SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2015

Good morning and welcome! You are tuned to a news broadcast of the South African Radio League read
by ............................................. (name, call and QTH)

You can tune into the South African Radio League news broadcast on Sunday mornings at 08:15 SAST in Afrikaans and at 08:30 SAST in English on HF and on various VHF and UHF repeaters around our country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the South African Radio League web site.

This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the South African Radio League website at www.sarl.org.za. You will find this bulletin and previous bulletins in text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the web page. While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

PAUSE

IN THE NEWS TODAY

INTECHNET BACK ON THE AIR TONIGHT
SA AMSAT IN DISCUSSIONS WITH SANSA
LAST CALL FOR PEARS VHF LOGSHEETS
AND NATIONAL FIELD DAY COMING UP

Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news.


** The SARL Interactive Technical Network or Intecnet is back on the air TONIGHT, Sunday 8 February at 19:30 and not, as previously announced, on Tuesday. It was decided toward the end of last year to move these discussions back to a Sunday evening since the Tuesday events were not very well supported.

The guest speaker tonight will be Herbert Teubner, the General Manager of Sinetech. He will talk about solar power for radio amateurs. He will explain the various types of solar panel and their application as well as how solar can be used as a back-up system to deal with load shedding. This is an on-the-air discussion you do not want to miss.
** Representatives of SA AMSAT and the KLETSKOUS team held discussions with the National Space Agency on space on the next South African Satellite EOS1. SA AMSAT proposed that a transponder similar to the one being constructed for the KLETSKOUS project be included in EOS-1 as an experimental payload.
Planning for EOS-1 is at an advanced stage and details are expected to be announced by SANSA soon.

For more details and how to contribute to the KLETSKOUS fund visit www.amsatsa.org.za - Become a partner in Amateur Space activity.
** The SA AMSAT space symposium will be held on 23 May 2015 at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria. This is the second call for papers. The closing date is the 28 February. More details on www.amsatsa.org.za
You are tuned to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League and we now continue with news from the league’s office.

** Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from the following persons:
- Christopher John Tippett, ZS1CEV;
- Vaughn Luppnow,ZR2VL;
- Willem Cornelius Labuschagne: ZS6WCL.

Any objections to the acceptance of the applications must reach the Secretary on or before the Tuesday after this bulletin.

Membership of the SARL currently stands at 1615, plus 36 affiliated clubs.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.


** The South African Radio League National Field Day will take place between 10:00 UTC on Saturday 14 February and 10:00 UTC on Sunday 15 February with CW, phone, RTTY and PSK activity on 160 to 10 meters. The exchange is a RS or RST report, the number of transmitters your station is using, the class of participation and the abbreviation of your province. Please give accurate signal reports.

This is an ideal opportunity for a Club weekend outing. You can participate as a field station, multi-operator or a field station single-operator with a choice of QRP power or higher power. You can try the ultra-light portable class, which is a lightweight self-contained station, operating QRP or low power. The operator must carry the entire station, antenna included, to the operating site. If you are not allowed to leave home, then the general station class is for you. Scores are based on the total number of QSO points x the power multiplier x the number of provinces worked x the class multiplier.

Log sheets must be sent by e-mail to zs4bfn@gmail.com by midnight on Sunday 22 February. A photo(s) of the station in action (JPG format) must accompany each log entry. The Field Day Excel spreadsheet is available from www.zs4bfn.co.za/Downloads.asp. Find the rules on page 22 of the 2015 SARL Blue Book.

** This is the final call to submit your logs for the PEARS National VHF/UHF contest as the deadline is 15 February 2015. It is also an urgent request to those Division 5 amateurs who participated in the 144,400 MHz FM category to submit a simple log-sheet stating date/time and station worked, even if you only worked a few stations. Remember that a prize comprising a dual 2 metre/70 cm Yagi beam antenna and valued at R850 is waiting for the winner at the Highway Amateur Radio Club, Pinetown.


** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at low to moderate levels. Sunspot AR2277 has a "beta-gamma" magnetic field that harbors 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 98.

The 20 to 10 m bands will provide lots of DX fun.

Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Diary of events.

8 February - AWA CW day.
10 February - Western Cape RAE classes commence at the Oakdale Recreational Club.
13 February - International Radio day.
14/15 February - Overberg field station on the air.
14 / 15 February - National field day.
15 February - last day to submit your PEARS log sheets.
14/ 15 March - Africa All Modes International DXCC contest.
9 April - last day to register for the May RAE.

To end this bulletin, a quick recap of our main news item this morning: The interactive technical net will once again be on air tonight, Sunday 8 February 2015. Tune in for a very interesting discussion on solar power for your shack when Herbert Teubner, the General Manager of Sinetech will be our guest in studio. This is one discussion you do not want to miss


** You are invited to submit news items of interest to the South African Radio League by following the news inbox link on the South African Radio League web page. News items for inclusion in the bulletin, should reach the news team not later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.

The news team also has vacancies for proof-readers. Ideally the person who gets involved must have a good command of the English language and be available to proof-read and edit at least one bulletin every three weeks. Please contact Dawie Conradie, ZR6DHC, at zr6dhc@zs6rtb.co.za, should you be interested in supporting the SARL news team in this regard.

You are welcome to join us every Sunday morning for the weekly amateur radio magazine program Amateur Radio Today at 10:00 SAST. The program can be heard on VHF and UHF repeaters countrywide and on 7 082 kHz lower side-band and on 7 205 kHz and 17 760 kHz AM. There is also a podcast available by Dick, ZS6RO. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 18:30 South African Standard time on 4 895 kHz AM. We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; send these by e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za. Sentech sponsors the radio transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.

You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Dawie Conradie ZR6DHC, edited by Richard Stratford, ZS6RO and read by ...................

From the entire news team, best wishes for the week ahead.

73's and thank you for listening.

/EX