SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 27 MARCH 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.

SILENT KEYS

It is with regret that it has to be announced that the keys of two radio amateurs became silent. They are:

John Du Plessis, ZS6AGQ, became silent key in November last year. He leaves his wife, Maureen.

The second one is Tony Marran, ZR2AI, of Graaff-Reinet on 19 March who leaves his wife Marie.

Our sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of the deceased.

(PAUSE)

In the news today

TDMA NEXT DEVELOPMENT IN AMATEUR RADIO?

PROGRAMMING IN WINDOWS COURSE TO BE PRESENTED IN GAUTENG

RTA GOES TO CAPE TOWN

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

TDMA NEXT DEVELOPMENT IN AMATEUR RADIO?

Time division multiple access (TDMA) is a channel access method for shared medium networks. It allows several users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different time slots. The users transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each using his own time slot. This allows multiple stations to share the same radio frequency channel.

On Tuesday, March 15, the ARRL filed a Petition for Rulemaking and a Request for Temporary Waiver to authorize the use of single-time-slot Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) emissions in the amateur bands at and above 50 MHz, wherever multiple-time-slot TDMA is authorized. The ARRL -- which called its Petition "very narrow in scope" -- seeks to facilitate the use of and experimentation by radio amateurs with existing narrowband spectrum-efficient digital voice and data technology." Such technology is now in regular and increasing use in the private land mobile radio services, but its use in the Amateur Radio Service is now apparently unintentionally precluded by two specific Commission rules," the ARRL's Petition stated.

Radio amateurs are presently using a Motorola narrowband (12,5 kHz) digital land mobile system -- commercially marketed as MotoTRBO and they ask to make it legal.

The use of TDMA digital emissions in certain frequency bands in the Amateur Service is on the increase, the ARRL noted. There are numerous narrowband UHF repeater facilities now operating that use multiple slot TDMA repeaters and single slot TDMA handheld digital transceivers, principally in the 70 cm band. These systems have been installed primarily in the western part of the US and in the New York City area, but also in several Midwestern states.

The SARL is currently studying the ARRL initiative in respect of the South African Radio regulations. Comments and input are invited to artoday@sarl.org.za.

AMATEUR RADIO TODAY FREQUENCY AND TIME CHANGE

From today the Amateur Radio Today 16 metre band frequency changes to 17 750 kHz. The time of the Monday retransmission changes to a much earlier timeslot, from 22:00 CAT to 18:30 CAT on a frequency of 3 230 kHz on an omni directional antenna. Reception reports are invited to artoday@sarl.org.za. For a full list of transmission times and relays visit www.sarl.org.za and select Amateur Radio Today for the left hand menu.

PROGRAMMING IN WINDOWS COURSE TO BE PRESENTED IN GAUTENG ON 18 JUNE

The Learning to programme in Windows course will be presented at the National Amateur Radio centre on Saturday 18 June. Booking is now open. Details can be found on www.sarl.org.za and select RTA. The course was successfully presented in Cape Town last weekend. Listen to what delegates had to say on the RTA pages on the SARL web.

RTA GOES TO CAPE TOWN FIRST

The first Radio Technology in Action programme of 2011 will be held in Cape Town on 7 May on the Bellville Campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Programme details will be available on the web later in the week.

SA AMSAT POSTPONES SPACE SYMPOSIUM

SA AMSAT has postponed the Space Symposium originally planned for 2 April to a later date. School holidays in Gauteng and too many other Amateur related activities around the same time seem to be one of the reasons for the low registration rate. A new date will be announced in due course.

SARL MEMBERSHIP NOW 1 519

The membership of the SARL reached 1 519 last week. We welcome the following new members and wish them a long and mutually beneficial association with the SARL:

Abel Van Den Heever, ZR6EBL
Hendrik Swanepoel, ZR6HSW
Gideon de Swardt, ZSL1008
Chris du Plessis, ZS2M
Adrian Lamond, ZR6ADR
Ben van der Merwe, ZR1AHB

CONTEST NEWS

The second SARL 80 m Club Contest will be run on Wednesday evening 30 March 2011 from 17:30 to 18:30 UTC. This contest is a digital contest with PSK and RTTY activity.

Do you want to get out and set up a field station? Well on Saturday 2 April you can participate in the first leg of the Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio or RaDAR contest. The contest runs from 12:00 to 18:00 UTC with activity on all amateur bands including cross band contacts via amateur satellites. QSOs via terrestrial repeaters will not be allowed. All amateur modes may be used.

Find the rules for both contests in the 2011 SARL Contest Manual.

Results.

SARL March Madness YL Sprint.
Nine logs and one check log was received for the SARL March Madness YL Sprint held on Saturday 12 March 2011. Four of the logs came from YLs and the rest from non-YLs.

1st Pam Momberg, ZS6PAM, 87 points
2nd Melinda Mynhardt, ZU6MM, 61 points
3rd Dawn Snyders, ZS5ME, 58 points
4th Colette Rundle, ZS2CR, 39 points
5th Wessie Wessels, ZS2A, 35 points
6th Gideon Jannasch, ZS6GJA, 27 points
7th Bloemfontein RAC, ZS4BFN, 26 points
8th Shane Daniel, ZS4TW, 24 points
9th Nigel Burgess, ZR6NGB, 19 points
10th Denis Wheeler, ZR6DNS, 12 points

Check log, Derek Stuart, ZS2J, 14 points, and the winner of the lucky draw is Dawn Snyders, ZS5ME.

Correction to the SARL Hamnet Contest.
In SARL News last Sunday, one of the call signs in the Single Operator Base Station class was incorrect. In 8th place with 780 points is Judy Pretorius, ZS6JDY, not ZS6JDV.

The results of the SARL Digital Contest announced last Sunday have been revised due to a log that went missing.

The results are as follows:

1st ZS6A ,Pierre van Deventer 494 points
2nd ZS6JR, Daniel Hubbard 450 points
3rd ZS6GRL, Geoff Levey 443 points

SARL National Field Day, Pleasant Surprise.
The winner of the lucky draw in this contest is the Centurion ARC, ZS6CEN.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is at moderate levels. Big Sunspot 1 176 which is located in the southern hemisphere produced another low level M-Class flare during the week. There will continue to be a chance for M-Class flares around this region. In the northern hemisphere, new sunspot 1 177 was numbered on Wednesday. Two new sunspots were numbered on Thursday. Sunspot 1 178 in the southern hemisphere and 1 179 in the north are both simple regions and pose no threat for strong solar flares at this time. The effective sunspot number is expected to be around 60 for the coming week.

15 m will provide the best opportunities for DX followed by 20 m. With the higher sunspot activity 10 m will open first followed by the lower bands later during the day. Conditions to India will be good from the afternoon till after sunset. During the late afternoons conditions will be good towards Europa. Fair contacts with the USA are possible during the evening. Contacts with Australia are possible on 20 m after sunset. 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 is 40 m 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

30 March – Second SARL club competition on PSK and RTD, 17:30-18:30 UTC.
2 April – RaDAR competetion 12:0 – 18:0 UTC.
15-16 April – SARL National Convention at Vaal University for Technology.
7 May – RTD in Cape Town.
18 June – Programming in Windows course in Gauteng. Book at www.sarl.org.za.

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 17 750 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 18:30 CAT on 3 230 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 George, ZS6NE.

Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX


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