SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 18 November 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:
CALL TO URGENT ACTION ON 5 MHz
DX HAMVENTION THE THEME FOR 2013 DAYTON HAMVENTION
CW MESSAGE FROM SPACE
FITSAT-1 SCHEDULES CHRISTMAS EVE OPTICAL TRANSMISSION
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting items.
CALL TO URGENT ACTION ON 5 MHz
While Radio Amateurs in the UK are experimenting on the 5 MHz band South Africa are still awaiting the answer to the SARL's request to ICASA to allocate one or more 5 MHz channels. This week RSGB news reported that their popular Sunday evening 5 MHz Sunset Net is changing frequency. The net, as its name implies, meets around UK sunset time on Sunday evenings to compare propagation with that during the 5 MHz GB2RS News earlier the same day. It has for some time met on the UK's 5 371,5 kHz channel. Following a number of reception reports from amateurs in the Republic of Ireland, the net participants have decided to move the Sunset Net's frequency to 5 398,5 kHz, with a backup of 5 278,5 kHz, beginning today, 18 November, as both these latter two channels are available to EI amateurs.
Wê, here, need your action this weekend and on Monday and Tuesday. Monitor the channels between 5 250 and 5 450 kHz and report any transmission heard. We need the date, time and ID of the station or any information that may assist in identifying the organisation licensed. The SARL needs this information in preparation for the meeting with ICASA on Thursday this week. Mail your findings to artoday@sarl.org.za. Here is a chance to do something for your amateur radio.
DX HAMVENTION THE THEME FOR 2013 DAYTON HAMVENTION
Newsline reports that the theme for the 2013 Dayton Hamvention 2013 will be DX Hamvention to reflect an important part of amateur radio, the distant contact. Charles Kaiser, KD8JZR, General Chairman for the event says that Hamvention is often an important DX destination for amateurs from all over the globe. "Working DX is often a mix of magic, conditions, and the diligent application of radio theory", Kaiser said.
A number of key vendors have already committed to returning to Hamvention® which the Dayton/Montgomery County Convention & Visitors Bureau estimates produces an economic impact of about $4 million for Montgomery County and nearly $10 million regionally. Hamvention®, the world's largest amateur radio gathering, brings about 25 000 people to the greater Dayton area. The three-day event includes exhibits, a flea market, forums, education sessions and license exams. The Dayton Hamvention 2013 is scheduled for 17 - 19 May, visit the website at www.hamvention.org.
CW MESSAGE FROM SPACE
FITSAT-1 SCHEDULES CHRISTMAS EVE OPTICAL TRANSMISSION
There will be a Christmas present of sorts from amateur radio in space. On 24 December, the students in Japan, who built the FITSAT-1 satellite, are planning to activate the bird’s LED optical array and flash a message in Morse Code to Earth.
According to JA6AVG, the students plan to start testing the optical system at the end of November. As such its Morse message beacon may well be visible from Earth with the unaided eye well before the scheduled transmission date.
FITSAT-1 is a CubeSat that was developed by students at the Fukuoka Institute of Technology in Japan. In addition to the optical transmission system the bird carries a CW beacon on 437,250 MHz and a data link on 437,445 MHz. There is also a 5,8 GHz data downlink.
CONTEST NEWS
Results of the Spring QRP Contest help on the 20th October 2012 are as follows
1st Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT – 1 620 points
2nd Gerrit Rautenbach, ZS2XD - 1 512 points
3rd Christopher van Rensburg, ZS3R - 752 points
The results after adding up all of the 4 contests are as follows:
1st Gerrit Rautenbach, ZS2XD – 4 728 points
2nd Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT – 4 626 points
3rd Pierre van Deventer, ZS6A – 2 560 points
The results of the VHF/UHF contest held on the 15/16th September are as follows:
ROVER
1st ZS60Y – 6 615
2nd ZS6MHH – 4 499 points
LIMITED
ZS4VP 6 992 points
HOME MIXED MODES
1st - ZS1NAZ - Analogue 54 282 / Digital 34 570
2nd - ZS6A - Analogue 23 556 / Digital 42 924
3rd - ZS6PX - Analogue 3 123 / Digital 72 684
HOME ANALOGUE ONLY
ZS6KTS 7 977
HOME DIGITAL ONLY
ZS2ACP 68 917
FIELD STATION ANALOGUE
ZS6MRK 54 135
The full results will be published in HF Happenings.
The following are the results of the Antique Wireless Association QSO Party held on 13 and 14 October 2012:
In the AM section top scores are:
Denis, ZR6DNS
SSB:
1st Abe, ZS1ZS
2nd Theunis, ZS2EC
3rd Denis, ZR6DNS
Although there were more than 30 stations active on the AM section, only 2 logs and 2 check logs were submitted.
In the SSB Section, there were more than 40 active stations, but only 4 logs and 2 check logs were submitted.
Thanks to all who participated in the QSO Party.
Certificates for the top scores will be in the mail shortly.
CLUB NEWS
The West Rand Amateur Radio Club will host its next flea market at 12:00 on Saturday 01 December 2012 at their clubhouse in Kroton street, Weltevredenpark, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. For more information contact Phillip, ZS6PVT, at 083 267 3835 or Geoff, ZS6GRL, at 082 546 5546.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that solar activity is on the rise. There are a number of active areas visible on the solar disk which have the potential for flare activity. Active areas 1 610, 1 611, and 1 614 have complex magnetic configurations and have the possibility for C-class and isolated M-class flaring.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 102.
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. There will also be frequent 10 m openings due to the higher solar activity.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
18 November - SARL National Field Day still on the go till 10:00 UTC today.
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.
01 December - West Rand Amateur Radio Club flea market starting at 12:00.
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 18:30 UTC on 4 895 kHz ((A new time and frequency!). Reception reports are invited. We are particularly interested in reports of the 4 895 kHz transmission on Mondays at 18:30 UTC as the frequency is close to the proposed new amateur allocation near 5 MHz. Reception reports from all areas in South Africa would be useful in our bid to ICASA for frequencies pilot studies. Send reports at the latest by Tuesday 20 November to artoday@sarl.org.za.
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
