 21st October 2010.
Please give Shaun ZR5SF a ring if you have any queries.
All candidates will receive an examination registration form confirming their details, please check this form and notify the Office immediately of any errors.

7 October: ZS5HL's memorial service took place at Oakleigh Funeral Chapel cnr of Wilkes and Fernbank Road, Prestbury, Pietermaritzburg at 14.30 Hrs.

3 October: ZS5MQ writes:
It is with deep regret that I wish to inform all amateur radio stations that om Hill Mason ZS5HL became a silent key at 20.45 Hrs. Sunday 3 rd October 2010,
He had been very ill for the past nine weeks, he is survived by his xyl Iona and his Germen Shepherd, Tommy.

1 October: Krish writes:
I would like to share my experience to one and all.
On Friday 01/10/10 I took my Kenwood 2m Transceiver to work and the response I got from my colleagues was amazing. Some of them thought that I was spying for the Police and some of them thought that I was just fooling around with a toy. Many did not have a clue what Amateur Radio was and after I explained to them about our FASCINATING hobby, they were quite amazed that there actually was such a hobby. I got some weird looks when I tuned to the NPC frequency, which was quite busy, but I think all in all those who never knew about radio was quite informed. Thanks to TAKE YOUR HANDHELD TO WORK DAY.
 
Here is a photo of me trying to make a contact while standing next to a machine, I could not even key the repeater due to all the electrical interference there.

 

27 September:  The committee was asked if pensioners and family members could receive a discount, and has come up with the following tariffs:

Pensioners can deduct 33.33% from their applicable category

26 September: The recent poll indicated that most were happy top leave Echolink on the repeater linked network.  Shaun ZR5S has started an experiment to see how this works:

"Since I have moved the Echo-Link off the linked rptr network and onto its own simplex freq of 145.450Mhz, I have been able to release a lot more features of this VOIP program. This freq is now very busy with all sorts of automated broadcasts and conference server hook-ups.

Mainly (by default) this node is linked to an international reflector where you will be able to listen and /or participate in discussions amongst hams from around the world. There is always someone there to talk to. The weather forecast, current wx conditions and severe wx warnings (if any) will be read out to you periodically. The time will also be read out on the hour and half hour.

Then, on Sunday mornings at 08h30 this node will automatically connect to zs6fcs for the SARL English weekly news broadcast. Then a series of prepared weekly bulletins from the ARRL, RSGB and WIA will be automatically broadcast (30min ea) after that. This repeats on Wednesday nights.

The odd INTECNET and such can be scheduled for automatic broadcast, but you will need to email me the times so that i can set it up. Email me any other local and international nets that you would like to be automatically broadcast.

Here is the current table of events.

Sundays:
08:30 South African Radio League weekly news broadcast
09:00 Amateur Radio News-line
09:30 Wireless Institute of Australia weekly news
10:00 Radio Society of Great Britain 1
10:30 Radio Society of Great Britain 2
20:00 Amateur Radio News-line
20:30 Wireless Institute of Australia weekly news
21:00 Radio Society of Great Britain 1
21:30 Radio Society of Great Britain 2

Wednesdays:
09:00 Amateur Radio News-line
09:30 Wireless Institute of Australia weekly news
10:00 Radio Society of Great Britain 1
10:30 Radio Society of Great Britain 2
20:00 Amateur Radio News-line
20:30 Wireless Institute of Australia weekly news
21:00 Radio Society of Great Britain 1
21:30 Radio Society of Great Britain 2

So tune into 145.450 for news, weather and discussions. Please do also PTT now and again. They love to speak to ZA stations.

26 September:  ICASA has published the draft radio regulations, Gazette #33590.  It is available here for download.
It contains significant changes to the existing regulations, and the implications are serious and include:
The ZR licence will disappear, as will the requirement of one of the present 5 upgrade criteria.  A person who passes the class A licence will receive a ZS licence.
The Class B licence will only be available to persons under the age of 20, and they will loose the licence at the age of 25 if they have not written the class A exam.

Please send your comments to armi@sarl.org.za before 10 October
A discussion about this will be held during the President's net on Sunday, 17 October 2010, at 19h30
ICASA will be holding a public hearing on 1 & 2 December 2010, and the final regulations will be promulgated soon after that.

21 September:  The committee held their first committee meeting at the clubhouse.  The following portfolios were discussed and assigned.
Chairman, HHN, Web, Email - Mike Lauterbach ZS5ML
Vice Chairman, Technical - Shaun Rudling ZR5S
Secretary, Treasurer - Ian Pearson ZS5AZ
Events, Training, PRO - Shaun Fisher ZR5SF
Disaster Management - Des Mullen ZU5DM
Club house manager - Gavin Claasen ZR5GAV (non committee member)

18 September:  We held our MARC AGM today.  Comments like "what a wonderful, "pain free" AGM was held today" were made.  A special thank you to Mike ZS5BGV, our past chairman, and his committee, for holding the club together, and taking it a step further from where they picked up the reigns.  I trust that the new committee will pick up from where the past one handed the reigns over.  I feel that the club voted in the new committee members wisely, looking at who was voted in.  I just hope that we (as a committee member) will live up to the club's expectations and more.

The new committee members are, in no particular order:
Shaun ZR5S, Ian ZS5AZ, Des ZU5DM, Shaun ZR5SF, Gavin ZR5GAV and Mike ZS5ML

Also a special thanks to Gayle, XYL of ZS5BGV, who organised a fantastic spread of eats, which was "demolished" after the meeting

16 September:  Des ZU5DM, arranged that Rural Metro donated a 2m Kenwood rig for our shack, in appreciation of what Amateur Radio contributes to our community.  We are very appreciative and humbled by this donation - THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

14 August:  The Capital Climb was a rounding success.  Special thanks go to Roger ZS5EV for organising the comms from our club for the event.  Thanks also to all the operators who sacrificed their time and petrol, and they are in no particular order, Shaun ZR5SF, Peter ZS5PJ, Gudrun ZS5GEL, Des ZU5DM, Ian ZS5AZ, Neville ZS5NC,  and Mike ZS5ML.

12 August:  We are running a ZU RAE course shortly.  Please contact Mike ZS5BGV or Shaun ZR5SF if you are interested.  Their contact details can be found on the member page.

5 August:  ICASA has taken occupation of their new offices in the Durban CDB, and the address is 15th Floor Victoria Maine, 71 Margaret Mncadi Avenue (ex Victoria Embankment), Durban,4001.
Peter Leonard's (ZS5PHL) details are pleonard at icasa.org.za, 031 3349515

2 August:  ZR5S posted a link for D-RATS (reverse for D-Star).  Quite an innovative program to enable you to be part of the D-Star network.  Have a look at www.d-rats.com

26 July:  Power was restored at Gilboa at 13h00 by Brian ZR5BCB.  The cause of the tripped circuit breakers is unknown

26 July: The Gilboa repeater shut down at 00h36 after running for 2.5 days on battery power

25 July: First African D-Star repeater.  Shaun ZR5S assembled a D-Star repeater and got it working on his test bench.  It will be installed at Groenekloof as soon as reliability has been proven on the work bench.

23 July: Groenekloof lost power at 10h00.

15 July:  MARC renewal notices were sent out.

13 July:  Shaun ZR5S asked for someone to take over the project of recording the MARC history from our records.  Gudrun ZS5GEL volunteered if there were no takers, and got the job without a chance to pull the offer back.

09 July:  Lots of discussion what a real radio amateur is, ranging from the opinion that only technical minded and capable persons are to including others with limited technical skills but superior operating skills.  Ed. is of the opinion that it caters for all, not just the technical advantaged, some of whom have poor operating procedures by nature. 

03 July:  Evert ZS5EFP kindly went past the Estcourt repeater and set the link radio squelch with the help of Craig on the other end of a cell phone and a pot inside the radio.  It has been working well when I monitored it today.  Thanks to Evert and Craig!  I'm sure our members in the Ladysmith area will be grateful, as well as our visitors travelling on the N3.

30 June:  ZR5SEM, ZR5S and ZS5ML did some work at Groenekloof, removing the 6m magnetic loop, which needs to be relocated to Greytown, and installed the 30m dipole for hf APRS:
ZR5S:"We have finally brought back to life the ZS5PMB-4 HF APRS I-Gate here in PMBurg. She is resting in her final layout up on the mountain. Our KZN hf i-gate is situated up at Hilton on our repeater site. From this same location, we receive the ships you see off our KZN coast, The aeroplanes you see buzzing around KZN on googel earth, the 2m aprs i-gate, the zs5pmb echo-link and E-QSO.
We will soon be installing our APRS SatGate on 145.825Mhz using an eggbeater antenna. And our latest edition to our MARC family, a D-Star node HotSpot (internet gateway) with 1x D-Star home-brew repeater.
Talk about all one's eggs in one basket.....sheeezzzz! Rain Rain, go away........take your L/bolts elsewhere."

28 June :  "Today, ZS6JCL (Fritz) was mobile through Pietermaritzburg and listened to a conversation between two hams in Washington DC on his D-Star enabled icom 2820.
How? We have installed a D-Star HotSpot Node adapter here in Pmb on a simplex freq. of 433.700Mhz using the Satoshi dv Node Adapter V7 (Available Now!) from his website for only 12000 Japanese Yen. Don't be frightened, that only equates to about 1028 South African Rond.

ZS6JCL tried to join the conversation but my interfacing was not up to scratch as the adapter never heard the GMSK audio from his radio. So I will have a look at that. This same module can be put into "stand-alone" repeater mode by attaching 2x mobile rigs. Motorollas will do but we are using Alinco's. You need an audio feed before the discriminator for 9600bps. No PC or software required.
So you get a fully featured D-Star repeater for R1028 if say, you are given 2x mobiles.

We here at MARC challenge other clubs to put together similar D-Star systems for all our enjoyment as we are mobile around the country. It would also be nice to link these nodes on a semi permanent basis.

Our repeater looks like it will be on 438.200Mhz (-7.6Mhz) in about 4 weeks time."     ZR5S

26 June:  At 23h08 Shaun ZR5S posted an email saying "I am pleased to announce that Pietermaritzburg now has a D-Star node on a simplex frequency of 433.700Mhz (no tone).
So, if you have a D-Star capable radio, you can use the ZR5S D-Star internet Gateway on 433.700 to connect to anywhere in the world.
This signal emanates from Blackridge and covers the PMB city. In order to increase coverage I will be installing a D-Star repeater at Groenekloof. I have the D-Star repeater kit but await (4 weeks) the 2x Alinco transceivers that will complete this D-Star repeater.
This is a first in Africa and if their is enough interest shown, it could stay here for a very long time. Lets set the standard and get the other clubs to offer this facility to it's members.  The kit only costs R1028incl. fully built and tested. All you need to add is 2x FM mobile radio's to build your repeater.
Have fun"
Ed:  Thanks and congratulations Shaun! 

24 June:  The new call signs have been allocated.  You can start using them with immediate effect.  Thanks to Mark Zank for organising these so quickly!  and congratulations to the new call sign holders!

20 June: The call signs of the RAE students have not been issued yet.  It is understandable since the person responsible for this is also in charge of of sorting applications for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, having to focus on dealing with all spectrum licensing requests.  A bit more patience is necessary, and SARL has asked that the candidates not contact them or ICASA directly, as it will bring nothing, and possibly only add to the frustration and delay things further.

19 June:  Evert ZS5EFP installed the repeater this morning - thanks - it's working very well.  Thanks to Craig for repairing it and brining it up to Pmb!

13 June:  The Estcourt repeater is repaired.  It will be brought up to Pmb this week, and can then be installed when someone goes past Estcourt.  Craig is also waiting for a gap so that the repaired Underberg repeater can be reinstalled.

10 June:  Call signs for the RAE candidates can now only be reserved after the examination, and not before as in the past.  Mark Zank ZS6YES reports that this was done on Monday, and that he is doing his best to be able to issue the new call signs before 16 June, Youth Day.  Hopefully he will get it right - it is not an easy task.  A special thank you goes to him and his helpers for organising the RAE so efficiently!

8 June:  ZR5S and ZS5ML went to Gilboa to install the newly acquired power supply for the UHF repeater.

5 June: The SARL announced that all our RAE candidates passed their exams.  Congratulations to the students and also to Evert ZS5RFP, who tutored the candidates!

1 June: Reminder: The SARL subscription invoices have been sent out.  If you are a member, and have not received your invoice, please contact the SARL directly.

30 May: Comrades Marathon, in which some of our members provided communications to the race organisers.  5 operators are from our club, and 26 are from Durban.

29 May:  RTA in Durban, at the University of KZN

28 May: The funeral of ZS5NC took place at 13h00 at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Hayfields.

23 May:  ZS5ML and ZU5GL went to Gilboa to replace the battery charger, and installed a loaned power supply for the repeater.  The power supply did not have enough capacity and was returned.  A new one will be installed shortly.

21 May: Silent Key
Milne Buchan ZS5NZ became a silent key on the morning of 21 May 2010.  He was a Honorary Life Member of MARC and also of of SARL.
He is survived by his daughter Anne.
Funeral arrangements will be announced as soon as they are known.

20 May:  9 club members sat the A and B class RAE exams tonight.  It seemed to be a fair exam, but to achieve top marks would have required exceptional students.  Here is a picture of some of our candidates sweating it out.  Good luck to all of you!

13 May:  The exam numbers for our RAE candidates are out:
1005013  Classen.G       
1005015  Collins.N         
1005035  Fisher.S         
1005063  Lauterbach.G 
1005087  Mullen.D        
1005093  Orsmond.L.A  
1005094  Pearson.I.A    
1005098  Rahim.F.H     
1005099  Ramsaran.K   

24 April:  The SARL had their AGM in Port Elisabeth.  A new committee was chosen, trophies awarded and the new constitution was approved - it is basically a re-write of the old one.

24 April:  Power was restored in Hilton.  ZR5S and ZS5ML visited these sites today, installing a 12A battery charger at World's View, reprogramming the Didi there and then switching the computer back on at Groenekloof.

24 April:  Had a very good MARC meeting.  We had an open discussion on repeater etiquette, ZS5PJ showed us his radio kits which he takes along on his trips, and Bert brought along an old Heathkit radio and talked a bit about it and touched on radio repairs.

21 April:  ZR5S went to Estcourt repeater.  The battery and power supply were tested and are fine.  The repeater has been working very well lately, and was not fading away.  When the uhf link radio was turned on it's side to read the serial number of the radio, it lost it's TX!  it was also running extremely hot.  It was left in place to see if it would recover, bur alas, it did not.  So it will have to come out and be repaired.  It looks like the linking problem was the uhf link radio.

20 April: Power failures in the Hilton area resulted in the World's View repeater and fill in Digi going off air.  The battery was drained down to 0V - not good for the battery.  Will need to source a battery saver.
Groenekloof also lost power resulting in the Echolink computer and APRS digi going off air

19 April: ZR5S went up to World's View and connected a temporary power supply.  The 750 repeater is up and running again.  Thanks Shaun!

17 April:  A few attended the most informative AMSAT Space Symposium in Durban
                The World's View 750 repeater went off air for some reason.

27 March:  Had a most enjoyable morning at the joint swop shop in Monteseel

24 March: ZR5S and ZS5ML went up to Gilboa this afternoon and replaced the power supplies which were damaged by lightning on Saturday.  All's working well again

23 March:  Gilboa switched itself off this morning (with the battery saver).  Telemetry shows that it tripped out during Saturday's storm on 20 March

5 March:  ZR5S and ZS5ML installed the Windy Hill Hamnet repeater.  It belongs to Hamnet, and has no tone guard at this stage.  It is also not linked to our repeater network.

14 February: We concluded a successful SARL HF Field weekend in Illovo (Villa Spa), just south of Durban, together with HARC.  The setting and camaraderie was great, and good contacts were made, even though 20 & 80m were flat from there.  40m was also not as good as it was last time from Midmar.  There were enough trees to string our antennas from.  Pictures can be viewed here

30 January: The standby 750 repeater was removed as the tx side had gone faulty.  ZU5DF also cleared the World View site of grass and weeds - thanks Shaun!

26 January: ZS5EFP is manufacturing tone boards for the older radios in our club.  Please contact him or the committee if you would like one.

24 January: The Bacar launch in the Worcester Airport, Western Cape was postponed because of ATC issues

22 January:  The standby repeater has been installed at World's View.  Please note that it is not linked.  The original repeater will be sent to Craig for repairs

20 January: "The 750 Worlds View repeater was recovered as the intermittent squeal it suffered from, got more prominent and regular. I will have a go at it first to try find a dry joint as when I tapped the heat sink, the fault cleared. If I fail, zs5cid will have a go at it.
The Worlds View fill-in digi lost its settings when i disconnected the power from the equipment. I will have to go back and reprogram it. This only affects PMB CBD aprs coverage marginally.
The PC at Hilton was reset and all seems to be working again wrt the aprs igate, echolink, e-qso, shipplotter and planeplotter. I recovered my d-700 and put in an Alinco radio and KAM tnc to perform the igate duties. A tk-80 was also installed onto the KAM duall-port tnc for HF igate duties. I just need to erect a 30m di-pole now."  Shaun ZR5S

16 January:  We had a successful MARC meeting, with 20 attendees.  Honorary members of our club were announced, and they are: Hartwig Hillermann ZS5WA, Hill Mason ZS5HL,  Milne Buchan ZS5NZ and Rod Radford ZS5RK, now ZL1RK. 

Older History page

Some old photos submitted by Bob, ZS5CU can be found here

If you have some old photos, please send them - I would love to display them here.  If they are old paper photos, I can scan them in if necessary, as I did with Bob's photos. 

13/14 February SARL HF Field Day

The first leg of the SARL Field Day for 2010 took place at Villa Spa in Illovo on Saturday 13 February to 12h00 on Sunday 14 February.  A number of members from MARC and HARC attended.  Some camped and some stayed in the Bungalows.

The picture above from our veranda, showing some of the vehicles, and the one below of Ian in the back of his Land Rover

A lot of fun was had, and many contacts were made, even if the bands were not as good as on the last event at Midmar Dam

New: APRS map of Pietermaritzburg and Hilton, with the calibration file.  Click here

SARL HF Field Day Camping Weekend at Midmar Dam
21/22 November 2009

Once again, we had a fantastic and successful weekend at Midmar dam, organised jointly by HARC and MARC.  Three parties already pitched up on Friday night, in spite of the wet weather.  Luckily the weather was dry on Saturday, and Sunday was a glorious sunny day.

We had quite a few visitors on Saturday.  Two radio stations were used, and consisted of an Icom 706MKIIg and an Icom IC-728, both with antenna tuners.  The antennas used were a 40/80 dipole, strung high (15m) between tree trees, and a NVIS connected to Mike's Landrover (ZS5ML).  Both setups were run off vehicle batteries.  Band conditions were good, and well over 300 contacts were made on various bands.

Craig, ZS5CD, gave an interesting talk and demo on antennas, and brought  many of his projects along.

A special thanks to Brian, ZR5BCB, who donated a new handheld radio to each club!  It is being "raffled off" at R20 per ticket.  The draw will be at the club's Christmas Braai at the clubhouse on 5 December.  Should you wish to buy some tickets, please contact Mike, ZS5BGV, or come along to the Christmas braai, where you will be able to purchase a ticket or two before the draw. 

Peter, ZS5PJ, also donated a uhf radio to the club.  This can be used as a link radio.  Thanks Peter!

Thanks to all who came along to make the outing a success.  Hope to see you all again on the next outing  - possibly for the next HF field day in March next year.

More photos can be found here.

NEW:   The Midlands Amateur Radio Club are proud to announce another technological breakthrough facility for its followers.  These are two Google Earth applications.  The first link displays the local aprs and ship movements in KZN, and the second one large aircraft.

• Display a list of on-line Echo-Link stations with node numbers
• Radar images of current weather patterns
• Here is another good weather site
• SA Weather and disaster information service

Active regional APRS map link

The MARC Vision by Shaun Rudling, ZR5S

Clubs and individuals need goals and visions to be progressive or else we stagnate. MARC has a dynamic vision and that is to stimulate “out of the box” thinking amongst its members and to be a benchmark for other clubs to follow.

Imagine this, communicating with each other with light frequencies. Why not? It gets done with optic fiber with glass as a medium. Lets try it with air as a medium. In fact, hams are doing it right now using a torch parabolic reflector to add some gain to the transmitted light and using a digital camera pick-up as a receiver. Imagine the scene at night with light communications between each other. Even better would to be using laser lights.

Aligning your antennas would be a cinch.  Light is electromagnetic radiation just like the radio spectrum we use. Just a bit higher in frequency than what we are familiar with.  This also applies to microwave, Gamma, infra red and ultra-violet radiation. Your eyes are sensitive antenna’s that receive a narrow bandwidth of this spectrum.  We call it “visible light”.  Really, your eyes are narrow-band, co-phased antenna’s capable of receiving electromagnetic radiation. Do your eyes have a bad SWR?  Spectacles can help you align your eyeball antennas. Pause here a bit and exercise your brain before you move on.  Visualize what you have just read with your antennas.  Your eyes are reading this text in an analogue format.  Digitize and pulse this light and with a bit of practice your brain could receive and decode digital signals.  We challenge you to challenge us on these ramblings. Your thoughts and ideas will be published in the next HHN. 

What about upgrading our aging analogue vhf linked repeater network to a digital voice linked system.  Icom have offered us a D-Star repeater that will seamlessly link repeaters to a network. Digital voice communications is how cell-phones work. We code your analogue voice into a digital format, then we modulate an analogue radio frequency with the digital data and it gets received by a repeater. The target destination receives and decodes the data and you hear a synthesized voice which should sound similar to the original source.

D-star makes repeater linking easy. It allows crystal clear audio without interference. It allows a easy way to link up with other D-star repeaters around the world. Only listen to voice traffic destined for you.  Send Text msgs.  Send data files. See what call-sign is calling you on the display. The flexibility of this system allows for new ideas to be implemented by flashing a new firmware.

Sounds expensive, doesn’t it? With a bit of effort we could have our first D-star repeater installed and working within 2 years. It will be the first one in Africa.  Do not stagnate. Dream and visualize long enough and it will materialize. Amateur radio is not your granddaddy’s hobby. It is a rapidly developing science and often leads ahead of the commercial sector.  Let our youth see the new technology we embrace. Explain to them how we acknowledge our forefathers achievements of the past, but always look forward for new ideas to quench our thirst for invention.

Think this is far fetched?  Think back to the time when SSB was introduced, and many swore that they would never embrace it.....

New - every member with an existing email address can be allocated a personalised email forwarder, where your email address is your
call-sign@marc.org.za.  This way you can email any club member with an existing email address, without needing the original email address - you just have to remember the call sign :-).

Also on offer is a full POP3 email address 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)

New APRS maps of Namibia and Botswana have been uploaded to our map download section.  They have been calibrated, and the calibration files are included in the compressed files.

6. The Amateur is Patriotic...
His knowledge and his station are always ready for the service of his country and his community.

Views expressed on this website do not necessarily echo those of MARC's members, in general

This clubs members are mainly located in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands on the east coast of South Africa.

Our sponsors, who make this site possible:
EdelNet and PmbNet:   Broadband solutions and networking.    Providing us with the domain name, web space and bandwidth, Echo-Link, E-QSO, APRS I-Gate, D-Star etc.