SARL NEWS SUNDAY 9 MARCH 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.
IN TODAY'S SARL NEWS:
200 TINY SATELLITES WILL SOON LAUNCH SKYWARD FOR A SHORT STAY IN SPACE
SARL@HOME-SURFACE MOUNT TECHNOLOGY
ENTRIES FOR THE MAY RAE OPEN ON MARCH 10
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).
200 TINY SATELLITES WILL SOON LAUNCH SKYWARD FOR A SHORT STAY IN SPACE
The largest ever launch of micro-satellites operating in the 437 MHz band is planned for March 16th. That's when some 200 tiny Sprite satellites on the SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS 3 mission. According to Amateur Radio Newsline a Sprite is a tiny, 3.5 by 3.5 cm, single-board spacecraft that was developed by Zac Manchester, KD2BHC. It has a micro-controller, radio, and solar cells and is capable of carrying single-chip sensors. These might include thermometers, magnetometers, gyroscopes, accelerometers and the like.
The 200 Sprites will be carried in a CubeSat called KickSat. They are stacked atop a spring-loaded pusher and secured by a nichrome burn wire system. On reaching orbit KickSat will perform a de-tumble manoeuvre and establish communication with Cornell University's ground station. After check-out, the spacecraft will be put in a sun-pointing attitude and spun up to maintain that attitude. Then a command signal from the ground station will then trigger the deployment and the Sprites will be released as free-flying spacecraft. These micro birds will be placed into a 325 by 315 kilometre 51.5 degree inclination orbit. After deployment, telemetry and sensor measurements from the individual Sprites will be received through Cornell's ground station in Ithaca, NY, as well as several other amateur ground stations around the world.
All of the 200 Sprites operate on a single frequency of 437.240 MHz and use Code Division Multiple Access. The transmitter runs only 10 milliwatts transmitting Minimum Shift Keying modulated with binary data. Each data bit is modulated as a 511 bit Pseudo-Random Number sequence.
Due to the low orbit Sprites will have a short lifetime before they re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. In the best-case scenario the orbital lifetime could be six weeks but realistically it may be considerably shorter depending on atmospheric conditions. And while likely short lived these 200 sprites will be making the space adventure of a lifetime for many experimenters come true.
LEAGUE NEWS
SARL@HOME-SURFACE MOUNT TECHNOLOGY
Book now for next SARL@home. Following the successful SARL@Home held in January the SARL present the project again on 22 March 2014 The project will be presented by Frik Wolff, ZS6FZ at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre from 09:00 - 13:00. Cost is R150 which includes a PC board and components to construct a very low power FM transmitter. The fee includes a CD with tutorials, circuits etc. Non Members pay a premium at R300.
Booking is essential and only a maximum of 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. You can also check the status of your booking. Bookings close on Monday 15 March 2014
SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION
Have you ever wondered how the SABC Voetspore team communicated on their journeys through Africa? Attend the SARL National Convention which will be held in Pretoria from 11 - 13 April to find out. Beside the SARL Annual General Meeting there are a lot of fun activities, displays and interesting presentations.
Book now for the event, even if you are only attending the AGM it is important to complete the registration form. Get full details on www.sarl.org.za
5MHZ LICENSE RENEWED
ICASA has renewed the SARL 5 MHz Licence for another month pending a decision by the ICASA Council to grant a long term licence which will only expire with the start of the WRC15 in November next year.
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.
CLUB NEWS
OTL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
On 1 March OTL had its annual general meeting and the following committee members were chosen:
Chairman: Manie, ZS6HSE
Vice chairman: Leon, ZS6LEG
Secretary: Ronel, ZS6SBV
Treasurer/technical: Nico, ZS6MAJ
Event organizer: Anton, ZS6AG
Thank you to the outgoing committee of the past year for all your hard work.
There is a weekend scheduled for the 20th of March where we are going to Steenkampberg, so listen out for us on 2m as well as HF.
COMPETITION NEWS
SARL YOUTH DAY SPRINT
3 logs were received. According to the logs there were 56 stations on the air and only 6 youth stations. Mitchel you have some work ahead of you to get more youth involved.
The results are as follows:-
1st - Mitchel Mynhardt ZS6YH - 105 points 2nd - Francois Reyneke ZU6FR - 82 points 3rd - Karel Bezuidenhout ZR6K - 64 points
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at moderate levels. There are various small to mid sized sunspots visible with Sunspot AR1991 harboring 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 100.
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
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
10 April – Closing date for May RAE registration
11-13 April – SARL National Convention
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
