SARL News - SUNDAY 18 APRIL 2010

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 webstream, visit
www.sarl.org.za, click on ARMI 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 subscribe to receive future bulletins by email.

Your newsreader this morning is (name), (call sign), on 145,725 and
7,066 MHz from Pretoria, with relays on 10,130, 7,066 and 3,695 MHz
SSB.

Silent key

It is with deep regret that the passing of John Andrew Friend, ZS6FJ,
on Friday 09 April 2010 at the age of 54, is announced. Sincere
condolences go to his family and friends.

(PAUSE)

In the news today:

CELEBRATE YOUR HOBBY TODAY, 18 APRIL

SA AMSAT ANNOUNCES NEW CUBESAT

HAVE YOU BOOKED FOR THE SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION?

RADIO AMATEUR AWARDS

RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION SYMPOSIUMS

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

CELEBRATE YOUR HOBBY TODAY

It is World Amateur Radio Day today. The theme this year is "Amateur
Radio: combining communication experience with modern digital
techniques".

SA AMSAT ANNOUNCES NEW CUBESAT

SA AMSAT announced at the Space Symposium held at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal that it would be building its own CubeSat. The project
will involve radio amateurs, students and learners. The proposed
payload will include a FM transponder with a 30 kHz bandwidth, a
telemetry beacon and science projects. The project will start with
inviting input from radio amateurs before the final payload is decided
on, and project teams will then be set up. If you are interested in
becoming involved, you are invited to send an email with your contact
details and areas of expertise to .

HAVE YOU BOOKED FOR THE SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION?

Registration for the various activities at the SARL National Convention
which will be held next weekend in Port Elizabeth will close on Tuesday
20 April. As numbers for the various events have to be finalised and
booked, it will not be possible to accept late bookings after Tuesday.
This does not apply to attendance at the AGM as those registrations and
acceptance of proxies will close at the venue at the start of the
meeting.

The SARL office will be closed on Friday 23 April and no emails or
telephone calls will be attended to. All proxies by fax or email must
be sent by Wednesday 21 April or handed in at the AGM venue on Saturday
morning.

Bookings for the PIC Course will also close on Tuesday. Please ensure
that the correct form is used where you are able to select the two free
PC project boards. No PIC course bookings can be accepted after
Tuesday.

For information, bookings forms and venue details visit
www.sarl.org.za.

RADIO AMATEUR AWARDS

The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust annually recognises
amateur radio stars. The awards are sponsored by Nokia Siemens Networks
and nominations close on 30 April. There are three awards:

GARTH MILNE TECHNICAL INNOVATION AWARD

The award is made for the support, development and application of
technological innovation in amateur radio in South Africa. The
recipient will be a person who has promoted the use of technology in
amateur radio at club level, nationally, at schools or tertiary
education institutions.

RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD

The award is made for the support and development of the amateur radio
service in South Africa, not for individual achievements such as DXCC
and other operational awards or contests. The recipient will be a
person who has given of his or her expertise and time to the promotion
of amateur radio in South Africa.

AMATEUR RADIO COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD

The Community Service Award goes to a radio amateur or a group of radio
amateurs for service to the community. Community service can be
assistance to a handicapped radio amateur, communications support
during a sporting event or a disaster situation like a road accident or
a natural disaster like a flood, veld fires, or an earthquake.
Nominations are invited for an individual or a group of people like a
radio club, or an association.

More details and the nomination form are available on
www.amateurradio.org.za.

RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION SYMPOSIUMS

The dates for the 2010 Radio Technology in Action Symposiums have been
finalised. Make a note in your diary now as the RTA is another SARL
event not to be missed. Programme details will be announced at the SARL
National Convention and thereafter will be available on the web.

A new feature of this year's RTA is that three kits will be available.
Although the kits may be pre-booked and paid for in advance, they will
only be available at the RTA venues and not before or after the event.
In other words, to buy a kit you have to attend the RTA. The three kits
a

• DSSS kit complete with common cables 100 mW on 40 m.

• TDR 1GHz sampling scope, runs on a USB port on PC or laptop.

• DSP Kit - digital signal processing speaker kit.

Full details and kit pre-order forms will be available on the SARL web
pages after the SARL National Convention.

The RTA dates to diarise a Durban: 29 May 2010 Cape Town: 24 July
2010 Port Elizabeth: 21 August 2010 Gauteng: 18 September 2010

Stay tuned for more information.

CONTEST NEWS

The Autumn QRP Sprint will be run from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC today, Sunday
18 April. Please take note that items 5, 7 and 9 of the rules
previously announced have been amended.

1. Aim This is a fun activity to promote QRP contacts between radio
amateurs in Southern African countries (General Rules paragraph 1.b).

2. Date and Time World Amateur Radio Day, today 18 April 2010, 12:00 to
14:00 UTC (14:00 to 16:00 CAT).

3. Categories and Power Portable or fixed station. CW or phone or
mixed. Power - 5 W, 1 W or 100 mW.

4. Exchange The exchange is RS(T) and year first licensed (e.g. 59 89).
.. 5. Frequency and modes 40 meter band (contest-preferred segments).
Modes permissible are SSB and CW. A station may be worked once on CW
and once on phone per band. Cross-band or cross-mode operation is not
permitted.

6. Antennas Only wire antennas may be used.

7. Scoring Each contact counts 2 points. Each prefix worked counts 2
points. Power multiplier: 1 for 5 W; 5 for 1 W; 10 for 100 mW.

Score = [(no. of QSOs x 2) x (no.of prefixes x 2) x (power multiplier)]


8. Log sheets Log sheets to be submitted by 3 May 2010 and can be sent
by to West Rand Amateur Radio Club, P.O. Box 5344, Weltevredenpark,
1725, or emailed to .

9. Results and awards All the logs are evaluated as one group,
regardless of the station's category status, mode or power used. A list
of call signs with their scores and placements will be made available
within a week of the closing date. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place positions
will receive a certificate for their achievement.

HAMNET WESTERN CAPE WEEKLY BULLETIN

It has been decided to change the transmission time of the Western Cape
Hamnet bulletin on Wednesday evenings to 19:30, from the 20:30 time in
summer. This is because the 80m band relay on 3 760 kHz now dies out
before the bulletin is over. This bulletin is relayed on 3 760 MHz by
ZS1DDK, on 70 2625 MHz in the 4 m band by ZS1BSD, and on Echolink, via
ZS1TX-R on the South African list. You can also access the Echolink
node 4 043 using DTMF tones. We look forward to hearing you call in if
you listened.

MAY RAE

The closing date for entries for the May 2010 Radio Amateur Examination
is Friday 23 April 2010 at 12:00 CAT. Please note that no late entries
will be accepted at all.

Any queries can be directed to Mariska at the SARL office. Please visit
the SARL home page for contact details and the application forms.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is declining.
Sunspot 1 062 has faded and the visible disk of the sun is currently
blank of any sunspots. The effective sunspot number is expected to be
less than 10 for the coming week.

15 m will provide the best opportunities for DX followed by 17 and 20
m. Conditions to India will be good from the afternoon onwards. During
the late afternoons and early evenings contacts will be good towards
Europe. Contacts with the USA are once again becoming challenging.
Contacts with Australia are possible at around 08:00 while contacts
with New Zealand will be challenging. During the afternoons and
evenings good 15 m contacts may also be possible with Brazil.

Local conditions are going to be good on 40 m during the daytime. 80 m
may perform well during the early mornings and late afternoons over the
shorter distances. 30 m will perform well during the middle of the day.
20 m is very useful for contacts over the longer distances during most
of the day.

80 m is the frequency of choice in the evenings. With the change of
season the noise levels are also decreasing and some top band activity
will once again become possible.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS

18 April - World Amateur Radio and the Autumn QRP Sprint contest. 23
April - SARL office is closed. 23 April - Entries close for the May
RAE. 23-25 April - SARL National Convention, Port Elizabeth. 24 April -
West Rand Amateur Radio Club flea market. 7 May - Closing date for
stage 2 of the Construction Competition. 8 May - Technological High
School John Vorster Amateur Radio Club flea market. 29 May - RTA
symposium in Durban. 24 July - RTA symposium in Cape Town. 21 August -
RTA symposium in Port Elizabeth. 31 August - Closing date for
submission of proposals for the 2011 SARL Contest Manual. 18 September
- RTA symposium in Gauteng.

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 Mirror
International every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the
Pretoria area, with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 860 kHz. There is
also a podcast by ZS6RO. For a webstream and Echolink by ZS6FCS, visit
www.sarl.org.za, click on 'ARMI' and follow the links. A repeat
transmission can be heard on Mondays at 21:00 CAT on 3 215 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 Leon, ZS4V, and edited by Hester van der Walt.

Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX