SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2011
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 also 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 7,066 and 3,695 MHz SSB.
In the news today
ICASA CHANGES ITS MIND ABOUT REGULATIONS
INNOVATION COMPETITION - FIRST PHASE WINNERS ANNOUNCED
THREE RADIO AMATEURS KILLED BY SOMALI PIRATES OFF THE COAST OF EAST AFRICA
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting news items.
ICASA CHANGES ITS MIND ABOUT REGULATIONS
The Council of ICASA has decided that the authority will not go through a second public review process but that the final regulations will be published in the Government Gazette soon. No final date was given at this week's SARL/ICASA liaison meeting but it will be before the end of March 2011.
At the liaison meeting the question of reciprocal agreements between SADC countries was also discussed. The SARL delegation pointed out that the SARL request to have this resolved is now long overdue and that some urgent attention should be given to this. The Chairman of the meeting, Phil Molefe, gave instructions to staff attending the meeting to respond to the SARL within a week. He chaired the meeting on behalf of Dumisa Ngwenya who is attending the WRC preparatory meeting in Geneva.
While not yet Gazetted, the license fees will not go up on 1 April 2011, but only in 2012. The license fee for the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 will remain R27.
The SARL delegation also discussed the gazetting of the allocation of 135,7 - 137,6 kHz. The allocation is included in the table of amateur radio frequency allocations which will be gazetted with the new regulations. ICASA however agreed to investigate the possibility of issuing a separate gazette.
INNOVATION COMPETITION - FIRST PHASE WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Eight Entries were received in the Innovation Competition sponsored by Multisource and Icom. Two winners were selected by the SA Amateur Radio Development Trust.
Deon Coetzee, ZR1DE, submitted a proposal for the development of a platform for a tracking Directional Antenna. The project proposal describes the development of an operational platform of both the mechanical structure as well as the electronic system required for the control of directional antennas such as for instance a parabolic dish type tracking a moving signal source such as a satellite.
Hannes Coetzee submitted 6 proposals of which one was chosen for immediate further development. The others will be developed as articles for Radio ZS later this year. His proposal for a simple, innovative ground station using modern, state-of-the-art RF IC's in conjunction with a Personal Computer equipped with a sound card is proposed for the reception of satellite downlink signals. Software Defined Radio (SDR) offers the opportunity to join the fun, learn about the future of radio and enjoy all the power of Digital Signal Processing offered by a PC without having to break the bank.
Both entrants have until 15 May to finalise their designs and produce a prototype to be presented at the annual SA Amateur Radio Development Trust Award function to be held in Midrand on 6 June 2011. The winner will be presented with an ICOM7000 HF transceiver by the Managing Director of Multisource, Richard Smuts-Stein.
THREE RADIO AMATEURS KILLED BY SOMALI PIRATES OFF THE COAST OF EAST AFRICA
Three Radio Amateurs Scott Adam, K9ESO, his wife Jean, KF6RVB, and Bob Riggle, KE7IIV, have been murdered by Somali pirates. Also killed with them was Phylis Macay.
The four were on board the Adam's owned yacht the Quest off the coast of Oman, East Africa, when pirates boarded their vessel on Friday, February 18. Officials were in the process of negotiating for their release when gunfire was heard around 01:00 on Tuesday, February 22.
United States Naval forces responded to the gunfire. Navy Seals then boarded the yacht only to discover that all four hostages had been shot by the pirates.
According to a statement from the US Central Command, despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately succumbed to their wounds.
Somali-based pirates have plagued the shipping industry off East Africa for years, but the violence used during the attacks and the money demanded in ransoms has increased in recent months. Sea going bandits are currently holding some 30 ships and more than 660 hostages, however, this is first time American hostages have been killed by a Somali pirate raid.
SARL CONVENTION
Remember the SARL Amateur Radio Convention on 16 April. Register before the end of February to make use of the discounted price for the Friday boat cruise and dinner, as well as the Saturday's Gala evening. This will be a highlight of the year! Visit www.qsl.net/zs4srk to register you place! The beautiful Vaal awaits!
HAMWAN MEETING
A HAMWAN meeting will be held for all interested radio amateurs. HAMWAN stands for HAM Wide Area Network. HAMWAN is a HAMNET initiative and involves a WiFi network used on amateur radio frequencies.
Details are as follows:
Time: 19:00
Place: Echo Charlie in Plantation Road in Springs
QRV: 145,675 MHz East Rand Repeater
If you get lost: Call Chris on 083 543 5668 for directions.
The purpose of the meeting is to determine how and when they will assemble the equipment they already have in hand. Your assistance and knowledge will be highly appreciated.
CONTEST NEWS
Sunday 6 March 2011 - SARL Hamnet 40 m Simulated Emergency Contest. This SSB Contest is open to all Radio Amateurs in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho, Marion Island and South African Antarctica. Only contacts with these areas will count. The contest will run from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC. Participate as a Single operator stationary mobile; Single operator portable; Multi-operator portable or Single operator base station.
Saturday 12 March 2011 - SARL March Madness YL Sprint. This is a fun activity to celebrate International Women's Day (8 March) between radio amateurs in Southern African countries. Call "YL Sprint." The Sprint will run from 09:00 to 10:00 UTC. The exchange is a RS report and YL or OM.
Provisional results of the SARL National Field Day. The committee received 26 logs via email made up of 11 from Class A, 3 each from Class C and D and 9 from Class E. One of these logs is a check log.
Class A.
1st West Rand ARC, ZS6WR, 96 600 points
2nd Northern Cape ARC, ZS3NC, 85 860 points
3rd Sasolburg ARC, ZS4SRK, 56 400 points
Class B, no entries
Class C.
1st Wessie Wessels, ZS2A, 43 200 points
2nd Pierre van Deventer, ZS6A, 40 560 points
3rd Paul van Spronsen, ZS1PVS, 25 536 points
Class D.
1st Geoffrey Lotz, ZR6XZ, 56 160
2nd Pieter Nel, ZS1PN, 2 160 points
Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE, made 10 710 points in this class as a check log.
Class E.
1st Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT, 30 700 points
2nd Derek Stuart, ZS2J, 9 360 points
3rd Renier Burger, ZU6HOT, 7 236 points
The final and full results will be published in HF Happenings 445 in the coming week.
CLUB NEWS
NEW REPEATER ON MARIEPSKOP
The OTL Club has installed a repeater on Mariepskop. Coverage should be close to 200 km into the Kruger National Park. The frequency 145,712 5 MHz. No tone is needed.
Tests have been done with Schalk, ZS6DVD, in Skukuza, a distance of 80 km. He was using an external antenna and received the repeater S9+60 dB; also got reception reports from ZS6G in White River at S9 plus.
In Skukuza area you can use 145,637 5Mhz which is also linked to:
Mariepskop on 145,712 5 MHz
Middelburg 145,737 5 MHz
Machadodorp 145,762 5 MHz
Roos Senekal 145,662 5 MHZ
Ermelo 145,700 MHz
These repeaters are all linked together.
The Pretoria/JHB amateurs will now be able to talk into KNP if they can contact the Middelburg 145,737 5 Mhz repeater.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is at moderate levels. New sunspot 1 163 produced a spectacular M3 class solar flare on Feb. 24th. Sunspot 1 163 will continue turning toward Earth in the days ahead, setting the stage for more potent geo-effects if the eruptions continue. The effective sunspot number is expected to be around 30 for the coming week.
15 m will provide the best opportunities for DX followed by 20 m. Conditions to India will be good from the afternoon till after sunset. During the afternoons conditions will be good towards Europe on 15 m, later to be followed by good 20 m openings. Good 15 m contacts with the USA are possible during the evenings. Contacts with Australia are possible on 20 m after sunset. 15 and especially 20 m openings to Brazil and South America are possible during the afternoons. With the good 15 and 20 m openings 17 m will also be full of surprises.
For the CW and digital enthusiasts 30 m may be very rewarding with openings to many parts of the world.
Locally 40 m is the work horse for contacts around the country with 20 and 30 m also being very useful for contacts over the longer distances. 80 m will be best during the early mornings and late afternoons as well as over the shorter distances.
80 m is the frequency of choice during the evenings.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
Today 27 February - First SARL Digital Contest for 2011 from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC on 80, 40 and 20 metres.
28 February - Offers to host a station at Sun City during IARU Region 1 conference to be in to iaru2011@sarl.org.za.
28 February - Due date for inputs for SARL Strategic Indaba to armi@armi.sarl.org.
5 March - ZS6PTA Flea Market at POMC Club house in Keuning St, Silverton from 08:00.
6 March - SARL Hamnet 40 Metre Simulated Emergency Contest will be run from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC.
12 March – SARL March Madness YL Sprint from 09:00 till 10:00 UTC.
19 March - RTA, Programming in Windows course in Cape Town, book at www.sarl.org.za.
25 March - SAiSAT briefing session at the NARC.
2 April - SA AMSAT Space Symposium at Vodaworld, book at www.amsatsa.org.za.
15-16 April – SARL National Convention at Vaal University for Technology.
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 Today every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria area, with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 560 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 22:05 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 Gustav, ZS6BWN.
Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
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