SARL NEWS – SUNDAY 8 NOVEMBER 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 web-stream, 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 newsreader 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 1,297 MHz FM in the Pretoria area. (Other newsreaders please change to suit.)
SILENT KEY
It is with deep regret that the passing away of Arthur Ronald Hersey on 6 November 2009 is announced. Arthur qualified as a radio amateur in 1938 at the age of 16 and received the call sign ZS1RS.
We extend our sincere condolences to his son, John, family and friends.
(PAUSE)
In the news today:
HAVE FUN WITH SATELLITES
A NEW BACAR TO BE DEMONSTRATED
RAE RESULTS IMMINENT
RADIO AMATEUR WINS A NOBEL PRIZE
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more detail on these and other important and interesting news items.
NORTHWEST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB IS HOSTING ZS10WCS
The North West Amateur Radio Club is hosting the special ZS10WCS during the month of November. A good start was made by the Boland Amateur Radio Club in September when they made 2 639 contacts with amateurs from more than a hundred countries. The Oakdale Radio Club took charge in October. At this stage it is not known how many contacts were made. In December members of the East Rand Radio Club will operate ZS10WCS.
The preferred frequencies are as follows: CW on 28 010; 21 010; 14 010; 7 010 and 3 510 kHz. SSB on 28 480; 21 280; 14 180; 7 080 and 3 780 kHz.
QSL via the Bureau or directly via the SARL, P.O. Box 1721, Strubensvallei, 1735.
HAVE FUN WITH SATELLITES
AMSAT has arranged a Satellite Activity weekend from 13 to 15 November 2009. Radio Amateurs are invited to submit logs for the Satellite Activity Weekend. The purpose of the event is to encourage new operators to join the growing fraternity of users of Amateur Radio Satellites. AMSAT North America has specifically enabled the higher power QRP mode on AO-51 to make operation on this satellite easier for first-time users for the duration of the event.
The event will run from 16:00 UTC on Friday 13 November 2009 though to 16:00 UTC on Sunday 15 November 2009. Operation is permitted on any operational Amateur Satellite in any mode to count for points, with the proviso that all QSOs on AO-51 have to use the QRP V/U mode (145,880 MHz uplink and 435,150 MHz downlink).
RF Design will sponsor the prize of a TinyTrak 4 for the operator who accumulates the most overall points and a TinyTak3 for the best portable station. If these are the same operator, the TinyTrak3 will be awarded to the operator with the second highest points tally.
The full detail can be downloaded from www.amsatsa.org.za.
A NEW BACAR TO BE DEMONSTRATED
On Saturday 21 November at 14:00, John Willescroft, ZS6EF, will demonstrate the 2010 version of BACAR at the National Amateur Radio centre. Its maiden flight in the Western Cape will be on Sunday 24 January. BACAR is the acronym for Balloon Carrying Amateur Radio – a project first launched by SA AMSAT in the 70s.
BACAR will be demonstrated on a tethered launch. Radio Amateurs who are not able to be part of the demonstration at the NARC will be able to follow it on the Web. More details will be announced in next week's SARL news bulletin and published on www.amsatsa.org.za.
The demonstration will follow the first Home Constructor’s Course at the NARC – which is now fully booked. Names are now recorded for a possible second series of Home Construction courses next year.
There are still places available on the Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town courses. A list of those who have been booked and confirmed is available on the SARL web at www.sarl.org.za. Click on RTA under the heading ‘activities’ and follow the links.
RAE RESULTS IMMINENT
The long-awaited RAE results will be released within the next few days.
Since the last RAE, a few things have been changed to assist ICASA in easing the burden of doing additional admin work. The changes are as follows:
Normally we would reserve the call signs ahead of the time for the RAE candidates. Candidates wanting to write the Class A exam have the opportunity to write the Class B examination as well.
Once all of the marking and moderation of the exam papers had been completed, we had to send a list back to ICASA asking them to release all the reserved call signs for those that had failed. We would then ask them to release call signs of those who had enrolled for the Class A exam that had failed, but passed the Class B exam, in order to reserve call signs for a Class B call sign. This alone created a tremendous load on the staff working with amateur licensing and a lot of double work had to be done.
The new process will be that only once the marking has been completed, will we send the call signs through to be reserved for those that have passed their exams.
We would like to urge all candidates to keep their eyes glued to the SARL’s Web page for your result. We thank you for your patience.
Should you have any queries, you may contact Mariska at the SARL office on 011 675 2393 or e-mail her to admin@sarl.org.za.
ANOTHER RADIO AMATEUR WINS A NOBEL PRIZE
Around 05:30 on the morning of 6 October, George E Smith, AA2EJ, of Barnegat, New Jersey, received a phone call that changed his life: He had just heard he had won the Nobel Prize for Physics for 2009 "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor”. Smith will share the prize money with two other recipients: Charles K Kao, of Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in the United Kingdom and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Willard S Boyle of Bell Laboratories. Each recipient will receive a diploma, a medal and a 25% share of the R10 million prize money.
Kao was recognized by the prize committee for his "groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication”. His discoveries paved the way for the optical fiber technology that is used for almost all telephony and data communication today. Boyle and Smith invented a digital image sensor – the CCD – that has become the ‘electronic eye’ in almost all areas of modern photography.
The CCD – invented in about an hour over lunch when Smith and Boyle worked at New Jersey's Bell Labs – was, according to Wired Magazine, the first practical way to let a light-sensitive silicon chip store an image and then digitize it. In short, it is the basis of today's digital camera. According to Wired, the "most amazing thing about the invention" is that Boyle and Smith came up with the design so quickly. With Bell Labs threatening to take away the funds from their department and transfer the money to other research, Boyle had to come up with a competing semiconductor design. He got together with Smith, and within an hour, they came up with the idea and sketched it all out on a blackboard.
"One morning in October 1969," Boyle wrote on his website, "I was challenged to create a new kind of computer memory. That afternoon, I got together with George Smith and brainstormed for an hour or so about a new kind of semiconductor device, drawing a few sketches and equations on a blackboard. We called it a charge-coupled device: A 'CCD.' When we had the shops at Bell Labs make up the device it worked exactly as we had expected – much to the surprise of our colleagues."
Smith said that he knew the CCD was under consideration for the Nobel Prize, "but we didn't know exactly if, or when, it would happen. Research that wins the Nobel is often done many years beforehand. In my case, this was 40-year-old research. The Prize Committee wants to make sure the research has stood the test of time.” More on Amateur Radio Mirror International later today at 10:00.
Unfortunately, the show is about to end. The sunspot is moving toward the sun's western limb where it will soon disappear.
WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENT BY ZS4JAN
During the past month Jan Botha, ZS4JAN, made a wonderful achievement by achieving the WAZS 1 000 award of the SARL. It means that Jan made 1 000 confirmed contacts with individual call signs in South Africa. It took Jan almost 6 years to reach this milestone.
What makes this achievement môre unique is the fact that Jan is the first amateur to gain the WAZS 1 000 award.
The President of the SARL congratulates Jan with this unique achievement and trusts that that it will be an inspiration to other amateurs to be môre active on the bands and to regularly confirm contacts by means of either a QSL card or the SARL’s electronic QSL system.
Again many congratulations to Jan.
ANNUAL REMEMBRANCE DAY SERVICE
The annual Remembrance Day Service will be transmitted in Amateur Radio Mirror International today at 10:45 CAT. The service is in memory of South Africans who lost their lives in the protection of our country and our people. Please observe Radio Silence between 10:45 and 11:00 CAT as a mark of respect. The service will be conducted by Rev Hannes Enslin, ZS6JDE.
CONTEST NEWS
The second leg of the SARL HF Field Day will be on the weekend of 21 and 22 November 2009.
The contest committee has released the results of the second leg of the SARL 80 Metre QSO Party.
1st Jan Botha, ZS4JAN, 630 points;
2nd Charles le Roux, ZS1CF, 415;
3rd Theuns Potgieter, ZS2EC, 265;
4th Sasolburg ARC, ZS4SRK, 255;
5th Geoff Levey, ZS6GRL, 230; and
6th The World Cup Soccer station, ZS10WCS, operated by Dave, ZS1SG, with 205 points.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is still at low levels. There were no sunspots visible during the last couple of days.
15 and 20 m will provide the best opportunities for DX. Conditions to the east and the west will be good from the afternoon onwards. During the late afternoons and early evenings, it will be good towards Europe. In the mornings it may be possible to make contacts with Australia on 20 m. In the afternoons there are good possibilities of contacts with the USA on 15 m. Contacts with New Zealand are going to be challenging. During the afternoons and evenings, 15 and 12 m contacts may be promising with Brazil.
Local conditions are going to be good on 40 m during the daytime. 80 m may perform well during the early mornings and late afternoons over shorter distances. 30 m will perform well over longer distances during the middle of the day. With summer here, 20 m is also once again becoming very useful for contacts between Divisions 1 and 6. 80 m is the frequency of choice in the evenings.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
8 November – Remembrance Day service at 10:45 this morning during the ARMI program;
9 November – closing date for Radio ZS articles;
13 to 15 November – Satellite activity weekend;
15 November – closing date for suggestions for the 2010 Contest;
21 and 22 November – SARL HF Field Day;
21 November – Home Construction course and BACAR demonstration in Gauteng at the NARC;
22 November –Intechnet with SumbandilaSat as subject;
30 November – closing date for the essay competition and closing date for SARL Council nominations.
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 only to www.sarl.org.za/newsinbox.asp, not later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.
The SARL also invites you to listen to Amateur Radio Mirror International every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria-area, with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 860 kHz. There is also a podcast by ZS6RO. For a web-stream and Echolink by ZS6FCS, visit www.sarl.org.za, click on 'ARMI' and follow the links. A repeat transmission can be heard on 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. The editor was Jannie, ZR6PHD.
Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
