SARL NEWS SUNDAY 26 JANUARY 2014

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:

THE ARRL CELEBRATES ITS CENTENARY IN 2014
NEXT INTECNET TO EXPLORE YOUTH IN AMATUR RADIO
SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES INVITED TO SUMIT PROPOSALS FOR AN EDUCATIONAL PAYLOAD ON KLETSKOUS

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

THE ARRL CELEBRATES ITS CENTENARY IN 2014

Congratulations to the ARRL on their centenary. In 1914 the American Radio League (ARRL) was founded by Hiram Percy Maxim who realized that messages could be sent more reliably over long distances if relay stations were used.

It was Hiram Percy Maxim, president of the ARRL, who fought for the return of amateur radio after World War 1, when governments tried to permanently keep amateurs off the air. This prompted supporting amateur radio societies around the world, such as the SARRL (now SARL), to establish the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) in 1925 to protect amateur radio, and liaise with the ITU and the respective governments.

By the way the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) was 100 years old in 2010.

NEXT INTECNET TO EXPLORE YOUTH IN AMATUR RADIO

The next INTECNET will be held on Tuesday 11 February at 19:30 as part of the SARL Youth week. Young radio amateurs are invited to join a debate on why they choose to become a radio amateur and what they think should be done to attract more young people into the hobby.

Intecnet will be carried on repeaters in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, as well as on echolink. If you are a young radio amateur put your name forward to be selected to be part of the panel. Send a mail to artoday@sarl.org.za with your contact details and we will call you to finalise arrangements for linking you up.

SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES INVITED TO SUMIT PROPOSALS FOR AN EDUCATIONAL PAYLOAD ON KLETSKOUS

This item was carried in last week's SARL News. Have you or your club taken this invitation to your local school's science club, or a technical high school or your local university? Not? Here are the details again. Make a copy and be proactive.

SA AMSAT is building a small satellite with a 20 kHz transponder to offer amateur radio enthusiasts on the African continent an opportunity to experience space communications. "We believe this is an ideal opportunity to include an educational project that will be of interest to learners to promote Science and Technology based activities", Hannes Coetzee who leads the project said.

"Space is a magical subject and attracts the attention of many young people even those who may not have shown an interest in science as a subject at school or as a past time. Combining Amateur Radio with Space doubles the attraction."

"While the satellite will carry a telemetry beacon which report on the health of the satellite and provides interesting opportunities for learners to acquire more knowledge about space, we believe that a student designed project will add the additional magic."
Proposals for a project are invited from high Schools and Universities. The most interesting proposal received will be considered for inclusion in the satellite. The criteria for judging includes originality and once operating from space the amount of interest it is likely to draw from young people.
"It should also be noted that the project needs to be small enough to fit in with the rest of the equipment of the 10x10x10 cm CubeSat and draw as little as power as possible."

"I believe this an ideal opportunity for a school's science club to take a project into space and to be able to monitor information about their project included in the spacecraft telemetry string."

Proposals should be documented as comprehensively as possible and be emailed to SA AMSAT at saamsat@intekom.co.za. The closing date for proposals is 28 February 2014

AMATEUR RADIO BOOKS

The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust has a number of amateur radio books available which were brought into South Africa from the ARRL when the Rand was still below R10 to the US Dollar. New consignments will be much more expensive. You can find a list of books stocked locally on www.amateurradio.org.za, select the books button.

SMD COURSE GREAT FUN

The Surface Mount Device course and project met with great success last Saturday. The participants congratulated Frik Wolff ZS6FZ on his presentation of the course and teaching materials. They all said it was a great help to take the fear out of working with sub-miniature components. Another course will be arranged soon. Watch the SARL web and SARL News for details.

HOW DID ZS6OB GET INTO EME?

In this week's Amateur Radio Today Pine Pienaar ZS6OB talks about how he became involved in EME. Pine is the first Radio Amateur on the African Continent and the second amateur in the Southern Hemisphere to achieve a 2m EME DXCC. Join him at 10 am this morning or listen to one of the many retransmissions. Times and frequencies on www.sarl.org.za, select the Amateur Radio Today button in the left column.

CLUB NEWS

SOUTHERN CAPE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB WILL BE ACTIVE AT THE DIAZ FESTIVAL

The Southern Cape Amateur Radio Club will be active on all bands during the weekend of 31 January 2014 till Sunday 2 February 2014 at the Diaz Festival in Mossel Bay using its callsign ZS1SKR. Operation will be on all bands. Now is the chance to obtain the club's award. Visit zs1skr.org.za for more information.

CONTEST NEWS

AWA CW ACTIVITY

The times as posted in last weeks News Bulletin for this activity are incorrect due to an administrative glitch.

The times have been reduced from a full 24 hours activity, as follows, Sunday 02 February from 13:00 UTC (15:00 CAT) to 17:00 UTC (19:00 CAT).

The frequencies to use are 14 000 to 14 060 kHz; 7 000 to 7 040 kHz; 3 510 to 3 560 kHz and you can participate in one of four categories - a)Single Operator All Band, Low Power, b) Single operator All Band, QRP, c) Single Operator Single Band, Low Power or d) Single operator Single band, QRP.

The exchange is a RST report, operators name and Grid Square locator. Contacts count 1 point for low power and 2 points for QRP. Logs must be submitted by 17 February to andyzs6ady@vodamail.co.za

We do apologise for any confusion created.

YOUTH SPRINT

This is a fun activity to celebrate the Youth and to promote contacts between young radio amateurs in Southern African countries. Call "CQ Youth Day" on Saturday 15 February 2014 from 10:00 to 12:00 local time. The exchange is a RS report and the operator's age. It is a phone sprint on the 40-metre band (7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz)

Log sheets and summaries shall be submitted within 7 days after the contest and must be sent to youthsprint@sarl.org.za. The closing date for log submissions is 22 February 2014. The age of the operator must be shown on the summary sheet. All the logs received will be entered into a draw for a Student Membership of the SARL and many other prizes. Listen to SARL News next week for more details. Visit www.hamradio.org.za for more details.

HF PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at moderate levels. There is currently only a very small chance for isolated M-class solar flares.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 80.

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 website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

DIARY OF EVENTS
31 January - Last day to submit amateur radio video
31 January - closing date for nominations for SARL Councillors and motions for the AGM
2 February – AWA CW Activity
15 February – Youth sprint
17 February – Closing date for logs of AWA CW Activity
22 February – Closing date for logs of Youth sprint
28 February - Closing date for Youth Essay Competition
15 March - Last day to submit proposals for papers for the 2014 SA AMSAT space symposium to saamsat@intekom.co.za

The 2014 SARL Diary of Events is available for download from www.sarl.org.za. Get a copy and keep it handy in your radio shack.

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