SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 21 October 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. The SARL broadcasts 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 there to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

Your newsreader this morning is (name), (call sign), on 145,725 from Pretoria, with relays on 7,066 MHz and 3,695 MHz SSB. (Other news readers change to suit).

IN THE NEWS TODAY:

SARL TAKES UP ZONING REGULATIONS WITH THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN

CQ INTRODUCES 40 CQ ZONES ON 160 PLAQUE

MORE CLUBS AFFILIATE WITH THE SARL

You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting items.

SARL TAKES UP ZONING REGULATIONS WITH THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN

SARL President, Rassie Erasmus, ZS1Y,T and the SARL Legal advisor. Johan Marais, ZS1JM, met with a delegation of the Cape Town Metro to intervene in a notice received by a SARL member stating that he requires approval in terms of the Environmental Act & City of Cape Town Zoning regulations for his antenna which is less than 15 metres in height. It transpired that they had received a complaint from a neighbor, which is most probably RF related, but elected to notify the home owner that his antenna has not been approved and that they intend taking steps to either have him remove the tower or that he has to apply for the necessary approval.

The SARL delegation pointed out that antennas under 15 metres of radio amateurs are exempt from the provisions of the National Environmental Management Act, 107 of 1998. It was agreed that the process will be suspended pending the Council consulting with their legal advisors. The SARL will be afforded further opportunities to discuss the issues once feedback has been received from the Council's legal department.

SARL members who have had similar problems are requested to send details to admin@sarl.co.za so that Council can investigate the issues and the merits thereof.

CQ INTRODUCES 40 CQ ZONES ON 160 PLAQUE

CQ has announced the availability of a special plaque for those who have achieved contact to all 40 CQ zones on 160 meters. This is considered the most difficult of all amateur radio awards to earn and because of this the Worked All Zones 160 Metres Plaque recognizes that receiving it as one of the elite Top Band DXers. If you believe you qualify, please contact W-A-Z Award Manager Floyd Gerald, N5FG, by e-mail to n5fg@cq-amateur-radio.com for further details.

MORE CLUBS AFFILIATE WITH THE SARL

During the past week the following clubs have affiliated to the SARL:

Antique Wireless Association of Southern Africa-ZS0AWA
Centurion Radio Amateur Club- ZS6CEN
Hibiscus Coast Amateur Radio Club-ZS5HAC
Noordwes Amateurradioklub ZS6RWT
Oos-Transvaal-Laeveld Radioklub-ZS6OTL
Oakdale Amateurradioklub -ZS1OAK
Overberg Amateurradioklub -ZS1OAR
Sandton Amateur Radio Club-ZS6STN
Welkom Radioklub ZS4WRC
Winelands Amateur Radio Club- ZS1WRC and
Vrystaat Amateurradioklub-ZS4B
Sasolburg Radioklub-ZS4SRK

The SARL welcomes the clubs to the SARL family. If your club is not already affiliated to the SARL, visit www.sarl.org.za and select Club Talk for details and an affiliation vorm.

NEW MEMBERS

The SARL extends a hearty welcome to the following radio amateurs who have joined the SARL as members:
ZS1AW – Baxter, WHO had already been welcomed from the UK but now has a RSA call sign!
ZS1CU - Claude Steenkamp
ZSL1038 - Edric Russel
ZSL1047 - Keith Ferry
G2HIX - David Craig

STILLLISTEN OUT FOR JOTA STATIONS

On Saturday 20 October CQ Hou Koers took place with many amateurs hosting young people on the air. JOTA is run over two days, and is still active today. ICASA has agreed, on the SARL's request, to allow unlicensed youth to operate amateur radio stations under the supervision of licensed radio amateurs during these two events.

Give a young person the experience of a life time and encourage him or her to call CQ and operate an amateur radio station. The bug may just bite and you will have recruited a new person to join the world of radio amateurs.

CONTEST NEWS

The next RaDAR contest takes place on Saturday 3 November 2012, starting at 12:00 UTC and ending at 18:00 UTC (14:00 CAT to 20:00 CAT) giving 6 hours of activity - approximately 4 during the day and 2 at night. Activity may take place on all amateur bands and modes, including cross band contacts via amateur satellites. QSOs via terrestrial repeaters will NOT be allowed.

The exchange is your call sign, your name, a RS(T) report, your QTH and grid locator. The scoring is one point per QSO and one QSO per mode, per band/satellite, per call sign. There is a category and a power multiplier. Portable and RaDAR stations can also earn bonus points.

To be considered as a true RaDAR station, the entire station equipment, radios, batteries, mast, antennas and refreshments must be easily portable and hence the need to carry the equipment for at least 1 km prior to setting up.

Log sheets must be sent to the Lichtenberg Amateur Radio Club (LARK), PO Box 410, Lichtenburg, 2740 or by email to zs6lrk@nwinternet.za.org. The closing date for logs is 18 November 2012 and a photograph of the station (JPG format) MUST accompany every log entry.

The second leg of the SARL National Field Day will take place between 10:00 UTC on Saturday 17 November and 10:00 UTC on Sunday 18 November 2012 with activity on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres using Phone, CW and Digital modes.

There are five classes of participation, namely Class A - Field Station, Multi operator; Class B - Field Station, Multi operator, QRP; Class C - Field Station, Single Operator; Class D - Field Station, Single Operator, QRP and Class E - General stations. The exchange is the number of transmitters, Field Day operating Class and Province.

Equipment for Field Stations may only be set up in the 24 hours prior to the starting time of the contest. This restriction applies to antennas, masts, towers and transmitting equipment, but excludes accommodation such as a caravan, tent, etc. Once a Field Station has been established at a site, it may not move to an alternative site after the contest starts.

Get all the rules in the 2012 SARL Contest Manual.

VOLUNTEERS FOR NEWS TEAM

The News Team is grateful for the volunteers who offered to join the team but more volunteers will be appreciated. The main task of volunteers will be to translate bulletin items into Afrikaans. This news item is a request for members to offer their services to keep the bulletin service going. The news items for the bulletin will be e-mailed to the translators, who will translate them and e-mail them to the editor.

Bulletin translators will be SARL members, bilingual, with some rudimentary computer and editing skills and will have an e-mail address. If there are for example six translators, each one will only take responsibilty for the translations two months out of every year.

If you are be willing to try your hand at this, please send your name and contact details to Fritz, ZS6SF, with email address secretary@sarl.org.za during the coming week.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is at moderate levels. All current visible sunspot regions remain stable and many of the sunspots are in a state of decay. A potentially significant sunspot hiding off the eastern limb has started to rotate into view. It is still too early to tell just how big or small this sunspot is, however keep an eye on this region for further C-Class flare activity.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 84.

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 more frequent due to the higher solar activity.

Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.

DIARY OF EVENTS

3 November – RaDAR Contest, 12:00 to 18:00 UTC.
18 November – Log sheets for the RaDAR Contest to be in to Lichtenberg Amateur Radio Club (LARK), PO Box 410, Lichtenburg, 2740 or by email to zs6lrk@nwinternet.za.org.
17 November - SARL National Field Day will take place between 10:00 UTC on Saturday 17 November and 10:00 UTC on Sunday 18 November.

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 transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.

You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League compiled by George Honiball, ZS6NE.

Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX