SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 18 JANUARY 2009
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 transmitted every Sunday at 08:15 CAT in Afrikaans and at 08:30 CAT in English. To listen to a webstream, visit www.sarl.org.za, click on ARMI and follow the links for details. PLEASE NOTE: for audio via Echolink, connect to ZS0JPL-R.
You can download this and previous bulletins from www.sarl.org.za and subscribe to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
Your news reader this morning is (name), (call sign), 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 regret that we announce that the key of Dave Miller, ZS6HO, has gone silent. He passed away peacefully on Friday 16 January 2009 around 19:30 at the age of 93. Details of his funeral service will be posted on the SARL forum. We extend our sincere condolences to his son Gregory, ZS6GDM, family and friends
PAUSE
In the news today:
HAMNET JOINED SEARCH FOR A MISSING PLANE
ICASA IS REORGANISING ITS LICENSING DEPARTMENT
NAMIBIAN VHF DXPEDITION MADE 245 EME CONTACTS
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more detail on these and other important and interesting news items.
HAMNET JOINED SEARCH FOR A MISSING PLANE
On Friday evening 9 January around 19:30, Hamnet received information from the South African Search and Rescue Organisation (SASAR) regarding an aircraft reported overdue at Lanseria airport that afternoon.
The plane, a two-seater Cessna on a private flight from a game farm near Dwaalboom in the Limpopo province to Lanseria airport near Randburg, did not lodge a flight plan, as the flight should only take about 30 to 45 minutes. The plane left the farm around 12:30 and was sighted on radar until it reached a point roughly 27 km north of the Pilanesberg range. This was the last sighting.
AT&NS asked Hamnet to institute a visual sighting search by involving farmers in the flight path area, should any of them have heard or seen anything. HAMNET member Hans Potgieter, ZS6ALJ, in the Rustenburg area was alerted to take the necessary action. For the full story, listen to the weekly Hamnet report on Amateur Radio Mirror or download the audio file from www.sarl.org.za, click on activities and select HAMNET.
ICASA IS REORGANISING ITS LICENSING DEPARTMENT
ICASA is currently centralising its licensing department which means that all amateur radio licences will be handled from its head office in Johannesburg. A few hiccups in the process and the annual shutdown over the December holiday season have caused delays in updating all systems. This means that payments by the SARL and individuals do not reflect on the system against specific licences but are still in the unallocated payments received file. This has also resulted that some amateurs who wrote the October 2008 radio amateur examination have neither received their licences nor renewal accounts. It is a standing arrangement that candidates who pass an RAE and received notification from the SARL, with their call sign, may operate while the paperwork will follow later.
ICASA is currently reorganising its staff allocation and hopes to have all the systems up to date soon. The SARL and ICASA are in constant contact and we will report on SARL News when all systems have been updated with the relevant licensing details.
Join SARL President Rassie Erasmus next Sunday at 19:30 for the President's Net when licensing and other important developments will be discussed. Clubs are urged to link their repeater to the network. Send telephone and repeater details to armi@sarl.org.za not later than Tuesday 20 January.
NAMIBIAN VHF DXPEDITION MADE 245 EME CONTACTS
By Wednesday last week the VHF DXpedition to Namibia made 245 EME contacts, with 211 of those on 144 MHz and the balance fairly equal between 432 and 1 296 MHz, and met the requirements for a Worked All Continent Award on 144 MHz EME.
The calm winds of the first few days ended on Wednesday when the team experienced strong winds gusting up to 125 kilometres per hour.
Operation on generator power made it necessary to cut back on some of the planned operations. 50 MHz was eliminated completely due to damage to the beam. Tropo conditions were poorer than anticipated and the destruction of the long 144 MHz Yagi greatly reduced chances of success on this project.
Satellite operation started off slowly because of the shortage of operators, but Wednesday’s stations in the satellite log included ZS1TX, ZS1UR, ZS2ACP, ZS2BK, ZS6AC, ZS6BB and ZS6TW. All contacts were made with a dual-band handheld and an Arrow antenna.
The present return transportation schedule will leave ZS6OB and ZS6WB in Lüderitz through the weekend and they will be active on OSCAR 51. In spite of all the trials and tribulations the Lüderitz VHF DXpedition 2009 can be considered a resounding success with all goals and expectations exceeded. There are many EME operators all over the world with smiles on their faces today because of the addition of a new DXCC entity toward a future 144 or 432 MHz DXCC award.
Congratulations to the team are well deserved.
SARL MEMBERSHIP IS CREEPING UP TO THE 1 400 MARK
This week the SARL membership stood at 1 374, just 26 short of the end of January target of 1 400. Join the SARL now for R170 which will cover membership till end June 2009. Enjoy the benefits of being part of the national body for amateur radio, working for amateur radio nationally and internationally, and receive Radio ZS every second month.
This week we welcome:
Helen Newton, ZR6HN;
Andrew Muir, G0IJI.
CLUB NEWS
The Kempton Park Amateur Radio Society will present a Class B RAE course, starting in March with the examination in May on the national RAE date. At the same time, the club will present an electronic class to improve the students' electronic abilities with a module-building project at the end of the course. Please visit the club's website at http://www.karts.zar.cc for more information.
CONTEST NEWS
The 2009 SARL Contest Manual and 2009 Diary of Events have been uploaded to the HF Happenings page on www.sarl.org.za. Please download a copy and share it with your club members. No date for the SARL VHF/UHF Contest has been set, nor are there any rules in the contest manual. The Contest Manager is waiting for input from the VHF/UHF community on this matter.
SOLAR ACTIVITY REMAINS LOW THIS WEEK
The current solar activity is low and not expected to increase dramatically in the short term. The outlook is that a coronal hole on the solar disk should rotate into a geo-effective position by the end of the weekend. Propagation conditions should be fair, with unstable HF working frequencies. Some sporadic E is possible.
The 20 metre band may be in good shape for local contacts around midday on circuits over 600 km such as Johannesburg to Durban and Cape Town to Durban. In the early afternoon some 10 metre openings may occur to India. Have a look for New Zealand and Australia in the early morning around sunrise when 80 metres may deliver some surprises. Paths to the US East and West coasts could open on 15 metres and are likely to peak around 18:00 CAT. For Europe look for contacts around the same time on 20 metres
Predictions are what they are – just predictions. Call CQ and you may be surprised at what you may hear. Visit www.spaceweather.co.za for detailed predictions and graphs.
If you have worked some DX, share it with our listeners by sending an email to armi@sarl.org.za. This report was by Hans, ZS6AKV, as Hannes, ZS6BZP, is out of communication reach this week.
DIARY OF EVENTS
16 to 18 January, thus still today – PEARS VHF /UHF competition;
25 January – President's Net;
31 January 2009 – Last day for submission of motions and agenda items for 2009 SARL AGM;
During January – Submit your nominations for SARL awards;
15 February – closing date for Tinus Lange award entries;
21 February – PIC course in Durban.
SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners. Submit news items – 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 webstream 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.
You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League, which was compiled by Dennis, ZS4BS.
Thank you for having listened, 73.
/EX
