SARL NEWS – SUNDAY 10 MAY 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 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 bulletin and previous ones 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 52,750, 438,825 and 1 296 MHz FM in the Pretoria area. (Other newsreaders please change to suit).
In the news today:
IS THERE A SUNSPOT IN THE OFFING?
STILL NO 40 METRE BAND EXPANSION
TIME RUNNING OUT FOR RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS NOMINATIONS
SPECIAL EVENT STATION – ZS6SCI
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more detail on these and other important and interesting news items.
IS THERE A SUNSPOT IN THE OFFING?
Astronomers are watching the edge of the sun, waiting for the emergence of an active region that produced a bright coronal mass ejection or CME on 5 May. At the time of the explosion, the blast site was hidden behind the sun's eastern limb, but now solar rotation is turning the region toward the earth for a better view. Will a sunspot appear to break the monotony of the blank sun? Visit www.sarl.org.za for updates.
CMEs are huge bubbles of gas threaded with magnetic field lines that are ejected from the sun over the course of several hours. Although the sun's corona has been observed during total eclipses of the sun for thousands of years, the existence of coronal mass ejections was only discovered in the space age.
TIME RUNNING OUT TO NOMINATE FOR THE NSN RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS
The closing date for nominations for the Nokia Siemens Radio Amateur of the Year is next week. Here is an opportunity to give recognition to a radio amateur for his or her technical contribution to amateur radio or a promotional activity.
There are three categories of awards annually sponsored by Nokia Siemens Networks. They are:
GARTH MILNE TECHNICAL INNOVATION AWARD
The award is made for the support, development and application of technological innovation in amateur radio in South Africa. The recipient will be a person who has promoted the use of technology in amateur radio at club level, nationally, at schools or tertiary educational institutions.
NSN RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD
The award is made for the support and development of the amateur radio service in South Africa, not for individual achievements such as DXCC and other operational awards or contests. The recipient will be a person who has given of his or her expertise and time to the promotion of amateur radio in South Africa.
NSN AMATEUR RADIO COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Annually, the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust is recognising a radio amateur or a group of radio amateurs for service to the community.
Community service can be assistance to a disabled radio amateur, communications support during a sporting event or a disaster situation like a road accident or a natural disaster like a flood, veld fires or an earthquake.
Nominations are invited for an individual or a group of people like a radio club, or an association.
The nomination form is available on www.amateurradio.org.za
STILL NO 40 METRE BAND EXPANSION
During the week the SARL was informed that the draft document was returned to the legal department of ICASA for some corrections to the wording. At the time of editing SARL News, ICASA confirmed that the general manager: legal had approved the revised document. It will now go the ICASA council for final approval before it will be published in the Government Gazette. Any new developments will be posted on www.sarl.org.za as information is made available by ICASA.
JOIN NOW AND GET MAY AND JUNE FREE
Non-members are invited to join now, pay the discounted 2009/2010 fee of R320 and get May and June free of charge. For senior non-members joining, the fee will be R200. Call the SARL office on Monday to get this special offer. Mariska's number is 011 675 2393.
SPECIAL EVENT STATION – ZS6SCI
A Special Event Station, with call sign ZS6SCI, will be active daily from 09:00 to 14:00 CAT from Monday 18 to Friday 22 May 2009 from the Sci Bono Science Discovery Centre in Newtown in Johannesburg. The station will be active on all bands, propagation permitting.
There is a special limited edition QSL card that will be sent out to each confirmed contact. QSL cards will only be sent out directly.
CONTEST NEWS
The ZS4 Sprint, a phone and CW activity, will be on the air on Sunday 24 May from 16:00 to 17:00 CAT. ZS4 stations will give a RS(T) report and their town name or abbreviation and other stations a RS(T) report and their provincial abbreviation.
The SARL Youth Sprint will be run on Tuesday 16 June. Start making your arrangements now for this event. SARL Councillor for Youth Activities, Gerhard, ZS3TG, will be providing more information in next week’s bulletin.
The contest committee has released the results of the SARL Hamnet contest held on Sunday 1 March 2009. There was a lot of activity on the band, but only 12 participants were brave enough to submit their logs – eleven contest logs and one check log. The results are as follows:
Single operator, stationary mobile:
Geoffery, ZS6GRL, 555 points.
Single operator, portable:
Jan, ZS1VDV, 2 304 points.
John, ZR6HLT, 558 points.
Tienie, ZS6MHH, 408 points.
Single operator, base station:
Al, ZS2U, 1 974 points.
Jan, ZS4JAN, 1 800 points.
Colette, ZR2CR, 1 722 points [now ZS2CR].
Philip, ZU4PE, 1 176 points.
Theunis, ZS2EC, 878 points.
Martin, ZS4ISH, 768 points.
Pieter, ZS3AOR, 648 points.
Thank you to everybody who participated and congratulations to the winners.
CLUB NEWS
The East Rand Branch meeting will be held from 14:00 CAT on 16 May 2009 at the clubhouse in Plantation Road, Springs. Call in on the 145,675 MHz repeater. The theme for the meeting is New Amateurs and aspirant radio amateurs will be welcomed following the HF assessment in preparation for the RAE. For more information visit www.zs6erb.co.za.
The next ZS6PTA Mega Flea Market will be held on Saturday 30 May, starting at 08:00 CAT, at the Pretoria Motor Club in Silverton. For more information, tables or directions to the venue, contact Almero, ZS6LDP, on 082 908 3359.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be very low. The geomagnetic field is expected to be predominantly at quiet levels. The expected Effective Sun Spot number for the coming week will be less than 5. Currently the surface of the sun is blank, and there are no sunspots. We are indeed experiencing a very deep minimum. The sun's failure to produce sunspots is playing havoc with some frequency prediction programs that use stored sunspot values and, of course, with our HF communications as well. The frequency prediction programs tend to give optimistic results and must be treated with caution.
The imminent change of season with less energy from the sun reaching the southern ionosphere is having an impact on propagation as well. 15, 17 and 20 m will provide best opportunities for DX. Conditions to the east and the west will be good from the early afternoon onwards. During the late afternoon and early evenings it will be good towards the north. The northeasterly, northwesterly, southeasterly and southwesterly paths will be challenging. Long path propagation towards the USA is also possible. 10 MHz is looking promising late afternoon and after dark for the CW and digital enthusiasts.
Local conditions are going to be good on 40 m during the day time. 80 m may perform well during the early mornings and late afternoons over the shorter distances, e.g. between ZS5 and ZS6. 30 m may perform well during the middle of the day between ZS6 and ZS1. With winter on its way, 20 m is preparing for hibernation but may still give surprising results up to lunchtime. 80 m is the frequency of choice in the evenings. Unfortunately, the static noise levels are still a bit high, making contacts over the longer distances a bit challenging.
Remember that this is only a prediction and that HF has the capability to pleasantly 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
15 May – Closing date for SARDT award nominations;
16 May – East Rand branch meeting;
18 to 22 May – Special Event Station ZS6SCI, Sci Bono, on the air;
20 May – Radio Amateur Exam;
24 May – ZS4 Sprint;
26 May – Sandton ARC technical meeting at the NARC;
30 May – Pretoria Mega Flea Market and RTA in Kwazulu-Natal.
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 Amateur Radio Mirror International programme every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria area, with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 570 kHz. There is also a podcast by ZS6RO. 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, compiled by Dennis, ZS4BS, and edited by Hester van der Walt. Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
