MARK SHUTTLEWORTH TO TALK TO YOUNG PEOPLE VIA AMATEUR RADIO
The South African Radio League (SARL)is the national body for Amateur Radio in South Africa. The Youth for Amateur Radio programme is aimed at giving young people the experience of using radio to communicate and attract their interest in pursuing a career in electronics and communication.
“It is our answer to the President’s call to promote ICT (Information and Communication Technology) as a driver for economic and industrial growth and development”, SARL President Graham Hartlett said. “ We are excited by the support Mark Shuttleworth is giving us to help attract youth into our development programme.”
Amateur Radio is a technical hobby that requires study of radio and electronics to qualify for a licence. “It is the ideal stepping stone for young people to get a taste of ICT and consider it as a career in the future” Graham Hartlett said. “It is interesting to note that countries with the largest ICT Industries in the world also have the largest number of Radio Amateurs.
MORE ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO
Today Radio Amateurs use state of the art technology to carry their voices around the world. They make friends on all parts of the globe and are true ambassadors for South Africa. They connect computers to their radios to exchange data, video and pictures. They use amateur radio to bring the world home.
In South Africa Amateur Radio is regulated by the Department of Communications and ICASA and organised by the South African Radio League. The SARL was established in 1925 and is a member organisation of the International Amateur Radio Union, a body that is closely associated with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
Radio Amateurs have designated frequency bands, which cover the entire radio spectrum. It was in the early twenties of the previous century that Radio Amateur pioneered short-wave communication. For many decades short-wave communication was the only worldwide link till the advent of satellites.
Radio Amateurs however did not sit back. Shortly after Russia launched Sputnik 1 in 1957 Radio Amateurs had a satellite in the sky called OSCAR 1 – Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio. The latest amateur satellite is Oscar 52, which was launched by India a few weeks ago.
Several years ago the University of Stellenbosch built South Africa’s first satellite called Sunsat Oscar 35. This unique satellite provided lots of excitement amongst learners and was extensively used in classrooms around the world. Besides two-way communication, Sunsat had a parrot repeater onboard that would record short bursts of speech and then repeat it. Teachers found this particularly useful in language teaching as learners could hear their own speech with the added excitement that it came from space. Satellites however have a short lifespan and Sunsat has stopped operating.
OTHER YOUTH DAY EVENTS
The SARL and its affiliated clubs are setting up amateur radio stations at various locations (see www.sarl.org.za). One of the major one’s will be at the Sci-Bona Discovery Centre at the New Town Cultural Precinct in Johannesburg.
All the activity starts at 09:30 with a national link up where young people from all over South Africa can communicate with each other using amateur radio. Mark Shuttleworth will talk to the youth from 11 am and answer questions about his experiences during his space flight to space station MIR several years ago.
The event will be streamed live on the web. Go to www.sarl.org.za , click on Youth for Amateur Radio which will take you to the Pirate Radio site. Under education click ZS6FCS – Chris. The Magalies Amateurradioklub who has linked their local repeater has made this link possible. The SARL website at www.sarl.org.za also has a list of where amateur radio stations are operating from for the Youth Day event..
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