SARL NEWS SUNDAY 30 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.

SILENT KEY

The Ham Fraternity in the Western Cape is saddened to announce the passing of a grand old man of Amateur Radio, Ben Bennett, ZS1AAQ, at the age of 92. Born in the UK and trained as a radio engineer, he served in the Allied Armed Forces during WW2, before commencing a career in sound and TV engineering. He worked in the UK, Australia, what was then Rhodesia, and finally in South Africa, where his stature as high standard transmitter and amplifier constructor grew, as did his reputation as skilled CW operator and story-teller. Among his other talents were his ear for music, his ability to play the piano, and his skill as a piano tuner, all self-taught. In his latter years, ill-health brought an end to these capabilities and he lived quietly in Durbanville until his peaceful death on 24th June. He is survived by 3 children, one each in America, England and Australia.

May the shadow of this giant of a radio amateur never grow less.

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).

IN THE NEWS TODAY:
YOUR VIDEO ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO CAN WIN BIG
RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION HEADS FOR PE
G4HYG RELEASES NEW APRS MESSENGER ANDROID APP
A HISTORIAN NEEDED FOR THE SARL

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

YOUR VIDEO ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO CAN WIN BIG

The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust invites amateur videographers to take part in a video competition and compete for some great prizes. Be creative with your camera or even your smartphone. Shoot a short video of an exciting Amateur Radio activity in South Africa and you could win a 5watt CW MFJ 40 metre transceiver kit valued at R1300 as well as one of many other prizes, the list is growing daily. The video format can be AVI, WMV or MPEG with a minimum resolution of 320 X 240. The length of the video should be between 3 and 5 minutes. The subject can be anything that illustrates the joy and excitement of amateur radio

Entries should be sent on a CD or DVD. Don't attempt to e-mail it. Send your video to: Amateur Radio Video Competition, P O Box 90438, Garsfontein, 0042. The closing date is 31 December 2013. The winners will be announced early in 2014.

For more details and the rules visit www.amateurradio.org.za

RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION HEADS FOR PE

The first of the 2013 SARL Radio Technology in Action symposiums will be presented in Port Elizabeth on Saturday 27 July at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in cooperation with the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society. An action packed programme will include presentations and demonstrations of interest to all radio amateurs and radio enthusiasts. Learn how to operate your HF or VHF transceiver remotely and watch how Riaan Greeff ZS4PR make HF contacts using a transceiver located at the National Amateur Radio Centre in Johannesburg and another transceiver in a USA location.

Build a VFO for the SDR kit demonstrated at last year's RTA with kits available at the at this year's event by Frik Wolff, ZS6FZ. Learn about how antenna heights and angles of radiation can enhance your HF operating with Vince Harrison ZS6 BTY. Find out more about the use of a digital multi meter in your shack and get an update on 5MHz operation.

A CD with all the presentations and loads of other useful stuff will available. The SARL has also done a deal with Corell-I to make a high level multi meter available at a very special price to RTA delegates.

There are many attendance prizes to be won. Get all the details on www.sarl.org.za and click on Radio Technology in Action and book before 19 July 2013. The kit, CD and multimeter are only available on pre-order and will be delivered to delegates at the event. No mail orders are available. These items are only available to pre-booked RTA delegates.

G4HYG RELEASES NEW APRS MESSENGER ANDROID APP

Chris Moulding, G4HYG, says that he has just released a new APRS app for Android phones and tablets. This so that radio amateurs can send APRS position beacons and messages from an Android equipped phone or tablet over a 3G or Wi-Fi link to the APRS-IS internet system. It can also link by Bluetooth to the new Bluetooth version of the APRS TNC Digi Tracker. G4HYG notes that there is a small charge for the app to help pay for the development tool licensing fee. More information is available on the web at tinyurl.com/aprs-android-app.


LEAGUE NEWS

TIME TO PAY YOUR SARL MEMBERSHIP FEES
It this time of the year that SARL membership fees are due. Members received an invoice in the mail. Nearly 700 have already renewed but if you have not done so yet, please do it this week. Members derive so much value for the small amount they pay and the SARL has even made it easier to pay by giving members an option to pay the fee in a few instalments. All the details are on the invoice.

If you are not a member yet, this is a good time to join. Call Mariska on Monday at 011 675 2393 for the details, or join online at www.sarl.org.za. Just think of what your membership offers, free QSL bureau, 6 issues if Radio ZS, free access to 472 kHz and two frequencies in the 5 MHz band, four great symposiums in Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg at discounted rates plus many on and off the air activities.

On Thursday 27 June 686 members had renewed. Do not delay; renew your membership, now.

A HISTORIAN NEEDED FOR THE SARL

The SARL has now been in existence for nearly a century and there are very few people left alive who remember the early days.

From time to time, some interesting material from the early days is brought to the attention of Council. Undoubtedly there are many members still in possession of such historical material, maybe inherited from family members or older amateur friends who passed away.

Although Council realises the value of such material and would like to preserve it for future generations, there is, at present, nobody available to do this. There is no council appointee for the job, no system and no archive or museum. Valuable material is lost because there is no systematic way of collecting and preserving it.

The SARL Council is asking for a volunteer or volunteers who can fulfil this function for the League. If you are interested, please send an email to the Secretary (secretary@sarl.org.za) or to the President (rassie@snowisp.co.za) and an SARL councillor will contact you. If you know of a member who may be willing to do this, send his name to the Secretary, who will contact him.

This is a very real need - please do not hesitate to volunteer.

CONTEST NEWS

RESULTS OF THE ZS4 SPRINT
The results of the ZS4 Sprint held on Sunday 9 June have been released. The committee received twenty one logs of which fourteen came from the ZS4 call area.

1st Jan Botha, ZS4JAN, 131 points
2nd Frans Marais, ZS4FM, 102 points
3rd Welkom Radio Club, ZS4WRC, 98 points
4th Bloemfontein ARC, ZS4BFN, 91 points

Frans, ZS4FM, wins the ARRL Book 'Small Antennas for Small Spaces' for being the member of the Bloemfontein ARC with the highest score. Congratulations to Jan and Frans. The full results are published in HF Happenings 562.

IARU HF CHAMPIONSHIPS
The IARU HF Championships will be on the air from 12:00 UTC Saturday 13 to 12:00 Sunday 14 July with CW and phone activity on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres. The exchange is a RS or RST report and your ITU Zone, for South Africa that is Zone 57. IARU Member Society HQ stations will give a RS or RST report and Society abbreviation, while IARU official will give AC, R1, R2 or R3.

Geoff, ZS6GRL, is still looking for operators for ZS9HQ. You do not have to be in the Johannesburg area. Contact Geoff at contest@sarl.org.za or 082 546 5546

SARL WINTER QRP CONTEST
The SARL Winter QRP Contest will be run on Saturday 20 July starting at 12:00 UTC and ending at 15:00 UTC. Home or field stations are encouraged to participate using SSB, CW or mixed (SSB/CW) with 5 watts (PEP) output or less and a station may be contacted once per mode. The first hour is limited to the 40 m band only, the remaining two hours the contesters are free to use any HF (non-WARC) band as they see fit.

HF PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. There is a chance of C-Class flares and a lower threat for isolated M-Class events.

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

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 can also be some 10 m openings on east-west sunlit paths.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS

1 July - QSO Party log sheets must be submitted.
13-14 July – IARU HF Championships
19 July – Closing date for entry to RTA in Port Elizabeth
20 July – SARL Winter QRP Contest
27 July – RTA in Port Elizabeth
3 - 4 August - Hamnet Winter Challenge

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