SARL NEWS SUNDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2008
You are listening to ZS6SRL the official Radio Station of the South African Radio League, the National Body for Amateur Radio in South Africa, with a news bulletin that is transmitted every Sunday at 08:15 CAT in Afrikaans and at 08:30 CAT in English. To listen to a web stream or Echolink by ZS6FCS visit www.sarl.org.za, click on ARMI and follow the links for details.
You can download this and previous bulletins from www.sarl.org.za and you can also subscribe there to receive future bulletins by email.
Your newsreader this morning is Hans, ZS6KR, on 145,725 and 7,066 MHz from Pretoria with relays on 28,325, 14,235, 10,130, 7,066 and 3,695 MHz SSB as well as 51,400, 438,825 and 1 296 MHz FM in the Pretoria area. (Other newsreaders please change to suit).
SILENT KEY
It is with deep shock and regret that we have to announce that Lawry, ZS5HV, was fatally shot on Tuesday night 12 Feb. when arriving home from an evening out with his wife, Margaret.
Our sincerest condolences to Margaret and their relatives and friends.
(PAUSE)
In the news today:
VHF/UHF COMPETITION - PRETORIA CLUB RUNS AWAY WITH YAESU HAND HELD RADIO
DRAFT PLT REGULATIONS PUBLISHED IN THE GOVERNMENT GAZETTE
BACAR GROUP TO MEET ON SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY AT NARC
SUMBANDILASAT LAUNCH INDEFINITELY DELAYED
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more detail on these and other important and interesting news items.
VHF/UHF COMPETITION - PRETORIA CLUB RUNS AWAY WITH YAESU HAND HELD RADIO
Piet Badenhorst, ZS6G, SARL VHF Manager has announced the results of the VHF/UHF competition held in September 2007. The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club, ZS6PTA, achieved a run-away score of 903 890 points. The next in line is ZS2ACP who scored 596 931 points followed by ZS5GNW 5 312 points, ZR2GLP 3 211 points, ZS2U 2 308 points and ZU5T 213 points.
ZS6PTA as the overall winner will be awarded the Yaesu hand-held transceiver donated by Kobus Conradie of Lets Play Radio. Congratulations to The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club and all the winners.
The next VHF competition will be held over the weekend of xxxxx. The rules can be found in the Contest handbook which is available on www.sarl.org.za.
DRAFT PLT REGULATIONS PUBLISHED IN THE GOVERNMENT GAZETTE
ICASA had published a notice of intention to make regulations in respect of Technical standards for Power Line Telecommunications in the Government Gazette with a response date of 6 March 2008.
The SARL believes that the regulations do not go far enough to protect the HF spectrum from harmful interference and that if interference occurs the mitigation process is not adequate. The SARL is working on a comment document to be filed with ICASA before the due date.
Radio Amateurs, shortwave listeners and other users of the HF radio spectrum are invited to make input to the SARL document. Input should be mailed to plc@sarl.org.za before 23 February 2008. For more details on PLT and a copy of the draft regulations visit www.sarl.org.za and follow the links.
BACAR GROUP TO MEET ON SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY AT NARC
The BACAR group will meet at the NARC on Saturday 23 February at 11:00 to discuss BACAR 2008 project set to launch in the May/June time frame. Details of the project can be found on www.amsatsa.org.za.
SUMBANDILASAT LAUNCH INDEFINITELY DELAYED
SumbandilaSat is still sitting safe in the clean room at Sunspace. The satellite, which includes an amateur radio payload, was to have been launched from a Russian submarine last year but arrangements went sour when the two defence authorities could not agree on a reciprocal satellite arrangement. It is understood that the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs was in Russia this week as part of a technical and scientific cooperation mission and that an alternative launch was likely to have been discussed. No official comment was available at the time of going to press.
WESTERN CAPE RTA GETS MOMENTUM
All arrangements for the SARL Radio Technology in Action event on 8 March in the Western Cape are in place and the event is gaining momentum. One of the interesting presentations is the application of WiFi to provide members of a club with access to a club's data base and access to the internet and world-wide web. Part of the WiFi spectrum falls in an amateur radio frequency allocation. Chris Scarr of the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society will present a paper on the PEARS WiFi project and share all the technical, operational and licensing details.
For the home brewer Karl Canitz will show you how to build a power supply from the junk box or using scrapped components. He will demonstrate several examples of easy homebrew projects.
The full RTA programme is available on the web at www.sarl.org.za, select activities from the left hand menu and click on RTA. To get a copy in your mailbox send an email to rta@sarl.org.za with RTA in the subject line. Tell your friends about it and bring young people interested in electronics and communication. Entrance costs R20. Students and learners enter free of charge.
CONTEST NEWS
VHF/UHF SPRINT
The first VHF/UHF Sprint will be held on Sunday 24 February from 16:00 to 17:00 CAT. This is a fun activity to promote contacts on 2 metres and 70 centimetres between radio amateurs in Southern African countries. All modes on the 2 metre and 70 cm bands as per IARU Region 1 and SARL VHF/UHF band plans may be used and the exchange is a RS(T) report and Maidenhead locator. Each QSO counts 2 points, the final score is calculated using the QSO points multiplied by the number of grids worked. Log sheets must be submitted by 10 March and must be sent by e-mail to zs6pjb@gmail.com or by snail mail to The VHF Contest Manager, Piet Badenhorst, PO Box 4452, White River, 1240.
SARL HAMNET 40 m SIMULATED EMERGENCY CONTEST
The annual SARL HAMNET 40 metre Simulated Emergency Contest will be run on Sunday 2 March from 14:00 to 16:00 CAT. It is a phone only contest between radio amateurs in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho, Marion Island and South African Antarctica. Only contacts with these areas will count. More detail in next week’s bulletin.
MEGA FLEA MARKET IN PRETORIA
The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club will be hosting a flea market on Saturday 8 March 2008. The flea market will be held at the usual place at the South-Campus of the University of Pretoria, at the corner of University and Lynwood roads. The starting time is 08:00.
Everyone, clubs and non club members are welcome to attend. Come and visit this Mega Flea market in Pretoria. Phone Almero, ZS6LDP, on (H)(012) 567 3722 or 082 908 3359 if you want to book a table or if you need more detail about the flea market.
REQUEST FROM BULLETIN EDITOR
It is appreciated that there are club bulletin readers who also read the SARL bulletin with their club bulletins. However, it has happened in the past that it was impossible for the SARL news editor to upload the bulletins to the SARL web with the result that the bulletins did not reach the club bulletin readers. It will thus be appreciated if the club bulletin readers shall inform the SARL news editor of their email addresses so that he may email the bulletins directly to them should this problem occur again, but hopefully not. The email address is gth@absamail.co.za.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be very low. The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet in general. The expected Effective Sun Spot number for the coming week will be less than 5. DX conditions will generally be good on the North-East and the North-West paths and poor in the general Northerly directions.
15 m and 20 m will provide best opportunities for DX. There is a possibility of 15 and 20 m openings towards India from about 14:00 CAT. There may be short, weak 20 m openings to Australia from 08:00. From 16:00 there may be short, weak 15 and 20 m openings towards Europe. From 18:00 there may be weak 15, 20 and 80 m openings towards the USA.
10 MHz is looking promising after dark for the CW and digital enthusiasts.
Local conditions are going to be good on 40 m during the day. 30 m may perform well during the middle of the day over the longer distances.
80 m is the frequency of choice in the evenings, thunderstorms and static permitting!
Remember that this is only a prediction and that HF always has the capability to surprise you, but you will never know unless you switch your rig on, listen and also call CQ.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
24 February - VHF/UHF Sprint;
2 March – Hamnet 40 m simulated emergency ccontest;
8 March – RTA in Cape Town;
8 March – Pretoria Club’s Mega flea market;
31 March - Closing date for first stage of 2008 construction competition.
11 to 13 April – SARL AGM in Bloemfontein;
SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news stories of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners. Submit news stories if possible in both English and Afrikaans to www.sarl.org.za/newsinbox.asp not later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.
The SARL also invites you to listen to the programme Amateur Radio Mirror International, on the air every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria area with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 590 kHz. For the web stream and Echolink by ZS6FCS visit www.sarl.org.za, click on ARMI and follow the links. A repeat transmission can be heard Mondays at 21:00 CAT on 3 215 kHz. Sentech sponsors the ARMI transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.
Today's South African Radio League news bulletin was compiled by George, ZS6NE.
Thank you for listening. 73.
/EX
