SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 9 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:
OCTOBER 2011 RAE CANDIDATE EXAM NUMBERS RELEASED
7P8EME DX-PEDITION A GREAT SUCCESS
SARL MEMBERSHIP NOW 1 345
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting news items.
OCTOBER 2011 RAE CANDIDATE EXAM NUMBERS RELEASED
The SARL has released the Candidate Examination Numbers for the October Radio Amateur Examination, which will take place on 20th October 2011. The list can be obtained by visiting www.sarl.org.za and clicking on the link in the news item on SARL TODAY.
174 Candidates have entered for the examination including one visually handicapped person for whom special arrangements have been made. This is the largest number of candidates recorded in recent years.
Letters will be mailed to the candidates during the course of this weekend. Should there be any queries about an examination centre, please contact Mariska at the office at 011 675 2393.
7P8EME DX-PEDITION A GREAT SUCCESS
The 7P8EME DX-pedition was a great success. The team managed to make in total 320 QSO's. 274 QSO's on 2 metres EME, 23 QSO's on 70 cm EME, 18 QSO's on 23 cm EME and 5 QSO's on 6 metres EME, all using JT65. On HF (CW) a few DX contacts were made in between EME operations by Wynand, ZS6ARF, while some pleasant chats were conducted on 40 metres with South African Radio amateurs by Pieter. ZS6PA.
The team would like to thank all sponsors, especially Dan, HB9CRQ, the South African Radio League, the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust Multisource Telecoms and all radio amateurs who supported the expedition. A full report will be published on the web during next week and in Radio ZS.
SARL MEMBERSHIP NOW 1 345
Last week the SARL membership stood at 1 345. Members who have not renewed will no longer have access to member facilities such as the QSL bureau, Radio ZS and the members' only section on the web, which includes access to the forum.
If you have not renewed your membership you can still do so by paying your subscription as soon as possible. If you have mislaid your invoice, please call Mariska on 011 675 2393 for details.
If you have never been a member of the SARL why not join now. By joining the SARL you are strengthening the voice of the SARL and the IARU in areas where it counts most. Details of how to join can be found on www.sarl.org.za.
SA AMSAT ISSUE FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
SA AMSAT has issued the first call for papers for the 2012 Space Symposium to be held in Durban on Saturday 12 May 2012, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. If you would like to present a paper, please send a brief synopsis to reach SA AMSAT by no later than 31 January 2012. The theme will be 50 years of OSCAR, celebrating the launch of the first amateur radio satellite on 12 December 1961.
SARL WEB SLOW PROGRESS
The team working on the SARL web is making progress but it is slow. Peter Hers, ZS6PHD, reports that there was a dramatic improvement on Friday by disabling some parts of the site, which are causing problems. He said that there is still a lot of work to identify problems at the detail level and to fix them. The SARL acknowledges the amount of effort that Peter and others, who are assisting him, are making in solving the problems.
AMATEUR RADIO FEATURED WELL AT THE IAC2011
Amateur Radio featured in several papers presented at the sixty second International Astronautical Congress held on African soil in Cape Town for the first time since the formation of the International Astronautical Federation in 1951.
Several papers highlighted Amateur Radio involvement in satellites and SETI. A paper by Dr Jakobus van Zyl and Johann Lochner, ZE6CBC, both engineers at SunSpace, covered a global geographical survey of received signal’s strength in the VHF band. The data collected by SumbandilaSat, S067, provides useful information for selecting future ground station locations for minimum interference. The study further gives an indication of frequencies to use for command and telemetry communication at existing ground stations. More details will be included in future SARL news and on Amateur Radio Today.
At the congress, the Department of Science and Technology announced that the department will support the launch of the single CubeSat built by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. As covered in last week's SARLNEWS the CubeSat includes an HF beacon on 14,099 MHz which will have interesting applications in Amateur Radio. The article about the HF beacon is available on www.amsatsa.org.za.
SARL RESPONDS TO CAPE TOWN CITY RE ANTENNAS
The SARL has responded to the draft Telecommunications Infrastructure Policy for the City of Cape Town. During discussions the City's Environmental Agency confirmed that amateur radio antenna masts and structures are excluded from the Telecommunications Infrastructure Policy. The SARL has requested that the amateur radio exclusion statement be incorporated in the policy.
This does not mean that amateur radio antennas and structures are not regulated. These structures are still governed by the building regulations. However Amateur radio towers under 15 metres are exempt from environmental scoping as laid down in the environmental protection act.
“AMATEURRADIO IN AKSIE”
"Amateurradio in Aksie" is an Afrikaans news program aimed at Afrikaans speaking radio amateurs. The program will be compiled on a weekly basis and made available for download from www.amateurinaksie.co.za, on Monday mornings. While you are visiting the website also make an effort to sign the guest book.
Clubs and individuals are urged to download the program and even use it during club bulletins or even as a standalone news program. Everybody is welcome to give input to the program and we encourage people to do so via the website. We look forward to have as many listeners as possible.
CQ HOU KOERS
CQ Hou Koers, the Voortrekkers' annual radio communications day, takes place on Saturday the 15th of October from 08:30 until 12:00 CAT. Calling frequencies are 3 670, 7 085 and 14 240 kHz and local repeaters. Young people from across SA and Namibia will be active on the amateur bands. Please support them. The Voortrekkers are celebrating their 80th anniversary and the call signs ZS80VT and ZS6VTS will also be used.
Enquiries may be sent to Andries, ZS6VL, with email address andries.visagie@natref.com.
CLUB NEWS
The Centurion Radio Amateur Club will present a technical talk on the club's two meter repeater, frequency 145,775 MHz, commencing at 19:30.
Tonight will be a repeat of last week's discussion, which was cut short due to bad weather conditions.
The subject for the talk this evening is: "Feed lines 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 feed line?" And of course there will also be a tongue in cheek amateur story!
This very interesting discussion will be presented by Pine, ZS6GST.
CONTEST NEWS
PEARS HF DX CONTEST
The aim of the PEARS HF DX Contest is to encourage Southern African radio amateurs to work DX. The contest will take place on Sunday 13 November 2011 starting at 12:00 and ending at 16:00 UTC with SSB activity on 20 and 15 metres. Participation can be as a Single Operator, Base or Field Station or as a Multi Operator, Base or Field station. Stations may use the maximum power permitted according to the regulations in the country of operation.
The exchange is your call sign and signal report and one point is earned with each QSO. A station may be contacted once on each contest band. Field stations must multiply their score by two and a further multiplier of two is available if the station uses a non-gain antenna with reference to a dipole. Then the score is multiplied by the number of countries contacted.
Should more than three logs be received per category, a certificate will be awarded to the winner in each category. Log sheets must be submitted by 30 November 2011 to PO Box 10402, Linton Grange, Port Elizabeth, 6015 or by e-mail to contest@peham.co.za.
This contest replaces the PEARS HF Contest that was scheduled for Sunday 4 December 2011.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that solar activity is expected to be at moderate to high levels. New sunspot 1 313 is crackling with C-class flares. There are currently nine numbered regions on the visible disk.
For the people doing their own frequency predictions the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 70.
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
15 October – CQ – Hou Koers.
15/16 October - Jamboree on the air.
20 October – Radio Amateur Examination.
30 October – Intechnet on proposed new license.
Till 31 October - ZL-stations with ZM prefixes and ZL4RUGBY and ZL6RWC on the air.
13 November – Pears HF DX Competition 12:00 till 16:00 UTC.
30 November – Due date for submission of log sheets for the Pears HF DX Competition.
31 January 2012 – Due date for submission of proposed papers for the 2012 SA AMSAT Space Symposium.
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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