NEWS
Walvis Bay RAE Exam Center
09 March 2023
The Radio Amateur's Exam (RAE) can now also be written in Walvis Bay. Please contact Heinrich (V51HZ) or Werner (V51JP) for more details.
Field Day IARU Region 1 2022
14 November 2022
The Namibian radio amateurs once again took part in the IARU R1 Field Day (3th & 4th September 2022) in Windhoek.
The venue for the event was on the plot of Robert Schenk (V51RS) where the antennas were set up. Power was supplied by a petrol-powered generator. The radio and the amplifier were made available by the company, Sat-Com. This year the callsign V55V was chosen. Many hams will remember this callsign being used from the farm of Martin (V51W) and was last activated in 2014.
The venue for the event was on the plot of Robert Schenk (V51RS) where the antennas were set up. Power was supplied by a petrol-powered generator. The radio and the amplifier were made available by the company, Sat-Com. This year the callsign V55V was chosen. Many hams will remember this callsign being used from the farm of Martin (V51W) and was last activated in 2014.
|
|
Gamsberg Repeater Fixed
05 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.
Guest Licenses
12 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...
St Helena Island contact by V51JH on VHF FM
20 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.
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, Germany
25 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.
Werner on behalf of the NARL would like to thank Steffi (DO7PR), Dietmar (DL1ZAX), Martin (DL1ZU ), Holger (DL1EZ) and the entire staff at the DARC HQ for an awesome time they had during their visit. (Werner (V51JP) was joined by Martin (DL1ZU also V51ZU) on the visit)
Werner submitted a full report with photos about his visit at the DARC HQ. Due to the length of the report we have made it available in PDF format. You can download his full report (a very interesting read) below:
Werner on behalf of the NARL would like to thank Steffi (DO7PR), Dietmar (DL1ZAX), Martin (DL1ZU ), Holger (DL1EZ) and the entire staff at the DARC HQ for an awesome time they had during their visit. (Werner (V51JP) was joined by Martin (DL1ZU also V51ZU) on the visit)
Werner submitted a full report with photos about his visit at the DARC HQ. Due to the length of the report we have made it available in PDF format. You can download his full report (a very interesting read) below:
Werner submitted a full report with photos about his visit at the DARC HQ. Due to the length of the report we have made it available in PDF format.You can download his full report (a very interesting read) below:
| DARC_HQ_and_QSL_bureau_visit_2018.pdf |
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 Martin DL1ZU (V51ZU) who was his host for the first week of stay. During his stay Martin organized a lot of very interesting meet ups and visits to exciting places.
The first Award went to Martin DL1ZU (V51ZU) who was his host for the first week of stay. During his stay Martin organized a lot of very interesting meet ups and visits to exciting places.
The second award was handed to Ralf Schiffner (DK8FA). The award was admired by all and I had a lot of very interesting conversations with the Amateurs present.
For the second handover they visited the Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt https://www.mfk-frankfurt.de/funkstation They have a fantastic antenna and amateur radio station (DL0DPM) under the roof of the museum that is accessible to the public. They do a lot of PR work to promote our hobby to the public and just standing in the station watching the enthusiasm of the custodians of this station makes one proud to be an amateur! During a coffee and cake session after the official visit Werner had the honour of meeting all the amateurs involved with the station and was able to hand over the second Namibia Award to Ralf (DK8FA).
A big thank you to Martin DL1ZU (V51ZU) for the time and effort he put in to host Werner and to show him around.
Gamsberg Repeater Fixed
05 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 Award
26 June 2018
The very first V5WAGS award has been issued to Pieter Jacobs (ZS6XT) on 20 June 2018. The NARL congratulate you 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.
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).
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. Windhoek Repeater - Damaged during fire16 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 Namibian Amateur Radio League (NARL) in the IARU HF world championship04 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 Repeater01 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 Upgrade
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.) Edit: 13 February 2015 - Corrected Gamsberg Frequencies. Namibia in the IARU HQ contest.13 July 2014
Namibia participated for the first time in the IARU HQ contest.
This contest was open to all IARU member societies and Martin (V51W) and Klaus (V51L), with the blessing of the NARL have successfully applied for the contest call sign V55HQ. The official NARL HQ station was hosted on Martins' Farm on the weekend of 12 and 13 July 2014. See the IARU HF Championship page for more details. Großer Marsch ("Big Walk") 201408 June 2014
The Großer Marsch ("Big Walk") of the Delta School was a big success and Council wishes to thank Peter (V51BP), Friedhelm (V51FH), George (V51GU) and Victor (V51V) for their help. Thank you also to Juergen (V51JF) who manned the tent like in previous years and Robert (V51RS) and Angela (V51SA) for organising the radios, batteries and food. We had a lot of fun and hope that we can count on everyone again next year. Robert (V51RS) assembled the emergency repeater and it was tested extensively at the Großer Marsch on Saturday. We are happy to report that the emergency repeater is functioning flawless. Battery Sponsorship from ElectroTech
06 April 2014
George (V51GU) was able to secure the sponsorship of a new battery for the Gamsberg repeater. The NARL would herewith like to thank Electro Tech for the kind sponsorship and George for organising this. Youngest HAM Radio in Namibia13 February 2013
Our youngest member is Sylvia Schenk (V51YL). She obtained her radio amateur license in 2010 at age 14. Seen here with father, mother and grandfather who are also active radio amateurs.
From Left to Right: Jurgen Felsner (V51JF), Sylvia Schenk (V51YL),
Angela Schenk (V51SA) and Robert Schenk (V51RS) SARL reaches out to SADC radio amateurs01 February 2013
The South African Radio League (SARL) is reaching out to radio amateurs who are members of their national society in SADC countries, to join the SARL on a complimentary basis. This is part of the SARL's commitment to support the IARU Region 1 "Support for the Amateur Radio Service" or, for short, STARS programme. The objective of the STARS programme is to defend, protect, extend, develop and promote the amateur radio service in countries where amateur radio activity is low or nonexistent. To apply, radio amateurs in Namibia should complete the SARL membership application form and submit the form to me so the NARL can forward it with the proof of membership to the SARL. |
Repeater NewsAll repeaters are up and running.
International News |