Contents
- Ja-No-Well-Fine
- The Koeksister Monument
- SARL YL QSO Party
- Vi Cruickshanks, ZS2BR, First Yls
- ILLW International Lighthouse lightship Weekend
- VE3DTW. Williamson, Ethel [1907 – 2010 ]
- Port Weller Lighthouse, Ontario
- CLARA visits Fern Blodgett
- Out & About
- Silent Keys & Condolences
- Nets, Contact, Calendar
Ja-No-Well-Fine
Women's Day is celebrated on 9th August in South Africa and when I came across a monument to the “koeksister” - ubiquitously South African – I thought it might be a cross-cultural symbol that we could all support (food is an International language!). Hope to meet you on air on Women's Day and be sure to have a few koeksisters ready with your coffee. 33 Editor ZS5YH Heather
Situated in the Northern Cape, about 160km south of Kimberley, Orania is a small town located on the banks of the Orange River and a stronghold for Afrikaans culture. The Koeksister Monument, erected in 2003, celebrates the women who baked and sold koeksisters, a syrupy sweet Afrikaner delicacy, to collect money for charity and is one of the town's tourist attractions.
The monument, a Giant Koeksister, is the brainchild of Orania’s Kaalvoet women’s organisation and named for Susanna Smit, who said she would rather walk barefoot (kaalvoet) over the Drakensberg (ridge of mountains) than suffer under British rule in Natal (mid 1840s). Susanna Smit (1798-1863) considered a symbol of resistance to oppression.
Koeksister is believed to have originated from a recipe brought to the Cape by Dutch settlers in the 17th century.
SARL YL QSO Party
Tuesday 9 August 2022 - National Women’s Day
1. Aim This is a fun activity to celebrate Women’s Day between radio amateurs in South Africa. Call “YL Sprint”
2. Date and Time Tuesday 9 August 2022 from 12:00 to 13:00 UTC = 1400 – 1500 CAT
Tuesday 9 August 2022 from 12:00 to 13:00 UTC - National Women’s Day
3. The exchange is a RS(T) report and YL or OM.
4. Frequency 40-metre band. 7 100 to 7 130 kHz is contest free.
5.1 Contacts between YL stations are worth 6 points.
5.2 Contacts between YL and OM stations are worth 3 points
5.3 Contacts between OM stations are worth 1 point.
Vi Cruickshanks, ZS2BR, South Africa's Early Yls
Vi Cruickshanks, ZS2BR, obtained her ticket on the 8th November, 1937. She was also well received by the OM fraternity, and they admired her muchly for her flawless C.W. Vi was a telegraphist for nine years, so she was extremely lucky to have had such good training, which prepared her so well for the hobby of Amateur Radio.
Vi has done her share of listening also, which helped her with the procedure. She also felt a little shy at the beginning, but it did not take her long to get into her stride.
At the time when Vi first came on the 40 and 20 metre bands, she had a young daughter. Her life was a busy one, as she was also occupied with Social work.
During the war, ZS2BR helped to give the W.A.A.F. Signals some tuition in Port Elizabeth for a while. She also worked in the Post Office for a further three years, to help to alleviate the staff position during 1939 - 1945.
Although being occupied with her pursuits, Vi has found time to serve on the Council of the S.A. Women’s Radio Club, and on the committee of the Port Elizabeth Branch of the S.A. Radio League.
As far as her personality is concerned, Vi is interested in people, and she has a nice sense of humour. She is a person who perseveres, and she shows the same unflagging enthusiasm for all the hobbies and social work she has embraced.
Her present Rig is the 6C4 V.F.O. 6C4 doublers driving a single 807, running 70 watts. The Modulator consists of a pair of 6L6s, Class AB 1. The RX is the 1155A. with the RF 24. The antennae are folded dipoles.
The S.P.C.A. has been Vi’s greatest interest for many years, and she is always working for this cause. She is on the Executive Committee, and also serves on the Animals Home Management Committee.
Now Vi and her OM Ab, are the grandparents of three, and their daughter lives in Port Elizabeth.
ZS2BR Mrs. V. Cruickshanks, of Port Elizabeth appeared in the SARL callbooks from 1950 - 1973.
ILLW - International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend
on track for the 25th year over weekend August 20 – 21, 2022
the objective is to have fun and at the same time highlight lighthouses that suffer from lack of care and maintenance. Showing the public all about amateur radio is a side benefit.
10 South African lighthouses have been registered with inland clubs ZS3VDK (Van Der Kloof) and ZS6WR (West Rand) members travelling to the coast to activate three lighthouses.
VE3DTW. Williamson, Ethel. [ March 21,1907 – October 29th 2010 ] age 104
Born in England in 1907, Ethel (age 4) immigrated to St Catharines with her family in 1911.
When husband Cyril enlisted to serve in the RCAF in World War II, Ethel spent 5 years raising her sons and volunteering at the Red Cross and Air Force Canteen.
After having served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, Cyril Williamson was looking for secure employment to support his wife Ethel and their two sons. One evening in September 1945, Cy looked up from the evening paper and asked Ethel, “How would you like to live in a lighthouse?”
He explained that there would be a lot of competition for jobs now, and his experience with radios during the war would be a good fit for the position. Of the eight men who applied, Cy ranked first, and the family moved to the lighthouse in time to open it for the shipping season on April 1, 1946.
Cy Williamson VE3TW had been a big part of the Radar section run by the RAF during WW 2.
Cyril and Ethel became lighthouse keepers at Port Weller (Ontario) at the north entrance to the Welland Canal and maintained the light for the next 25 years.
As Ethel Williamson recalls, she was a little puzzled by the radio at first. "To me, it just meant a lot of noise," she said. She said her determination to learn grew after overhearing Cyril talking on the radio with the wife of a man in Barbados, who sounded like an attractive young woman. "I thought 'who is she?'" "I thought 'maybe I can, too.' That was how I got involved with it."
Ethel earned her Amateur Radio License, VE3DTW and began her long-standing membership with the Niagara Peninsula Amateur Radio Club. Ethel was reportedly one of the first women in Canada to earn her license, and during her years at the lighthouse, she contacted people from over 250 countries. Following the war, many Canadian servicemen were still stationed overseas, and Ethel was often contacted to see if she could relay a message to their families. “Sometimes I wrote to the relatives making a date for them to come to the lighthouse at a certain time. It was the most rewarding time of my life."
Ethel had a lot of stories to tell about that time. There was enough material, and Williamson was such a good story-teller that she wrote a book, A Light on the Seaway, which was published in 1972. Ethel shares many humorous stories from their life on Welland Canal and chronicles the opening of St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, when large "salties" (ocean going ships) began passing right outside their front door. Many people that Ethel befriended via radio paid a visit to the station.
Ethel Williamson marked her 100th birthday March 21, 2007, attending a lunch in her honour hosted by the Niagara Peninsula Amateur Radio Club.; she was a member of the Trilliums, the Canadian Ham Radio Club for ladies (fore-runner of CLARA).
When the Welland branch of the Handy Ham Amateur Radio Club of Canada heard about a 102 year old ham who had been QRT for the past two decades they decided to help Ethel. The organization offered to set up a radio for her at Niagara Ina Grafton Gage Village long-term-care home so she could get back on the air. on Monday, January 4th. 2010 she made her first QSO with a station in Melbourne, Australia, via a local repeater tied to VK land using IRLP. Thanks to ham radio her voice was, once again, heard, worldwide.
Ethel passed away peacefully on October 29th 2010, in her 104th year at Niagara Ina Grafton Gage Village.
Her years of service were recognized in 2002, when she was awarded a Queen’s Jubilee Medal.
At the age of ninety-eight, she had the honour of christening the new Canadian Coast Guard vessel Cape Storm at the Port Weller Coast Guard Station. Ethel was predeceased by her beloved husband of 61 years Cyril.
Port Weller Lighthouse, St. Catharines, Ontario
Port Weller marks the northern entrance of the Welland Canal, which links Lake Ontario with Lake Erie, allowing vessels to bypass the Niagara River and Falls; opening all of the Great Lakes to outside shipping.
In August 1921, a wooden pole was erected at the outer end of the west embankment at Port Weller, and on it were mounted a cluster of fixed white electric lights and an electrically-operated fog bell. A concrete mast replaced the wooden pole in 1925.
The pierhead light and bell served alone until 1931, when a combination keeper’s dwelling and generator building was built along with a four-section, skeletal lighthouse. Consistent with the architecture of the time, the keeper’s dwelling was built in an Art Deco style. In 1934, an automatic radio-beacon was established at Port Weller.
The life of keeper Cyril Williamson and his family is chronicled in Ethel Williamson's A Light on the Seaway. The Williamsons lived at the station for 25 years from 1946 until the main light was extinguished. The main light was demolished in 1971.
The lighthouse and the fog horn building illustrate the importance of navigational aids to the safe usage of the Welland Canal. The Port Weller lighthouse station, as a result of the interest of lighthouse keeper Cyril Williamson and his wife Ethel in ham radio, achieved international recognition as an important navigational aid on the Welland Canal.
The Saint Lawrence Seaway Corporation established a set of range lights farther inland at Port Weller in 1969, and the Port Weller Main Lighthouse was discontinued.
Both the 1953 and 1931 residences now serve as the Port Weller Search and Rescue Station for the Canadian Coast Guard.
STOP-PRESS From the Lighthouse above, cross Lake Ontario (NNE) to Cobourg:
CLARA visits Fern Blodgett
Members of the Canadian Ladies Amateur Radio Association (CLARA) stopped by Cobourg, ON. on Tuesday, July 28, 2022 to see a statue of a trailblazer Fern Blodgett.
VE3HAI Ann Nutter from Toronto, VU2SWS Saria Sharma from Mumbai, India, VE7IM Suzanne Snape from Courtenay, BC; VA3RMW Roberta Williams from Markham, ON. and N9ZKU Janet Maggart from Fort Wayne, IN., arrived in Cobourg and were met by members of the Fern Blodgett Sunde Commemorative Statue Committee.
Ed: Loved accompanying these Yls on their 15m video, enjoy 33 /88
https://todaysnorthumberland.ca/2022/07/26/canadian-ladies-amateur-radio-association-members-come-to-cobourg-to-honour-fern-blodgett-sunde/?fbclid=IwAR3N3L4SshbGPp3xMVga3Hd2XTobuyCBVU_pnJFiehvjinqAPVROCBXFQKg
Canadian born Fern Blodgett Sunde was the first woman to earn her wireless licence in Canada, the first to go to sea, and the first to serve as a wireless operator in the Norwegian Merchant Navy. Read about Radio 'sparks' in the Atlantic WW2, and Fern Blodgett and her ship M/V Mosdale:
http://wrarc-anode.blogspot.com/2020/11/ yl.beam#88 nov 2020
Out & About
IV3FSG Elvira Simoncini from Italy is radio active in Africa:
Elvira was active in Uganda as 5X3R 23 June - 13 July 2022 and she will be active from Madagascar as 5R8LH from August 1 to September 9, 2022.
USA yl Janet, W8CAA / C6AYL and OM Joe, W8GEX / C6ADX were active on Exuma Islands, IOTA NA-001, Bahamas, 16 - 26 July 2022,
EA2DNO IRATXE Urizar from Spain
24 July. 2022 Congratulations Iratxe, EA2DNO. In today's SOTA activation, she achieved her fourth "mountain goat". 🐐🐐🐐🐐 4000 activator points
Thai YL Pioneer Silent Key
Mayuree Chotikul, HS1YL former RAST (Radio Amateur Society of Thailand) President and wife of Kamchai (HS1WR-SK) became a Silent Key during July 2022
In 2006 she declined to run again as President, citing health reasons
Her husband HS1WR Col Kamchai (Kam) of the Royal Thai Army Artillery became RAST's first vice president in 1971.
It was his deathbed wish, November 1982, to his wife Mayuree, HS1YL and others to continue to promote amateur radio in Thailand.
Silent Key Felicitas Wolff DL9XBB
We received the sad news at short notice that on Friday, 22.07.2022 our radio friend DL9XBB Felicitas Wolff, named "Felix", a few days before her 70th birthday fell asleep.
The district of Hamburg loses a very active and long-term member.
Felicitas did not just serve as a YL speaker in the district, she also served for many years as the district chairman. For health reasons, she has given up that task, which she has always undertaken with enthusiasm and dedication, in the fall of 2021.
DARC : Mike Kapplusch DL1BMK, District Chairman
Condolences
to NS7X MaryAnn Cornett who lost her husband of 32 years K5PSG Bob died April 1, 2022 at home in Albuquerque NM.
Sunday YL Net at 8 pm Pacific Daylight Time (11 pm EDT) or 0300 UTC)
YLs anywhere Check into the Sunday YL net (Monday UTC) on EchoLink node KE6YUV-R
ECHOLINK SKEDS ON THE ALARA CONFERENCE STATION
ALARA Conference Station - IRLP node is 9509
ALARA Monday night nets - every Monday night with the 1st and 3rd Mondays on EchoLink.
YLRL Weekly net - 0100 UTC every Friday. Net control is usually Catherine AC4YL.
Minows net - 0230 UTC every Friday. Net control is Margaret AE7MB.
NOTES: Please make sure you check your UTC/24 hour clock to get the timing correct. We’d love to have some new YLs check in. These nets are lots of fun. If you, or other YLs you know, would like to run a net on the ALARA Conference Station, from anywhere in the world, please drop me a line via e-mail so I can make sure the station is free at your requested time. 33 Shirley VK5YL
CONTACT US
‘HAM YL' : https://web.facebook.com/ham.yls?_rdc=1&_rdr
yl.beam news: Editor Eda zs6ye.yl@gmail.com
newsletters can be found: https://jbcs.co.za/wp/ & RadioZS
Italian Radio Amateurs Union: QTC U.R.I.
https://www.unionradio.it/qtc-la-rivista-della-unione-radioamatori-italiani/
also archive #89 dec 2020, https://www.darc.de/en/der-club/referate/yl/ (German ARC)
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Calendar August 2022
Aug 06 YL Net 1st Saturday of month, 2000 (UK) on GB3DA Danbury 2m repeater.
Aug 6 - 13 YOTA camp, Karlovac, Croatia. 2022.
Aug 12 International Youth Day
Aug 14 Japan Ladies Radio Society (JLRS) "YL CQ Day" 2nd Sunday of every month!
Aug 15 - 21 "Special YL Diploma" "Selvamar Noticias" and (CE4YLC) 2nd time
August 15, 00:00 UTC to August 21 at 23:59 UTC..HF. Echolink, Digital, CB modes
https:/ /selvamar-noticias.jimdofree.com/diploma-yl/
Aug 19–22. SYLRA 2022 meeting Finland SYLRA celebrates 18 years (founded 15th August 2003)
Aug 20 - 21 ILLW International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (25th Anniversary)
Aug 27- 28 A.L.A.R.A. CONTEST 42nd Sat. 0600 hours UTC – Sun. 0559 hours UTC
(Australian Ladies AR Ass.)annually on the last FULL weekend of August
Aug 27 - 28 Yankee Lima Chile group 8th anniversary 2022 (August 2014)last weekend Aug.
Aug 28 - Sept 3 20th IARU World ARDF Championships 2022 (Borovets, Bulgaria)
Aug 7 SARL HF Phone Contest
Aug 9 National Women’s Day; SARL YL QSO Party
Aug 13 SARL Youth QSO Party
Aug 14 SARL HF Digital Contest
Aug 27 SARL Saturday 40 m Club Contest
Aug 28 SARL HF CW Contest
Aug 31 Sandton ARC Talking Tech Power Hour on 145.700/Echolink 19:00
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