SARL NEWS SUNDAY 1 DECEMBER 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:
TSHEPISOSAT - YOU CAN HELP RECORDING TELEMETRY DATA
OVER 300 RADIO AMATEURS HAVE ALREADY APPLIED FOR THEIR 2014 LICENSES
NEW DATE FOR THE SARL@HOME FOCUSSING ON SURFACE MOUNT

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

TSHEPISOSAT - YOU CAN HELP RECORDING TELEMETRY DATA

The F'SATI Satellite team at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology is looking for your support to collect telemetry. "We encourage radio amateurs to listen for the UHF beacon. It will be a great help if they can log the raw data from the TNC and send it to Leon at ldutsteenkamp@gmail.com", Francois Visser said. "The team will be going through a commissioning process for the next two weeks to make sure everything works fine. Then we'll turn on the ADCS to command the satellite into a spin, where after the HF antenna will be rolled out. Only then we'll turn on the beacon. So far we have tested the downlink and uplink, checked system status, uploaded command scripts and all looks nominal. Battery voltage varies between 7.6 and 8.2 V, and on-board temperature between 12 and about 26 degrees C. The telemetry also shows that the ISIS antennas deployed on the first try".

Here are the approximate times for today, Sunday 1 December as provided by SA AMSAT's President, Dave Long, ZS5FR. The prediction is centred on Durban, in other part of the country start listening a few minutes earlier. Sunday: 08:32 - 08:40, 10:05 - 10:18, 22:01 - 22:14, and 23:38 - 23:50 local time.

TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR THE VIDEO COMPETITION

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 5 watt CW MFJ 40 metre transceiver kit valued at R1300 as well as one of many other prizes. 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. More details on www.amateurradio.org.za


OVER 300 RADIO AMATEURS HAVE ALREADY APPLIED FOR THEIR 2014 LICENSES

ICASA has advised the SARL that persons who have a one-year amateur radio license should reapply before 31 December to renew. To date over 300 have already submitted their application. Regulation 9 stipulates that radio amateurs must reapply annually for a license renewal unless they opted for a multi-year license in which case they only need to reapply when their license expires.

ICASA will issue invoices for renewal during January. If you are a one-year license holder you must complete the new form B which is now available on the SARL website at www.sarl.org.za. Complete the form and send it by email to dkuhrau@icasa.org.za before 31 December 2013.

TAKE A SMALL 50 OR 144 MHz RIG WITH YOU ON HOLIDAY FOR SPORADIC-E TESTS

The summer school holidays are starting and many amateurs may go on holiday and camping. We are now in the Sporadic-E season of the southern hemisphere. How about taking a small 50 MHz or 144 MHz transceiver with you including a dipole or vertical antenna, respectively, since polarization is not critical on Sporadic-E propagation.

A ZL station has proven that on 144 MHz you could cover 2017 km with only 25 Watts and a vertical, which means that you should do a lot better on 50 MHz and 70 MHz Es with low power transceivers. Also keep an eye on the DX beacons such as Q9ID on 50,021 MHz at Kinshasa, DRC, V51YJ on 50,028 MHz at Windhoek, Namibia and Z21SIX on 50,0016 MHz at Harare, Zimbabwe, as well as the chain of FM voice operated beacons on 50,450 MHz.

LEAGUE NEWS

NEW DATE FOR THE SARL@HOME FOCUSSING ON SURFACE MOUNT

The SARL@Home event was rescheduled to 18 January 2014 to avoid clashing with the Habex Launch and the Westrand Amateur Radio Club Flea market which were held yesterday. Book now for next SARL@Home and conquer your fear for projects using Surface Mount Technology. The project will be presented by Frik Wolff ZS6FZ at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre . Booking is essential and only 20 delegates can be accommodated. To check the status of your booking follow the link on www.sarl.org.za. Bookings close on 9 January 2014

CALL FOR PAPERS AT THE 2014 RTA

The SARL has started planning for the 2014 RTA to be held all main centres starting in July next year. This is a call for papers to be presented at the RTA or to be included in the Symposium CD. If you have a subject that you would like to present at all RTA's or just at your local one, please send a synopsis by not later than 15 December 2013 to rta@sarl.org.za. Please include your contact details.

The dates for the 2014 RTA are now available on the SARL web. The SARL has written to Clubs in the Free State to investigate adding Bloemfontein to the list of RTA's and is awaiting their response before a final decision will be made.

RADIO ZS IN THE MAIL

The November/December edition of Radio ZS will be in your mailbox soon. It is already available on the web from the members' only pages.

The edition includes an article by Peter Hers ZS6PHD entitled: "Care and Feeding of Deep Cycle Batteries". Mike Bosch returns with "The World of VHF, UHF and Microwaves", Hans van de Groenendaal asks the question "Has amateur radio turned 360°? Other articles include: "A Simple HF-Portable Antenna", and “Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio, Why RaDAR?”

SARL OFFICE TO CLOSE FOR SUMMER BREAK

The SARL office will be closed from 12 December and reopen on 13 January 2014. During this period urgent matters can be sent by email to secretary@sarl.org.za.


CLUB NEWS

HIBISCUS COAST AMATEUR RADIO CLUB ACTIVATES REPEATERS

The Hibiscus Coast Amateur Radio Club has been busy on the South Coast of KZN, and now has two linked repeaters which provide coverage from Durban down to Port Edward.

Their frequencies are:
145,712.5 with a 88.5 tone; covering Durban to Hibberdene; and 145,737.5 with a 88.5 tone; Covering the area from Hibberdene to Port Edward. There is also a 70cm Hub repeater on 438,900 with a 1,76MHz off set.


COMPETITION NEWS

SARL DIGITAL CONTEST

The aim is to establish as many contacts as possible between radio amateurs in Southern Africa using the PSK31 / RTTY mode. The contest is open to all radio amateurs in Southern Africa as per General Rule 1.b. the contest will be run this afternoon, 1 December 2013 from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC on 80 metres (3 580 to 3 600 kHz), 40 metres (7 040 to 7 060 kHz) and 20 metres (14 070 to 14 099 kHz). PSK31 is preferred at the lower end of the specified frequencies; RTTY is preferred at the upper end of the specified frequencies

Please note that USB must be used at all times. Refer to General Rule 16. A station may be contacted twice on each band once on RTTY, once on PSK31. The exchange is a RST report plus a sequential serial number starting at 001.

HF PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is declining further to even lower levels than the past week. None of the Earth facing sunspot groups is producing strong flares although two of the sunspots are slowly expanding.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 70.

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.

Please visit the new website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

DIARY OF EVENTS

14 – 15 December - ARRL 10 meter competition
31 December - Last day to submit amateur radio video
18 January 2014 – SARL@Home
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