SARL NEWS SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER 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
FCC EXAMINATIONS HELD IN PRETORIA
60 METRE ACTIVITY WEEKEND CONTINUES TODAY
NEXT SARL@HOME FOCUS IS ON SURFACE MOUNT TECHNOLOGY
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting items.
FCC EXAMINATIONS HELD IN PRETORIA
The US Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, issues amateur radio licences to anyone with a US mailing address. No residence or citizenship is required. For South Africans, an FCC licence is useful in that it enables you to operate from countries with which the US has a reciprocal agreement, but South Africa does not.
Examinations for FCC licences are conducted by Volunteer Examiners. Three volunteer examiners from the C82DX DXpedition recently assisted locals with a testing session near Pretoria. Six South Africans qualified for American licences. Once their paperwork is complete, they will also become examiners, establishing a permanent testing team in Gauteng.
ZS6BK, ZS6FDX and ZS6PJH qualified for General class licences, while ZS6LMG, ZS6MDH and ZS6SF qualified for Extra class.
The team intends to conduct regular exam sessions in Gauteng. If you are interested in participating in a future session, please let Chris Burger ZS6EZ know. You'll then receive notice of any further testing sessions. If your club has more than five interested candidates, it should be possible to hold a special exam session at your premises.
More details can be found via a link on ZS6EZ's QRZ.com profile.
TODAY IS REMEMBERANCE DAY
Today, Sunday 10 November, is Remembrance Day. The SARL will transmit the annual Remembrance Day Service as part of Amateur Radio Today starting at approximately 10:40 local time. All radio amateurs are requested to observe radio silence during the service as a mark of respect for those who lost their lives in service of our country. The service will be conducted in English and Afrikaans by the Reverend Jan Kramer, ZS6JRK.
Clubs wishing to retransmit the service on their local repeater, may download the audio file from www.sarl.org.za.
INTECNET TO RETURN
Starting January 2014 the SARL Interactive Technical returns but on a weekday night. The next Intecnet will air on the second Tuesday or Wednesday night of January 2014. Listeners are requested to indicate which night they prefer Tuesday or Wednesday. Currently Tuesday seems to be the favoured night.
Send us an email to artoday@sarl.org.za and indicate which night you prefer Tuesday or Wednesday?
60 METRE ACTIVITY WEEKEND CONTINUES TODAY
The SARL 60 Metre activity weekend which started at 00:01 on Saturday 9 November will end at midnight tonight, 10 November. The activities will be on 5260 KHz. The objective is to study propagation conditions between as many stations in as many areas of South Africa and elsewhere as possible.
Make at least one contact in as many time slots as possible. The time slots for the rest of today are 10:00 - 15:00; 15:00 - 18:00 and 18:00 - Midnight. Please keep an accurate log, recording both your and the locator of the station you worked and an accurate signal report.
Please at the top of your log give details of your station and the antenna and power used. Please mail the log to propresearch@sarl.org.za before Thursday 14 November. All logs received will go into a lucky draw with lots of prizes to be won. Only stations registered for 5 MHz operation may participate. Do your bit for propagation research. The information is required to prepare a report for ICASA.
NEXT SARL@HOME FOCUS IS ON SURFACE MOUNT TECHNOLOGY
Conquer your fear for projects using Surface Mount Technology at the next SARL@Home. The project will be presented by Frik Wolff ZS6FZ at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre on 30 November from 09:00 - 13:00.
Cost is R150 which includes a PC board and components to construct a FM broadcast transmitter ( bug) Use it to relay your amateur radio audio around the house on a portable FM receiver or music from an IPod. The fee includes a CD with tutorials, circuits etc. Non Members pay a premium at R250.
Booking is essential and only 20 delegates can be accommodated. You will need to bring your own soldering station with a fine soldering bit, a tweezer, some hand tools and a magnifying glass. The SARL also has a special offer on a magnifying glass should you wish to buy one. Details are on the registration form which is available from the home page on www.sarl.org.za.
LEAGUE NEWS
MEMBERSHIP
Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from:
Miles France, KL1IN;
Bobby Wise, ZSL-1073;
Robin Fletcher, ZS5PD;
Willem van die Walt, ZS6WSG;
John McFarlane, ZSL-1072.
Any objections against the acceptance of the application must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin.
UPDATED SARL VHF, UHF & MICROWAVE DX RECORD TABLE FOR 2013
The updated SARL VHF, UHF and Microwave DX Record Table for 2013 has been posted thanks to Peter Hers, ZS6PHD.
It covers the following bands: 50 MHz, 70 MHz, 144 MHz, 432 MHz, 1,3 GHz. 2,3 GHz, 5,7 GHz, 10 GHz, 24 GHz and 47 GHz, acknowledging the achievements of our local radio amateurs. It also features the following propagation modes: Aircraft Scatter, Amateur TV, EME, F2-layer, Ionospheric Scatter, Line-of-Sight, Meteor Scatter, Satellite, Sporadic-E, Trans-Equatorial, Tropo (Enhancement/Ducting), and Tropospheric Scatter.
The Record Table can be opened on the SARL website, by clicking on General Info, then Local information, followed by VHF/UHF/SHF/EHF SA Records.
CLUB NEWS
60 METRE ACTIVITY WEEKEND
The Kempton Park Amateur Radio Technical Society (KARTS) currently has an operational 60 meter Beacon transmitting on 5.250 MHz at 5min intervals with PSK31 as the preferred mode in support of the SARL 60 meter activity weekend.
Please visit the SARL Forum and the KARTS website at www.zs6kts.co.za for more detailed information regarding the clubs beacon and 60 meter activities for this forthcoming weekend.
Should you hear this beacon please send a signal report to beacon@zs6kts.co.za
Your assistance in capturing 5MHz propagation data is much appreciated.
OVERBERG YEAR-END-FUNCTION
Over the weekend 16/17 November, the Overberg Amateur Radio Club will be holding their end of the year function at the same time as the SARL Field Day Competition. This will be at the QTH of John, ZS1DI, and Judy, ZS1JEG, at Stanford. There are camping and braai facilities. This is a "bring and braai" and we ask that you please bring a few pieces of wood. There will be a short meeting at 10:30 and after that the fun begins. There will be a raffle, boot sale, a fox hunt and a demo of small radio control boats. The AWA will be displaying some of the old valve radios and operating some of them. There is a possibility of boat trips on the river as well. Visitors are welcome. For further information you can contact Andre, ZS1AZ, at 028-5142018 or 0727291680 after 18:00
CONTEST NEWS
SARL NATIONAL FIELD DAY
The Field day will take place on 16 and 17 November, between 10:00 UTC on Saturday to 10:00 UTC on Sunday (12:00 to 12:00 CAT) with phone, CW and digital activity on all the HF amateur bands, excluding 30, 17 and 12 metre bands. Phone, CW and Digital modes on a band are considered as separate bands. A station may be worked only once per band under this rule.
Participation can be as Class A - Field Station - Multi operator, Class B - Field Station - Multi operator - QRP, Class C - Field Station - Single Operator, Class D - Field Station - Single Operator - QRP, Class E - Ultra Light Portable or Class F- General stations. The exchange is the number of transmitters, Field Day operating Class and Provincial Abbreviation.
Log/summary sheets must be sent by e-mail to zs4bfn@netactive.co.za by 25 November 2013. An action photo(s) of the station (JPG format) MUST accompany every log entry.
HF PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is on the rise. Big sunspot AR1890 has a "beta-gamma-delta" magnetic field that harbours enough energy for X-class solar flares.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 105.
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 may even be some 6 m openings in the early evening.
Please visit the new website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
09/10 November – 60 m Activity weekend.
14 November – Last day to submit logs for the 60 m activity weekend.
30 November - High Altitude Balloon launch from Klerksdorp airport between 06:00 and 08:00.
30 November - SARL@Home at the National Amateur Radio Centre.
31 December - Last day to submit amateur radio video; get details from www.amateurradio.org.za.
28 February 2014 – Closing date for Youth Essay Competition.
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 17 760 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 16:30 UTC on 4 895 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
