SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 2 OCTOBER 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:
AN ADVANCED LICENCE - AN INTERESTING DEBATE
WHAT CAN RADIO AMATEURS DO WITH THE HF BEACON PLANNED FOR CPUT'S CUBESAT?
SORRY BUT YOU ARE CUT OFF!
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting news items.
AN ADVANCED LICENCE - AN INTERESTING DEBATE
At the RTA held at the Gauteng Radio Technology in Action symposium last weekend, the question "If South Africa gets an advanced licence what should it look like?" was actively discussed by chairmen and representatives of several Gauteng clubs and delegates present at the RTA. The consensus was "yes", the SARL should pursue this issue with ICASA at the Amateur Radio Symposium for ICASA staff planned for February 2012. The discussion concluded that such a license should support two main objectives: to involve more radio amateurs in technology and to stimulate competition amongst radio amateurs in all aspects of the hobby. What the requirements are for such a licence had a wide range of responses and undoubtedly will still be debated for some time. There was a fair amount of agreement that it should be experimentally based and not be an academic examination.
An Edited version of the debate will be made available for downloading next weekend. It is currently 80 minutes long and inevitably in a debate of this nature there is a lot of duplication. Once you have listened to the recording please make your comments and suggestions. The SARL will also hold an Intecnet on the subject on Sunday 30 October 2011 at 19:30. Clubs who do currently not link their local repeater to the teleconference bridge are invited to start making arrangements. More details will follow in future SARLNEWS bulletins and the Email letter to members.
WHAT CAN RADIO AMATEURS DO WITH THE HF BEACON PLANNED FOR CPUT'S CUBESAT?
On Friday the Cape Peninsular University of Technology unveiled it's first CubeSat, which will be on show at the 62nd International Astronomical Congress starting at the Cape Town International Convention centre later today.
It is not certain when the satellite will be launched but once in orbit the satellite will provide some interesting experimental activities for radio amateurs. An article recently published in EngineerIT can be downloaded from the SA AMSAT website at www.amsatsa.org.za, giving more details.
During the week there will be two amateur radio satellite presentations "Taking Amateur Radio into Space" and "SA AMSAT - a 30 year history of Space Activity in South Africa". The presentations will be made available on the SA AMSAT website next week.
SORRY BUT YOU ARE CUT OFF!
Yes, we are sorry that you are excluded from access to the SARL members only section and the forum and that you will not get the next edition of Radio ZS because you have not renewed your 20111/2012 subscription. To change this position, please renew now. If you are not sure, send an e-mail to admin@sarl.org.za or call Mariska at 011 675 2393.
SARL WEB MAKING PROGRESS
We are making progress with the SARL web. It has been more stable over the past week but not all issues have been resolved and the efforts between the SARL team and the ISP are ongoing.
RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION 2012
You are invited to make input to the programme for the 2012 series of Radio Technology in Action Symposium. What subjects would you like to see covered? Are you interested in presenting at the 2012 RTAs? Send us your comments to rta@sarl.org.za.
CQ PUBLISHING TO OFFER ALL MAGAZINES IN DIGITAL FORMAT
New York based electronics publisher Richard Ross, K2MGA, has announced that his CQ Communications will launch multi-platform digital editions of all of its magazine titles before the end of 2011. These titles include CQ magazine, CQ VHF, Popular Communications and WorldRadio Online.
According to Editorial Director Rich Moseson, W2VU, the digital editions will supplement, not replace, current print editions, and will feature enhancements not possible in the print medium. Versions will be available for a variety of online and mobile platforms including PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android 2.0 and higher.
Examples of features that will be possible in the digital world include live links to all World Wide Web addresses listed in each issue as well as supplemental content. This will include such additions as photo albums, audio and video files, software and more.
The digital editions of the CQ publications will be hosted by Zinio dot com. Zinio is one of the top names in the e-magazine publishing business. Moseson says that CQ's choosing of Zinio will assure that their magazines will always be able to take advantage of new technology when it becomes available.
The digital launch will begin in late October with the November issue of an enhanced, multi-platform, version of WorldRadio Online, which will again become a paid-subscription publication. This will be followed by the November issue of CQ, which, appropriately, is the magazine's first annual Technology Special. The fall issue of CQ VHF and the December issue of Popular Communications will round out the introductions.
Digital editions will be available by single copy and by subscription. Details will in the near future be in the magazines and on all CQ Communications websites. Moseson noted that many CQ book titles are already available in digital form on CD.
DRAKENSBERGE HIKKERS: AMATEURS ON THE READY
On Tuesday 27 Sept. member number one of the hiking team, Bart van Dijk, sprained his knee and base camp was alerted at 19:00 of the incident but the group did not request a CASEVAC. The Wednesday SKED would thus be vital and due to poor conditions on 80 m the previous morning, base amp requested a few amateurs to listen in on the early morning SKED. The response was overwhelming. A whole crowd of amateurs helped to listen to the report from the group. Bart however recovered sufficiently to continue and although the hikers are slightly behind schedule, they are well on their way to the halfway mark.
CLUB NEWS
The Centurion Radio Amateur Club will present a technical talk on the club's two meter repeater on 145,775 MHz on Sunday evening, (tonight)commencing at 19:30.
The subject for the talk this evening is: “Feedlines as matching transformers” and it answers a question recently posed on the SARL forum, namely: "Can one match an antenna by altering the length of its feedline?" And of course there will also be a tongue in cheek amateur story!
If you are in range of the repeater, do come along and listen to this very interesting discussion presented by Pine, ZS6GST. Please report in if possible.
The Midlands Amateur Radio Club held it's AGM on 17 September. At the committee meeting which followed, the following portfolios were allocated:
Chairman and Website ZS5ML
Vice Chairman and Events ZR5SF
Treasurer and Secretary ZS5AZ
Site Maintenance and Digital ZR5S
Technical and Training ZS5EFP
Hamnet and Disaster Management ZS5DDM
We wish the new committee well for year ahead.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that solar activity has been high with a C9.3 and a M1.2 solar flare from sunspot 1 302. The Coronal Mass Ejection from this region caused the geo-magnetic field to be unstable having from time-to-time a negative effect on propagation conditions. There is still a chance of isolated M- and X-class flares from this region. Sunspot 1 305 showed some growth and now has a Beta-Gamma magnetic field harbouring huge amounts of energy.
For the people doing their own frequency predictions the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 80.
All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of fun with DX opportunities at various times of the day.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
8 October - West Rand Amateur Radio Club's flea market at 12:00.
15 October – CQ – Hou Koers
15/16 October - Jamboree on the air.
30 October – Intechnet on new proposed license
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 Gustav, Z6SBWN.
Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
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