SARL NEWS SUNDAY 2 JUNE 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 news reader 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
Marten, ZS6ZY, reported that Judith, wife of Harry Davies, ZS6JRD, notified him that Harry passed away during his sleep on the 31st of May after a severe heart attack. We convey our condolences and sympathy to Judith and other family and friends.

IN THE NEWS TODAY:
102 NEW RADIO AMATEURS
MISUNDERSTANDING CREATES A FRENZY
SARL@HOME LOOKS AT CONTESTING

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

102 NEW RADIO AMATEURS

Congratulations to the 102 candidates who passed the May 2013 Radio Amateur examination. A total of 130 persons enrolled but only 116 wrote the exam. The highest average obtained is 98%. There are 3 candidates who managed to obtain 100% for the regulations part. The highest mark for the technical section was 95%.

The results are published on the official webpage of the SARL, www.sarl.org.za. Candidates who passed the Radio Amateur examination may go on air immediately and take part actively in the hobby. Check the results list on the SARL web to verify the call sign allocated by ICASA.
The licensing process takes a month or longer and for this reason ICASA and the SARL have an agreement that candidates who passed may operate immediately after the results are published on the SARL web.

The RAE Manager, Gideon Jannasch, ZS4GJA asked that all the experienced amateurs welcome the new voices and encourage them to take part in every aspect of the hobby, be patient if they struggle in the beginning they will soon become confident. He issued a challenge to a the all newly licensed amateurs to take part in their first big event , the ZS4 Sprint on Sunday 9 June 2013 at 16:00 local time. "We would like to hear you on HF", he said. More information on the ZS4 Sprint can be found in the contest handbook available on the SARL web.

To all the less fortunate candidates who did not pass, don't ever give up, study and try again in the October 2013 examination. Remember to register for the exam. If you have any questions contact the RAE manager at rae@sarl.org.za.

MISUNDERSTANDING CREATES A FRENZY

A discussion on a repeater about some tests on 472 kHz, asking other radio amateurs to listen and give reports caused a frenzy and panic that the activities could cause an aircraft to crash. A listener to the conversation did not listen carefully and interpreted the discussion as being about tests on 4720 kHz which is an aircraft band. He warned the person on the repeater that they could cause an aircraft to crash. The discussion went back and forth but the two parties did not realise that they were talking about different frequencies. So a letter went off to ICASA warning of the imminent danger. ICASA reacted and asked the SARL to investigate. Of course SARL members are licensed to operate on 472 kHz on a secondary basis. In the Table of frequency allocation 4720 kHz is shown as aeronautical mobile, in some countries it is also used for broadcasting. Any operation on 4720 kHz would not have caused an aircraft to crash but in any case there was no operation by radio amateurs. The moral of the story is, listen and get the facts before you act and get everyone in a frenzy.

BIG TIME DX ON 5MHZ

Chris Burger, ZS6EZ has made several DX contacts on 5 MHz using CW. Amongst the countries he worked are the USA, UK and Israel. Congratulations! If you are operating on 5 MHz send your logs to propresearch@sarl.org.za

NOMINATIONS FOR MTN RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS CLOSE - ONE WEEK LEFT

Nominations for the 2013 MTN Radio Amateur of the Year Awards close in just over a week 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. For details and a nomination form visit www.amateurradio.org.za. 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.

SARL@HOME ON SATURDAY 15 JUNE LOOKS AT CONTESTING

Join Geoff Levey ZS6GRL for the first SARL@HOME event on Saturday 15 June at the National Amateur Radio Centre to learn more about contesting. SARL@HOME is a new quarterly event presented by the SARL to show just how much fun amateur radio is.

Geoff will share with you the various terms used in contest rules, how to submit a log and what information is required in the log, and run through the operation of N1MM. Bring a memory stick and take home a copy of the contest logging software.

SARL@HOME starts at 10:00 and will end at around 12:30. It is free to SARL members and R50 to non-members. Refreshments will be served. With the main SARL HF contest coming up soon this is the ideal event for newcomers to amateur radio and those who have not taken serious part in contesting. Learn just how much fun it can be if you know how. To assist with catering, drop an email to admin@sarl.org.za or call Mariska at 011 675 2393 to confirm you are coming.

CLUB NEWS

PEARS
The newly elected committee of Pears, the Port Elizabeth amateur radio society is as follows:

Chairman: ZS2NT, Nicholas Thompson
Vice chairman: ZS2GV, Glen Cummings
Secretary/Function organising: ZS2PTY, Patsy Kruger
Treasurer: ZS2RT, Clive Fife
Public Relations: ZS2JO, Johannes Geldenhuys
Events/Rally organising: ZR2TX, Tony Allen
QSX distribution, contests and awards: ZS2EC, Theunis Potgieter
Technical/Repeaters, wifi, webpage and ZS2PE: ZS2AAW, Chris Scarr

Congratulations to the new committee.

SOUTPANSBERG REVIVES
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

CONTEST NEWS

ZS3 SPRINT
The ZS3 Sprint was well supported on the 5th of May 2013. 108 Members were active during the sprint and we received 20 logs from which three of them were used as controlled logs.

The results are as follows for the hour on the air:
1st: ZS3R, Christo van Rensburg, 102 points.
2nd: ZS4JAN, Jan Botha, 86 points.
3rd: ZS4DZ, Johan van Zijl, 61 points.
4th: ZS6YH, Mitchel Mynhardt, 56 points.

The Northern Cape Amateur Radio Club thanks everybody that took part and send in their logs.

ZS4 SPRINT
The ZS4 Sprint is on the air on Sunday 9 June 2013 from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC. This is a fun activity to promote contacts between radio amateurs in the Free State and radio amateurs in Southern African countries. The Sprint is a phone and CW contest on the 40-metre band. The exchange for ZS4 stations is a RS(T) report and town name or abbreviation. For all other stations it is a RS(T) report and provincial or country abbreviation.

Scoring - For ZS4: Contacts with stations in ZS4 are worth 1 point and contacts with stations in other ZS call areas or Southern African countries are worth 2 points. For other stations: Contacts with stations in ZS4 are worth 2 points and contacts with stations in own or other ZS call areas (excluding ZS4) or Southern African countries are worth 1 point.

Contacts with the Bloemfontein ARC, ZS4BFN, Vrystaat Radioklub, ZS4B, the Welkom Radio Club, ZS4WRC, and the Sasolburg ARC, ZS4SRK is worth 5 points each, only one contact per station is allowed. ZS4BFN will be active around 7 130 kHz and ZS4B around 7 150 kHz.

Log sheets must be submitted by 17 June by e-mail to riaanzs4pr@gmail.com with a copy to fwolff@global.co.za. A certificate will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the competition.

SARL AUTUMN QRP CONTEST
The results of the SARL Autumn QRP Contest. There was a lot of activity in this contest, which is encouraging. Unfortunately, only 10 logs were received.

Andre, ZS2ACP, took top honours with 280 points, followed in second place by Francois, ZS6FDX, with 259 points and Ed, ZS6UT, in third place with 192 points. They were followed by ZS6BNE, ZS6A, ZS6BTY, ZS2NF, ZS2PE, ZS6GRL and ZS6MHH. The full results will be published in HF Happenings 560. Congratulations to the winners.


HF PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. None of the magnetically simple sunspots poses a threat of strong solar flares.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 50 with an unsettled geomagnetic field.

All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of DX fun with 20 m providing the best openings with 15 m not far behind. There will also be some 10 m openings on sunlit paths.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS

2 June – Deadline for submitting SARL Digital Competition logs.
9 June - ZS4 Sprint is on the air from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC
15 June - first SARL@HOME event at the National Amateur Radio Centre
15/16 June - First weekend of International Museums Weekend special event, register your museum station at www.ukradioamateur.co.uk/imw.
17 June – Due date for ZS4 Sprint log sheets
22/23 June - Second weekend of International Museums Weekend special event.

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 17 660 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