Cape Town SDR Workshop

AMSAT SA will be holding a SDR workshop in Cape Town at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Bellville campus on Saturday 4 November 2017.

The programme features a description of the software employed together with a walkthrough of the installation process on a PC or a laptop. Applications, such as general signal reception and the download and display of weather satellite data on the PC will be discussed.

An additional SDR workshop event will be held in Johannesburg will be held on 18 November at the National Amateur Radio Centre.  Both workshops are presented by AMSAT SA in cooperation with the South African Radio League. 

Booking Form -  http://www.amsatsa.org.za

UK Police Radio Delays to cost $400m

Police chiefs fear they will be hit with a £400 million bill for a disastrous Government project to replace their crucial radio systems. Senior officers have been privately warned that further delays to the overdue scheme could cost them the equivalent of the annual pay and training costs for 8,000 constables.

The £4 billion upgrade to emergency services communications is already years behind schedule, and there are growing concerns that critical elements of it cannot work.
Incredibly, the technology does not even exist to operate the new generation of radios in police helicopters, while hundreds of extra phone masts must be built before the network can be used in rural areas. 

Police leaders fear these unresolved problems will push the start date for the Emergency Services Network (ESN) back again, leaving them with a huge bill for keeping the existing Airwave radio system switched on as they pay for the development of its replacement.

The idea behind ESN is to give police and firefighters the ability to share photos and videos of incidents on new digital handsets. But the scale of the plan, and the fact it has never been tried anywhere in the world, means its introduction has already been pushed back repeatedly

Media Story - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4959474/Delays-police-radio-cost-salaries-8-000-PCs.html
 

Joe Spier, K6WAO Elected AMSAT-NA President

AMSAT-NA Board of Directors elected Joe Spier, K6WAO, of Reno, NV, President, succeeding Barry Baines, WD4ASW, who has retired after nine years of service as AMSAT’s President. Joe is a Life Member of AMSAT-NA and has previously served as Executive Vice President and Vice-President Educational Relations. He also has Life Memberships in the ARRL, SARA (Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers) and the AFA (Air Force Association). He holds an Extra Class license as well as commercial licenses.

Other officers elected by the Board were:

• Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, of Washington, DC, as Executive Vice President
• Jerry Buxton, N0JY, of Granbury, TX, as Vice-President Engineering
• Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, of New Port Richey, FL, as Vice-President Operations
• Clayton Coleman, W5PFG, of Granbury, TX, as Secretary
• Keith Baker, KB1SF/VA3KSF, of Corunna, ON, as Treasurer
• Martha Saragovitz of Silver Spring, MD, as Manager