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Erongo Repeater06 March 2020
Friday afternoon 14h00 on 21 February 2020 a small group of four Radio Amateurs started their journey from Windhoek to the Erongo Mountains in Namibia. They planned to overnight at the Ombu Hunt & Guestfarm near the base of the mountain. It finally started raining in Namibia and they witnessed a few rivers running along the way.
The group consisted of (from left to right) Stefan (V51SH), Guido (V51GK), Robert (V51RS) and Olaf (V51OB). 
First challenge was to cross a small running river safely that feeds into the bigger Omaruru river. Seen from the photo below that were not the only ones facing this challenge.
The crossing turned out fine with no one left behind and the team reached their destination before sunset.
They were met early Saturday morning by Johan (V51JH) who drove all the way from Omaruru. The team then started the drive up the Erongo Mountain to install a new repeater.
Honors went to Stefan (V51SH) for designating the exact spot for the new repeater. Construction of the foundation kicked of with the hard labor of mixing cement, sand and water.
With the foundation completed the repeater box was put in place. Preparation for the mast followed with some welding and fastening of bolts.
The repeater was installed and tested. The team departed late Saturday afternoon and reached the camp by 21h00. A warm shower and Namibian braai (BBQ) helped celebrated the success of the day.
Robert (V51RS) reported that he didn't experienced great teamwork like this in a long while. Everyone seemed to just know what to do and did what was needed to complete the task at hand. Well done!! On Sunday they drove back home via Omaruru to witness the Omaruru river in full flood, past the town it got its name from (or was it the other way round), with water from the weekend's rain showers. Yes rain is big in Namibia. You will reroute your drive to see water. The Erongo 2m repeater can be accesses by setting up your radio to RX: 145.650 TX:145.050 with a PL Tone of 88.5Hz. More photos can be seen on the Repeater Gallery. Also please visit the Repeater Map to see the current repeater network in Namibia. The NARL would like to thank everyone involved in this project. Especially the team that did the hard labor as well as the sponsors of the equipment. Author: Fritz Weinrebe (V51WF) First QSO over Es-hail QO100 sattelite between Namibia and the World22 December 2019
Yesterday night the first QSO over the new Es-hail QO100 satellite between Namibia and the World was made.
Derek (V51DM) and Chaly (DK3ZL) have been in contact for some time now getting all the technical gremlins of Derek's station under control. At 23h00 Derek started calling and Charly answered. They where joined by Martin (DL1ZU) and a short while later Garry (ZS6YI) also joined the QSO. I was not long and everyone on the bird was tuned in on the frequency and started calling Derek. He will have a busy time on satellite in 2020 and I know he will enjoy every moment. Congrats to Derek and thank you to everyone who helped to make this happen.
Charly will visit Namibia and southern Africa from middle January to March 2020 and he will be operating a mobile QO100 station during his visit. He will use the special event call V55QO for this visit. He will be the QSL manager for all Namibian stations working QO100. Please see the V55QO qrz.com page for contact and QSL details.
Author: Werner Muller (V51JP) Waterberg Repeater29 November 2019
A new repeater has been installed on the Klein-Waterberg near the town of Otjiwarongo on the 23rd of November 2019. The mountain is located in the district of Otjiwarongo and has a elevation of 1891m.
Karsten (DK1SW) with Susanne (photo below), Olaf (V51OB) and Robert (V51RS),on the tower, was the team present.
The repeater consists of a radio link to Windhoek with a thee element Yagi for 2m, and for 70cm a 6 dBi omni-directional antenna.
The transmit and receive frequency is 438.875 RX and 431.275 TX Tone 88.5. The road (B1) from Okahandja towards Otjiwarongo and partly to Otavi will be covered. The road to Outjo (C38) will have some cover-edge spots.This enables mobile operators repeater coverage almost everywhere on the route from Windhoek to Etosha. More photos on the Repeater Photo page. Etosha Repeater18 October 2019
A new repeater has been installed near the Anderson Gate on the southern border of the Etosha National Park.
NARL members Derek (V51DM), Louw (V51LG), Robert (V51RS), Olaf (V51OB) and Golden, with a team from Ongava, installed a 2m (VHF) repeater on the 11th to 13th October 2019.
The repeater system has a split site meaning, the 2m signal 145.175 (Tone 88.5) is received on one mountain then transmitted on 51.510 MHz (Tone 88.5) to another site, where it is received and transmitted on 145.775 MHz (Tone 88.5). The two sites are 4 km apart. The second mountain received the 6m signal. The repeater runs on 12V solar power and battery. The 2m RX and TX antennas have a 12dBi gain and are from Diamond. The antennas are installed on a tower at 15m.
The repeater will cover an area from Outjo to Okaukuejo, Halali and surrounding area. The Etosha repeater is linked with the Windhoek repeater via Echolink (Node #316799 - Callsign V51DM-R). The NARL wants to thank Derek (V51DM) for the sponsoring the repeater system and site. Please see the Repeater Info page for the frequencies and PL tone. More photos on the Repeater Photo page. Lighthouse 2019 - Pelican Point23 September 2019
The annual lighthouse event took place from 17 to 18 August 2019. The NARL activated the Pelican Point Lighthouse (grid: JG77fc) located near Walvisbay again this year.
To see the full story open the PDF extract from the September 2019 Radio ZS magazine below.
Credits: SARL Dennis Green (ZS4BS) with permission.
DK3ZL Dr. Karl-August Eichhorn im HR-Fernsehen 201920 September 2019
NARL member Dr. Karl-August (Charly) Eichhorn (DK3ZL) appeared in the above-mentioned YouTube video. He included a video clip of his recent trip to Namibia.
St Helena Island contact by V51JH on VHF FM20 May 2019
On Wednesday the 15th of May 2019 Johan du Plessis (V51JH) installed his new 16m tower and a new X700H Diamond Vertical Antennae with half inch low loss coax.
He started testing the antennae signal strength around 14:00 UTC time using an ICOM 7100 Radio (50 Watt) by making test calls to Dawid Koen (V51DK). Dawid was at that stage mobile traveling to Swakopmund. While conducting the tests Johan heard Garry Mercury (ZD7GWN) calling
him at 15:30 UTC time. Johan was very excited in making his first long distance contact on the VHF band (145.500 MHz). Garry Mercury is stationed on St Helena Island which is approximately 2252 km on a bearing of 286 degrees from Swakopmund, Namibia. The signal strength was at 5/9 for both. Johan also asked Garry to stay on frequency as Dawid (V51DK) is mobile towards Swakopmund indicated that he would also like to try to make contact with Garry, which he was able to do. NARL President visit the DARC, Germany25 January 2019
The NARL President, Werner Muller (V51JP), visited Germany during the Namibia holiday season. One of the highlights of his visit was at the Deutscher Amateur-Radio-Club (DARC) HQ and the DARC QSL bureau.
Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt
Please click here to see the full news bulletin as well as a downloadable PDF full report on his visit. Namibia Awards (in Germany)25 January 2019
During his visit to Germany the NARL President, Werner (V51JP), had the honour to hand out 2 Namibia Awards. The Namibia award can be obtained by working 5 individual V5 stations from outside Namibia or by working 10 individual V5 stations from within Namibia. http://www.narlnam.com/awards.html
The first Award went to ... Read More Lighthouse Event - V51NAM22 August 2018
The annual lighthouse event took place on 18 & 19 August 2018. The NARL activated the Pelican Point Lighthouse (grid: JG77fc) located near Walvisbay this year. Derek (V51DM), Raymond (V51RAY) and Robert (V51RS) drove through the thick sand to setup their station next to the lighthouse.
Below is a Google Map insert showing the position of the lighthouse. A 4x4 is definitely a required piece of equipment to get there. Towing the cherrypicker also didn't make it easy for the team.
Due to the delay in getting to the site, Robert (V51RS) immediately activated the Lighthouse with a portable radio while the others installed the rest of the antennas.
The rest of the action kicked in when all the antennas were up. Bands operated were 80-, 40- and 20m as well as some satellite contacts via VHF / UHF.
A total of 476 contacts, of which 22 were other lighthouses, have been made with the trio at the Pelican Point Lighthouse using the callsign "V51NAM -Lighthouse". A total no of 3 contacts were made via the birds (satellites) flying overhead.
A few Namibian Radio Amateurs walked away with a 2018 Southern African Lighthouse Award: Werner (V51JP) Pieter (V51PJ) And also for the operators of the Lighthouse station: Derek (V51DM) Raymond (V51RAY) Robert (V51RS) More photos can be viewed in the Lighthouse Gallery. Gamsberg Repeater Fixed05 August 2018
The Gamsberg repeater was fixed on Saturday 04 August 2018. Robert (V51RS), Werner (V51JP) and Olaf (V51OB) drove the gravel road to the Gamsberg in the early morning to be joined by Friedhelm (V51FH) from his farm near Gamsberg. The team arrived safely at the Gamsberg in spite of a close encounter with a Kudu running over the road.
The reason for the broken repeater was quickly discovered. The repeater radio was broken and was replaced. Olaf (V51OB) decided to climb the tower, in spite of the cold windy conditions, to tie some of the loose cables running up the towers. It turned out to be the cables from the repeater of the farmers in the area. HAM radio is also about service to the community and the cables were tied back onto the tower.
The outing was also a good opportunity to activate the JG86 grid for anyone chasing grids for the V5WAGS award. Lots of contacts from South Africa were made.
More information about the V5WAGS award can be found here.
Guest Licenses12 July 2016
The NARL welcomes other HAM radio license holders who wish to visit Namibia and obtain a Guest license to contact us. We will assist where possible. Please refer to the Guest License page to get started. More information...
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Exam and Licensing page update 25/01/2021 Repeater Info page updated. 23/09/2020 Sponsors updated 04/08/2020 Repeater Photos updated 14/07/2020 Repeater Map page updated. 26/02/2020 Call List updated. 23/02/2020 Sponsors page updated. 01/10/2019 News | ||||||||||||||||
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