SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2012
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. 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 3,695 MHz SSB. (Other news readers change to suit).
SILENT KEY
It is with regret that we have to announce that the key of Quintin Jannasch, ZS6FM, became silent on February 13th, 2012.
Our sincere condolences go to his wife, children, grand children,other relatives and friends.
(PAUSE)
In the news today:
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN ASSIGNED Z8 PREFIX
SARL COUNCIL MEETS AT NARC
ITU ENACTS NEW RULE TO STOP SATELLITE JAMMING
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting items.
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH SUDAN ASSIGNED Z8 PREFIX
After a wait of more than seven months after being accepted as a member of the United Nations, the Republic of South Sudan received its prefix block Z8 from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). On July 14, 2011 -- after South Sudan's admittance to the UN -- the new country became a DXCC entity by way of Section II, 1(a) of the DXCC rules.
SARL COUNCIL MEETS AT NARC
The SARL Council met this weekend at the National Amateur Radio Centre for its annual strategy indaba to review plans for the coming year. The draft plans will be presented at the National Convention to be held in Pinetown from 20 - 22 April. The two days session is the only face to face meeting of Councillors other than a brief meeting after the AGM. Throughout the year Council meetings are held via teleconference.
The meeting spent a considerable amount of time on changes and additions to the constitution which are necessary to comply with SA Revenue Service's rules for non profit associations. The proposed changes will be published in the AGM Agenda booklet for discussion at the AGM .
The SARS regulations will impact also on clubs, the SARL is in the process of developing guidelines for use by clubs to assist them to comply.
ITU ENACTS NEW RULE TO STOP SATELLITE JAMMING
The International Telecommunication Union has called upon the world's nations to take all necessary actions to stop intentional interference with satellite transmissions. The change in regulations, which was approved at the just concluded World Radio Communication Conference came after numerous complaints that international satellite TV programmes in the Persian and Arabic languages were suffering from deliberate interference.
The new rule says that administrations shall ascertain the facts and take the necessary actions when they encounter jamming. What actions these might be were not spelled out in the document.
The two satellite operators that have been targeted are Eutelsat and Arabsat. They claim that the jamming signals originate from Iran and Syria. The interference, which has increased since September, 2011, has affected numerous broadcasters including programming from the British Broadcasting Corporation, Germany's Deutsche Welle, and RFE's Radio Farda.
Joining in backing the revised ITU anti-jamming rule to fight this willful and malicious interference to satellite transmissions were Radio Netherlands Worldwide and the European Broadcasting Union.
THE AMPLION SPEAKER FROM 1926 VIDEO
The history of the early 20th century Amplion loudspeaker is a story told in a recently released video by Trilith Films in the United Kingdom. In "A Tale Retold" the video tells the story of UK radio amateur Frank Marshall who in 1998 told Trilith Pictures about a collection of old motion picture films that had been stored under his workbench for decades. He thought that among them might be one film he had particularly enjoyed as a boy. It was an advertisement for an early loudspeaker called the Amplion, one that had been used in local cinemas in the 1920's and by his father's pioneering radio business on the Isle of Portland.
When rescued from the pile of rotting nitrate film it was discovered that the film entitled "The Tale of the Amplion" was a here to fore unknown work by the famous illustrator William Heath Robinson. It is almost certainly the only animated cartoon that Robinson ever made.
The tale is retold by Frank Marshall who preserved the film, Gerry Wells of the Vintage Wireless Museum in London and Geoffrey Beare of the William Heath Robinson Trust. Included is the film as it originally appeared but with an especially composed musical sound track created by composer Stephen Deutsch.
The video was shot and edited by John Holman for Trilith and now appears on Transition Vision's Heritage Channel. It’s available for world-wide viewing on-line at YouTube. It can be found at tinyurl.com/amplion.
ERIC JAMIESON INDIAN OCEAN AWARDS
The Wireless Institute of Australia Board meeting in Melbourne over the weekend of 18-19 February 2012 accepted the offer of Eric Jamieson, VK5LP, to sponsor awards for first amateur radio contacts on the two metre (144 MHz) band spanning the Indian Ocean between Australia and Africa. There will be three awards, for voice, CW and digital modes and will be known as the Eric Jamieson Indian Ocean Awards.
In presenting a sum of money to the WIA Foundation to fund the Awards, Eric said: "I acknowledge that spanning the Indian Ocean will not be easy but one cannot say that it will never be accomplished. The degree of difficulty may be judged from the so far inability to span the much shorter Atlantic Ocean despite concerted attempts in order to win the Brendan Atlantic Ocean trophies."
The Indian Ocean Award is designed to encourage experimentation in propagation and long distance communication techniques in the two metre amateur band.
COMPETITION NEWS
2012 SARL QRP Contest
16 logs and 1 check log were received. According to the logs, 303 contacts were made between the 81 stations who took part. 63 stations operated SSB only, whilst 10 stations did CW only and 8 stations operated in both SSB and CW modes.
The results are as follows:-
1st ZS6XT 936 points
2nd ZS2ACP 930 points
3rd ZS6PX 408 points
4th ZS6A 400 points
The full results have been posted on the forum.
SARL Digital Contest
The first leg of the SARL Digital contest takes place and lasts from 13:00 UTC till 16:00 UTC [15:00 till 18:00 CAT]. The rules can be found in the 2012 Contest Manual
SARL 80 Metre Club Contest.
The first contest in this series was a CW contest and logs were received from the Sasolburg ARC and the West Rand ARC.
1st West Rand ARC, 7 points from 3 logs
2nd Sasolburg ARC, 2 points from 1 log
SARL National Field Day.
The February leg of the 2012 SARL National Field Day was held on 11 and 12 February and 20 logs were received.
Class A - Multi Operator Field Station:
1st West Rand ARC, ZS6WR, 117 240 points
2nd Bloemfontein RAC, ZS4BFN, 64 044 points
3rd Magalies ARC, ZS6MRK, 60 840 points
Class B - Multi operator Field Station QRP:
1st Centurion ARC, ZS6CEN, 23 310 points
Class C - Single Operator Field Station:
1st Marius, ZR6MS/4, 28 320 points
2nd Bryan, ZS2SS, 10 584 points
Class D - Single Operator Field Station QRP:
1st Raoul, ZS1REC, 35 424 points
2nd Eddie, ZS6BNE, 1 620 points
Class E - General Stations:
1st Pieter, ZS6XT, 36 720 points
2nd Christo, ZS3R, 27 840 points
3rd Wessel, ZS6AWW, 7 680 points
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the Solar activity is expected to be at low levels. Sunspot 1 422 remains the largest visible sunspot but remains stable. Old sunspot 1 410 rotated back into view and was renumbered 1 423. It is also stable with very little chance of flares.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 42.
All the bands from 20 to 10 m and especially 15 m will provide lots of DX fun with 10 m only opening sporadically due to the low solar activity.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
Today, 26 February – SARL Digital Contest, 15:00 to 18:00 CAT.
29 February - Leap year Challenge from 00:01 till 23:59.
21 March - ZS6ERB construction day.
20 - 22 April SARL Convention in Pinetown.
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 17 760 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 17:30 UTC on 4 895 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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