SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 26 JULY 2015

Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and QTH]

You may tune into the South African Radio League news bulletin on Sunday mornings at 08 hours 15 SAST in Afrikaans and at 08 hours 30 SAST 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 League web site.

This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the 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.

We start the bulletin with news of 2 silent keys:

During the past week we were informed of the passing of Paul Schmitt ZS1GE, on 29 September 2014. The news was passed on earlier this week by his daughter. Paul, a retired engineer, was a councilor of the SARL, was awarded Life Membership of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Center last year where he was a regular visitor and also a loyal supporter. He is survived by his wife Coraly and family.

It is also with regret that we take note of the passing of Louis Rosensweig, ZS1OE, during the week of 8 June 2015. Louis was a member of the League, as well as the Boland Branch of the SARL since 1951, thus a total of 64 years.

We express our deepest sympathy with the relatives and friends of these amateurs.

PAUSE (5 Seconds)

IN THE NEWS TODAY

64 YEARS AND STILL GOING

NEW INITIATIVE FROM HAMRADIO IN FRIEDRICHSHAFEN

FERMIONS

BOOK NOW ARIA IN GAUTENG

NEW EMAIL ADDRESS FOR SARL SECRETARY

** 64 Years and still going, Dennis Wells was licensed on 25 July 1951 as ZS1AU. Today, Sunday 26 July 2015, Dennis starts his 65th year as a licensed radio amateur. What an amazing achievement.

The President, Council and members of the South African Radio League congratulate Dennis on this fantastic achievement. Well done, Dennis!

** At the Ham Radio show in Friedrichshafen, a 'new radio' initiative led by the Austrian and German national societies was launched.

This highlighted that amateur radio equipment, particularly handhelds, needs to move further into the 21st century and towards 'smart' radios with adaptable voice flex codecs as well as a more open applications layer, perhaps more akin to a smart-phone. A website for the initiative can be found at www.newradio.eu/

**In 1929 Herman Weyl, a German mathematician and theoretical physicist, proposed the existence of a particle without mass with an electric charge. The electron would be split into two Weyl fermions, but it was never discovered until now. A team of scientists at Princeton University made the discovery inside a synthetic metal crystal of tantalum arsenide when it was bombarded with a beam of high energy photons. The fermions behave like both matter and antimatter with opposite charges, and can move independently without any resistance just like in a super cooled circuit. This would be a boon for faster electronics in the future including quantum computers.

** The South African Radio League propagation research project is based on a number of automated beacons using a program called "Weak Signal Propagation Reporter" also known as WSPR. During July the scope of the project was greatly enhanced when a beacon was installed in Bloemfontein.

The Bloemfontein beacon is a complete system that was developed by Paul de Kock ZS6EHG of the Kempton Park Amateur Radio Technical Society. Paul developed a standalone system based on the Arduino hardware and software.

He experimented with the code and besides generating WSPR signals it also includes a brief transmission in Morse code which enables persons who do not have the WSPR software to identify the beacon. The beacon network transmits on 5 290 kHz. For more on the latest results visit the SARL web pages.

** Book now for the 2015 Amateur Radio in Action symposium in Johannesburg and Pretoria. ARiA, as it is now known, is the new name for the RTA. An exciting program has been arranged. The ARiA kit is a frequency counter which is an essential item that every amateur should have in his radio room. It is a regulatory requirement to have an accurate frequency measuring device. It should be noted that attendance at ARiA is a prerequisite to order a kit. The kit will be available to persons not attending ARIA after 10 October. Details of the program and booking forms can be downloaded from www.sarl.org.za. The ARiA program for Cape Town will be available in the next few weeks.

** Due to excessive spam the email address of the SARL secretary has changed to sarlsekretaris@sarl.org.za . In future, address all correspondence to the new address. It should be noted that other channels like the forum will not be responded to. Sending mail to the secretary will ensure that it is recorded and followed up. Change of address, and payment queries should be addressed to admin@sarl.org.za

You are tuned to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League. We now go over to Club News.

** At the 59th AGM of the West Rand Amateur radio club the following members were elected.

Chairman:Johan van Vuuren,ZS6JVV.

Vice Chairman: Nic van Duffelen,ZR6AEZ.

Secretary: Phillip van Tonder, ZS6PVT.

Treasurer: Gert du Plessis, ZR6GRT.

Website: Geoff Levey, ZS6C.

Tony Voorveldt, ZS6CCD .

Dave Lloyd,ZS6ACC.

Dirk van Vuuren, ZS6DVV .

Ivan Balabanov,ZS6IA.

Co-Opted Willem Weideman,ZS6X.

Co-Opted Keith Liddle ZS6AGF.


** At the AGM of the Zululand Amateur Radio Club, held on the 19th July 2015 at Tattenham, the following Committee members were elected to serve the members of the club for the forthcoming year

Chairman: Mike Kramer ZS5MB.

Vice Chairman: Warren Snyders ZS5WOZ.

Treasurer: Willie Axford ZS5WI.

Secretary: Dawn Snyders ZS5ME.

Members: Jo SnydersZS5PO (News Editor).

Andrew Jansen ZS5AND.

Gerald ScroobyZSS5GS.

** A very successful AGM of the Centurion Amateur Radio Club took place at the Scout Hall in Wierda Park on the 11th July, and the following members were elected to the committee:

Chairman Pam Momberg ZS6APT.

Vice Chairman Gert Viljoen ZR6BV.

Secretary Billy Strumpher ZS6WPS.

Treasurer Pam Momberg ZS6APT.

Technical Johan Keulder ZS6CAQ.



Numerous Trophies and certificates were presented:

Club Trophies:

The Gordon Steward trophy - for outstanding service to the club by any member was awarded to Johan ZS6CAQ for repeater maintenance .

The Jan Roos YL Trophy was awarded to Miemie ZR6JL for her assistance with working groups at repeater sites.

The TL trophy - for outstanding service to the club by a non committee member, was awarded to Richard ZS6UK for his assistance at our Rooihuiskraal repeater site.

Die Perd Trophy was awarded to Wally ZS6BCI for his participation in the SARL HF Phone and CW contests (highest aggregate).



Certificates:

Dave ZS6AZP for his technical articles for the CQ Centurion and talks and demonstrations on home brew equipment after club meetings.

Johan ZS6CAQ for fundraising.

Daryl ZS6DLL for the supply of T-Shirts.

Pine ZS6GST for his Sunday night talks.

Special Award:

Billy ZS6WPS presented Pam ZS6APT with her WAZS600 certificate, which had been awarded to her by the SARL for working 600 individual South African stations.

Congratulations to all concerned. We wish the elected persons well during their term of office, and thank the outgoing members for their hard work during their term of office.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. None of the visible sunspots are actively flaring. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 35.

The 20 to 15 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.

And now for the diary of events
26 July, today - the RSGB Islands on the Air contest.
2 August - the South African Radio League HF Phone Contest.
9 August – SARL YL Sprint.
16 & 16 August - International Lighthouse and Lightship weekend.
22 August – HAMRADIO Africa.
30 August – SARL HFCW Contest.

With that we have come to the end of this week’s bulletin

** Clubs and individuals are invited to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners,if possible, in both English and Afrikaans, 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 no later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.

You are welcome to join us every Sunday morning for the weekly amateur radio magazine program 'Amateur Radio Today' at Ten hours 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 from Dick Stratford, ZS6RO. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 18 hours 30 Local time on 3 230 kHz AM.

We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions, send these by e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za. Sentech sponsors the transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.

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

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

73,and thank you for listening

/EX