SARL NEWS SUNDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2014
Good morning, 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:
SA AMSAT EXPANDS ITS SCHOOL'S SATELLITE PROJECT
ENTRIES FOR THE MAY RAE OPEN ON MARCH 10
NOMINATIONS INVITED FOR THE RADIO ZS EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting items.
SA AMSAT EXPANDS ITS SCHOOL'S SATELLITE PROJECT
SA AMSAT has expanded its call for schools submitting proposals for small scientific projects to be included in the KLETSkous CubeSat project. Schools are invited to submit ideas for projects. Each proposal will be evaluated and the five most original and practical proposals will be selected to build a prototype for which SA AMSAT will make R1000 available for each of the selected project. The school projects selected to build prototypes will be invited to make a brief presentation at the SA AMSAT Space Symposium to be held on 23 May 2014 at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria.
The closing date for proposals is 31 March 2014. Visit www.amsatsa.org.za.
ENTRIES FOR THE MAY RAE OPEN ON MARCH 10
The SARL will be launching a new online registration system for the Amateur Radio Examination on March 10. Candidates who wish to write the May examination should visit the SARL website after 10 March for details of how to register for the examination.
SARL APPOINTS A YOUTH ACTIVITY COORDINATOR
The Council of the SARL has appointed Mitchel Mynhardt, ZS6YH, as youth coordinator. Mitchel became a radio amateur in his early teens and has been active on both local and international competitions. He has served the East Rand Radio Club as youth coordinator and was for the past six years also involved with JOTA and the Voortrekkers.
The appointment was made at the annual strategic indaba which ended yesterday afternoon. At the same meeting Richard Peer, ZS6UK, was appointed as minute secretary.
NOMINATIONS INVITED FOR THE RADIO ZS EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
The Editor of Radio ZS, Dennis Green, ZS4BS, is inviting nominations for the editorial committee which is being established to assist him in selecting and evaluating technical articles for Radio ZS. Suitable candidates will have a technical back ground and be experienced radio amateurs. If you are interested in joining the committee send a brief CV highlighting your experience to radiozs@sarl.org.za.
CAPE II HAM RADIO CUBESAT DESIGNATED LO-75
The Cape II ham radio satellite is now known as the University of Louisiana OSCAR 75 or LO-75. According to OSCAR Number Administrator Bill Tynan, W3XO, who recently informed AMSAT mentor Nick Pugh, K5QXJ, of the decision.
The CAPE II ham satellite operates on 145,825 MHz FM with a CW beacon signing the call W5UL. The bird also includes digipeaters, text to speech operation, a simplex repeater, e-mail and tweet functions. The ground station software can be downloaded at www.ulcape.org.
CONTEST NEWS
For the February leg of the SARL National Field Day, held on 8 and 9 February, the Contest Committee received 18 logs. Eleven of the logs are from Field stations and seven from General stations. Thank you to all who participated and a special word of thanks to those who submitted logs.
The results per category are as follows:
A. Field Station Multi-operator.
1st East Rand ARC, ZS6ERB, with 129 120 points 2nd Highway ARC, ZS5HAM, with 69 000 points 3rd West Rand ARC, ZS6WR, with 50 880 points.
B. Field Station Multi-operator QRP.
No entry.
C. Field Station Single operator.
1st Dennis Green, 7P8DG, with 15 648 points, 2nd Rob Parkinson, ZS1RAP, with 12 192 points.
D. Field Station Single operator QRP.
1st Richard Hayter, ZS6RSH, with 24 624 points.
E. Ultra Light Portable
1st Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE, with 1 890 points.
F. General Stations
1st Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT, with 28 140 points, 2nd Johan van Zijl, ZS4DZ, with 6 012 points, 3rd Pravin Kumar, ZS5LT, with 5 824 points.
PEARS NATIONAL VHF/UHF CONTEST
Notwithstanding the poor propagation that was experienced during the contest caused by the heat wave in most parts of the country, some amateurs braved the poor conditions. The statistics indicated that 485 contacts were made by 46 amateurs as reflected in the 24 logs received from divisions 1, 2, 3 and 6. The logs present 52% of the amateurs who were active, and it is a great improvement over last year. There was quite a bit of activity on the Base, Field, Rover and Limited categories and on all the bands: 50, 70, 144, 432 and 1 296 MHz.
News received from division 4 was that Nico, ZS4N, a keen VHF-er, could not participate because his rotator was broken and his beam was down on the ground. Dennis Green, ZS4BS, reported that he called on 50,200 MHz and 144,200 MHz but did not hear anything due to the poor conditions.
On a brighter note, Andre, ZS2ACP, Sian, ZS3SVD, and Dick, ZS6BUN, established the longest distances on 50 MHz digital. It was quite a surprise to discover several Rover stations roaming around in division 2, they were: Mandy ZS2AV/R, Andrew ZS2G/R and Simone ZS2SC/R. PEARS wish to thank all the participants for their support. The results of the contest will be published during this week.
SARL Digital Contest.
The contest takes place this afternoon from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC with PSK31 and RTTY 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 near the lower end and RTD near 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. Logs shall be submitted by 2 March 2014 to contest@sarl.org.za.
SARL Hamnet 40 m Simulated Emergency Contest.
This popular contest runs from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC on Sunday 2 March 2014 and it is a phone contest in the band segments 7 063 to 7 100 kHz and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz. Participation may be as a Single operator stationary mobile; a Single operator portable; a Multi-operator portable or a Single operator base station. It is open to all radio amateurs in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho, Marion Island and South African Antarctica. Only contacts with these areas will count.
The exchange is a signal report followed by a three-figure number as determined by the category of participation. Logs must be sent by 10 March to Hamnet Eastern Cape, Al Akers, ZS2U, 53 Clarence Street, Westering, Port Elizabeth, 6025 or by e-mail to contest@peham.co.za.
Get the complete rules for both contests in the 2014 SARL Contest Manual.
VHF REPEATERS IN MPUMALANGA
Good progress is being made with the collection of information on amateur repeaters in Mpumalanga. Piet, ZS6G, reports that hê has received very useful information from the following clubs: Coalfields ARC in Witbank, OTL Radio Club in Middelburg, Long Tom Radioamateur Club in Lydenburg and Laeveld Amateur Radio Club in Nelspruit.
If there are still clubs or individuals WHO have not yet submitted information to Piet, they are requested to submit it as soon as possible to mprepeaters@gmail.com with a copy to repeaters@sarl.org.za. The last date to do so is Friday 28 February, after which Piet wishes to make the final report as soon as possible available to the SARL and other interested parties so that any necessary action can be taken.
FLEA MARKETS
The West Rand Amateur Radio Club is hosting its next flea market at 12:00 on Saturday 01 March 2014 at their clubhouse in Kroton street, Weltevredenpark, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. For more information contact Geoff, ZS6GRL, on 082 546 5546.
Don't Miss The Cape Town ARC Annual Bumper Flea Market.
The date of the Annual Flea Market is easy to remember, always the first Saturday afternoon in March at the CTARC club house, off Laidlaw Lane in Rondebosch. This year it is on March 1 opening at 12:00 noon.
This year there will be a small charge of R10 to sellers to help defray costs but no charge to buyers and browsers. This small fee also allows sellers to park their vehicles on the grassy area directly in front of the club house. As this area is limited in size, buyers and non sellers will be requested to park in the paved parking area of Laidlaw road, which is immediately adjacent to the flea market area.
Sellers are reminded to please bring their own tables if they do not intend to sell out of their boot as the club has only a very limited amount of tables.
Cold refreshments and snacks will be available throughout the afternoon. The Antique Wireless Association will also be setting up an exhibit of interesting older equipment.
There is no time like the present to start sorting out the shack and boxing up those unused and surplus items. Bring them along to the CTARC Annual Flea Market and convert them into instant cash. Who knows, you may even find better or more interesting toys at the Flea Market that you can then take home with you and have great fun with.
Start planning now and the CTARC look forward to seeing all of those friendly smiles of our fellow Amateurs from around the Cape. See you there on the first of March at 12:00 noon.
HF PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at active levels. Sunspot AR1982 has a "beta-gamma-delta" magnetic field that harbours enough energy for M-class solar flares.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 120.
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 also be some 6 m openings in the early evenings.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
23 February – Today, SARL Digital Competition 13:00-16:00 UTC.
28 February - Closing date for Youth Essay Competition.
28 February – Last day to submit data on repeaters in Mpumalanga to mprepeaters@gmail.com and repeaters@sarl.org.za.
02 March - Hamnet 40 mSimulated Emergency Contest 12:00 to 14:00 UTC.
10 March - Last day to submit Hamnet Simulated Emergency Contest logs to contest@peham.co.za.
15 March - Last day to submit proposals for papers for the 2014 SA AMSAT space symposium to saamsat@intekom.co.za.
31 March – Closing date for submission of proposals for the School Satellite Project to SA AMSAT. Visit www.amsatsa.org.za.
The 2014 SARL Diary of Events will be available for download in the coming week 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 George Honiball, ZS6NE.
Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
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