The News l etter of the Ma shona land Br anch of t he Zimbabwe Amateur g~~!~- ~~~ ! ~~~ Pr esently incorporating: 1 The Newsletter of the M atabeleland Branch anti ~~~ - g~~~9~~ ~!~~~- ~~EE!~~~ ~!-~~~~~ ~ March , 1993 on ••••.••• Volume 27 - No. 4 . Editor Molly Henderson (Z21JE) All copy, information and/or quer ies should be sent to "QUA ", P.O. Box 2377, Har ar e • . C 0 N TEN T S . Page 2- Progr am f~ Mash o na l and Br. QUB Supplement . Info . on monthly meetings Page 13 - Bu l letins June Available to Members July&August QSL Bureau Soci al Function All As ian DX Contest Morse Classes. Mo cambique Ca llsigns. Page 3 - Mash.Br. Meeting Reports UK Callsign r eview January Page 14 - Swazi Hams Co nta ct SpPcemen March Ne ws Snippets: April \ J ARL - 8J9SUN Page 4 - contd. Page 15 - J AS - lb - ~irt h d a y May Ha ms in China Page 5 - Repor ter 1}4 Million J ' s Youth on the Air Uganda on str eam Erratum ZL 1 s j oin CEPT Mutare JOTA 1992 Gift from ARRL Page 6 - SAREX Report Page 16 ' ~ 1992/3 President's Report . A Few Smiles . Page 17 - contd. Page 7 - 1992 RAE (Novi ce)Exam Paper Page 18 - contd. Pag e 8 - contd'. 1993/4 Office Bearers 1992 RAE (Full ) Exam Paper Date 1994 AGM Trophy Awar ds Page 9 - contd. Page 19 - contd·. Page 10 - contd. O' Seas News - Eur opean DX Mash .Br .Meeting Re port Co ntest . October. RA DC O~ on ~S L's MATABELELAND BRANCH NEWS LETTl<' R. Page 20 - FINIS. Page 11 - Chairman ' s Re port .1992/3. Page 12 - contd. LIBRARY LIST - Page 3 t o attack May up- date on above to list s ent last issue Dave Drummond ( Z21AR ) SUBS CRIPTION AC COU NTS enclosed. ' QUA ~ Ha ~ch , 1993 on • ••.•••• • • Pregr amme for Mashonaland Branch . .. -~--~·---~ Inf o rmat~on· on t he Mon~hly"Mee t 1ngs. --.---. · -~---'"'--- The Brandi.. Meeti;:lgs ar~ alw·a:ys · held on the second Tuesday in the mo nth in the .Aud.Horium ... o1.~ the Harare City Museum and- tiie-Hme-is- 7: 45- for- 8- p: rn. Should ther~ ~e · any change you will te notified . Car Park. An attendant i s always on duty in the car park to guard t he Member5·i'-vehicles. Friends/Visitors n To encourage further interest in the hobby, members are asked--to-try-and bring a f riend or a nyone showing an interest in amateur radio, with them to the mee tings ~ Before the mee t ing a \Committee Member :Ls usually in attendance to help any member-who-may-have a pr)blem associ ated with t he hobby . He will be very happy to try and help. you sol ve yours! •' *. * * * * • • *. *' •• * *. * *. * • * *. Fo:r:_:t'hc_omin~ Meetine;.~·- June Meeting - Tue~day . 8~~~ PRAC TI CAL USE OF PHOTOVOLTA ICS Speakers E.· Man~6~g~ & A Radley of WRS • ••••••••••• July Meetin~~ues~~J.-~~~~ METE ORO LOGY ~ - ·-----··--- - Speaker- Member of the University Staff. ••••• ** ***** • August Meeti ~.~_:_Tu.e:~~-~. l:-_0.!_1: RAD I O COMJvlUNICATI ON SYSTEI-15 I N ZIMBABWE, --- - ---- -·· .,. _ -- ··-- ----------------------- Speaker -· We hope this wil l be presented by a Membe r of the PTC staff . ) ) ) ·-- ·- ( ( ( )))- --((( NOTE _: the ab.Jve meetings ::... nvoh·e guest speakers a nd therefore PLEASE make an effort t~ atte nd . We a r e sure you will l earn quite a lot from these inter.esting topics ~ •••••••••• ••••••••• ••••••• Social Function: The Branch Committee are looking for itleas r egarding further social get­ toge thers. This ·would cove r venue, the type of social e tc . Some comments pl €ase to Secretary Eric Ch rister (Z21FO) at Tel. 44995 (home) or maybe easier at work 704 ~6 1 Ext 444: Perhaps a little discussion wi th committee members during a· meeting tea break would be useful. Morse Classes . It is ~ · elieved there are a number of possible ca ndidates for Horse Classes . Anyone who may be interested ca n you let either Dave Robe rt ~on (Z21HY) kqow at the University - .Te l . 303211 Ext 1466 or Eric Christe r at 44995 or 704461 Ext 444 7 or let one of the committee membe rs know at the next monthly mee tingo .QUA., . Mprch, 1993 on • •. •.• •• . • •. • , • MASHONALAND------------ BRANCH------ -------MEETING--- REPORTS-------. ' JANUARY. The first monthly meeting of 1993, on 12th January~ was very inter esting with · guest speaker Dr. Podmor e from the university talking to us on · Astronomy~ About 25 members and guests listened to his talk entitled "Journey into Space" which was illustrated with slides. Unfortunately he had a problem with his proje ctor so we did not see tHe whole show which was perhaps for tunate as we could have been there until midnight listening a nd being fascinated by the whole presentation. Dr. Podmore wil l come back to us and continue with the talk after the AGM in April a nd he will no doubt summarise what he had already talked about for the benefi t of those who missed the \January show . He talked about the planets, comets, galaxies, the fact that the planets of our sun (or star ) are more or less i n the same plane, what we know is that the Univer se is over 15 000 million light years across and so ~ on! The various groups of stars were described - how they got their names , for instance s~orpio, Orion, artd then more recently Man ' s conquest of space was highlighted with some excellent slides of man on the moon (1969)~ the technology behind it all - the Apollo programme , photographs of Mars and other planets . Radio Astronomy was touched upon with mention that an American Radio Amateur about 1930 ~as the f i rst to plot a noise picture of the sky which is different to what would be produce d optically. We look for war d to the April continuation. •••••••••• ••••••••••• MARCH . At our March meeting, Mike Be r ger (Z21HQ) gave a talk illustrated with slides 6n the techniques of image processing of the signals r eceived from satell ites such as Landsat~ Mike, who wi~l shortly be returning to Germany after a contract in this country with the Nati onal Remote Sensing Facility, also has the callsiga DF2RQ . It was. fascinating to see the detail which can be obtained from satellites and the way a computer can be used to enhance the feature , type of vege­ tation, b uildings etc. which you want to analyse. There were satellite images of the Harare area and it was possible to pick out features such as the Borr owdale race course , Lake Chivero , the built up areas and main thoroughfares . I n particular one area near Harare was highlighted and ver y obvious as an ove r grazed area of land. ~1 ik e pointe<:: out +ha t the i n~ o rm at:.o:- w h~.cb can become a vailable is a tool for deci~ion makers whether government or pri vRte concern ~ . ~y monitoring par t i cul'ar areas, erosion patter ns can be examined a nd even the progress of a bush fire can be determined as well as a r eas being farmed and cr op coRdition. An excellent pr esentation Mike . ............. • •••••••••• APRIL. The Mashonaland Br anch Annual General Mee ting was held on the 20~h Apr il at the Queen Vi ctoria Museum and was not particularly well att ended. This is probably normal for AGMs! · After the AGM, Dr. Podmore from the University, continued with his fascin­ ati :nt: talk on c.str cnomy wb:..ch had be;;n interrupt ed ir. ,January due to the failure of the slide projector he was using. I I .~Y~ , March , 1993 on • •. ..... As far as the AGM was conce rned , there· was n ot hing c ontraversi al b r ought up. The ChairmaqRowa r d Keame r stood down having served f or four years a nd Bria n Va ugha n a l so r p f used nomina tion. New Memb e r s D~ve Robertson ((Z21 HY) a nd Ed Wright , a lis t e n er membe r,joine d pr evi ou s c ommi t t ee mem b e rs Ben Ri dge (Z21BE) s Mar k Car shalt on (Z21 HA) a nd Eric Christer (Z21 FO) . Eric Christer continues t o b e Secretary/Tr easure r, b ut no de c i s i on could b e made r egar ding a Chairman • (A t the f irst Committee Meeting a fte r the AGM , Be n Ridge (p21BE) agr eed t o ser ve as Cha i r man ) . Tae Chai rman ' .s Re port for the y ear 1992/ 93 commented t hat in gen er a l there s eeme d a certa in a mount of apathy i n the Br a n c h with t he commi t t ee trying t o g uess membe r s ' needs , esp e cially with r e spect t o subje cts for mo n thly t a l k~e Pe r haps YOU could mak e s ome s uggesti ons t o h e lp, e i t he r b y intro­ duc ing t he commi t t ee t o p os s ible speaker s or l e tting u s k n ow wha t you would l ik€ ~ Ther e had been a bit mor e t han nor mal public ity during t he year a nd it was no t ed that some inte r est had been gen er ate d at some high schools .