SARL NEWS – SUNDAY 15 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 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 1 296 MHz FM in the Pretoria area. (Other newsreaders please change to suit.)
In the news today:
AFRICA REPRESENTED AT WRTC-2010
ANOTHER OPTICAL COMMUNICATION RECORD DOWN UNDER
SARL HF FIELD DAY NEXT WEEKEND
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more detail on these and other important and interesting news items.
EA8CAC AND EA8DP TO REPRESENT AFRICA AT WRTC
Two Radio Amateurs from the Canary Islands will represent Africa at the 2010 World Radiosport Team Championships or WRTC, which is the major Amateur Radio contest event of the year 2010. The team leader is a well know DXer Juan J Hidalgo from Las Palmas.
WRTC-2010 will take place from 8 - 12 July near the Russian capital of Moscow where 50 teams from all over the world will compete under the same field conditions. The Russian National Amateur Radio Society hosts the event.
In 2006, at the event held in Brazil, Bernie van der Walt, ZS4TX, represented Africa. His teammate was N2IC. They were placed 26th.
ANOTHER OPTICAL COMMUNICATION RECORD DOWN-UNDER
A new, non line-of-sight optical communications distance record of 288 km was set down-under with a one-way transmission between two radio amateurs transmitting with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).
On the night of 27 October, Rex Moncur, VK7MO, and Joe Gelston, VK7JG, assisted by Paul Godden, VK7KPG, set a new one-way non line-of-sight optical record of 288 km across Australia's Bass Strait. Moreover, they did this using red light scattered off the clouds.
VK7MO was on Mount Liptrap in South Gippsland listening on his APD-based receiver. This, while VK7JG and VK7KPG were on Mount Horror in the Northeast transmitting with a 3 watt Luxeon LED transmitter. The signals from Mount Horror were bounced off some high altitude cirrus clouds estimated to have been at about 6 080 m.
On the receiving end, the call signs from Mt Horror were decoded by VK7MO using a new programme called Weak Signal Communicator. Weak Signal Communicator is a new application from the Spectrum Lab audio analysing that was recently created by David Smith, VK3HZ.
The experimenters also tried the WSJT decoding programme developed a few years ago by Joe Taylor, K1JT. The sync signal was received at -30 dB but unfortunately, there was no decoding.
NEW MEMBERS
The SARL welcomes the following new members – Jarred Brown, Conrad Buitendag, Petrus Jacobus Delport, Noel Hammond, Edwin Isted, André le Roux, Louis le Roux, Du Plessis Naude, Jacomina Elizabeth Nortman, Daniel Rueppel, Rohan Schreuder and Anna Christina van der Heever. They all have recently passed the RAE and are awaiting their call signs. Welcome and congratulations.
We also welcome –- TJ Greyling, ZR1ROM, Francois Moller, ZS3F, M Sowden, ZR5CAR, Johan Sevenster, ZS1A, Louis Botha, ZSL641, Don Bryant, ZS6BTP and Hughie Young, ZS1YS.
The current membership is approaching the 1 300 mark. If you were a member last year and have not paid your membership due, please do so as soon as possible. Contact Mariska for details on 011 675 2393.
NOMINATIONS FOR THE SARL COUNCIL
Nominations for the Council close on 30 November. To nominate a person, please submit a short amateur radio related CV of the person you are nominating. Please get a seconder for your nomination and ask the person you are nominating to sign the declaration that he or she is prepared to serve on the Council – if elected.
BACAR TEST
There will be a tethered BACAR test on Saturday 21 November from around 13:30. There will also be live coverage on the SA AMSAT web. For more details visit www.amsatsa.org.za.
FAMILY MEMBERSHIP CLARIFIED
The SARL offers a family membership category. The family membership requires that the there must be one full member in the family before other members of the family can qualify for the lower family membership. Family membership is limited to a spouse or children under 25 who live at the same address. Family members do not receive a printed copy of Radio ZS but have access to the web version.
SARL HF FIELD DAY NEXT WEEKEND
The second leg of the SARL HF Field Day will be run next weekend, 21 and 22 November 2009 with phone and CW activity on 10 to 160 metres. The Field Day starts at 12:00 CAT on Saturday and ends 24 hours later. Stations can participate as a single operator or multi-operator field station or as a general station. More information can be found in the 2009 SARL Contest Manual.
The Overberg Amateur Radio Club, ZS1OAR, will be operating a field station in the Marloth Nature Reserve at Swellendam on Field Day weekend. Visitors and operators are welcome. Contact André, ZS1AZ, on 028 514 2018 or Sam, ZS1OR, on 028 316 1470 for further details.
The following radio clubs and individuals have indicated that they will be on the air during the Field Day – Sandton; Sasolburg; Pretoria; Highway and Midlands; West Rand; Suid-Kaap; Robbie, ZS1RAP, and Johan, ZR5JF. You still have this week to get your club activated!
CONTEST NEWS
PEARS HF Contest.
The annual PEARS HF Contest will take place on Sunday 6 December from 14:00 to 18:00 CAT on 40 and 80 metres.
SARL VHF/UHF Contest.
The contest committee has released the results of the second leg of the SARL VHF/UHF (analogue) contest. The contest committee is concerned about the small number of logs submitted.
Multi-operator station:
1st Magalies Radio Amateur Club, ZS6MRK, with 20 573 points;
2nd John Vorster Technical School Radio Club, ZS6JVT, 4 222 points.
Single operator station:
1st Johan van Aarde, ZS2I, 4 702 points;
2nd Tienie Herbst, ZS6MHH, 4 079;
3rd Carl Minnie, ZS6CBQ, 3 449; and
4th Bert Howes, ZS6HS, 220 points.
The combined results of the March and September legs of the SARL VHF/UHF (analogue) contest are as follows:
Multi-operator station:
1st Magalies Radio Amateur Club, ZS6MRK, with 41 650 points; and
2nd John Vorster Technical School Radio Club, ZS6JVT, 8 961 points.
Single operator station:
1st Johan van Aarde, ZS2I, 7 513; with points;
2nd Tienie Herbst, ZS6MHH, 5 364;
3rd Carl Minnie, ZS6CBQ, 3 449;
4th Marius Preston, ZS4MP, 2 008;
5th Bert Howes, ZS6HS, 633; and
6th Theunis Potgieter, ZS2EC, 165 points.
SARL 80 Metre QSO Party.
The contest committee has notified SARL News that the Sasolburg ARC did not participate in the QSO contest. The 4th place as published last week belongs to Marius Preston, ZS4MP, a member of the Sasolburg ARC. The Contest Committee apologises for this error.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is still at low levels. Fortunately, three sunspots made their appearance during last week although they eventually rotated out of view.
15 and 120 m will provide the best opportunities for DX. Conditions to India and Brazil will be good from the afternoons onwards. During the late afternoons and early evenings, it will be good towards Europe. In the afternoons there are good possibilities of contacts with the USA on 15 m. Contacts with New Zealand and Australia are going to be challenging.
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 the shorter distances. 30 m will perform well over the longer distances during the middle of the day. With summer here, 20 m is also once again becoming very functional for contacts over the longer distances. 80 m is the frequency of choice in the evenings.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
15 November – closing date for the 2010 Contest suggestions;
21 and 22 November – SARL HF Field Day;
21 November – Home Construction course and BACAR demonstration 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;
6 December – PEARS HF Contest.
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
