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Latest News
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.
First V5WAGS Award26 June 2018
The very first V5WAGS award has been issued to Pieter Jacobs (ZS6XT) on 20 June 2018. The NARL congratulate Pieter for this achievement and hope that this is an inspiration to other HAMS to submit their logs and application form for this award.
More information about the V5WAGS award can be found here.
V55V Youtube video02 May 2018
The German club magazine cqDL dated May 2018 posted an article about Martin's (V51W) station, V55V, in Namibia. The article refers to the following video that was posted by Rudi Klos (DK7PE) on Youtube.
World Amateur Radio Day18 April 2018
The NARL celebrated World Amateur Radio Day (WARD) with an interview on a local Namibian FM radio station, Hit Radio Namibia. The show featured Werner (V51JP) as well as a real HF QSO from Mike (V51MA).
Licensing 201811 January 2018
CRAN has not send out invoices yet for 2018 for the renewal of Amateur licenses. To avoid any disappointments, please visit CRAN and pay your Amateur license fees.
Remember it is your responsibility to renew your license by 28 February 2018. Please do not wait for an Invoice. Shark Island Lighthouse 2017 Feedback31 August 2017
Russell (V51RJ) manned the Shark Island Lighthouse on 19 and 20 August 2017. Weather was fine, no wind. He had a successful and enjoyable weekend although the propagation was not that good. Majority of contacts were South African stations. A total of 85 regional and 1 DX (Argentina on 40m) contacts were made.
Russell reported that he was surprised to see the performance of his 80m wire antenna. It was 85ft long with 17ft counterpoise at 3m above ground. Had a good NVIS effect, signal 5/9 with 100W. Maybe the island also had good effect on radio waves. Shark Island Lighthouse 201712 August 2017
Russell (V51RJ) will be activating Shark Island Lighthouse in Luderitz for the International Lighthouse Weekend of 19 & 20 August 2017.
He will be using an ICOM 7200 and ICOM 703 transceiver. Antenna is a Watson Multi Ranger on tripod with radials and a rolled out dipole long wire with tuner. Mode will be SSB only, bands; 20m, 40m, 80m. Power will be 100W and below. QTH of the lighthouse Licensing 201730 January 2017
CRAN has not send out invoices yet for 2017 for the renewal of Amateur licenses. To avoid any disappointments, please visit CRAN and pay your Amateur license fees.
Alternatively you can EFT the required fee directly into CRAN's bank account and send the proof of payment to Lazarus Paulus together with your CRAN account number. CRAN's bank account details can be found on the CRAN website under Contact US -> All Other Submissions. Remember it is your responsibility to renew your license by 28 February 2017. Please do not wait for an Invoice. Repeater Link to Gamsberg and Swakopmund12 July 2016
The Windhoek repeater has a new UHF link frequency and CTCSS tone. This change was necessary because the old frequency had too much interference from unknown equipments in and around Windhoek.
Since the UHF link frequency is also shared with the repeater on the Gamsberg, the link via Gamsberg to Swakopmund is also affected. The link will be restored as soon as as the UHF frequency is changed on the Gamsberg repeater radio. This will be done in the near future when Robert (V51RS) has the time to drive up the mountain. This normally takes a full 9 hour day to complete. The NARL would like to thank Robert (V51RS) and Guido (V51GK) for the hard work they have put in to change the UHF link between the two repeaters on the Auas mountains in real unpleasant windy conditions. Licensing 201619 February 2016
CRAN has not send out invoices yet for 2016 for the renewal of Amateur licenses. To avoid any disappointments, please visit CRAN and pay your Amateur license fees.
Alternatively you can EFT the required fee directly into CRAN's bank account and send the proof of payment to Lazarus Paulus together with your CRAN account number. CRAN's bank account details can be found on the CRAN website under Contact US -> All Other Submissions. Remember it is your responsibility to renew your license. Please do not wait for an Invoice. Windhoek Repeater - Damaged during fire
16 November 2015
The Windhoek repeater's output site was right in the line of fire during a thunderstorm in late October 2015. The feeder wires to the 2m and 70 cm antennas was damaged beyond repair. 
Luckily there were a second pair of antennas on site with a pair of un-damaged feeder wires. After a swop of cables the repeater was online again.
Another trip to the repeater site is scheduled to replace the damaged cables with new ones. 
Second participation of the NARL in the IARU HF world championship
04 August 2015 The special call sign V55HQ was again gladly heard by many amateur radio stations worldwide during the 24 hour contest weekend on July 11th to 12th, 2015. This event could take place on the farm Otjikoko near Omaruru thanks to the hospitality and support of Martin Walter (V51W) and Ursi. A big group of German radio amateurs supported the preparation and realisation of this event for more than one week by setting up new antennas, revising the existent equipment and installing the radio stations. Three stations were set up for voice communication (SSB) and three others for telegraphy (CW) at different locations of the farm area. A computer network allowed the electronic logging of all contacts and the up to date information exchange of the made contacts. The radio conditions were worse than in 2014, nevertheless the number of radio contacts increased during the 24 hour period. Seventeen radio operators from Namibia and Germany took part in the event which ended up in about 7300 contacts. The placing in the world wide rank list cannot be foreseen up to now because the evaluation of all worldwide submitted log-files to the organiser, the American Radio League (ARRL) takes a few months. The crew does not want to forget to thank also the NARL and the CRAN authority for the uncomplicated granting of guest licences for the German operators who were greatly supported by Klaus Wesche (V51L) in the paper work. Photos for this event... Gruß de DJ2HD Swakopmund Repeater
01 March 2015 The Swakopmund repeater was installed in 2014. Derek (V51DM) has assembled a repeater system for the coast and together with Robert (V51RS) it was tied into the Windhoek repeater via the Gamsberg link. The Repeater system has a huge footprint and can be accessed from as far as Hentiesbaai and Solitaire. Frequency is 145.750 (RX) and 145.150 (TX) with 88.5Hz CTCSS tone. 
Gamsberg Repeater
08 November 2014 Robert (V51RS) made a trip to the Gamsberg and was joined by Friedhelm (V51FH) to upgrade the Gamsberg Repeater. The new Gamsberg repeater frequencies are: Rx 145.150 Mhz and Tx 145.750MHz with a 88.5 Hz CTCSS tone. The reason for this change are to enable the Gamsberg repeater to act as a link for the proposed Swakopmund repeater. The 70cm Yagi antenna is pointing towards the Windhoek repeater and the 2m antenna is a dipole. To test the operation of the repeaters range, regular contact are made in the evenings between Raymond (V51RAY) and Robert (V51RS). Raymond is situated in Walvisbay (180km from the Gamsberg) and is using a J-Pole antenna 10m above ground level. The distance from Gamsberg to the Windhoek repeater is about 120km. We would like to express our thanks to Friedhelm (V51FH) for assisting Robert with the upgrading of the Gamsberg repeater. The battery sponsored by Electro Tech was also installed during the upgrade. The original Gamsberg repeater was installed in 2012 by Martin (V51/DL1ZU), Friedhelm (V51FH) and Robert. (See more photos of the Gamsberg repeaters on the Repeaters Galley page.) Edited: 13 February 2015 - Corrected Gamsberg Frequency. AGM 2014
The NARL AGM was held on the 28 June 2014. The venue was at the Boy Scouts building near Eros Airport. We would like to thank Michael (V51Q) for organising the venue and for everyone else that attended the meeting. Guest Licenses 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... |
Upcoming Events
Lighthouse event 18+19 August 2018 see more What's New... Guest License page updated see more V5WAGS added a 53th grid to the rules. More information about the V5WAGS award can be found here. Gamsberg repeater fixed. See gallery for more Gamsberg photos. Call List Updated (Added Grids) June 2018 see more Example CRAN Application Forms added see Guest License RAE Exam 2018 Details Added see Exam and Licensing NewsGamsberg Repeater Upgrade
Read more... Großer Marsch ("Big Walk") 2014 Read more... Sponsorship Received for new Gamsberg Repeater battery Read more... Namibia to compete in IARU HQ Championship 2014. Read more... Youngest HAM Radio in Namibia Read more... SARL reaches out to SADC radio amateurs. Read more... International News |
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