Amateur Logic TV

Peter Berrett VK3PB is a member of the Eastern & Mountain District Radio Club, a member of the Wireless Institute of Australia and is a keen ATV enthusiast famous for his electronic Fish Bowl on Melbourne’s VK3RTV repeater.

This month Peter joins the team at Amateur Logic TV as their Australian news presenter and Australian news reporter. Amateur Logic TV is a Television program made by Radio Amateurs for Radio Amateurs.

It is an IPTV program, which in simple terms means you download it from the internet and watch it on your PC.

Amateur Radio TV

Summits On The Air In South Africa

SOTA for short - is an international Amateur Radio awards program that was launched in March 2002. SOTA issues certificates to amateurs who contact or activate a certain number of mountain summits. It is especially suited to South Africa since although we have relatively few islands we do have plenty of mountains, as well as excellent hiking weather throughout the year.

SOTA encourages portable operations by summit activators. Operations from vehicles are not permitted, and although a vehicle may be used to get to the mountain the method of final access to the summit must be "person powered" (e.g. hiking, mountain bike etc.) and all equipment must be carried to the site by the activator team. QRP operations are the rule, so this is a wonderful opportunity for all you homebrew and QRP enthusiasts to show off your portable equipment and operating prowess.

However since all bands and modes are permissible, you don't require a portable HF rig to activate a summit - a VHF HT is quite sufficient. There are a number of certificates for activators, culminating in the ultimate accolade - the "Mountain Goat" plaque.

For those of us who don't relish the prospect of lugging portable equipment to a windswept mountain summit there is always the challenge of various "chaser" certificates, culminating in the "Shack Sloth" plaque, which can be earned from the comfort of your favourite armchair by contacting summits. QSL cards are not required so you can apply for certificates and plaques as soon as you have earned the required number of points.

South African Hams on Summits

What is Amateur Radio?

Allen Pitts, W1AGP.

A retired military officer in North Carolina makes friends over the radio with a ham in Lithuania. An Ohio teenager uses her computer to upload a chess move to an orbiting space satellite, where it's retrieved by a fellow chess enthusiast in Japan.

An aircraft engineer in Florida participating in a "DX contest" swaps call signs with hams in 100 countries during a single weekend. In California, volunteers save lives as part of their involvement in an emergency communications net. And at the scene of a traffic accident on a Chicago freeway, a ham calls for help by using a pocket-sized hand-held radio.

This unique mix of fun, public service and convenience is the distinguishing characteristic of Amateur Radio. Although hams get involved in the hobby for many reasons, they all have in common a basic knowledge of radio technology, regulations and operating principles, demonstrated by passing an examination for a license to operate on radio frequencies known as the "Amateur Bands."

More about Amateur Radio and it's History

Radio Hams Work All Continents

In recognition of international two-way amateur radio communication, the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) issues Worked-All-Continents certificates to amateur radio stations of the world.

Qualification for the WAC award is based on an examination by the International Secretariat, or a member-society, of the IARU of QSL cards that the applicant has received from other amateur stations in each of the six continental areas of the world. All contacts must be made from the same country or separate territory within the same continental area of the world.
All QSL cards (no photocopies) must show the mode and/or band for any endorsement applied for.

Contacts made on 10/18/24 MHz or via satellites are void for the 5-band certificate and 6-band endorsement. All contacts for the QRP endorsement must be made on or after January 1, 1985 while running a maximum power of 5 watts output or 10 watts input.

Amateur Radio around the World