FRIENDS OF THE SAAF MUSEUM, SWARTKOP, 6th APRIL 2006.
WIRELESS SECTION REPORT. For MARCH 2006.

Many thanks also go to a fellow amateur James du Toit ZS6JDT who donated a carpet from the Wireless Room.
The normal Saturday mornings radio net with the SA Antique Wireless Association, took place as normal. Nevertheless, the research for aircraft radio history and the search for equipment continues.
We are looking for information on World War 2 Radio and RADAR jamming equipment used by the American “Secret Squadrons of the Eighth” which operated from the UK. The systems used went under the names of; Jackal, Carpet I, Jostle, Dina, Mandrel, ELINT.

HISTORIC DATES.
18/04/1944 First operational use of the Munro bomb (Used for distribution of leaflets. See explanation below)
20/04/1897 Adolf Hilter’s Birthday
25/04/1874 Guglielmo Marconi’s Birthday.
06/05/1937 Hindenburg, crash and destruction at Lakehurst, U.S.A.

The Munroe T-1 BOMB.
This bomb was invented by Capt. James Munroe of the 305th Bomb Group and could be dropped by B-17 Flying Fortresses. He used some old laminated paper containers for M-17 incendiary bombs, 48″ long and 16,5″ diameter. standard M-111 bomb time fuse connected to primer cord in pipes around the sides of the container at 6″ intervals. These “bombs” could be exploded any where between 30 000ft and 2 000ft, a big improvement on the older methods of releasing propaganda leaflets .

FRIENDS OF THE SAAF MUSEUM, SWARTKOP, 02nd March 2006.
WIRELESS SECTION REPORT. For FEBRUARY 2006.

Capt. Mark Edwards’ Aircraft.
(that is, the Mirage between the Club House and the Radio Room.)
We have made contact with Capt. Edwards and are trying to establish the necessary/correct “lines of communication” to get the Air Scouts busy with the cleaning of this particular “Mirage”.

MORE ABOUT THE Q-Code.

FRIENDS OF THE SAAF MUSEUM, SWARTKOP, 02nd February 2006.
WIRELESS SECTION REPORT. For JANUARY 2006.

SATURDAY MORNINGS.
Although the usual Saturday activity (4 mornings in
January) is to join with the SA Antique Wireless Association, we do get a few visitors. The children are the most intrigued by the use of Morse Code.
Saturday 28-01-2006 was of particular interest as we made contact with a special event station ZS5A1GP run by the Durban Hams and set up somewhere near the track of the A1 Grand Prix in Durban!!!

THE Q-Code.
Some of our “research” involves a “bit of paper work”. The following item resulted from a request from Evert for something regarding Morse Code for publication in The String Bag.
In order to shorten any message a system of three letter groups, each one beginning with the letter “Q” representing often sent phrases, was devised. Two examples are QSY = Change frequency to ….. and QTH = My position is ……
When asking a question, a question mark is added after the last letter, QTH? = What is your position?
The longest sentence we have come across contains 32 words!!
QNH is slightly shorter with the question representing 29 words and the answer 31!!
The series QAA to QNZ are reserved for aeronautical services whilst QOA to QQZ are for maritime use.
I general radio amateur “conversation” abbreviations of words, similar to those used cell-phone SMS’s are used.
Some cell-phones also make use of morse code, the letters SMS are sent as dididit dadah dididit.
The following items in the Q-code might be of interest to the Friends”. The “Unofficial” meaning is put in the right hand column.
Little is known about the origins of this

Another story comes to mind During the liberation of some Far Eastern Country (probably Burma) the Allied forces were approaching a POW camp which house certain air force officers, mainly RAF. In order “encourage” their liberators the letters QED were written on the roof of a building! The polite meaning is “Please hurry up”

HISTORIC DATES.

01/02/1920 START OF SAAF
02/02/1946 Last Lancaster delivered to RAF
22/02/2003 B-P Birthday (Boy Scout Fame!!)

FRIENDS OF THE SAAF MUSEUM, SWARTKOP, 12th JANUARY 2006.
WIRELESS SECTION REPORT. For NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2005.

Sincere apologies for the “non-arrival” of the November 2005 report which seems to have gone astray in the “bowels” of the e-mail system!

SATURDAY MORNINGS.
As usual ZS6MUS was activated on the 4 Saturday mornings of
November to join with the Southern African Antique Wireless Association.
Saturday 26th November was actually important milestone as 50% of the Wireless room did some work! They were helped by Peet ….(?) and Dave Pearson. A new nylon rope to hoist the antenna was installed in place of the old one which has given great service over the last 5 years. Nylon does not last very long when exposed to the sun for so long. Peet did the hardest part of the work. He opened the end of the old rope and fed the start of the new inside so that it could be pulled through the pulley. No mean task!!
Many Thanks!!!
As usual ZS6MUS was activated for the first time in 2006 on Saturday morning 07-01-2006 to join with the Southern African Antique Wireless Association net.
Ionospheric propagation never ceases to amaze us, especially, this Saturday morning, whilst the Natal stations are heard loud and clear at Swartkop those on the Reef, even Kemptom Park, are barely heard!!!
We all thank Frans van Nieuwekerk for cleaning out the Wireless Room during December 2005.

NEW EQUIPMENT.
A Collins transmitter and receiver (Naval types) plus a home-made power supply were donated to the museum by Dave Smith ZS6AZP of Irene. These new pieces have promise of being restored in the near future than other items.

AMERICAN WOMEN IN WW2 US INDUSTRY.

The most famous real-life “Rosie the Riveter” was Rose Will Monroe, who was a riveter at the Ford Willow Run Aircraft factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where bombers were built.
Monroe was the model for the famous poster, showing a woman wearing a polka-dot bandana on her head with her sleeves rolled up, flexing her muscles, and the caption, “We Can Do It!” Unlike most of the “Rosies”, Rose kept working after the war.
An even more famous lady worked in an aircraft factory in Bakersfield, California, during the war, Norma Jean Baker. She worked in the same factory as husband James Doherty. An army photographer spotted her and asked her to pose for posters for the troops. That led to a modeling career, and a whole new life and a new name: Marilyn Monroe.

HISTORIC DATES.

07/01/1935 AVRO 652 ANSON
08/01/1941 AVRO 683 LANCASTER
27/01/1945 Ausweits “”Liberated””
27/01/…….. Australia Day

by Dave Gemmell ZS6AAW
and the Old Timers.

International Museums Weekend. 19/20-06-2004.

International Museums Weekend. A special event took place over the weekend, 19th – 20th of June and yours truly had a good time on the morning of the 19th. I had hoped to contact a few overseas station but alas that was not to be! One ZS station was heard in contact with a USA station but I could not hear him so it was useless to try. This leads me to a subject that has puzzled me for a long time. Is it due propagation conditions, equipment and antenna systems inadequacies or poor operating practices that we don’t make these DX contacts ?

At least, I was in contact with the Antique Wireless Association on most Saturday mornings at about 09H00. I had hoped that a few more museum would have been represented but, alas, it was not to be!

Any way it seems that it is to be an annual event so those hams intending to take part in next year’s event are requested to register via the International Museums Weekend website at www.ukradioamateur.org/imw. The organiser, Harry M1BYT, asks that you register so that everyone knows you are taking part and where you are located. Obviously, dear Reader, you have only just received you copy! This should not put you off as there must be lots of occasions when museums have some special event or occasion.

AND THE REST OF THE YEAR?

No radio amateur in this country should complain that nothing is happening on the SA Ham scene.

Especially with the following annual events, etc. Note that these are FUN days not contests where the pressure is on…………….

The above events provide lots of “public relations” for the “institutions involved but even more for Amateur Radio as a whole. So do be careful!!!

Nevertheless, there are other dates on which the “historically minded” hams can set up a special event station. The following are a few occasions when quite a few South Africans took part or aircraft in which they flew. Of course, week days are more often than not rather inconvenient by the nearest Saturday or Sunday, morning and/or afternoon would be fine.

Anyway, there are a few ideas!! Go ahead and try one or two of them out. Have a look at the SARL Contest Calendar so there aren’t any clashes with other events! Don’t forget to co-ordinate via the SARL HQ office as well as the website manager.

From then on it’s up to the hams to do the rest, which is to come on the air and have fun!!!

Don’t wait for someone else start a special event yourself!! You cannot sit back and expect the SARL to organize it for you! But do let them know what’s going on. If you are operating according to the correct radio regulations, who can stop you?

The rest of the address information stays the same, namely;
davegemmell@bmknet.co.za and P.O.BOX 77, IRENE, 0062 and TEL: and FAX: 012 – 667 2153 (NB. Please ask for the FAX!)