30th November 2006, SMD Introduces the New McMurdo EPIRBs.

The McMurdo E5 and G5 herald the arrival of the next generation of EPIRB.  Meeting the requirements of recreational boaters and commercial shipping the new McMurdo Smartfind is available as a standard 406MHz EPIRB or with an integrated GPS for enchanced postion fixing.

16 November, 2006.      'Shiya Amanzi'

SMD opens its new office in Richards Bay. SMD Telecommunications recently marked another milestone in its 50 year development. On the 16th of November a new office was opened in Richards Bay. SMD is no stranger to Richards Bay having worked on the first vessel to load at the Port and subsequently commencing operations there in 1995.

1 September, 2006 SMD re-introduces Standard Horizon Marine Radio.

After an absence of some years the Standard Horizon range of Marine Radio Equipment has been re-introduced to the South African Market.

15 August 2006, JRC Introduces the JMA-5200 15" LCD Radar.

The long expected JMA-5200 series black box marine radar has finally made its first step into the nautical world. This radar, mainly targeted for fishing vessels, workboats and IMO vessels under 1.000GT, incorporates similarity to its big brother the JMA-5300.

1 August 2006, Russian Register.

SMD has added the prestigious Service Supplier Approval of the Russian Register of Shipping to its ever growing list of accreditations. The scope of accreditaion includes Shore Based mainenance of GMDSS equipment, inspection and testing of GMDSS radio equipment.

14th May 2006, SSAS installations.

SMD has just completed the installation of SSAS equipment on board Ribex Maritime vessels. The vessels which call regularly at Durban were fitted wih Satamatics Ocean Alert to comply with the IMO requirements. Ribex Maritime, of Bourgas Bulgaria, selected Satamatics equipment because it provides a daily position report with out extra charge. Full vessel tracking is also available as an option on the system. For further details see the Satamatics Ocean Alert product page and other News articles.

1st April 2006, Staff Changes at SMD.

The beginning of April saw a change of staff in the Sales Department of SMD. John Carstens who has headed up the Sales effort in Cape Town since 2002 has left to pursue other interests and we have been joined by Leon van Rooyen. Leon is well known in the industry in Cape Town having been with Radio Holland South Africa for anumber of years. Leon will be active in all aspects of our sales promotion in the Cape region.

22nd-24th March 2006. Oil Africa.

Oil Africa Expo at the IECC Cape Town. SMD exhibited at what turned out to be a very sucessful event. Visitors were present from a range of countries involved in the oil business. Comments on the stands and visitor numbers were favourable all round. to those who visited our stand we say thank you and look forward to assisting you in the future.

17th February, 2006. SAMSA grants an exemption from the requirement to carry an EPIRB

By Marine Notice No. 6 of 2006, SAMSA has exempted small craft under 25 gross tons in Category B and C from the requirement to carry and EPIRB. This exemption is valid until 1st June 2007. Some other changes are expected to the carriage requirements during this period particularly in terms of float free or manually operated units.

7th February 2006. SMD appointed Distributor for Danelec Marine A/S.

SMD Telecommunications is pleased to announce their appointment as distributor for Danelec Marine.
Danelec Marine manufactures a range of VDR and S-VDR solutions which meet the requirements of IMO performance standard MSC.163(78) and IEC Standards IEC 61996-1/2 and IEC 60945. The products feature a modular expandable design, where the DM500 G2VDR and DM300 S-VDR benefit from the flexible and low cost architecture.

4th February 2006. Chelsea instruments Nu Shuttle supplied to Marine & Coastal Management.

The use of towed undulating oceanographic recorders is seen as a key activity in monitoring long-term trends within LMEs.
Chelsea Technologies Group (CTG) has delivered an instrumented towed undulating oceanographic recorder, Nu-Shuttle, to the Marine and Coastal Management Group of the Department of Environment and Tourism, Cape Town, South Africa to be utilised within their ongoing and future monitoring programs in the Benguela system (BCLME).