SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 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 'Amateur Radio Today' 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:
LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD TAKE PART IN INTECNET THIS EVENING
HAM RADIO DELUXE CHANGES HANDS
7P8 EME DXPEDITION NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting news items.
LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD TAKE PART IN INTECNET THIS EVENING
This evening at 19:30 the Intecnet will be held on a repeater near you. Join Chris Burger as he talks through the features and answers questions about the Logbook of the World.
Since the early days, amateurs have exchanged QSL cards to confirm contacts. Apart from the fun associated with colourful postcards from all over the world, the cards also provide a means of verifying claimed contacts for a wide variety of awards.
Large DXpeditions now make over 100 000 contacts. Confirming these contacts takes a large amount of work and expense. An electronic means of confirming contacts would eliminate much of the work and expense, and also reduce traffic through the world's QSL bureau.
Starting in 2001, the ARRL built a secure database called Logbook of the World, or LotW. Using LotW, it is very often possible to get confirmation of a DX contact within 24 hours, a far cry from waiting months or years for a card to arrive via the bureau.
One of the early proponents of electronic QSLing and the only non-American alpha tester on LotW was Chris Burger, ZS6EZ. Chris has placed over a quarter of a million contacts on LotW. He joins us tonight (25 September) to explain why participation makes sense and will explain the nuts and bolts of placing your own logs onto LotW.
HAM RADIO DELUXE CHANGES HANDS
Simon Brown, HB9DRV, has sold the rights to his popular Ham Radio Deluxe software package to a group consisting of Mike Carper, WA9PIE, Randy Gawtry, K0CBH, and Rick Ruhl, W4PC. All three principals have more than 25 years of experience with radio data communications. Rick Ruhl is the president of W4PC Software Inc. whose products include the PakRatt, PKTerm and Radio Operations Center software suites. Randy Gawtry is the president of Timewave Technology Inc. whose products include the PK and DSP families of data controllers and other commercial data products. Mike Carper is an experienced Fortune 500 technology executive, educator and featured speaker in the areas of wireless technologies and IT Service Management.
“Simon has done a fantastic job with this software,” Carper said. “His vision for integrating rig control, rotor control, logging, digital modes, and satellite operations into a single integrated feature-rich software suite has captivated the ham radio community. We’d like to see this product continue in a way that respects the hard work put into this package by Simon and others, maintaining that vision, while delivering timely fixes and feature enhancements in the future, will be the number one priority.”
“After many years writing the Ham Radio Deluxe software it’s necessary to take a break and hand the whole project over to another team,” said Simon Brown, HB9DRV. “The support effort required has become more than I can realistically manage, with many thousands of users, new radios and other hardware appearing all the time and unexpected changes to the infrastructure used by Ham Radio Deluxe such as QRZ.com. I no longer have any time at all for other projects. As some of you will know, I have formed a company called SDR-RADIO.com GmbH and I am now working in the Software Defined Radio arena with RFspace. This is the technology of the future; a future I want a part of. In 2012 I plan to return to England and get back on the air, something I haven’t done much during the last 25 years.”
The new owners are in the process of building a development environment for Ham Radio Deluxe and they plan to begin by addressing some of the bugs in the existing “To Do List” for an upcoming version 5.1 release. The 5.1 release, when completed, will be made available at no charge to registered users.
7P8 EME DXPEDITION NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
The SARL fundraising for the 7P8 EME DXpedition has not yet reached the target of R10 000. Please support this event with your donation. Full details are on www.amateurradio.org.za/7p8.htm. This DXpedtion is a record setting Expedition for EME, as far as infrastructure, equipment, band coverage & antenna systems are concerned, which has ever visited another country - all with mobile equipment. The group is covering all the VHF-UHF frequencies from 50 MHz to 1 296 MHz [excluding 4 metres].on EME.
RAE CLOSING DATE
Students are reminded that the closing date for registration for the Radio Amateur Examination is Monday 26 September. No late entries can be accepted.
RAE Instructors are reminded that the regulations that were in force before 1 April this year will be used in the examination as the final revised regulations are not available. Please ensure that students are aware of this.
More information on the RAE and the required forms can be found on www.sarl.org.za or call Mariska during office hours on 011 675 2393
SARL WEB PROPBLEMS CONTINUE
The SARL Council is painfully aware that there are problems with the SARL web. The team working on it believe that they will be able to stabilise the situation soon. When you cannot connect please try again a little later. The SARL apologizes for the inconvenience.
FOLLOW THE DRAKENSBERG HIKERS
Tonight, 25 Sept., the group of hikers start on the Grand Traverse, a 12 day hike in the Drakensberge. Johan Leslie, ZR4CAA, goes with and he will keep contact with John Longland, ZS6AA, at the base camp. John will also be active on KwaZulu-Natal 2 m repeaters and hê requests amateurs on those repeaters to monitor the repeaters for any possible emergencies and then pass any QSPs to John, ZS6AA. If any battery power remains at the end, Johan will be available for chats from 07:00 on 1 October on 7,070 MHz. Go to www.crossroadsadventure.co.za beforehand for details and the communication procedure.
CQ HOU KOERS
CQ Hou Koers, the Voortrekkers' annual radio communications day, takes place on Saturday the 15th of October. Young people from across SA and Namibia will be active on the amateur bands. Please support them.
Radio amateurs are requested to offer their services to local Voortrekker groups. Because the day coincides with JOTA, it offers interesting opportunities for interaction between Voortrekkers and Scouts.
Enquiries may be sent to Andries, ZS6VL, whose email address is andries.visagie@natref.com.
ZS6JVT 40 METER YOUTH SPRING SPRINT
Although there were many stations active during the competition, it was very disappointing that only 5 logs were submitted. It can be questioned whether it will be worth while to continue with the competition, but next time it may be beter.
The results are as follows:
1st - ZS6JVT - 55
2nd - ZS44RK - 52
3rd - ZS6NGB - 38
4th - ZR6D - 29
5th - ZS2J - 23
The organizers of the ZS6JVT Youth Spring Sprint thanks all who took the trouble to send in log sheets.
CLUB NEWS
The West Rand Amateur Radio Club is hosting its next flea market at 12:00 on Saturday 08 October 2011 at the clubhouse in Kroton Street, Weltevredenpark, Roodepoort. Everyone is very welcome. For more information, contact Phillip, ZS6PV,T at 083 267 3835.
The East Rand Amateur Radio Club will have their second flea market for the year on the 1st of October 2011 at the Selpark primary school's sportgrounds in Pridgeon str, Selection Park, Springs. It will last from 11:00 till 15:00. For table bookings contact Judy, ZS6JDY, on 079 730 2030 or for more detail send an email to zs6jdy@vodamail.co.za. Hope to see you all there.
The East Rand Amateur Radio Club is proud to announce its new committee elected with their AGM on the 17th September as follows:
Chairman Francois Jacobs, ZS6COI
Vice Chairmen Glynn Chamberlain, ZS6GLN &
Leon Lessing, ZS6LMG
Honourory Treasurer Andre van Tonder, ZS6HE
Secretary Judy Pretorius, ZS6JDY
Web master Glynn Chamberlain ZS6GLN
Repeater Custodian Hampie Findt
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP reports that solar activity has been high with one X-Class flare and multiple M-Class flares taking place about when the new sunspot rotates into view on the eastern limb. This region is not yet in prime position for earth directed Coronal Mass Ejections.
For the people doing their own frequency predictions the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 93.
All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of fun with DX opportunities at different times of the day.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
25 September – Last day to enroll for the October RAE.
25 September – Intecnet tonight at 19:30.
26 Sept/7 Oct – ZR4CAA and ZS6AA active with Drakensberge hiking group.
1 October - East Rand Amateur Radio Club flea market starting at 11:00.
8 October - West Rand Amateur Radio Club’s flea market at 12:00.
15/16 October – Jamboree on the air.
Till 31 October – ZL-stations with ZM prefixes and ZL4RUGBY and ZL6RWC on the air.
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 'Amateur Radio TODAY', go down the green column and click on 'LISTEN ON THE WEB'. 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, Z6SNE.
Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
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