SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 08 JANUARY 2012

You are listening to ZS6SRL, the official radio station of the South
African Radio League, the national body for amateur radio in South
Africa, with 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. PLEASE NOTE: for audio via Echolink, connect to ZS0JPL-R.

You can download this bulletin and previous ones from www.sarl.org.za
and also subscribe to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

Your newsreader this morning is (name), (call sign), on 145,725 and
7,066 MHz from Pretoria, with relays on 7,066 and 3,695 MHz SSB.

In the news today:

SARL WEB NOW FULLY WITH NEW ISP

ARRL DIAMOND DXCC CHALLENGE

ARISSAT-1 RE-ENTERS EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE, FALLS SILENT

You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and
other important and interesting items.

SARL WEB NOW FULLY WITH NEW ISP

The final change over of the SARL web and sarl.org.za addresses to the
new ISP on 31 December was not painless. Despite earlier requests the
domain registration authority did not make the changes before they
closed for the New Year weekend so we entered the New Year without the
SARL web and working email addresses. The process restarted on 3
January and required a lengthy administrative process which finally
culminated in the domain being transferred to the new ISP, Altech
Technology Concepts, on 4 January 2012.

The SARL apologizes for the interruption. A team led by Peter Hers,
ZS6PHD, continue to work on the web. Details were shared with members
in a recent SARL letter which is now also available for download on the
web should you have missed it.

Many thanks to Peter and his team for their unselfish work.

ARRL DIAMOND DXCC CHALLENGE

During 2012 the ARRL will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the
DXCC. To celebrate this important milestone, the ARRL has gone back to
the beginning -- the 1937 DXCC List. The Diamond DXCC Challenge will
test DXers' ability to contact all the 231 entities on the original
DXCC List.

The ARRL tried to find corresponding entities today that would
represent the places listed in 1937. There are a few places that were
merged, like French and British New Hebrides, and the Papua and New
Guinea Territories. In those places, for 2012 if you work a YJ or a P29
(on the main island of New Guinea) you will get credit for working two
entities! Many other oddities are sprinkled throughout the list, too.
Returning to the air in 2012 will be the Canal Zone (any HP operating
within 8 kilometers of the Panama Canal), the Cities of Gdansk, Poland,
as well as Ifni, Morocco and Balochistan.

For some entities that now consist of multiple countries, you may work
any of today's entities to qualify for that single 1937 country. For
example, French Equatorial Africa will be considered worked if you log
a station in TL, TN, TR or TT in 2012. The Diamond DXCC country tables
show the current entity names and prefixes that qualify for the 1937
countries. For more information visit www.arrl.org.

ARISSAT-1 RE-ENTERS EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE, FALLS SILENT

AMSAT reports that ARISSat-1 stopped transmitting on the morning of
January 4. It is believed that the satellite re-entered the Earth's
atmosphere around 07:00 UTC (+/- three hours) and was destroyed soon
after. Telemetry reports showed that the temperature aboard ARISSat-1
had been rising as the atmospheric drag began to affect the satellite.
The predicted decay location is an open part of the South Atlantic,
well west of Angola.

The last telemetry reports indicated that the internal temperature had
topped 75 degrees Celcius and was rising rapidly. Konstantin
Vladimirovich, RN3ZF, sent a reception report of a pass at 08:42 UTC
and stated, "The telemetry was absent, voice messages were not legible,
very silent and interrupted. Most likely, I saw the last minutes in the
life of the satellite." The last full telemetry captured was received
from ground stations as the satellite passed over Japan at 06:02 UTC on
January 4.

ARISSat-1 was deployed from the International Space Station on 3 August
2011 during EVA-29 on by Cosmonaut/Flight Engineers Sergei Volkov,
RU3DIS, and Alexander Samokutyaev. The satellite carried a student
experiment from Kursk State University in Russia that measured
atmospheric density. Students from around the world provided the voices
for the FM voice announcements.

AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW, said that ARISSat-1 marked a new
type of satellite that captured the attention of the national space
agencies around the world. "With ARISSat-1, we have we have been able
to design, launch, and operate a unique educational opportunity," he
explained. "By designing an educational mission aligned with NASA's
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics goals, radio amateurs
around the world have been able enjoy a new satellite in orbit."

ARISSat-1 achieved several "firsts" for Amateur Radio in space,
including the first flight test of the AMSAT Software Defined
Transponder, which included an FM voice downlink cycling between
student messages, spoken telemetry and SSTV; a 16 kHz bandwidth linear
transponder; a CW beacon carrying telemetry and call signs of radio
amateurs (noting their significant contributions to Amateur Radio in
space) and a robust, forward-error-corrected 1 kbps BPSK digital
downlink carrying satellite telemetry and Kursk experiment telemetry.

MATERIAL FOR RADIO ZS

The editor of Radio ZS requests members to provide articles and
photographs for the 2012 issues of Radio ZS. Suitable photographs are
required for the front cover and should show radio amateurs in action.
Articles can be of a technical nature, or about a club project or club
activities, a DXpedition or related activities.

Articles can be sent in MS Word, OpenOffice or RTF format, pictures
should be sent as JPG files. Material can be sent by e-mail to
or by post to PO Box 12104, Brandhof, 9324.

PEARS VHF CONTEST TO INSPIRE CONTACTS BETWEEN DIVISIONS

The PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest will take place on 20-22 January
2012 and will feature SSB, CW, FM and digital modes. The first session
commences on Friday at 18:00 CAT until Saturday at 16:00 CAT. The
second starts immediately thereafter and ends Sunday 14:00 CAT.

The main objective for the PEARS National VHF/UHF contest this year
will be to inspire VHF contacts between the divisions in the RSA and
promote VHF activity. They wish to appeal to all the Radio Clubs in the
RSA to encourage field and base stations in their area for this VHF
contest and make it successful. This can also result in a special
competition between Club stations country-wide.

The main long distance contest frequencies are on 50,200 MHz SSB and
144,200 MHz SSB. In recent contests weaker distant stations have been
drowned out by strong local stations and long conversations. To avoid
this problem in the future, VHF stations are kindly requested to work
all local stations, which are within 100 km from them, on the FM
contest channels of 50,400 MHz and 144,400 MHz where they can compare
notes and have short chats. If the SSB contest frequency is occupied
then QSY 5 or 10 kHz higher in frequency.

Wishing you good luck and help to make it a real national VHF contest.

HAMNET GAUTENG SOUTH MEETING

All persons with a passion for community service and emergency
communications are invited to the first HAMNET Gauteng South Meeting
for 2012.

Details are as follows: Date: Thursday 12 January 2012 Time: 19:00 -
21:00 Venue: 9th Benoni Scout Hall, Arrowe Park Benoni.

Community Activities and your possible involvement will be discussed
for 2012. We will be QRV on 145,675 MHz FM and 438,700 MHz FM.

Take biscuits along, HiHi.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP reports that the solar activity is expected to
be at low levels with a slight chance for isolated M-class activity.
Currently all the sunspots on the earth facing side of the sun are
magnetically simple and quiet.

For the people doing their own frequency predictions the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 88.

All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of DX fun with the
higher bands typically opening first and the lower bands opening later
during the day.

Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.

DIARY OF EVENTS

8 January - ARRL Kids Day events, information on www.arrl.org/kids-day.
12 January - HAMNET Gauteng South Meeting at 19:00. 15 January - Last
day for submission of summaries of proposed papers for the Radio
Technology in Action Symposiums 2012 to . 20-22
January - PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest. 31 January - Last day for
submission of nominations for Council members and also for submission
of motions for the 2012 SARL AGM. 31 January - Closing date for
submitting papers for SA AMSAT Space Symposium. Remember also to submit
nominations for SARL awards which will be presented at the gala dinner
which will take place over the weekend of the 2012 SARL AGM. Send
nominations to .

SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news items of
interest to radio amateurs and shortwave 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 also 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 17:30 UTC on
4 895 kHz. Sentech sponsors the ARMI transmissions on the non-amateur
frequencies.

You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League,
compiled by George, Z6SNE.

Thank you for listening, 73. /EX

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