Club chairmen to debate future of Amateur Radio

The South African Radio League Radio Technology in Action Symposium will kick off on Saturday 13 September with a debate by various club chairmen about the future of amateur radio.

Join SARL President Rassie Erasmus, ZS1YT, Rad Handfield-Jones, ZS6RAD, of the Antique Wireless Association, John Hilton, ZR6HLT, of the Sandton Amateur Radio Club, Frank van Wensween, ZS6TMV, of the Highveld Amateur Radio Club and Chris Gryffenberg, ZS6COG, of the East Rand Amateur Radio Club in the debate.

In June, an open invitation was extended to all club chairmen to join the debate. It is, however, not too late for other club chairmen to join the discussion. Please send an e-mail to armi@sarl.org.za by Monday.

The RTA is scheduled at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre at Radiokop. Registration opens at 08:15 and the programme starts at 09:00. The cost is R20 per person, including participation in the attendance draw for an ICOM 706, a RS Soldering Station and a Meterman Multimeter kit as well as various other prizes. Learners and students enter free of charge.

Refreshments are available throughout the day from the Sentech cafeteria, or if you like, bring a picnic basket.

Following the amateur radio debate a range of interesting papers are on the programme including:

Spread Spectrum and Amateur Radio;
WiFi finding its way into Amateur Radio;
The SKA and Radio Free Zones;
Space Weather and HF propagation for Amateur Radio;
SARL - HMO Beacon Project;
An Audio/RF DDS Signal Generator.

While the papers are all about state-of-the-art technology, they are being presented at a popular technical level to interest both new, as well as the experienced radio amateur.

Several papers include demonstrations.

The South African Radio League