SARL NEWS – SUNDAY 10 JANUARY 2010
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:
SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION – BOOK FROM NEXT WEEK
BACAR LAUNCH IN THE WESTERN CAPE
PEARS VHF/UHF CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more detail on these and other important and interesting news items.
SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION – BOOK FROM NEXT WEEK
Bookings for the SARL National Convention will open next week. The convention, to be held from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 April 2010 in Port Elizabeth, will be hosted by the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society.
There will be welcoming spitbraai on the Friday evening. On the Saturday, there will be variety of activities after the AGM, which will be in the morning. Delegates have a choice of visiting the Seaview Game Park, a visit to Hightech Automotive, home of the AC Cobra. Book for the PIC course presented by John Willescroft, ZS6EF, or attend a DXing think-tank hosted by Donovan van Loggerenberg, ZS2DL.
The annual Awards Banquet will be held at the Italian Social Club with Hans Blondeel Timmerman, PB2T, President of Region 1 of the International Amateur Radio Union, as the guest speaker.
The convention will end with a breakfast on Sunday morning.
There will be many other surprises and lucky draws. Watch regular updates on SARL News and on www.sarl.org.za. The booking form will be available from Wednesday 13 January 2010.
HOME CONSTRUCTION COURSE – CAPE TOWN FULLY BOOKED
The SARL Home Construction course in Cape Town on 23 January 2010 is now fully booked. There is, however, still space left at the Durban and Port Elizabeth venues.
Full details and a booking form are available on www.sarl.org.za, select ‘Activities’ and then ‘RTA” and navigate from there. If you have booked for any of the courses, your name will appear on the RTA pages. Please check, and if your name is not there send an e-mail to rta@sarl.org.za.
BACAR LAUNCH IN THE WESTERN CAPE
The first flight of BACAR-2010 is planned for Sunday 24 January. The payload will be multifunctional and include a 20 and 40 m SSB transceiver, a 2 m parrot repeater, a 2 metre Doppler beacon (equipped with GPS) as well as a camera.
SARL News and www.amsatsa.org.za will carry regular updates.
SARL MEMBERSHIP BROKE THE 1 300 BARRIER
The SARL started the New Year with 1 323 members. Our target for the end of January is 1 400 and we need your help to achieve this. Talk to your friends who are not yet members and convince them that their support is vital to make the SARL's voice stronger when we negotiate with the authorities. Right now, the subscription fee for the next six months is only R200. Visit www.sarl.org.za for details on how to join, or call Mariska on 011 675 2393.
PROPOSE YOUR FRIEND FOR A SARL AWARD
We are sure that you know someone in your circle of club members who excels in some aspect of Amateur Radio. Propose that person for an award to be presented at the annual awards dinner at the National Convention in Port Elizabeth. You can find full details in ‘ClubTalk’ on the SARL news pages. Go to www.sarl.org.za, select ‘News’ and then ‘ClubTalk’.
CONTEST NEWS
The first session of the annual PEARS VHF/UHF contest starts at 18:00 CAT on Friday 15 January and closes at 16:00 CAT on Saturday 16 January. The second session commences at 16:01 CAT on Saturday and ends at 14:00 CAT on Sunday 17 January. Participation can be as a base station, a field station, a club or multi-operator station or as a limited station. Activity is on FM, SSB and digitally on 2, 4 and 6 m, as well as 23 and 70 cm. A valid contact consists of an exchange of call signs, signal reports and location, such as the six digit-Maidenhead grid locator or co-ordinates. The rules are available at www.zs2pe.co.za.
PEARS HF QSO Party. It is with pleasure that PEARS announces the results of the PEARS HF QSO Party held on 6 December 2009. Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to all those who took part. The complete results will be made available on the PEARS website.
Unlimited Category
1st Jan Botha, ZS4JAN, 162 points;
2nd André le Roux, ZS2AL 110; and
3rd Otto van Rooyen, ZS2Q, 97 points.
Restricted Category
1st Johan Visagie, ZR4LP/6, 60; and
2nd Petrus Delport, ZR6BVS, 10 points.
DX Category
1st Andy Cory, 3DA0TM, 66 points.
Novice Category
No entries were received.
MOTIONS FOR THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
In last week’s SARL New the incorrect fax number was regrettably given for the submission of motions for the SARL AGM. The correct fax number is 088 011 675 2793.
Remember that each motion must include a concise description of the motion and a motivation in support thereof. A proposer and seconder must sign each motion.
Motions must reach the Secretary not later than Sunday 31 January 2010. Motions must be addressed to The Secretary, SARL and mailed to PO Box 1721, Strubensvallei, 1735, or faxed to 088 011 675 2793.
CLUB NEWS
The Antique Wireless Association (AWA) is pleased to announce its new committee for 2010. President – Don Radford, ZS5DR, technical advisor – Rad Handfield-Jones, ZS6RAD, and secretary/public relations officer, Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY.
The AWA thanks Rad, ZS6RAD, the outgoing President, who served the AWA well over the last two years and we wish the new committee well for the coming year.
PROPAGATION
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, is away this week and Hans, ZS6AKV, is standing in. He reports that geomagnetic conditions are at quiet levels. Local HF working frequencies are unstable to slightly elevated from predicted average monthly values. The outlook is that there is one active area on the solar disk. Propagation conditions should be fair, with unstable to elevated values from predicted local monthly average HF active frequencies during mornings while becoming low during afternoons.
An interesting feature is the performance of the 20 m band. On the route between Johannesburg and Cape Town, good performance is predicted for most of the daylight hours. The charts show an interesting dip around 15:00 CAT when 7 MHz seems to peak. If one looks at the 7 MHz chart, is almost like a sine wave repeating itself every few hours. It is expected to be performing well for the most of the day.
DX-wise, 20 m will yield some good DX at times with short openings to just about all corners of the earth. 10 and 15 metres will present some surprises with DX-stations from areas we have not heard from for some time. Propagation is like the weather, the only sure way you know it is going to rain, is to look up to the clouds. If you do not call ‘CQ DX’ and listen on the various frequencies, you will miss out.
Visit www.spaceweather.co.za for detailed predictions.
DIARY OF EVENTS
15 to 17 January 2010 - PEARS VHF/UHF Contest;
23 January - Home Construction course in Cape Town;
24 January - BACAR launch in the Western Cape;
31 January - President's net at 19:30;
31 January - Closing date for AGM motions;
6 and 7 February - AWA CW Activity Day;
28 February - New closing date for the SumbandilaSat essay competition;
28 February - Final date for entries in the ARRISS-SAT project to be submitted to youth@sarl.org.za;
27 March - 2010 SA AMSAT Space Symposium.
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 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
