SARL NEWS SUNDAY 26 APRIL 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 to the South African Radio League news broadcast on Sunday mornings at 08:15 central African time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 central African time in English on HF and on many VHF and UHF repeaters around our country. Echolink listeners may connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the South African Radio League web site.
This audio bulletin may 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 webpage. While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
IN THE NEWS TODAY:
SOL PLAATJIE PRIMARY SCHOOL TALK TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
SPECIAL OFFER ON SARL MEMBERSHIP
SIGNAL PROPAGATION BY RAINDROP SCATTER
SARL@HOME COURSE FOR ZU LICENSE
Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting stories
** On Saturday 2 May learners of the Sol Plaatjie Primary School will have an opportunity to talk to astronauts on the International Space Station. The school last year won the SAASTA AstoQuiz 2014 And were awarded the opportunity to talk to the ISS. SA AMSAT and SARL will be promoting amateur radio at the event with the SARL Youth Coordinator, Koos Fick, ZR6KF delivering a presentation about amateur radio and how it will assist in your schoolwork. An amateur station will also be operated from the school. Look out for ZS90SARL on Saturday 2 May on 7070 KHz
As final details become available you will find them on www.amsatsa.org.za.
** Join the South African Radio League now at the 2015/2016 rate of only R460. You will get 14 months for the price of 12 months and you will be supporting the National Body for Amateur Radio.
The strength of any organization lies in the strength of its membership numbers. It is in every radio amateur's interest to join the SARL as it is your voice to the authorities that regulate amateur radio and the amateur frequency bands. Internationally the ITU make recommendations, but the local regulator makes the final decision. With the recent publication of the radio frequency spectrum regulations, the SARL achieved a major new allocation in the 160 meter band, increased power levels on most amateur bands and relaxation of the regulation prohibiting position of receivers capable of continuous tuning above 30 MHz. The new regulation allows persons who are members of a recognized disaster communication organization, such as the SARL, to have such equipment. So if you are not yet a member is it not time you join. Application forms are available on www.sarl.org.za or call the office on
011 675 2393.
** We have had a lot of inclement weather lately that reduced Tropospheric Enhancement and Ducting propagation on VHF and UHF. But we are still blessed with Tropo Scatter (TrS) between 50 MHz and 10 GHz; a high power mode that is now possible, which could be used daily throughout the year with a coverage of about 1000 km, and of course Aircraft Scatter.
However, distant rainstorms could be used to our advantage too. Rain drops can scatter radio signals and the maximum distances recorded are: 2,3 GHz = 770 km, 5,7 GHz = 817 km, 10 GHz = 1099 km and 24 GHz = 71 km. A Doppler shift up to 4 kHz on 10 GHz has been observed when a strong wind was blowing. The worst angle between stations beaming at a distant storm is around 90 degrees, larger or smaller angles increase the signal strength.
It is also possible to obtain rain scatter signals from thunderclouds that are forming. A lightning flash can also propagate radio signals briefly on VHF. A FM broadcasting station in Durban was monitored in East London while a thunderstorm was brewing across this VHF path of 450 km. Every time there was a bolt of lightning, the FM signal would shoot out of the noise with full limiting but within several seconds would decay and disappear again.
** Noel Hammond, ZR6DX and Graham Busse ZS6GL will be presenting an 8 week SARL@Home aimed at teaching scouts and other young persons to become radio amateurs and pass the class B examination. The course will be presented on Saturday morning from 09:00 - 12:00 starting on 9 May.
During the 8 weeks, the students will take part in fun activity, they will operate on the air, build an antenna and set up and operate a field station on the lawns of the National Amateur Radio Centre.
Full details will be published on the SARL web in the next few days. For more details send an email to zr6dx@iafrica.com.
You are listening to a news cast of the South African radio league.
** Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from the following persons:
Gerald Lional Sothern Holland ZSL1141
Robert Morgan-Wilson ZSL1142
Any objections to the acceptance of the applications must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday after the bulletin.
Membership of the SARL currently stands at 1636 plus 38 affiliated clubs
There are 164 entries for the May RAE.
** Venue logistics has necessitated the date of the annual SA AMSAT Space Symposium to change. It will now be held on 20 June at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria. The closing date for papers has now also been extended to 30 April 2015.More details on www.amsatsa.org.za
** Please take note of the following.The SARL Youthnet will move to the second Sunday of the month at 16:00 on 7070. The next SARL Youth Net will be on 10 May at 16:00 local time on 7070 kHz. Join Koos Fick and other young radio amateurs to share the magic of amateur radio. Clubs are encouraged to use the opportunity to invite young people to their club and operate under the auspices of a licensed club member.
** Results of the QRP Contest held on the 11 April 2015. 3 logs were received and the results are as follows:-
1st ZS6WR - West Rand ARC - 700 points
2nd ZS6TVB - Theo Bresler - 93 points
3rd ZS4DZ - Johan van Zijl - 33 points
What happend to the other logs?
** Pretoria Amateur Radio Club (PARC) will host their second quarterly fleamarket for 2015 on Saturday 2 May. The gates open at 08:00. The venue is the usual PARC flea market venue at the Pretoria Old Motor Club in Keuning street, Silverton, next to the Pioneer museum entrance.
This is a large flea market with many vendors of new and used equipment. It is also an important social event in the amateur radio calendar, with amateurs from Pretoria and many other towns in Gauteng attending. There is lots of safe parking. Refreshments will be available.
Don't miss it - see you at South Africa's oldest, largest and most active radio club fleamarket
If you want to book a table, or you need more information, please contact Almero du Pisani ZS6LDP on 083 938 8955, or send an email to almero@up.ac.za.
** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at low to moderate levels. Sunspot AR2325 has a complex magnetic configuration and may produce C- or M-class solar flares.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 70.
The 20 to 10 m bands will provide lots of DX fun, especially during the late afternoons and in the evenings.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
2 May – SOL PLAATJIE Primary School talk to ISS
2 May – Pretoria amateur radio club Fleamarket.
10 May - SARL Youthnet - Every second Sunday of the month.
3 May – ZS3 Sprint.
9 May – SARL@HOME course for ZU license.
9 and 10 May – AWA VALVE contest.
21 May – RAE.
20 June – SA AMSAT symposium.
To end this morning`s newscast, a quick recap of our main story.
** On Saturday 2 May learners of the Sol Plaatjie Primary School will have an opportunity to talk to astronauts on the International Space Station
And that brings us to the end of this news bulletin.
You are invited to submit news items of interest to the SARL by following the news-inbox link on the SARL webpage. News items should reach the news-team not later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date for inclusion in the bulletin.
You may also join us every Sunday morning for the weekly amateur magazine program Amateur Radio Today at 10:00 local time. The program may be heard on VHF and UHF repeaters countrywide and also on 7082 kHz lower side-band and on 7205 kHz and 17660 kHz AM. There is also a podcast by Dick ZS6RO. A replay may be heard on Monday evening’s 18:30 local time on 3230 kHz AM. The radio transmissions on the non amateur frequency bands are sponsored by Sentech.
You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Johann du Plessis ZS6PSS, edited by Brian Utterson ZS6AE and read by ................ Thank you for listening, and from me and the entire news team, Best wishes for the week ahead, 73’s.
/EX
