SARLNEWS 23 September 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 newsreaders change to suit).
SILENT KEYS
It is with regret that it must be announced that the keys of two radio amateurs went silent recently, they are:
That of Rowan Baumgarten, ZS6BIB, on the 15 September 2012. Rowan was a valued committee member of the Alberton Amateur Radio Club. He promoted amateur radio at Jota, Scopex, War museum, Air shows and where ever he could and was part of the RP foundations Cycle race - Ride for Sight as lead and commentary vehicle for 18 years.
That of Martin Harper, ZS6MSG, previously ZS5VO, became silent on the 17th September. Marten was a keen Hamnet member.
Our sincerest condolences to the relatives and friends of the deceased.
(PAUSE)
In the news today:
HERITAGE DAY SPRINT
RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION SYMPOSIUM
MTN RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS
LOOKING AHEAD TO WRC-15
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting items.
HERITAGE DAY SPRINT
Aim is to stimulate activity on 40 m and to promote public relations with respect to the various Heritage sites in South Africa on 24 September starting at 10:00 UTC and ending at 13:00 UTC (12:00 to 15:00 CAT. Only frequencies in the following segments may be used. CW: 7000 to 7025 kHz; phone: 7060 to 7100 kHz and 7130 to 7200 kHz. A maximum output power of 100 W is allowed.
The exchange is call sign, RS(T) signal report, a serial number commencing with 001 and the letter indicating the station type - B for blockhouses, H for other heritage sites and G for general stations. Example: 59 001 B. For stations at blockhouses and heritage sites, field station rules apply as per the SARL blue book.
Scoring - CW - 12 points for every contact with a station at a South African block house or other heritage site and 4 points for every other station.
Radio
Phone scoring - 8 points for every contact with a station at a South African block house or other heritage site and 2 points for every other station.
Multipliers - Blockhouse (B) and Heritage (H) stations use a multiplier of 3 (x3); General (G) stations use no multiplier (x1). Electronic logs are required and may be in any standard logging format or MS Excel. No paper logs, scanned images or pdf files will be accepted, except as check logs. E-mail logs to riaanzs4pr[at]gmail[dot]com and send a copy to fwolff[at]global[dot]co[dot]za.
Closing date for log submissions is 9 October 2012.
RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION SYMPOSIUM
Pre-booking for Cape Town closes Wednesday evening.
The last in the 2012 series of the SARL Radio Technology in Action Symposiums will be held in Cape Town on 29 September at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Bellville Campus. The full programme and registration forms are now available from the SARL website. Click on RTA or the link in the news update centre stage on the home page.
Pre-booking assists with catering arrangements and guarantees that you will be able to get the CD and the SDR kit at the meeting. Pre booking closes on Wednesday evening. After that bookings will only be taken on the day.
The challenge is on for the Western Cape Radio Amateurs to beat the Gauteng record of close to 100 participants, currently pre-bookings are approaching 50. Please make use of the pre-booking facility and stand a change to win an ARRL Basic Antenna book. The booking form can be downloaded from the SARL website.
MTN RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Nominations close on 5 October.
Here is an opportunity to recognise a radio amateur that has made a contribution to amateur radio. There are three categories:
GARTH MILNE TECHNICAL INNOVATION AWARD
The award is made for the support, development and application of Technological Innovation in Amateur Radio in South Africa. The recipient will be a person who has promoted the use of technology in amateur radio at club level, nationally, at schools or a tertiary education institution.
MTN RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD
The award is made for the support and development of the Amateur Radio Service in South Africa, not for individual achievements such as DXCC and other operational awards or contests. The recipient will be a person who has given of his or her expertise and time to the promotion of Amateur Radio in South Africa.
MTN AMATEUR RADIO COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Annually the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust is recognising a radio amateur or a group of radio amateurs for service to the community.
Community service can be assistance to a handicapped radio amateur, communications support during a sporting event or a disaster situation like a road accident or a natural disaster like a flood, veld fires, or an earthquake. Nominations are invited for an individual or a group of people like a radio club, or an association.
Nomination forms are available on www.amateurradio.org.za or by sending a mail request to saardt@intekom.co.za. The closing date for nominations has been extended till 5 October 2012.
NEW QST MANAGING EDITOR
The ARRL has announced that Book Editor Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY, has been promoted to QST Managing Editor. A Connecticut native, Schoenfeld has more than two decades of publishing experience.
Prior to her employment at ARRL Headquarters, Schoenfeld served as Senior Editor at Teaching Kindergarten through 8th grade magazine and Senior Project Editor for textbook publisher Macmillan/McGraw-Hill. She is also the founder of Amaranth magazine which is a highly successful poetry journal.
W1BXY holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Emerson College and a Bachelor of Arts from Fairfield University. Her Amateur Radio activities include chasing grid squares in pursuit of her 6 metre VUCC award and DX hunting on 10 metres.
Schoenfeld replaces the position formerly held by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE, who died tragically in a house fire several weeks ago.
LOOKING AHEAD TO WRC-15
From an Amateur Radio perspective, the 2012 World Radio Communication Conference (WRC-12) was very successful. According to IARU Secretary Rod Stafford, W6ROD, the IARU Administrative Council will meet in the next 45 days and will address the agenda items for the 2015 World Radio Communication Conference with an eye to building the best strategy to deal with those agenda items in a way that is most favourable to the Amateur Radio Service.
WRC-15 Agenda Item 1.4 calls on the delegates "to consider possible new allocation to the Amateur Service on a secondary basis with the band 5 250-5 450 kHz in accordance with Resolution 649 (WRC-12). "According to Stafford, the IARU will be spending a lot of time and effort to garner support and to ensure the passage of this Agenda Item.
Agenda Item 1.1 is "to consider additional spectrum allocations to the mobile service on a primary basis and identification of additional frequency bands for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) and related regulatory provisions, to facilitate the development of terrestrial mobile broadband applications, in accordance with Resolution 233 (WRC-12)."
"With seemingly everyone around the world gaining some degree of broadband access, the search for radio spectrum to satisfy the needs for mobile connectivity will become even more intense as we draw closer to WRC-15, Stafford explained. "National telecommunication authorities around the world and the ITU are in search of spectrum to fill these mobile connectivity requirements. As this agenda item develops, the IARU will be there to maintain the Amateur Radio spectrum."
Other WRC-15 Agenda Items the IARU will be closely monitoring include the following:
Agenda Item 1.6.1: "To consider possible additional primary allocations to the fixed satellite service (Earth-to-space and space-to-Earth) of 250 MHz in the range between 10 GHz and 17 GHz in Region 1."
Agenda Item 1.10: "To consider spectrum requirements and possible additional spectrum allocations for the mobile-satellite service in the Earth-to-space and space-to-Earth directions, including the satellite component for broadband applications, including International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), within the frequency range from 22 GHz to 26 GHz, in accordance with Resolution 234 (WRC-12)."
Agenda Item 1.18: "To consider a primary allocation to the radiolocation service for automotive applications in the 77,5-78,0 GHz frequency band in accordance with Resolution 654 (WRC-12)."
"A lot of radio amateurs are aware of the increasing use of amateur spectrum by small satellites, mainly by universities," Stafford noted. "It is becoming an increasingly difficult situation.”
To accommodate the number of small, non-commercial satellites within the amateur bands. These education-based satellites do not really fit within the definition of the Amateur Radio Service, but have been accommodated there. These small satellites are categorized as nanosatellites (weighing between 1-10 kg) and pico satellites (weighing less than 1 kg). The ITU is trying to deal with this issue in an orderly manner and a 'preliminary' WRC-18 agenda item is to consider whether these satellite operations can be accommodated in an already crowded radio spectrum. As these issues develop, the IARU will keep its Member-Societies, such as the SARL, aware of developments."
COMPETITION NEW2S
SARL 80 m CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP
From 17:30 to 18:30 UTC on Wednesday evening 26 September 2012, the SSB contest will be on the air. The exchange is a RS report and a serial number starting at 001. You can participate as a Single Operator or Multi-operator station with activity on 3 600 - 3 650 kHz and 3 700 -3 775 kHz. Each QSO counts one point.
Each session is a contest in its own right, and log entries must be submitted to zs4bfn@netactive.co.za within seven (7) days of the contest, thus 23:59:59 CAT 3 October 2012.
CONGRATULATIONS BERNIE ZS4TX
Bernie van der Walt, ZS4TX, participated in the 2011 CQ WW DX CW Contest on 28 MHz using high power and made 2 208 429 points. This score ensured that Bernie was awarded the Single Operator, Single Band, World 28 MHz trophy. Well done Bernie.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is at low levels. Only a few sunspot regions are currently visible. Big new Sunspot 1 575 will hopefully increase the solar activity levels in the weeks to come.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 62.
All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of DX fun with 15 m providing the best openings with 20 m not far behind. 10 m openings will be less frequent due to the lower solar activity.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
24 September – That is tomorrow, Heritage Day Sprint from 12:00 to 15:00 CAT.
26 September - SARL 80 m club championship competition from 17:30 to 18:30 UTC.
29 September - Radio Technology in Action Symposium in Cape Town. Pre-booking closes Wednesday evening.
29 September - Flea market of the West Rand Amateur Radio Club.
3 October – Log sheets for the SARL 80 m club championship competition to be in to zs4bfn@netactive.co.za.
5 October - Nominations for MTN sponsored SAARDT awards to be in to saardt@intekom.co.za.
9 October - Heritage Day Sprint logs to be in to riaanzs4pr@gmail.com and a copy to fwolff@global.co.za.
SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and short-wave 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 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 Martin Schwella, ZS4MS, and edited George Honiball, ZS6NE.
Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
