A young South African voice could soon come from space

A young South African’s Voice could soon be heard from space once SumbandilaSat, South Africa's second satellite is launched in May 2007. SumbandilaSat includes an amateur radio payload that carries a voice identification beacon.

The amateur payload was built by SA AMSAT and integrated into the satellite by the University of Stellenbosch and SunSpace.

SA AMSAT and the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust have joined forces to find the ideal 15-second spoken message and are inviting learners 16 years of age and younger to take part in writing this message.

The learner whose message is selected will win a state of the art laptop computer sponsored by the Trust. In addition the winner will record the message which will be programmed into the satellite speech processor’s memory.

Once SumbandilaSat is launched and switched on, the message will be the first signal to be heard from the satellite.

Learners are invited to visit www.amsatsa.org.za to learn more about the satellite and download details of the competition and how to enter.

Entries close on 31 January 2007. The competition is only open to learners living in South Africa.

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