SARL NEWS SUNDAY 26 MAY 2013

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

SILENT KEY
It is with great sadness that we record the sudden passing on Friday evening 17th May, of Maurice Drinkwater ZS1ACH. He was 61. Maurice had a heart attack about three weeks ago but was home and recovering well when he suddenly collapsed and died. Coming to SA from Zimbabwe he quickly assimilated into the Western Cape ham fraternity first associating himself with Oakdale where he served as chairman of the club for a number of years. Thereafter he began to associate more with our club where he was always keen to assist at all our field events, but more importantly as QSL manager, where he quickly catalogued our call books and claimed several certificates on our behalf. In this sphere he is an immense loss to the club.

At the recent SARL AGM Maurice was awarded the Jack Twine Merit Award.

To his wife Celia, and son Alex, ZR1SPA, our deepest sympathy and condolences. His key may be silent but his signals will always be 5 and 9 plus 40.

IN THE NEWS TODAY:
SARL HAMNET SIGNS MoU WITH BREEDE VALLEY MUNICIPALITY
FIVE YEAR AMATEUR RADIO LICENCE
SA AMSAT REPORTS MAJOR PROGRESS ON KLETSkous

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

SARL HAMNET SIGNS MoU WITH BREEDE VALLEY MUNICIPALITY
SARL HAMNET signed a memorandum of understanding with the Breede Valley Municipality with the purpose of the authorisation and mobilisation of volunteer amateur radio operators when needed in a communications emergency as part of the emergency auxiliary radio support programme of the Breede Valley Fire Department. As part of the agreement the fire department will provide suitable accommodation for SARL HAMNET Western Cape to set up and establish an amateur radio station on the premises of the fire station.

FIVE YEAR AMATEUR RADIO LICENCE
The SARL is still receiving questions about the five year license issues with ICASA. A detailed explanation was received from ICASA and included in SARL News two weeks ago. The ICASA statement is still available on www.sarl.org.za. If you paid for 5 years and have advised ICASA accordingly, the problem will be sorted out even if you have received a license for only this year. This may take several more weeks. It is not necessary to call ICASA.
The SARL has placed the matter on the Agenda of the next ICASA/SARL liaison meeting which is scheduled for mid-June.

NOMINATIONS FOR MTN RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Nominations for the 2013 MTN Radio Amateur of the Year Awards close on 10 June. There are three award categories: Garth Milne Technical Innovation Award, MTN Radio Amateur of the Year Award and the MTN Amateur Radio Community Service Award.

The Garth Milne technical innovation award is made for the support, development and application of Technological Innovation in Amateur 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 tertiary education institution.

The MTN radio amateur of the year award is made for the support and development of the Amateur Radio Service in South Africa. The MTN amateur radio community service award recognises a radio amateur or a group of radio amateurs for service to the community.

Each award carries a R2000 cash award and a 2013 ARRL Handbook. Nomination forms and full details are available on www.amateurradio.org.za. The award presentation will be held 26 June 2013 at a lunch at the Mid Rand Protea Hotel.

Use this opportunity to recognise a radio amateur that has made major contributions to amateur radio in one of the three categories. Include as much information about the nominee to enable the judges to make the right choice. All the judges have to go by is what is included in the nomination document.

DAYTON HAMVENTION HAILED AS THE BEST
The 2013 Dayton Hamvention will likely go down in the amateur radio history books as one of the best. There were several new products introduced at Hamvention 2013. Perhaps one of the most interesting was Yaesu's new High Frequency transceiver, the FTDX-1200 which is an entry level TFT screen radio featuring a built-in bandscope and the kind of features you would find on a higher priced radio. Not to be outdone, Icom was there with two new products. The company showcased both its ID-51A portable and IC-7100 mobile radios. Both are D-STAR ready and as such they facilitate clear digital voice, short data messages, worldwide D-STAR linked repeater access over the Internet and more. The IC-7100 is particularly of interest in that it combines VHF and UHF analogue and digital with all-band all-mode mobile operations using a new slanted control head with what is the amateur industries first touchscreen interface.

SA AMSAT REPORTS MAJOR PROGRESS ON KLETSkous
At the SA AMSAT space symposium held at the innovation Hub in Pretoria the KLETSkous team reported major progress on SA AMSAT's first cubesat. Both the prototype transponder and the controller boards are being populated and testing will commence in the next few weeks. Major progress has also been made with the space frame. Read more about the project on www.amsatsa.org.za this weekend.

SA AMSAT also presented the project at the third annual South African Space Association congress held on Thursday and Friday last week at SANSA Space Operations at Hartbeesthoek.

SENTECH NEEDS YOUR ASSISTANCE
Sentech is requesting the assistance of radio amateurs and shortwave listeners to monitor the 7MHz amateur band for spurious signals from antennas at their HF transmitting station at Meyerton carrying RSG. If you hear RSG on any other frequencies than 3320, 7285, or 9650 kHz please send a report to Jaap Lourens at lourensj@sentech.co.za including date, time and frequency.

THE ZS2X VHF BEACON IS NOW COVERING THE GREATER AREA OF SOUTH AFRICA
The two element Yagi of the ZS2X beacon on 50,007 MHz FSK, near Port Elizabeth, has been turned north by Tim Joubert, ZS2X, as requested to cover most of South Africa. This 25 Watt beacon will produce very strong radio bursts on the daylight meteor shower Arietids that is currently active until 2 July 2013, which is the most intense daylight meteor shower of the year.

This VHF beacon can also indicate country-wide Tropo Ducting as well as Tropo Scatter propagation on 50 MHz in the early mornings after sunrise as well as Aircraft Scatter along the flight paths. It will be the most effective during the summer months when it can give early warnings of the strong but unpredictable Sporadic-E openings that could occur during the mornings, afternoons and/or evenings. Reception reports of the ZS2X beacon would be appreciated
LEAGUE NEWS
This week the SARL welcomes the Soutpansberg Amateur radio Club that has affiliated with the League. The Club resides in Polokwane from where it is active in the Limpopo area. The Clubs call sign is ZS6SPB.
Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from the following radio amateurs:
David Schalk Venter;
Michael Gendel;
John McFarlane.

Any objections against the acceptance of the applications must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin.

CLUB NEWS
KARTS FLEA MARKET AND AWA OPEN DAY
The Kempton Park Amateur Radio Technical Society (KARTS) and the Antique Wireless Associations (AWA) combined flea market and AWA open day event will take place this forthcoming Saturday the 1st June 2013 from 08:00 onwards.

The venue is at the Impala Voortrekker Centre, Rooibos Avenue, Allen Grove, Kempton Park. The GPS co-ordinates are 26.085 08S 28.232 39E or visit the KARTS website at www.zs6kts.co.za/ for directions to the venue.

Apart from the flea market a display of antique radios and associated equipment an active HF, V/UHF station will be in operation from where the Saturday AWA SSB 40 m net will be operating from.

Mariska from the SARL Head Office will be present for any administrative matters and Willem ZS6WWJ from the QSL bureau will ensure that QSL cards received are handed to members present that make use of this service.

This event promises to be a most interesting, enjoyable and memorable day.
For table bookings or any queries, contact Selwyn, ZS6SEL, at 082 804 2782 or email to zs6sel@gmail.com or Nico, ZS6QL, at 083 269 9939 or email to nicolaasv@mweb.co.za.
KARTS and AWA are looking forward to seeing you there!

NEW LIFE IN CLUB
After a number of years of inactivity the Soutpansberg Amateur Radio Club of the Limpopo province held its AGM on 11 May 2013 in Polokwane. 18 Members attended. A new constitution was approved and a club committee was elected, as follows:

Chairperson: Karel Bezuidenhout ZS6WN
Vice chairperson: Willem Badenhorst ZS6WAB
Secretary/treasurer: Karel Bezuidenhout Jnr ZU6KB Public relations & RAE: Thinus Joubert ZS6TDS Technical & repeaters: Eben Liebenberg ZS6EBN

The club applied for affiliation with the SARL.

RUSTENBURG AMATEUR RADIO CLUB AGM
The AGM of the Rustenburg Amateur Radio Club was held on the 18th of May 2013. The new committee that was elected is:
Chairperson: Gene Niemand ZR6CEN
Secretary : John Keulder ZS6BXL
Technical Member: Dawie Conradie ZR6DHC

HF PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at moderate levels. The sun is peppered with several large sunspots but only AR1755 and AR1756 have a beta-gamma class magnetic field that harbours enough energy for M-class flares.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 80. The geomagnetic field may be unsettled.

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 some good 10 m openings on sunlit paths.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS
26 May – CQ WW WPX CW Contest
26 May - Second leg of the SARL Digital Contest
26 May - Logs for The Day of the YLs to be in to f5isy@orange.fr.
31 May - Last day to submit suggestions on the type of activity young Amateurs in South Africa would like to see included in 2014 Youth Week programme. Send your suggestions to youth@sarl.org.za.
31 May - Last day to submit logs for the Antique Wireless Association AM/SSB Valve QSO Party to andy.cairns@xsinet.co.za.
2 June – Deadline for submitting SARL Digital Competition logs.
15/16 June - First weekend of International Museums Weekend special event, register your museum station at www.ukradioamateur.co.uk/imw.
22/23 June - Second weekend of International Museums Weekend special event.

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, 7 025, and 17 660 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 16:30 UTC on 3 230 kHz. The website also lists various other retransmissions. Reception reports, comments and suggestions are invited. Send an email 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 and edited by Louis Kirstein, ZS1LK.

Thank you for listening, 73.

/EX