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ZS3 Sprint
Sunday afternoon; saw Pete ZS3PBM and Vic ZS3VIC partake in the ZS3 Sprint. Operating as ZS3OBS, the club Call-Sign. The organizers of the competition allocated a 5 point status to our club (and 3 other Northern Cape Clubs) which made us 5 x more valuable than any other station. This is a one hour contest run to promote contacts with amateurs in Region 3 - Northern Cape.
Other club members were unable to join us as conversions at SALT kept them occupied until after the contest closed.
With Pete doing the logging and Vic doing the talking we managed 30 contacts in the allotted hour. As a 1st timer to contests,Pete really took to it like a duck to water. The 1st 10 minutes saw us log 16 contacts which was quite a baptism of fire.
After the even we were Joined by Chris ZS3CCC and Keith ZS3KR for the traditional Braai.
Below are our Log Sheets
SABEXSABEX Sutherland Amateur Balloon Experiment After a long delay the Balloon Experiment is once again on the boil. It is the intention to launch a balloon/s, to attempt an altitude of between 80 and 100 000 ft. The payload will consist of
We would like to capture images of the earths curvature with the dark space as back ground. These images will be transmitted to ground control over APRS and or Telemetry. It is our intention to have recovery teams to recover the payload after it has parachuted back to earth. this will be tracked on APRS and telemetry with locations provided by the on board integrated GPS. No launch date has yet been set as the design testing and integration will now commence. The Project Leader is Paul Rabe ZS3PR. Paul is busy drawing up a schematic of the payload, from where it will be devolved to "Mission Specialists" We are very fortunate to have Hitesh Gajjar on board, as his knowledge of control systems is vast. Hitesh has also donated the control system and will configure it to operate the various subsystems. To appease the powers we are considering a launch at Verneukpan, between the Towns of Brandvlei and Kenhardt Northern Cape,approximately 300 Km north of Sutherland. This will be a week-end effort with the whole team camping on the Salt Flats, and setting up Ground Control in the middle of nowhere. All very exciting. More as it becomes available. Green TowersFor those of you who would like to go GREEN. Build your towers from bamboo
http://www.guaduabamboo.com/support-files/how_to_make_bamboo_joints.pdf |
Radios being put to good use...This past weekend Ysterplaat Air Force Base in Cape Town hosted the Wings & Wheels airshow. Included in the programme was some exceeedingly impressive radio control flying. The sequence below shows the star performer in action...
The spectators were brought closer to the action by the control tower tuning in to & broadcasting pilot comms during the spectacular aerobatic displays by the likes of the Silver Falcons.
The pilot of the Gripen also provided live commentary while putting this magnificent craft through its paces...
Mobile InspirationThis vehicle was spotted at a wine estate just outside Cape Town a couple of weeks ago... Know some members of the club will be Quite envious - so come on guys, let's top that! The porcupine look is IN this season :)
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