Page 18 - EngineerIT June 2022

AMATEUR RADIO

Amateur radio is reinventing itself

n today’s world, amateur radio is no technology races ahead demands that we
different to a business or a rugby club keep abreast and be part of the race.”
Ior a professional institute; it needs to The radio environment has changed.
reinvent itself if it wants to continue to Not so many years ago, people had a
be successful in the future. This is the fascination for shortwave and every
clear message from the South African household had a radio that could tune
Radio League (SARL) president, Nico van into shortwave broadcast stations from
Rensburg, ZS6QL echoing the findings around the world. In those days, there
of a week-long International Amateur was magic attached to shortwave radio.
Radio Union (IARU) workshop discussing FM, the internet, mobile phones and
the future of the amateur service. The digital radio has changed all this.
workshop was held in October last year
and was attended by delegates from over New generations
100 IARU national societies. Post-millennials, iGeneration and zoomers
The IARU Region 1 formed eight are a group that never knew life without
different work groups, to continue Google. This digitally native generation Nico van Rensburg ZS6QL, President of the
South African Radio League
to develop interventions to face the is social media-literate, always-on and
challenges of the 21st century. “I am hyper-informed, and they grew up
pleased that on three of these work against the backdrop of social upheaval resolved this by forming different interest
groups, we have South African radio and climate change. Today, Gen Z is groups with emphasis on a specific
amateurs and that we are leading the work the world’s largest generation cohort, aspect of the profession and technology.
group on technology,” says van Rensburg. accounting for one third of the global The result is keeping a strong and
Since its inception, amateur radio population and having the fastest growing growing national organisation.
has a proud history in the development disposable income. So, no matter what we The SARL has already developed
of radio, often taking the lead. A great call this generation, they will dictate the a few interest groups, for example
example of this is the use of shortwave, future. This also impacts what amateur HAMNET, which focuses on disaster
now referred to as HF (high frequency) radio will look like in the future and while communication, the Next Generation
communication which, in the early radio amateurs do not have to discard beacon group focussing on beacons
days of radio, was considered useless. their tradition, they need to embrace this to study tropospheric and other
Radio amateurs proved the value of new generation. There is, however, one exotic propagation phenomena, a CW
the HF spectrum. South Africa featured fact we must not lose sight of: this new, interest group promoting the use and
prominently when on 16 October 1925, a fast-moving generation does not have all application of Morse Code and a strong
Cape Town radio amateur, John Streeter, the answers for all the problems, and this alliance with AMSAT SA to promote
made the first transatlantic radio contact is where experience counts. The older satellite operations and the building of
with a radio amateur in the USA on 36 generation is of beneficial value and has a South African CubeSat. In addition,
metres (8.3 MHz). His equipment was much to contribute, but needs to put we host several cross-technology virtual
home-brewed and only ran a few watts its experiences into today’s perspective. workshops which assist in creating
into a dipole antenna. However, the opposite is also true. The cross-dynamic interest. The technology
Another example of amateur radio’s new generation must remain receptive focussed on by one group may ultimately
contribution to technology is in the to proven concepts that may need to be assist another group to pursue and
satellite field. Low earth orbits were (and updated but should not necessarily be advance its own interest.
still are) extensively explored by radio discarded as old and useless. Van Rensburg said: “Amateur radio
amateurs, and proof of this is that over Amateur radio has several dynamics is re-inventing itself as a multifaceted
100 satellites have been built, launched which will appeal to different groups of techno-pastime that ultimately adds to
and operated successfully. Today, low people and even to different generations. South Africa’s intellectual and technology
earth orbits are much in demand for GPS This a challenge for organisations such capital. Are we there yet? Not yet, but it
applications and internet services such as as the IARU and the SARL, and can only is our priority focus. We are often slowed
Elon Musk’s Starlink. be addressed by acknowledging the down due to inadequate funding, which
While these are great examples of different dynamics and from different is mainly self-generated. The time has
amateur radio’s contribution to radio interest groups within our organisations. come to look towards government and
and communication sciences, we cannot Professional institutes are facing the industry to come on board and fund
live in the past. The speed at which same challenges, and some have specific projects. n

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