SARL NEWS SUNDAY 04 AUGUST 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 MHz from Pretoria, with a relay on 7,066 MHz SSB. (Other news readers change to suit).

IN THE NEWS TODAY:

DURBAN RTA DATE CHANGED, GAUTENG UP NEXT

DONATION FOR FUTURE DXPEDITIONS

TAKE PART IN THE SARL AUGUST CONTESTS

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

DURBAN RTA DATE CHANGED, GAUTENG UP NEXT

The SARL Radio Technology in Action symposium date for Durban has changed. The new date is 14 September 2013. It will be held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Booking will open early next week.

The RTA will be in Gauteng on 31 August 2013 and will be held at the Innovation Hub, Pretoria. It is very modern venue easily accessible from the N1 Highway. Take the CSIR turn off and you will find the access road is opposite the CSIR entrance.

Booking for this event will also open early next week. Get all the detail from www.sarl.org.za, select the Radio Technology in Action link on the left hand side of the home page.

The first event was held in Port Elizabeth last weekend and was a great success. Diarise the date for the next two events 31 August in Gauteng and 14 September in Durban. The event in Cape Town will be held in early October.

NCDXC DONATES $8 000 TO NCDXF FOR FUTURE DXPEDITIONS

The Northern California DX Club has presented an $8 000 check to the Northern California DX Foundation. This to assist in continuing the Foundation’s work in fostering DX and DXpeditions where needed.

The Foundation says that this is the largest donation that it ever received from a club. It says that the monies will help to provide critical funding to DXpedtions high on the Most Wanted List. It adds that without this type of support that such DXpedtions might not be possible.

The Northern California DX Club was founded on October 10th, 1946. The beneficiary of its generosity, the Northern California DX Foundation is a private non-profit organization founded in 1972. Its purpose is to assist worthwhile amateur radio and scientific projects with funding and equipment.

CLUB AFFILIATION

Affiliation of clubs to the SARL is free.

To ensure that the club still exists, is still interested in affiliation and to keep the SARL records of the club's contact detail up to date, it is necessary to renew the affiliation every year. Clubs that were affiliated in the previous financial year and have not made significant changes to their constitution, only have to fill in and submit the club affiliation form. Clubs affiliating for the first time, have to provide more information.

There are many advantages to affiliation. Do not postpone it to the last minute.

CONTEST NEWS

TAKE PART IN THE SARL HF CONTEST TODAY

The upcoming contests in August (Phone, Digital and CW) are the Premier contests of the SARL. It starts with the HF Phone contest today, the 4th August, followed by the Digital contest on the 18th August and finally the CW on the 25th August. All 3 contests are from 13:00 to 16:30 UTC (15:00 to 18:30 CAT).

These contests are not only aimed at the individuals but Clubs can also participate. This is an ideal opportunity to get your Club members involved and turn these occasions into a Club event. You can participate as a Single Operator Single Band, Single Operator All Band, Multi Operator Single Band or Multi Operator All Band station.

Frequencies to be used are: 14 125 to 14 300 kHz; 7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz and 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 800 kHz.

The exchange is a RS report and a consecutive serial number starting at 001. SSB contacts count 1 point, two points are earned for each area worked per band and a further two points for each station worked on all three bands. Contacts with stations outside the 8 contest zones are allowed, QSO points may be claimed but no zone or three-bander points may be claimed.

Certificates are awarded for the first three places and the highest single band score in the contest. There are also various trophies that are presented at the AGM for the winners of the individual contests in the various categories.

That is not all; there will also be a lucky draw prize for each of the 3 contests. The winner of the draw will be drawn from the logs that are submitted, so even if you have made a few contacts submit your logs. That is the only way that you stand a chance of winning the prize. The prize is a 2013 ARRL Antenna handbook.

If you use a logging program, which you should be in this day and age, it is so easy to submit your log in Cabrillo or a different format. An Excel spread sheet is available for those who do not use a logging program. Logs must be submitted by 12 August to zs4bfn@netactive.co.za.

If you are a paper chaser or would like to become one, then these contests will help you to achieve your WAZS certificates. So uncover your rigs, or blow the dust off them and come and join in the fun of contesting.

SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE YL SPRINT

On Friday 9 August, National Women's Day, you can participate in the annual South African Radio League YL Sprint. The Sprint is on the air from 09:00 to 10:00 UTC on Friday 9 August. The exchange is a RS report and YL or OM.

It is a phone sprint on the 40 metre band (7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz). Contacts between YL stations are worth 5 points, contacts between YL and OM stations are worth 3 points and contacts between OM stations are worth 1 point.

Log sheets must be submitted by 17 August by e-mail to zs4bfn@netactive.co.za.

RADIO AMATEURS SHOULD ASPIRE TO ADVANCE THEIR ART

This, and the next item, is from Mike Bosch, ZS2FM.

Radio amateurs operated only on CW for many years until AM made its appearance, a mode that was resented by the vast majority because of its wide band signals. After World War II AM became the fashion until it was ousted by the new duck talk SSB mode, which old-timers disliked intensely and battled to tune in. Now we are on the threshold of the new digital data and voice modes and we could expect the same objections until it becomes the norm.

Likewise radio amateurs started off on MF, then were forced on to the HF bands where they could work their daily DX stations on certain bands but only at certain times. They started to conquer the technical problems present on VHF and the frequencies above including EME and satellite. When the ZR's were permitted to use the HF bands they deserted the VHF bands in droves, but unfortunately this did not advance amateur radio at the least.

Now is a very exciting time to be involved in radio science and technology and make a U-turn to go back to the future of amateur radio. This does not mean that one should sacrifice HF operation at all, but rather share your time to explore the exciting spectrum on VHF and above too and enjoy the best of both worlds.

2 METRE BEACON TO BRIDGE THE INDIAN OCEAN

Roger Harrison, VK2ZRH, posted exciting news on the VK Logger, it reads: "Bridging the VHF path between South Africa and Australia across the Indian Ocean, spanning more than 8 500 km, is being attempted with a beacon in Perth on a frequency of 144,950 MHz. Established by the Northern Corridor Radio Group, the beacon VK6RIO, uses Chirp modulation, which can be detected some 50 dB below the noise floor in a 2 kHz bandwidth. The beacon employs GPS-locked frequency, time and Chirp synchronization, runs 100 Watt feeding 4-by-8 element Yagis aimed at South Africa. This was copied from the Amateur Radio Victoria website". Read more about it on the SARL VHF Forum.

CLUB NEWS

At the AGM of the Zululand Amateur Radio Club, held on the 28th July 2013 in Richards Bay, the following Committee members were elected to serve the members of the club for the forthcoming year:
Chairman: Andrew Jansen, ZS5AND
Vice Chairman: John Kramer, ZS5J
Treasurer: Willie Axford, ZS5WI
Secretary: Dawn Snyders, ZS5ME
Members: Jo Snyders, ZS5PO (News Editor)
Warren Snyders, ZS5WOZ
Anne Griffiths, ZS5FAB
We wish them well during their term of office, and thank the outgoing members for their hard work during their term of office.

At the AGM of the CTARC held on the 27th July, Honorary Life Membership was conferred on Paul Johnson, ZS1S, for supreme contributions to amateur radio in general, and to the club in particular.

A new committee was elected, and consists of:
Chairman: Noel Futter, ZS1FW
Treasurer and member database Peter Henochsberg, ZS1PMH
Members: Danny Blankenberg, ZS1BL
Shaun Overmeyer, ZS1RA
Rob Bareham, ZS1SA
Tony McEwen, ZS1TM
Paul Kennedy, ZS1PXK
Dirk Lotz, ZS1X
Deon Erwen, ZS1ZL
Dave Reece, ZS1DFR

The club thanks the previous committee for services rendered last year, and wishes the new committee well as they take the club forward.

PRETORIA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB FLEA MARKET

The next ZS6PTA Mega fleamarket will be held on Saturday 10 August at Pretoria Motor Club in Silverton from 08:00 to 11:00. For more information, or to book a table, please contact Almero, ZS6LDP on 083 938 8955.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. There are currently 7 numbered regions on the visible disk but all are stable with very little chance of flaring.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 52.

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 short 10 m openings on east-west sunlit paths.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS
4 August – Today, the Hamnet Winter Challenge still on.
4 August – Today, the SARL HF Phone Contest.
9 August - SARL YL Sprint.
10 August - ZS6PTA Mega flea market from 08:00 to 11:00.
12 August – Logs for the SARL HF contest to be in to zs4bfn@netactive.co.za.
17 August – Logs for the SARL YL Sprint to be in to zs4bfn@netactive.co.za.
30 August - East Rand Radio Branch AGM at 14:00.
31 August - Gauteng RTA at the Innovation Hub, Pretoria.

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 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 George Honiball, ZS6NE.

Thank you for listening, 73.

/EX