SARL News – SUNDAY 21 FEBRUARY 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 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 newsreader this morning is (name), (call sign), on 145,725 and 7,066 MHz from Pretoria, with relays on 10,130, 7,066 and 3,695 MHz SSB.
SILENT KEY
It is with regret that we have to announce that Graeme Gathercole, ZS2OD, of Port Elizabeth passed away on Saturday 13th February 2010 after convalescing from a hip operation. We express our sincerest condolences to his two daughters, Dianne and Glynis, other relatives and friends, and in particular, the VHF fraternity.
(PAUSE)
In the news today:
NEXT SUNDAY'S INTECNET TO FOCUS ON SA SATELLITES WHAT IF?
FIRST SOUTH AFRICA / REUNION 70 cm QSO
HOW TO DEAL WITH INTRUDERS ON OUR BANDS
EMC STANDARDS NOW PUBLISHED
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting news items.
NEXT SUNDAY'S INTECNET TO FOCUS ON SA SATELLITES WHAT IF?
Next week Sunday the SARL and SA AMSAT are joining forces on INTECNET to discuss what if radio amateurs will get another opportunity to have an amateur payload included in one or more South African satellites?
The Department of Science and Technology is part of the African Constellation of Satellite Projects known as African Resource and Environmental Management Constellation (ARMC). From an African perspective it would be an excellent opportunity to include an amateur radio payload that would stimulate amateur radio on the continent.
During the discussion you radio amateurs are invited to talk about their ideas what such a payload should be. The satellite is likely to be in a polar low earth orbit similar to SumbandilaSat.
The Cape Peninsula University of Technology is building a 3 tier Cubesat. Can they be persuaded to include an amateur radio payload? And if so what should it be?
You can pre-register your participation by sending a short synopsis about your ideas to armi@sarl.org.za. You will then be called in during the first half of the programme. The second half is an open line and any one can call-in via the local relay stations.
Clubs wishing to link their repeater to the teleconference network should send details to armi@sarl.org.za by not latter than Wednesday 24 February.
Don't miss this interesting discussion next Sunday at 19:30 CAT. The programme will also be available on echolink and webcast.
FIRST SOUTH AFRICA / REUNION 70 cm QSO
At 16:48 UTC on Wednesday 10 February, Derek Gravett, ZS5Y, in Scottburgh and Phil Mondon, FR5DN, completed the first ever Reunion to South Africa QSO on 70 cm. over a distance of 2 655 km, The contact was made using JT65B. After that Derek and Phil made a SSB QSO as well with signal reports of 41 and 55.
Congratulations to Derek, ZS5Y, and Phil, FR5DN, on this achievement.
On the previous evening about an hour after Andre, ZS2ACP, and Phil, FR5DN, made their historic contact of 3 205 km, Dave, ZS5DJ, of Ramsgate, Leë, ZS5LEE, in Durban and Derek, ZS5Y, also contacted Phil on JT65B. Both Lee and Derek succeeded to also work Phil on SSB. The Hepburn Tropo Index forecasted excellent Tropo conditions over the Indian Ocean for that period.
HOW TO DEAL WITH INTRUDERS ON OUR BANDS
The SARL receives many complaints about people not authorised to use the amateur bands, pirates at sea, truckers and broadcasting stations.
To deal with this effectively the following information is required: times operating, frequency and possible identification. If it is a broadcasting station the name of the station, location etc plus a sound recording on MP3. In other words as much information is needed as possible and a recording is essential.
The IARU has a world wide monitoring systems called IARUMS. The SARL inputs information to the system and where possible several members of IARUMS report these incidences to their national monitoring service which takes it up on a Government to Government level.
If the instrusion is from a local source the SARL will take it up with ICASA, for example a trucking company operates illegally on the 20 metre amateur band. By listening and recording the conversation we need to learn which company owns the truck to enable action to be taken. We have been successful in the past. It requires lots of monitoring to collect all the information needed.
Report any intrusion to secretary@sarl.org.za but ensure that the required details are included as well as a MP3 recording. Let us keep our bands free from intruders. With your help we can go a long way.
ANOTHER BUMPER EDITION OF RADIO ZS IN THE MAIL
Members will soon be receiving another copy of Radio ZS packed cover to cover with interesting articles. It will also go live on the web this weekend.
Read about "What is D-Star?" an article by Peter Tottle, ZS2ABF, Build your own antenna analyser by John Green, ZS1JHG, Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE, surveys the satellite scene and Ean Retief, ZS1PR, writes about "die S-meter- 'n groot leuenaar". But that's not all. There also is Amateur Radio - the most versatile hobby on earth, Awesome Amateur Radio by Victor P du Preez, ZS6EA, an article about awards and the regular Museum and amateur radio column by ZS6AAW.
If you not yet a member of the SARL and would like to get a sample copy in your email mail box, send a message to armi@sarl.org.za with the subject line "Radio ZS Feb 2010.
EMC STANDARDS NOW PUBLISHED
ICASA has published a list of EMC standards in the Government Gazette of 22 January 2010. This means that immunity requirements will be mandatory for all electronic products from 22 January 2011.
SARL members can download a copy of the Gazette from the member’s section of the SARL web pages. The document is divided into two sections. Sections 1 - 9 dealing with the legal issues and details of the structure while section 10 is the official listing of ICASA Regulated Standards for technical equipment and electronic communication facilities.
In Amateur Radio Mirror International, on the air his morning (Sunday) at 10:00, there will be a discussion with Eric Winter of EMC Assist, a consultancy specializing in EMC issues. Frequencies and rebroadcast times are given at the end of this bulletin, or visit www.sarl.org.za and click on ARMI.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that there were 772 days without sunspots since 2004. Typically there are only 485 days without sunspots during a solar minimum. We indeed experienced a long and deep solar minimum. During 2010 there were up to now only 2 days without sunspots. The solar activity is still at low levels. Currently sunspot 1 049 is doing its bit for solar activity, although it is only a small sunspot. The effective sunspot number is expected to be around twenty for the coming week.
20 and 15 m will provide the best opportunities for DX. Conditions to India will be good from the afternoons onwards. During the late afternoons and early evenings it will be moderate towards Europa. In the afternoons there are good possibilities for contacts with the USA on 15 m. Contacts with Australia will be possible on 20 m for a short while during the mornings. During the afternoons and evenings 20 and 15 m contacts may also be possible with Brazil.
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. 30 m will perform well during the middle of the day. With summer here 20 m is also once again very useful for contacts over the longer distances, especially up to two o'clock in the afternoons.
80 m is the frequency of choice in the evenings.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
28 February – Intechnet at 19:30 about possible future SA satellite payloads.
28 February – 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.
5 March – Closing date for the Tinus Lange Awards.
31 March – SARL 80 m Club Contest with PSK and RTTY.
17 April – 2010 SA AMSAT Space Symposium.
23-25 April – SARL National Convention, Port Elizabeth.
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 webstream 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 and edited by George, ZS6NE.
Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
