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VHF, UHF and Microwave Record Table - the latest table of records is available from the VHF SA Record page. Click here to get a copy. Compiled and updated by Paul, ZS6NK - Send your record claim to zssixnk@gmail.com
Focus on VHF and Above 23 March 2025
There has been some good Tropoducting along the West Coast on Monday, which seemed to move away from the coastline on Tuesday, however an exiting contact was made on Tuesday 18 March 2025 at 18:19 UTC between Garry ZD7GWM on St Helena Island and Johan V51JH in Walvis Bay. They were using Q65B on 144 MHz. So even though the predictions were not favourable a good contact could still be made because there were at least two stations on the air.
Later in the week there were extremely good conditions along the South and East Coast, but no reports of good contacts were seen.
2 m TEP over Africa continues to give a mixed bag of results with some strong signals at times and other evenings nothing. We are hoping that conditions will improve in the next couple of weeks for the faithful and dedicated group that are on the air between approximately 18:00 to 20:00 UTC every evening.
There has also been a TEP contact between Reunion Island and the A65BR in the UAE.
Lower down the 6 m band has been performing very well to Europe this past week.
I have discovered a very nice Bandplan Generator that can be used to produce a neat bandplan that you can print out and pin to your wall for easy reference. You can also customise it. It defaults to the IARU-R1 bandplan and can be found at https://bandplan.ham.guide/.
On Saturday, I participated in the SARL Centenary Technical Symposium both as a listener and as a presenter. There were some extremely interesting presentations ranging from the excellent presentation by Andreas DG8AI on the ENAMS noise monitoring system developed by the DARC. Andreas is the Project Lead for the second generation of the ENAMS system that is now in development following the success of the first system that has been in operation for the last 5 years.
The recorded video on the SARL Raspberry Pi based noise monitoring system presented by Anton ZR6AIC was just as interesting and all amateurs need to participate in the project in order to be able to collect information that will help them firstly clean up their own noise sources within their homes and then focus on the neighbourhood. You would be surprised at how much noise is generate within you own home that you are totally unaware of.
There was also an excellent presentation by Chris ZS6EZ on contesting and here again there was some very interesting points that Chris made about antennas as well, especially for reception where one needs to take cognisance of the noise factor of your antenna. Not all antennas are equal when is comes to noise and some antennas may not be good transmission antennas, but are very good low noise antennas for receiving those weaker signals. A lot of contacts are missed due to the high noise levels that we are receiving. This is true for VHF and above as well.
Hans ZS6AKV also gave a presentation on what Radio Amateurs need to know about the challenges of the RF noise floor. Remember, the rising noise floor can be described as a silent killer, just like a heart attack, you do not know that it is creeping up on you until it kills you. We will wake up one day and the noise floor will have killed our HF hands as well as the lower VHF bands.
Eddie ZS6BNE gave a presentation on the technical challenges in a successful RaDAR event and Johan ZS6DC gave a presentation on QRP and QRP Contests with a Twist. Both these presentations were very much orientated towards the new amateurs entering into the hobby who cannot afford the expensive modern amateur radios, and how there are very affordable low cost alternatives that can get you started in the hobby and you can certainly have fun as well.
I gave a presentation on exploring the propagation opportunities of the Troposphere. Researching this presentation was an interesting and educational journey for me as well, as I also learnt some stuff about Tropospheric propagation that I did not know. I will be recording my presentation giving more explanation for transmission in future Focus on VHF programmes.
The HAMSCI event that took place last weekend at the New Jersey Institute of Technology was also a very successful and informative event based on the reports that I have read. While mostly focusing on the Ionosphere there was a poster presentation done by John Worsnop PhD G4BAO and Gwyn Griffiths G3ZIL with the title “Monitoring tropospheric propagation at 24 GHz: A Pilot Study”.
This is an extremely interesting pilot study and it is amazing how simple the set up is and the conclusions that could be reached.
As I eluded to in my presentation each one of us Radio Amateurs has a potential science laboratory in our shacks that can be used to collect scientific data that can contribute to the scientific pool of knowledge. All we need to do is get active, be inquisitive and keep asking the question why and how does something happen and then of course the most important share what you are doing.
https://hamsci.org/sites/default/files/pages/hamsci_workshop_2025/posters/HamSCI_2025_P01_Worsnop_Griffiths_24GHz_V3%20-%20HamSCI.pdf
My experience talking to the scientific community at the Science Forums about some of the amateur projects that we are busy with is mind blowing. I get questions like do I have a PhD and comments like what we are busy with is PhD level research. These folk cannot believe that we, Radio Amateurs, do this for fun and because we are curious and want to learn more.
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 16 March 2025
Keep up the efforts.
There has been some interesting conditions along the West Coast this past week and I had a call from Kobus ZS3JPY who told me about a US radio amateur Gil Gray N8GG/MM and his XYL Danna K2JOY who had come to South Africa to board a cruise liner Silver Dawn on a trip to Europe and when the ship sailed from Cape Town Kobus maintained contact with him all the way up the West Coast to a stop over in Luderitz in Namibia. Gil was using a Baofeng hand held on 2 W output connected to a home made J-Pole.
Well done Kobus ZS3JPY and Naz ZS1NAZ and the other amateurs who managed to make a contact with Gil N2GG/MM.
I have found an interesting article providing some insights on mounting mobile antennas on your vehicle. The article covers information related to HF as well as VHF and UHF antennas. The article is written by Mark Haverstock, K8MSH and can be found at
Vehicle_Antenna_Mounting.jpg
On All Bands is an Amateur Radio Blog by DX Engineering and has a wealth of information especially for the new amateur written by various contributors.
R&S_Understanding_VHF_Propagation.png
John EI7GL has posted a link to a very interesting video produced by Rohde & Schwarz with the title “Understanding VHF Propagation”. Rohde & Schwarz is one of the leading Test and Measurement companies in the world. The link to the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXJ3bS2UcE.
Thank you John for this information.
We all remember the major issue running up to the previous World Radio Conference in 2023 and the issues around the 23 cm Amateur band and interference to the GNSS Service. The whole case against Amateur Radio was built around two cases of interference in Europe.
I have found an interesting website https://gpsjam.org/ which is an attempt to map GPS interference. The creator of the site, John Wiseman says that the map uses data provided by ADS-B Exchange to generate maps of likely GPS interference, based on aircraft reports of their navigation system accuracy.
It is very interesting to see where the aircraft experience less accuracy of their navigation systems and it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out why. My question is why is the Amateur Radio Service singled out and apparently nothing is done about the deliberate interference with the GNSS systems that may have a major impact on aeronautical safety. Well, I know in which parts of the world I will not be flying any time soon.
Well that is all for this week.
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 2 March 2025
On Wednesday, Johan ZS6DC sent out a message on the QRP and Barbed Wire Group that there was a long range forecast of G1 geomagnetic storms on Friday 28 February, and after consulting with other members of the group, decided to postpone the activity for a month. Johan said that he was sorry, but on the bright side that it would give some more time to perfect the antennas that will be used.
Looking at the activities recorded on PSKReporter.info and on the Space Weather site of the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) it looks like the predicted solar storm did not materialise.
Never the less we need to err on the side of caution, and as Johan says, there is more time to prepare to participate in the event next month. Please monitor the WhatsApp group for new information that will be posted by Johan.
I have not seen any other reports of VHF and Above activities this last week other than the TEP testing that is taking place mainly between V51WW and the TEP enthusiasts in Southern Europe.
This testing that is taking place has value in that data is being gathered over a period of time that will be able to provide some insights that will help to better understand Trans-Equatorial Propagation.
Moving on to some other interesting developments and information relating to this fantastic technological past time that we participate in.
At the beginning of February this year there was a Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) in Brussels.
FOSDEM is a non-commercial, volunteer-organised European event centred on free and open-source software development. It is aimed at developers and anyone interested in the free and open-source software movement. It aims to enable developers to meet and to promote the awareness and use of free and open-source software. The conference had a Radio Devroom where a number of radio amateurs presented some topics. A full list of the topics can be found at https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/track/radio/.
There are videos, recordings and presentation files available to review and feed your curiosity and expand your knowledge.
You can also take a look at all the other Free and Open Source presentations that were presented at the main web page https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/
A quick Google search and you will find all the presentations for the 2024 event as well at https://archive.fosdem.org/2024/schedule/events/
Let us close with this short message from Onno VK6FLAB “Finding your path in the hobby”.
Some of the lists mentioned by Onno is in the text version on the SARL web page for Focus on VHF, including the many links mentioned in the programme:
52 Week Ham Challenge https://hamchallenge.org/
Amateur Radio Skill Tree.pdf at
https://github.com/sjpiper145/MakerSkillTree/tree/main
RatPac - Amateur Radio Challenges Checklist for 2025.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/@RATPAC
You can also find a wealth of very interesting videos on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/@TechMindsOfficial
Matt M0DQW has a lot of information that can stimulate your creativeness in the hobby.
As I have said before this hobby has no limits. The only limit is your own creativity and will to learn and experiment.
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 23 February 2025
The TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) season has opened and Wynand V51WW has already made his first contacts on 2 m. with Southern Europe.
It is still early in the season and we are nearing the predicted peak of Solar Cycle 25, however we also need to take cognisance of the fact that currently the measured values are much higher than the predicted values. We need to keep monitoring as we never know when or if an opening will occur that can be exploited by amateurs further south.
I have previously discussed the LoRa modules that we in HAMNET are playing with along with smart phone apps like Meshtastic. We are doing this to see how we can use the technology and what it’s limitations are, and how can we use it to provide emergency communications. I recall a discussion at one of the IARU-R1 VHF and up committee meetings when LoRa was discussed as an emerging technology and that one needs to be cautious and not increase the power of the LoRa signal via a power amplifier, but rather to play around with antennas to get better signals and so achieve longer distances. So for those of you playing around with LoRa here is some information on https://hackaday.com, including a video of how you can easily build a YAGI antenna for your LoRa device and achieve ranges of up to 40 km. There are of course other antennas that you can also experiment with on these frequencies. You get LoRa modules that work on the 868/925 MHz ISM frequencies and then our personal favourite, the ones that operate on 433 MHz, right in the middle of our 70 cm band.
We, here in HAMNET Gauteng, have also recently discovered a useful application for LoRa mesh networking and will soon be doing some testing.
Looking around at all the apps that are available for smart phones, I find some really interesting applications for amateur radio use and you do not even need to have a physical connection between your radio and the smart phone.
WoAD is a Winlink app that runs on your smart phone and there are several ways that you can use it with your equipment. The simplest of course being to hold your phone close to your radio that has been placed in VOX mode and off you go. You can send an email via your radio. I have had WoAD on my phone and have sent email via telnet and it has worked 100%. I now need to start experimenting using it over RF. I have looked at the documentation that you can find on the WoAD website https://woad.sumusltd.com/home, and it is really not rocket science.
Another tool for the old communications toolbox.
Here in South Africa there is a serious shortage of DMR repeaters and most of us who have a DMR radio also has a DMR hotspot which allows us to connect to the Brandmeister server. Getting set up for DMR is expensive and we do not even know if we will like to use DMR. Well there is a cheaper alternative if you want to wet your toes with DMR without the expenses of a radio and a hotspot.
There is the DroidStar app for Android smart phones. This allows you to set your self up and be able to use your Android phone as you would use your DMR radio and hotspot without the associated costs. I have not personally experimented with this but Hendri ZS6HFE has experimented and found that it worked very well. So if you want to see what DMR is all about first play with DroidStar and see if you like it before buying equipment.
You can find a wealth of information including “How To’s” on the
https://www.freedmr.uk/index.php/droidstar/ website.
For APRS there is an app called ARPSDroid that is used a lot, but not all amateurs are Android Smart Phone users. Some like Apple products and there is an application called PockePacket. More information can be found at https://koomasi.com/pocketpacket/.
Now all these smart phone applications are great, when we have internet access, but please explore the option of connecting your radio to your phone so that you can be connected via RF if there is no WiFi or data connectivity.
Remember Amateur Radio works when all else fails. By all means use that super powerful smart phone in your pocket. It is a very useful tool. You just need to be able to use it out of the box. In other words, use your smart phone as a terminal with your radio equipment. If you are however like me, who has not mastered using only my thumbs on a miniature keyboard, then you will need to lug a small laptop with you. Not only do you have a bigger keyboard, you also have a bigger screen for the old eyes to see.
We need to think out of the box and explore all the options that are out there and there are many.
Technology is moving forward at a rapid rate and we need to keep abreast with it.
In closing remember that the QRP FM and Barbed Wire event is scheduled for this coming weekend on Saturday 1 March. Please keep an eye on the WhatsApp and Telegram Groups for further information.
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 9 February 2025
Last week I mentioned two of the activities that you can do even as a new amateur with the only radio that you have, a hand held FM QRP radio.
As mentioned last week, the next QRP FM and Barbed Wire event is being planned for 1 March 2025. Johan plans to make this next event even more exciting. There is still some planning that is taking place and as soon as Johan has finalised the plans then it will be announced both on the WhatsApp and Telegram groups. Johan has placed a wealth of information on building your own antennas on the Telegram group and the idea there of is to get you to understand how YAGI antennas are designed, experiment and build your own inexpensive YAGI. Johan hopes to encourage every amateur radio operator to develop their skills so that they are capable of calculating and building a YAGI with what they have on-hand when there is no access to the internet. To join the WhatsApp and Telegram groups you can contact Johan at the following phone number 065 972 3030.
You will have heard of Summits on the Air or SOTA. Here in South African there is a small group of mainly HF enthusiasts that activate various peaks, but this is not limited to HF. The activity QRP FM and Barbed Wire also take you to summits that you can activate. Remember with VHF being primarily line of sight, the higher you can get the further you have a chance of communicating.
You can find more information about Summits on the Air at https://www.sota.org.uk/ and for map data of all the summits world wide go to https://www.sotamaps.org/.
The other activity that you can do with your hand held radio is to receive Slow Scan Television or SSTV images from the ISS. All you need here is a hand held radio, a Yagi antenna and a couple of apps on your smart phone to see when the next pass of the ISS will be and from where to where it will pass overhead and then another app that you will use to decode the SSTV signal. You do not even need a sound card or any connection between the phone and the radio. Just hold the phone close to the radio and the app will start decoding the signal being received.
There will be another opportunity to play with SSTV from the ISS.
The ISS will hold a special 70cm SSTV event leading up to the FRAM2HAM mission later in the year. The SSTV transmission will be on 13 – 17 February. Start and end times will be communicated.
The output will be 437.550 MHz at 5 W. The mode will again be PD120 to allow for practising signal polarisation switching skills and Doppler correction.
This is all in preparation for the FRAM2HAM event that will be using a still unknown radio system on Dragon. The SSTV transmission for the FRAM2HAM will be Robot36.
More information can be found on the website:
https://amsat-uk.org/2025/02/01/iss-fram2ham-sstv-simulation/.
For newbies to SSTV you can find useful SSTV info and links at
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/iss-sstv/
Yet another activity that you can do is talking through a satellite. Amateur satellites have what is called a transponder which is satellite speak for a cross-band repeater that is on-board of the satellite. Again here all you need is a Yagi antenna to give you some gain and a hand held radio. You can use the same satellite prediction app that you used to track the ISS for the other amateur satellites as well. This time you will track the satellite and when it is visible, you can give a call. There are a number of YouTube videos that will show you how the technique that you need to use. Here is one of many to get you started https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eztKfPp2NY4
You can even interface your FM radio to your computer via a simple audio interface that you can build yourself. You may need to figure out how to PTT your radio from the computer. This is a little more challenging, but can be done. Consult the user guide for your radio to understand the various interfaces that you radio has and the pinouts. Once you have done this then you can download and install the fldigi suite of programs from https://www.w1hkj.org/ and then it is play time. Fldigi runs on Apple, Linux and Windows operating systems and is not only used on HF. Here are some resources that will help you to get started.
https://www.arrl.org/files/file/On%20the%20Air/Tutorials/Introduction_to_NBEMS_ARRL.pdf
https://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/464/2m-or-70cm-fm-mobile-radio-for-digital-mode-operation
What about playing with VARA FM. Take a look at https://rosmodem.wordpress.com/
A word of caution. You need to be careful of “analysis paralysis”. Researching too much can lead to confusing information and then you tend to not do anything. Get a basic understanding of what you need to do and then do it. If something does not work first time, then try to figure out what is not working, find a solution and try again. Our founding amateurs did not have the internet. They experimented and tried different things until they got it working and so learnt what works best.
Get yourself a play buddy, a fellow open minded radio amateur, and experiment to your hearts content.
Do not be shy to share your knowledge gained. You can inspire other amateurs to join the fun.
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 5 January 2025
It is with deep regret that we learned that the key of Chris Pretorius, ZS1FC went silent on Friday 3 January. Chris was a keen VHF enthusiast and also contributed to Focus on VHF in the past.
Today we are going to talk about some of the newer digital modes that are being developed.
There is another digital mode in the fldigi suite of software. It is called Scamp which stands for Simple Conversational Amateur Message Protocol. Scamp was developed by Dr Daniel Marks, KW4TI and was originally part of the RFBitbanger emergency transceiver project. More information can be found at the Amateur Radio Daily website at https://daily.hamweekly.com/2025/01/scamp-digital-mode-in-fldigi. This website has further links where you can get more information on these projects.
What is the significance of this? Well it is another weak signal mode that can be used not only on the HF bands, but possibly on the VHF bands as well. It is a messaging application that can be used to send a short message, like JS8Call and APRS. In an emergency situation it is better to send a message via a digital mode than via voice and most times you can get the message across more efficiently. Early in December I read that Jason KM4ACK had successfully sent a file via fldigi over a 2 m FM repeater. While it was slow, the file transfer only took around 2 minutes. This is remarkable, because most folk think that fldigi is a HF mode. This is again out of the box thinking and if you do not experiment and try it then of course you will not know whether it works or not. You learn by doing!
Rattlegram
Another mode that has been around a while and I have also mentioned it here on Focus on VHF is Rattlegram. To recap Rattlegram is an app that runs on your smart phone and you can use it via your hand-held or mobile radio by just holding the phone close to your radio’s speaker in receive mode or close to your microphone when you press the PTT to transmit.
I have tested it in a lab environment here at my QTH and it worked perfectly. John EI7GL has also been doing some testing over the air on various bands and modes and has also found that it works very well. You can read his report on his blogspot at https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/.
Now go and have a look at the progress being made on FreeDV at freedv.org. This project initially started in 2012 as a HF Digital Voice project. It has progressed a lot over the years with more folk getting involved and helping. They are now even sponsored by the ARDC grant. In November 2024 they did some testing on a FM UHF radio link. It has now moved beyond just HF and in December 2024 the they progressed even further. One just needs to read the posts on the https://freedv.org/ website.
What about FreeDATA https://freedata.app/ which is a free, open-source, multi-platform application for sending files and messages, using the codec2 HF modems. One of the project goals that I find exiting is HF Mesh Network for Backend-less Global Communication: Work towards creating an HF mesh network to enable backend-less global communication as a long-term task.
You might say, yes but there is VARA and VARA-AC. Sure, but the VARA modes are propriety, are not free and only run on the Windows platform.
This is the beauty of open source in amateur radio, it is free, mostly multi-platform and if not already multi-platform then it is only a matter of time before someone takes up the challenge.
Mike Bosch ZS2FM
I have been spending a lot, and I mean a lot of time, doing research and I am digging up a lot of information about the experiments and work that Mike Bosch ZS2FM, now also SK since 2018. Mike was truly one the most active experimenters in the SARL. He was not only busy on the VHF and Above bands, but also did a lot of work on the 160 m band.
On 10 February 1963 Mike and Arthur Gale ZS2CK already attempted to making a contact on the 3 cm band, 10 GHz. They did not give up and in November 1963 managed to continue with their experiments and finally established contact over a distance of around 2 km. The first time that a signal was transmitted on the 3 cm amateur band.
What an interesting piece of history.
For those of you who do realise that you have an RF noise problem and have not yet got an HF Noise monitoring system up ad running take a look at the video that I found on YouTube by Kevin Loughin KB9RLW on “Locating an HF noise source in the house without using special equipment” The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVN5-cjgc6o
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and Above 29 December 2024
Here is the second of the two-part item about the weather and the influence of the weather on VHF conditions.
Last week we looked at
(1) The colour of the sky,
(2) Visibility,
(3) Clouds,
(4) Wind.
Now we will look at
(5) OTHER CONDITIONS.
Fog or Mist.
As there are several types of fog or mist it is rather difficult to utilise it for forecasting. There are three main types.
(a) Fog formed by the clashing of two air masses of different temperature. This is a rather rare occurrence and not very widespread, however it gives rise to extremely good conditions.
(b) Fog caused by the cooling of the earth after sunset when the humidity is high. Conditions will be poor.
(c) Fog blown in from the sea towards evening. Conditions will be poor.
Precipitation.
In general, rainy weather brings extremely poor conditions except where rain is caused by the clashing of two “fronts”. The best front is a warm front as the clouds behind it are only light. Under these conditions signals will be strong despite torrential rain and high winds. There will, however, be fading. Even after the front has dissipated and steady rain has set in, conditions will still be fair although fading will become heavier.
The “Duct” Phenomena.
This phenomenon is responsible for S9+50 dB signals at distances of several hundred kilometres. Once the signal has entered the duct there is practically no attenuation, the duct acting like a wave-guide. Normally the ducting is caused by very low temperature inversion which keeps the signal between layer and the ground, although there have been cases where signals have been reflected between two layers in the air. This is a rather rare occurrence though and one that can’t be forecast. However, if the weather has been overcast for some days, a duct is more likely to be formed in the direction in which the wind is blowing.
Other Observances.
A barometer is useful, though not essential. In general, high barometric pressure indicates good conditions, mainly as this coincides with fine weather. A sudden drop in pressure, however, sometimes explains why conditions are bad when other signs point to good conditions, especially if you are working in the direction from which the weather is coming. Thermometers and humidity meters are useful but not essential. On the coast usually, calm warm evenings in the summer produce very good VHF conditions when the humidity is high.
The moon has no known effect on VHF, but usually other conditions are good around full moon, so that this can usually be taken as a time when conditions will be good. A halo around the moon indicates warm moist air aloft, a sign of good conditions.
In general “conditions” only apply on paths that are not line of sight or ground wave, normally excess of 80 kilometres except in the case of very rough and mountainous paths where shorter distances then apply. Anything that cannot normally be worked all the time. Over very long distances especially when working into a different climatic zone, i.e., from coast to the plateau, the weather over the centre of the path has quite a lot to do with conditions. This is especially so when there are mountain ranges.
In some three years of working 50 and 144 MHz “DX” in the Eastern Cape most of the above predictions and signs have been verified at some time or another, and while by no means accurate we can form some idea of what to expect. It would be interesting to see if this applies to other parts of the country.
This is an article written by S. W. v. d. MERWE, ZS2Y who was responsible for a column in the Radio ZS in the 1950’s called “On the Very Highs”
OM vd Merwe says in his opening remarks “While containing information supplied to me by ZS VHF enthusiasts, most of the contents of this article has been gleaned from writings in overseas periodicals by W1HDQ, DL3QA, PAL0G and GW2ADZ. In particular the layout is based on an article that appeared in the Veron publication “Electron”.” This was published the the Radio ZS of September 1954. These principles still exist today.
I see that there are a number of amateurs receiving SSTV images from the ISS and it appears as if there was also a hitch on the ISS which may now have been sorted out.
The SSTV Exepriment on the ISS is still running through to 5 January 2025. Interested listeners can receive SSTV images in PD120 mode from the ISS on 145.800 MHz. There will be 12 different images in the series coming from callsign RS0ISS.
Received images can be uploaded to the ARISS SSTV gallery at https://ariss-usa.org/ARISS_SSTV/.
For newbies to SSTV you can find useful SSTV info and links at
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/iss-sstv/
One last comment, there are so many advances in technology, mostly open source that opens a whole new world for radio amateurs. I spoke to a colleague the other day and I said to him that we need to stop trying to plug holes with the current radios and systems that we have. We need to take a clean white board, forget about the amateur radios that we currently use and look at the new technologies currently being developed and use this to design a whole new communications system that primarily transmits data and that makes use of the device that every person has in his or her hand. It must also be a system that can run totally isolated, be scalable and that can be easily connected to other systems and lastly easily deployable in the event of an emergency. Everything that we need is in front of us, we just need to open our eyes and see it.
When people ask me what do I do, I tell them that I play with technology every day.
May 2025 be a great year for amateur radio and may there be many new toys for the experimenters in us to play with.
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and Above 22 December 2024
Today, I am going to broadcast the first part of a two-part item about the weather and the influence of the weather on VHF conditions.
While it is generally accepted that VHF conditions are influenced by the weather, little if any attempt has been made to try and forecast these conditions from the weather. While it is impossible, even with elaborate meteorological instruments to make an accurate forecast, much can be accomplished by taking note of the following weather signs:
(1) The colour of the sky,
(2) Visibility,
(3) Clouds,
(4) Wind.
(5) Associated conditions such as rain, mist, etc.
(1) THE COLOUR OF THE SKY.
If the sky is cloudless the following rule holds good:
The deeper the blue colour of the sky the more stable are the air currents, which of course means bad conditions.
A light blue sky on the other hand is a sign, as it indicates the possibility of temperature inversions with good conditions.
(2) VISIBILITY.
This observation must be carried out with caution especially by city dwellers whose outlook is often spoilt by smoke and dust. However, if you have a reasonably clear outlook the following applies. Extremely good visibility over distances in excess of 16 km indicates a very stable atmosphere, a condition that is not very favourable for VHF. A slight haze on the other hand is an indication that conditions may be good.
(3) CLOUDS.
The clouds are the best sign of conditions that there are, however due to the difficulty of identifying the large amount and types of cloud formations that are likely, a few examples will be given,
(a) Early morning brings a cloudless sky, and everyone thinks in terms of a fine day. Watch carefully if any clouds form during the Morning. If by about 10 am light cumulus clouds start to form, which grow rapidly, and at the same time it gets windy, conditions will be poor. It is quite likely that it will rain before evening.
(b) The whole sky becomes covered with a light cloud and remains that way. Conditions will be good and may even be very good. The sun shining on the clouds heats up the air above them and creates a temperature inversion.
(c) A cloudy sky in the morning clearing rapidly in the afternoon indicates an improvement in conditions.
(d) A cloudy sky in the afternoon clearing gradually in the evening indicates conditions improving. The normal cooling of the earth sets up a light temperature inversion, with conditions improving the later it gets, even up to sunrise the following morning. This only applies to the interior, in coastal areas conditions will only be fair with rather heavy fading.
(e) Right from sunrise the sky is cloudless. This may mean good or bad conditions, depending on other signs. For long distance work, however, some cumulus cloud is a good sign.
(f) During winter mornings a grey cloud layer gradually spreads over the whole sky. Outside it is dull and cold and there is no wind. The weather remains unaltered throughout the day and the barometer is very high. All conditions point to bad weather and poor VHF conditions. Don’t be misled however, conditions will be excellent and signals will be far above average in strength. As in example (b) a temperature inversion has formed above the cloud.
In general when observing clouds, look at those in the direction you want to work, not those immediately overhead, as they have little or no effect on your signal. Clouds immediately behind you however, may act as a reflector, especially if they are heavy thunder clouds, in which case the station you are working will be very strong to you while your signals may only be average or weak unless your beam is swung around to utilise the cloud reflection.
(4) WIND.
Here again it is difficult to give hard and fast rules and examples will be given.
(a) Early morning, it is calm, during the day there is a moderate wind which dies down again towards evening. Conditions will be poor with fading, improving somewhat during late evening.
(b) It is a calm day with little wind in the late afternoon which goes down after sunset. Conditions should be good.
(c) It is blowing solidly without a break and has been doing so for some days perhaps. In general conditions will be poor with bad fading, although if other conditions point to it VHF conditions may still be fair to good,
In general, wind always causes fading. Signals arriving in a calm area from a windy one will have fading, while those from the calm area are usually steady.
Next week we will continue with the second part looking at other weather conditions and the influence on VHF.
I have found an interesting website that contains a 52 week ham radio challenge for 2025. The challenge starts on 1 January 2025 and has been designed with the following in mind:
The website for the 52 week ham radio challenge - 2025
https://hamchallenge.org/
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and Above 24 November 2024
On Saturday 30 November there will be another QRP FM & Barbed Wire activity. I spoke to Johan ZS6DC and Ronel ZS6RTS earlier in the week and they are planning to activate Bakenkop near Balfour along with Jaco ZS6ADT. They plan to be on the air by 10:00 local time.
There are some of the folk who participated in September who will make it this time and Johan requested that anyone interested in participating should contact him and register your interest and where you intend to participate from.
You can contact Johan on phone number 065 972 3030.
You can find more information about Summits on the Air at https://www.sota.org.uk/ and for map data of all the summits world wide go to https://www.sotamaps.org/.
I’m hoping to also get out to GP-008, which is a high site fairly close to me on the Magaliesberg with my handheld and YAGI.
I found an interesting project on the nuclearrambo.com website with the title “Designing and testing a low-noise amplifier”.
This LNA was designed specifically for reception of Weather Satellites on a SDR receiver. The bandpass filter width is from 130 – 160 MHz so it will also work for the 2 m band. This filter will help eliminate strong out of band signals that causes desensitisation and images on a SDR receiver. The link to the website will be on the text version placed on the SARL website.
Last week I promised a blow by blow account of the BACAR launch, but alas things did not go according to plan.
40 km outside of Secunda on the N17, my trusty go anywhere mobile go-kit’s temperature soared and I need to pull over and switch off the engine as quick as possible. While trying to cool down the motor and refilling the lost water, I noticed water leaking from the bottom rear of the engine right where the bell housing of the gearbox disappears under the firewall. Well that put and end to the weekend’s plans and then it turned into how to get the vehicle back to Pretoria. No problems, arranged a roll-on recovery vehicle and then waited, and waited, and waited. To cut a long story short we eventually arrived back home at 23:00 on Friday night. Analysis of the Land Cruiser’s manual and some online searches indicated to me where and which pipe burst and alas it is a job for a workshop and not just quick fix at home. I also do not currently have the time to battle with a job like this that may entail having to drop the gearbox to replace the pipes.
So you may say what has this to do with amateur radio? Well being a HAMNET member and not having privacy issues about people being able to see where I am, my APRS worked flawlessly and everyone interested could see exactly when we were and could monitor not only our trip up until the point of failure, but also our trip home on the recovery vehicle. If something had happened to us that we could not be able to communicate at least they could see where we are. We use APRS extensively in HAMNET and it is a very useful tool that helps to show the control station or JOCC or who ever exactly where our resources are.
I have even used APRS to assist Anette, ZR6D who was in Cape Town at the time and phoned me to say that she thinks she is lost. Looking at aprs.fi, I could see exactly where she was and could navigate her out of the scenario she was in because I had a bird’s eye view of where she was driving and could tell her what to do at the next intersection. This is the power of the tool. Not only can APRS be used for position reporting, it can also be used to send short text messages to another APRS stations or via Winlink to an email address or to WhatsApp.
So why did we only get home at 23:00? Well the reputable company providing recovery services and their service providers commercial systems did not work as efficiently as APRS. Their system that was supposed to show me where the recovery vehicle was did not update. The driver of the recovery vehicle did not know the area even though he lived in the area, nor did he have data on his phone to receive the pin drop that I sent him and I eventually had to tell him to drive on the N17 until he saw my lights flashing the message “I’m here”.
APRS has been around for ages and I am surprised that there are not more amateurs making use of APRS.
Thank you to our HAMNET members who were aware of our predicament and followed us home, albeit on aprs.fi.
My Saturday was spent trying to follow the progress of the balloons and seeing if I could access some of the transponders. No success with the transponders, but I could follow the path of the balloon and the recovery process in great detail from the armchair in my shack thanks for APRS.
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 17 November 2024
This week, I want to take a look at TEP with reference to a post on the website of John EI7GL, https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ about the TEP contacts between Garry, ZD7GWM, on St Helena Island and Spain and Portugal who are directly perpendicular and equidistant from the Geomagnetic Equator.
John highlights the following which is important:
In the month of October there were 22 out of 31 days where TEP contacts were reported. So it is fairly consistent as long as there are operators trying to make contact on both sides. There were some days when Geomagnetic disturbances prevented TEP from taking place.
Initial contacts were made with FT4 before moving on to a more suitable mode for TEP propagation like Q65B The physical path seems to be pretty narrow and also has a specific distance.
The times are also within the typical times for evening TEP between 19:00 and 22:00 UTC.
The equipment used by Garry is modest, 50 W power out and into a vertical Diamond X700H antenna.
Thinking aloud and looking at the TEP conditions between the South Indian Ocean Islands and the Middle East and then between Namibia and Southern Europe, we also see some similarities.
The similarities are that all of the contacts were evening TEP with the time windows shifting as the grey line was shifting.
All were perpendicular across the Geomagnetic Equator. All were equidistant from the Geomagnetic Equator and in Nambia, V51WW, the only active station is also a modest station. In the East the stations were using a lot more power, but there are fewer stations listening for them.
Looking at some of the differences between the three TEP paths that were explored are that the TEP path to the East was largely over the Indian Ocean. The central path was over the land mass of Africa and the Western path was for a large part over the Bulge of Africa.
The other difference was that of the three paths, two were using horizontal YAGI antennas and the third was a vertical co-linear antenna with possibly similar gain to the YAGI antennas.
What stands out for me is the fact that in all three cases, there were amateurs willing to experiment and be on the air.
The number of contacts were proportional to the number of operators participating and the length of time that they were on the air and most importantly the number of amateurs located in the sweet spots perpendicularly equidistant across the Geomagnetic Equator.
Everything else like the size of the station i.e. power output, type and orientation of the antenna and whether the contacts were made over land or sea or a combination there of does not seem to matter. Not even the mode used.
Just to mention something on the modes.
There has been a lot of experimenting happening and over time certain modes have been derived that better suit the type of propagation. Every propagation mode has some unique characteristics and over time it has been determined that different variations of the tones and the spacing of the tones, which also determines the bandwidth that is being used, are better for certain modes and frequencies.
Likewise once the Karoo beacon goes live we will have a combination of antennas on the beacon and the beacon will initially be using the PI4 mode, but over time we may discover that a different mode is more suited to the various modes of propagation over the interior of South Africa. Here in also lies the reason for the choice of using the RFzero for the beacon exciter. The RFzero can be reconfigured remotely on the fly to different modes. We are planning to continue with the Beacon project again in June 2025 after the Centenary celebrations of the SARL. Unfortunately there are limited resources on the project and they do not only put beacons on the air. They are also active and contribute in other aspects of the hobby.
To end this week here is a really feel good story of a teenager from Portland in the state of Oregon in the US who at the age of 8 asked his dad what it would take to talk with an astronaut. Neither of them had the answer, so they set out to find one. You can read all about Zeke Wheeler who is now 13 and his quest, supported by his father.
Be sure to watch the video as well.
https://www.kgw.com/article/tech/nasa-astronaut-iss-portland-teen-ham-radio/283-bc6ebdef-246b-4c16-b62c-b575179e7f10
I am aware of a youngster from Bloemfontein Rulhof, ZS4RM, whom I met at the AGM in Cape Town earlier this year who is also supported by his father and he is going places, there is no doubt about that.
Over the last couple of months, I have become more and more aware of youngsters who are really keen to take up the hobby and we really should go out of our way to encourage them and to get them started in this fantastic technical past time. One of their greatest challenges is how to get started. This is where all our clubs need to step up and be ready to guide these youngsters into the hobby. These are not only the hams of tomorrow, but they may very well also be our future scientists. Which clubs are able to take young budding amateurs into their ranks and guide them towards obtaining their Amateur Radio Operator Certificates? A lot of the youngsters are keen to take on the Class A licence as well. Write to us at VHF News and let me know which clubs can step in and assist so that I know where to send the young folk when they make enquiries.
Next week, I will be giving first hand feedback on the BACAR 12 event that took place in Secunda this past Saturday. HAMNET members will again be responsible for retrieving the three balloons that need to be recovered and one will not have a GPS attached to it, only a transmitter sending out a homing signal, but that will be a story for next week.
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 27 October 2024
I received an email from Naz ZS1NAZ about communications with St Helena that happened late on Friday evening.
Naz says “Last night on 25 October 2024 at around 6 p.m. I beamed grid JF96GC towards St Helena Island to listen to Garry’s ZD7GWM beacon on 144.475 MHz CW, AND THERE IT WAS. This was Déjà vu all over again. I gave a few calls on 144.300 MHz USB as we had a net running and informed the VHF group to listen out for Garry and also call. Nothing heard and Garry ZD7GWM who is part of this group sent word that he is out for the evening. Despair because it would have been nice to hear others in Cape Town South Africa work Garry.
Kobus ZS3JPY also reported that he heard the beacon in Kleinzee about 600 km from Cape Town.
The night continued and most left the group but just after midnight Garry’s voice broke the silence of 144.300 MHz SSB and Déjà vu we chatted for 2 hours and hoping others would re-join and work him.
Ean, ZS1PR and Eldred ZS1DJ reported that they faintly heard the beacon but most are using collinear verticals.”
I had a long chat to Naz on Saturday and I asked about the height and elevation of the Yagi antenna and how that affects getting into the duct. Here is Naz’s reply and he provides a lot of valuable information that all VHF enthusiasts should take note of.
Finally Naz says “Never give up guys”
Naz, thanks for your report and I totally agree with you, never give up. You never know when conditions will be just right for that amazing contact.
How about telling us about that exciting long distance contact that you have made on the VHF and above bands or about that project that you are working on in the VHF and above bands? Send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.Focus on VHF and Above 21 July 2024
On Saturday I had the privilege to attend an AMSAT SA meeting at the National Amateur Radio Centre in Johannesburg. The meeting as arranged to coincide with the visit of Burns Fisher WB1FJ who has been visiting in the country with a choir group that he is a member of and he took some time out before returning home to give a presentation on some of the developments taking place within AMSAT North America with their cube satellite projects.
Burn Fisher was presented with a certificate of appreciation for his support to the AMSATSA Space symposiums.
It was a very interesting and interactive presentation and an opportunity to get some first hand information from a person who has been very involved with AMSAT NA and has written most of the software that is controlling the amateur satellites that are presently in the air.
After a lunch break Anton ZR6AIC gave an update on the redesigned power module for AfriCube and the process that was used to redesign the power module. Also a very interesting presentation and I was absolutely fascinated by all the work and research that was gone into the design of the power module to ensure that it is robust enough for space flight and can provide for the power requirements of the satellite. There were so many questions and criteria that needed to be looked at and he has done a truly remarkable job at redesigning the power module.
Thank you Burns for the fascinating overview of the work that is taking place within AMSAT NA to get more amateur satellites into the air and well done Anton with all the work that you have put in so far with AfriCube.
It was also great to see a number of the AMSAT SA stalwarts again for the first time face to face in a number of years. I truly enjoyed the outing.
While there are not many amateur satellites that are orbiting at the moment, the International Space Station is still very much active and on the air with both a FM repeater and an APRS Digipeater that is active.The FM repeater frequencies on the ISS is uplink 145.900 MHz with a 67 Hz tone and the downlink frequency is 437.800 MHz.
The APRS Digipeater is on 145.825 MHz.Burns noted that occasionally instead of a repeater you will find a live astronaut on the repeater frequency.
So what do you need to be able to make contact with a satellite or the ISS?
You can go to the AMSAT website and look at the status of the satellites as well as recent reports of which satellites have been heard. On this same website you can also find more information about the particular satellite that you are interested in. For example, whether the satellite requires any CTCSS tones that need to be used in order to activate the transponder and to talk through the satellite.
First you need to find out which satellites will be passing over your location and when. There are free software programs like Gpredict which you can install on your computer and once set up you will be able to select which satellites you want predictions for. It will be preferable if you have an internet connection over which you can download the updates of the Keplerian Elements. Alternatively you can enter your location on the AMSAT website and get a prediction of when the satellite you are interested in will be overhead.
Now that you know when the satellite that you want to use will be passing overhead, you can start getting ready to see if you can receive it. You can make a successful satellite contact using a dual band hand-held radio with an antenna other than the rubber duck antenna normally supplied with the radio. A telescopic whip antenna is better to use. The AMSAT SA YAGI is an ideal antenna to use and you can more information about the antenna at https://amsatsa.org.za. This antenna was specially designed for satellite use.
It would be useful if you are familiar with you radio and know how to program split frequencies into your radio’s memory.
The satellites transmit with low power, and typically in the region of 250 mW. You therefore need to disable the squelch on your radio to be able to hear these weak, but readable signals.
Next you need to set up your radio to be able to tune for the Doppler effect.
You need to start listening to the satellite 10 kHz above the centre frequency. This will allow you to hear the satellite sooner and clearer. As the satellite passes overhead you will hear that the downlink signal will start to get scratchy and then you need to tune down in 5 kHz steps to improve your reception. You need to keep tuning down in frequency as the satellite passes ending up around 10 kHz below the centre frequency at the end of the pass.
If you are using a whip antenna, then you must not hold your antenna upright. If you are facing the direction in which the satellite will appear then you will get better results if you tilt your radio and antenna down towards the ground so that your antenna is more or less perpendicular to the satellite. Should you have your back to the approaching satellite then your antenna needs to be tilted upwards at about 45 degrees, again so that your antenna is perpendicular to the approaching satellite.
If you are using an Yagi antenna, then you will need to point it at the approaching satellite and track the satellite as it passes overhead to maintain a good received signal.
At this stage it would be a good idea to first practise tracking and tuning for the Doppler effect before attempting to transmit. You should also familiarise yourself with the quick voice procedures used when making contacts via the satellites. Satellite passes only last 7 - 15 minutes so there is no time for rag chewing.
You can also program successive memory channels on your radio with the required frequencies and the changing receive frequencies to account for the Doppler effect. This will make it simpler to tune your radio. You now just need to keep pressing the memory up or down button to keep you radio tuned to the satellites changing frequency.
Right, now you have everything set-up and you have practised tracking the satellite and tuning for the Doppler effect and you are ready to make your first contact.
Remember, if you cannot hear the satellite, then do not transmit. When you hear the satellite and there is a QSO in progress wait for a break and then announce your call sign and grid locator using the international phonetic alphabet.
On FM satellites it is not necessary to call CQ. You exchange call signs and grid locators when there are many stations on a pass. If there are few stations trying to work the satellite, then you can exchange more information like name, city and province.
Hope that this will help you make an exciting contact on a satellite or the ISS.
There are also times when the ISS transmits SSTV or Slow Scan TV images that can also be exciting to receive. This however needs a little more work and you need to connect your radio to a computer as well, but more about this in a later programme.
Yesterday evening, Dick ZS6BUN announced on the 46 Long Distance WhatsApp group that he would be on 70 cm this morning from about 07:30. There were at least two replies from the group who would be in the air as well. I would be interested to know how it went and whether any contacts were made.I am not aware of any other VHF and above activity.
How about you contributing to the program by telling us about the exciting long distance contact on the VHF and above bands or are you working on a project on the VHF and above bands? Tell us about it at VHF News by sending me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 23 June 2024
I had a look at the https://spaceweather.com/ and saw the following at the top of the page:
“This is an AI Free Zone! Text created by Large Language Models is spreading rapidly across the Internet. It's well-written, artificial, frequently inaccurate. If you find a mistake on Spaceweather.com, rest assured it was made by a real human being.”
It is bad enough trying to filter out the garbage returned by search engines on the internet, but now we need to filter out the garbage generated by robots as well. It is bad when websites now tell you that they are not driven by AI or Artificial Intelligence.
I am finding that people are now implementing AI technology everywhere and just like we experience on Social Media where people just forward anything that they receive without verifying the facts or even fixing the blatant errors. Virtual meetings are being recorded and AI being used to transcode the meeting and immediately after the meeting a transcode of the meeting is distributed.
An example. On Thursday I attended the City of Tshwane Disaster Risk Management Advisory Forum. Less than 20 minutes later the AI transcoded transcript that we received said “ The City of Toronto Musical Disaster Management Advisory Forum met to discuss updates and action plans”
But, that is not all, the organisation that provides the “free” transcript also tries to hook you to pay good money for a lousy service and wants to tell you how to run your meeting and at no extra charge you get spammed by other AI engines also on the band wagon trying to sell you their transcription services all just because you volunteer to help make a difference and attended a virtual meeting.
I myself have used AI to generate a transcript of a recording that we have in the SARL 100 Project archives, but I do not just accept that the transcript is correct and send it off. I review the transcript while listening to the recording to fix any mistakes that the AI engine has made and I do not need to pay to use the AI engine either. I must also say that the AI engine that I used was very accurate in the transcription that was produced.
AI is very useful and can up your productivity tremendously and there is so much that we can do with AI, but we still need to apply our minds and we definitely need to learn to control this beast.
There is one social media platform that is not driven by AI yet, and may it never be. It however does sometimes make use of the internet, but the internet is not necessary. In fact it works just as well with or without the internet. It is also spam free and there is no commercial advertising either. What is it?
Looking through the Loggers Bark which is the club magazine of the W7DK Radio Club of Tacoma they have what is called an Elmer Board which is a list of members skills or areas of interest along with corresponding names of club members who are willing to be Elmers and guide the new ham.
This is something that is seriously lacking in the hobby here in SA. I know that there is a wealth of knowledge and experience amongst us, but there are so few of us willing to spend the time helping the new guys & girls to get going.
This is the first time that I have seen this magazine. You can find it at https://static.qrz.com/w7dk/June2024-QRZ.pdf
There is still very little activity on the VHF and above bands other than the the repeaters carrying the bulletins, the morning porky net, the odd call that mostly goes unanswered and don’t forget the PTT and repeater testers. In fact there seems to be little activity in general within the hobby. Why?
Listen to Onno VK6FLAB
Foundations_of_Amateur_Radio_Experimentation_is_about_Failure.mp3
So what is the social media platform that is not driven by AI yet?
It is called Amateur Radio, so let’s play radio, experiment and have fun.
Have you made an exciting long distance contact on the VHF and above bands or are you working on a project on the VHF and above bands? Tell us about it at VHF News by sending me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.
Focus on VHF and Above 16 June 2024
It has been a little dry as far as VHF and above activity goes.
Beacon update
An update regarding the beacon project, this week Danie ZR6AGB and myself took a trip to Alberton to collect the antennas that were built by Deon ZS6RFI from RF Industries. We specifically chose these antennas due to their robustness which is what we need at an exposed site in the Karoo. At this stage all the RF related hardware has been purchased and is ready for assembly and testing. Next up is the specification of the solar power system and then all the security related items.
Hamnet
Apart from discussing the problem with my Land Cruiser that I use as my mobile/field station, Danie and I also discussed some HAMNET related topics, one of which is a suitable frequency for emergency use that will allow reasonably good simplex coverage across the province. I’m currently doing some coverage plots for both 10 m and 6 m both from my QTH which is behind the lump of rock called the Magaliesburg and from a position on top of the Magaliesburg where one could place a temporary cross band repeater if required. Danie ZR6AGB’s QTH is of course much more suitably positioned than mine, being fairly high up on the Southern slope of the Magaliesburg and also checks the boxes relating to security and power.
The discussion then turned to what antennas will be used and I immediately responded that all antennas for emergency use needs to be omnidirectional and vertically orientated.
Of course I chuckled to myself as I immediately thought about the age old argument relating to which is better, vertical or horizontal.
Well in this case vertical needs to be used as most stations involved will either be mobile or some form of a field station and vertical antennas check both boxes, omnidirectional and practical.MRK also has a 6 m repeater on the Magaliesburg above the quarry next to the N1 and HAMNET also has a 10 m repeater situated on the East Rand. Both these repeaters could be very useful in an emergency situation and give by far the best overall coverage if not across the whole province, then a very large part of it. I have confirmation that the 10 m repeater is out of service at the moment with a blown power amplifier. I need to check whether the 6 m repeater is still operational.
PLB recovery
Two thirds of the way through writing this program, HAMNET Gauteng received a call to search for and retrieve a PLB going off in the Centurion area. Low and behold after checking the locations that were sent it was seen that the device was transmitting from the same informal settlement where we previously recovered a PLB. Resources were activated and the device was retrieved reasonable easily as it was in the open and by luck it was spotted in an open air market in the settlement. This time the antenna was not deployed which resulted in a greatly attenuated signal which meant that we needed to be very much closer to the location of the unit before we could hear the homing signal.
Winlink
In closing for all those Winlink enthusiasts and one of the modes that every HAMNET member should be proficient at using. There is an interesting game that is played by radio amateurs via Winlink that combines fun and a great way to test your digital emergency communication equipment without additional assistance.
Listen to Andy Morrison K9AWM from Amateur Radio
Newsline.Amateur_Radio_Newsline_20240524_HAMWord.mp3
The link that Andy referred to is https://hambooks.org/hamword/
Get your Winlink station operational and test playing Hamword.
Go to the website to get more information.
Have you made an exciting long distance contact on the VHF and above bands or are you working on a project on the VHF and above bands? Tell us about it at VHF News by sending me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.
Remember by sharing your activities with us at VHF News allows us to tell the rest of the amateur community about your achievements and the more we promote the activity on the VHF and above bands the better chance we have of encouraging more amateurs to explore the world above 30 MHz.
Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.