SARL News – SUNDAY 14 MARCH 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 email.

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.

In the news today:

CHANGES TO RADIO REGULATIONS

SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION

2010 SA AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM

You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting news items.

CHANGES TO RADIO REGULATIONS

It appears that ICASA is ready to publish the draft radio regulations in the Government Gazette, it could even be early next week.

As soon as the SARL receives a copy of the draft regulations, it will be posted on the SARL website at www.sarl.org.za. Public comment will be invited which will be considered by ICASA before the regulations will be finalised.

The SARL Council will study the draft regulations and, if necessary, will make comment and will seek an opportunity to present its views at a public hearing. A president’s net will be convened to get as much input as possible to the position that the SARL will put forward to ICASA.

Although the SARL requested that the organisation make input into the draft, the ICASA Councillor charged with rewriting the outdated regulations decided that once the draft is published for comment, it is the appropriate time for the SARL to make input.

SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION - IT IS NOW TIME FOR ACTION

The SARL National Convention will be hosted in Port Elizabeth by the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society (PEARS) from 23 - 25 April. The Annual General Meeting will be held as part of the National Convention on Saturday 24 April. The full National Convention programme is available on www.sarl.org.za, Book now!

Details of the AGM, agenda, minutes and financial documents are now available on the SARL website for download. One of the important items on the agenda is the revised and updated constitution. Members are urged to study it carefully as it will have to be voted on at the AGM. The constitution has not changed in scope but has been merely updated to reflect modern day practices like email for instance.

If you cannot attend the AGM and National Convention (it would be a great pity) please appoint a proxy to vote on your behalf. It is important to brief the person representing you. You should however put your full trust in the person you are appointing and brief the person to vote in the best interest of the organisation and the SARL.

NZ AMATEURS GRANTED TEMPORARY 600 METRE ALLOCATION

Based on a request filed by New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters, that nation’s telecommunications regulator has agreed to grant New Zealand Amateurs temporary access to a slice of the 600 metre spectrum.

Beginning on March 1st, 505 to 515 kHz has been granted to them on a temporary basis pending an international allocation to radio amateurs and includes some restrictions. These involve a maximum radiated power not to exceed 25 watt effective radiated power and a maximum bandwidth of 200 Hertz.

As in other parts of the world where radio amateurs have use of this band, these frequencies are, or may be, allocated for use by other services. As such, amateur operators must accept interference from, and must not cause interference to these other services.

On the international scene, work continues to gain a world-wide allocation in this area through the International Amateur Radio Union. If and when this is approved, it is likely that the New Zealand Amateurs will be granted a permanent allocation in the 600 metre area.

REGISTER NOW FOR THE 2010 SA AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM

Registration for the 2010 SA AMSAT Space Symposium is now open. The symposium will be held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on 17 April 2010. There is a substantial discount for early bird bookings. Visit www.amsat.org.za for details and the registration form. The symposium will be opened by Dr Phil Mjwara, Director General of the Department of Science and technology followed by an array of interesting speakers and subjects. The type of conference you cannot afford to miss.

Bona fide students and learners are invited to apply for free registration made possible through a grant from the Department of Science and Technology through the FRD and UKZN.

SARL DISCUSSION FORUM

The SARL Discussion Forum will in future only be available to registered Forum Members. Ensure that you enable cookies on your computer and the Forum will remember your computer. Anybody can register to be a member of the SARL Forum. Contact Gerhard, ZS3TG, at 082 576 6296 in case of any questions.

RULE CHANGE TO THE WAZS PROGRAM

The sequential numbering of certificates serves an important function as it denotes who was first, second etc. to reach a certain level of achievement but at present, it no longer serves this purpose as a flood of requests for meaningless endorsements keeps on streaming in.

A change to the rules has been made and the sentence "Specific mode and/or band endorsements can be requested" has been changed to "Specific mode or band endorsements can be requested".

In effect this means that requests for WAZS SSB, WAZS CW, WAZS Mixed or WAZS 7 MHz etc. at the various levels will be entertained but endorsements such as 7 MHz CW or 7 MHz SSB will no longer be issued.

Tjerk ZS6P, the SARL awards manager, wishes to thank you all for the magnificent support you have given to the WAZS program.

HAMNET WESTERN CAPE

Hamnet Western Cape announces the appointment of Paul van Spronson, ZS1PVS, as the new Provincial Director for the Western Cape.

Paul takes over from Bruce Robinson, ZS1FX, who has done a sterling job of building up and expanding Hamnet activities in the Western Cape. Bruce will stay on as the Hamnet representative for the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre as well as for the soccer world cup later this year.

Bruce has a heavy work commitment and felt that it be a good idea to get some new ideas into the running of Hamnet and we welcome Paul who has already indicated that he plans to introduce some changes.

Thank you Bruce for all you did, it is highly appreciated.

Listeners country wide are reminded that the Hamnet Western Cape’s bulletin is transmitted every Wednesday evening at 20:30 CAT on 145,700 MHz in Cape Town and relayed on 3 760 kHz. The bulletin consists mainly of matters relating to emergency communications, and particularly relevant to the Western Cape, but there may be items of interest to you. The editorial welcomes contributions which may be of use to all, so please email Dave to zs1dfr@telkomsa.net with any information you might have. Call-in on 3 760 kHz starts at about 20:20 CAT, and is handled by David, ZS1DDK, who manages the relay. He welcomes signal reports, even if you are unable to call in or be heard.

CONTEST NEWS

SARL VHF/UHF Contests.

The first leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Contests is scheduled for the weekend of 19 to 21 February 2010. There are two contests running during the weekend.

The VHF/UHF Digital contest is made up of two sessions, the first session runs from 16:00 UTC on Friday 19 March to 12:59 UTC on Saturday 20 March and the second session runs from 13:00 UTC on Saturday 20 March to 12:00 UTC on Sunday 21 March.

The VHF/UHF Analogue contest takes place from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 20 March to 10:00 UTC Sunday 21 March.

The following frequency bands may be used - 50 to 51,5 MHz; 70 to 70,300 MHz; 144 to 145,55 MHz; 432 to 433,6 MHz; 1 296 to 1 296,5 MHz and higher frequencies as per band plan. Read the complete rules for both contests in the 2010 SARL Contest Manual.

PEARS VHF/UHF Contest.

The results of the 2010 PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest held in January 2010 have been released. As usual, there was a hive of activity in the Southern and Eastern Cape and it was good to see an increase in activity in the other provinces.

Winners of the analogue category:

Single Operator Base Station.
6 m Eric Hosten, ZS2ECH
4 m Ken Victor, ZS2OC
2 m Johan van Aarde, ZS2I
70 cm Andre Botes, ZS2ACP.

Single Operator Field Station.
6 m Terence van der Linden, ZS2VDL
4 m Al Akers, ZS2U
2 m Terence van der Linden, ZS2VDL
70 cm Terence van der Linden, ZS2VDL, and Allan Bowles, ZS2BO.

Multi Operator Field Station.
6, 4 and 2 metre and 70 cm classes won by Andrew Prideaux, ZS2PA.

Limited Category
6 and 2 metre and 70 cm classes won by Alexandros Gogos, ZR2T.

Winners of digital category:

Single Operator Base Station.
6 m Andre Botes, ZS2ACP
4 m Andre Botes, ZS2ACP, and Willem Badenhorst, ZS6WAB
2 m Derek Gravett, ZS5Y
70 cm Derek Gravett, ZS5Y, and Glenn Kraut, ZS2GK.

Congratulations to all the winners, the full results are available on the PEARS website.

HABEX 2010

The High Altitude Balloon Experiment 2010, also called HABEX ,is being hosted by the Sci Bono Discovery Centre.

This project aims at launching a series of balloons to high altitudes carrying payloads constructed by school learners.

10 Schools from Gauteng are participating and radio amateur operators who have a passion for education and developing the hobby are needed to assist the teams in getting ready.

Radio amateurs who wish to participate will be paired up with a school team and will assist the school team during preparation as well as during the launch. Radio clubs are also invited to pair up with schools.

An information sharing meeting is scheduled for 20 March 2010 at Sci Bono Centre at 09:00. Please sms your vehicle registration number and callsign to 083 543 5668 to arrange for secure parking in the basement.

Sci Bono is situated in Mirriam Makeba Street opposite the Market Theatre, Johannesburg.

CLUB NEWS

The Garden Route Radio Club's 40 metre beacon ZS1AGI/B near George is back on the air on 7,025 MHz with 200 mW maxm. output. The beacon is very useful to determine whether the band is open to the Southern Cape.

Reception reports will be appreciated; use the e-mail address for ZS1GRC as listed in the SARL Call Book.

The Amateur Radio section of the Oakdale Club recently held their Annual General meeting and the following members were elected for the club’s 2010 committee:
Fred Scheepers, ZS1FCS, – Chairman
Graham Butler, ZS1GVB, – Vice Chairman and Manager
Social Events
Dirk du Plessis, ZS1DDP, – Treasurer
David Perry, ZS1SG, – Radio Shack Manager & Technical matters
Gerald Menesis, ZS1GRM, – Organizer Lighthouse events
Dirk v d Berg, ZS1VDB, – QSL Manager & DX, PIO
Sean White, ZS1BSD, – Secretary & Youth activities
Herby Evans, ZR1ABV, – Catering.
Appointee: Deon Coetzee - ZR1DE - Editor Acorn Times.

HF HAPPENINGS NEWSLETTER.

HF Happenings is a free weekly newsletter containing contest news, African DX News and other matters of HF interest. The newsletter is available via e-mail in PDF format. To receive a copy of HF Happenings or to be placed on the mailing list, send an e-mail request to zs4bs@netactive.co.za.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is still at low levels. A pair of sunspots are currently visible on the earth facing side of the sun. The effective sunspot number is expected to be less than 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 fair towards Europa. In the afternoons there are good possibilities of contacts with the USA on 15 m. Contacts with Australia and New Zealand will be challenging. During the afternoons and evenings good 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. 20 m is very useful for contacts over the longer distances during the majority of the day.

80 m is the frequency of choice in the evenings.

Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.

DIARY OF EVENTS

13/14 March - RSGB Commonwealth CW only Contest.
19/21 March - SARL VHF/UHF Digital Contest.
20/21 March - SARL VHF/UHF Analogue Contest.
20 March – HABEX information meeting at 09:00 at the Sci Bono centre.
27 March - Pretoria Amateur Radio Club Flea market at 08:00.
27 March - PIC programming in 4 hours course at the NARC.
31 March – SARL 80 m Club Contest with PSK and RTTY.
31 March – Closing date for stage 1 of the Construction Competition.
17 April – 2010 SA AMSAT Space Symposium.
23-25 April – SARL National Convention, Port Elizabeth.
7 May - Closing dat for stage 2 of the Construction Competition.

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