Three Radio Amateurs receive awards

Three radio amateurs received awards for their contribution to the promotion of Amateur Radio, Community Service and Technology at an Awards function hosted by the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust on Tuesday last week.

Dave Reece, ZS1DFR, was awarded the Siemens Radio Amateur of the Year Award (Operational) for his development activity amongst the youth. Dave spends his spare time to involve learners at Cape Maths and Science in amateur radio and has arranged tuition for interested learners to pass the radio amateur examination.

He also arranges on-the-air events where learners have an opportunity to get experience in the operational side of the hobby. His other passion is to encourage Radio Amateurs to embrace new technologies and is actively promoting APRS. This system was developed by an US Radio Amateur, Bob Bruninga, for tracking and digital communications with mobile GPS equipped stations with two-way radio. In the 10 years since its introduction, it has grown to encompass just about every aspect of Amateur Radio. Dave is also chairman of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre.

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, received the Siemens Radio Amateur of the Year Award (Technology) for his contribution to the promotion of new technologies and home construction of radio equipment. He was instrumental in building the prototypes of the SA AMSAT equipment that will fly on South Africa's second Satellite, SumbandilaSat.

This involved building and testing two versions and integrating the design and software developed by amateur Andrew Roos, ZS6AA, into a working system. The equipment was recently fully tested by SunSpace with excellent results. The system will provide radio amateurs with a satellite communications link, a parrot repeater and an audio beacon. With the magic of space connected to this, the parrot repeater will find good use in the classroom teaching learners the importantce of speaking clearly.

The third award, the Siemens Amateur Radio Community Service Award was presented to Davy Smeda, ZR1FR, a Cape Town Radio Amateur whose passion it is to provide communication for rallies and sporting events.

He was an important link during the 1985 Laingsburg disaster when Radio Amateurs set up radio channels between Laingsburg and the Cape Town emergency centre and provided disaster relief communication for several days when other channels were down.

It is often said that today we have cell phones, but practice has shown that when there is a disaster the cell system gets overloaded and crashes.

Source: The South African Radio League