SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 01 MAY 2011

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 '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 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.

SILENT KEY

We regret to announce that the key of Jan, ZS6DDK went silent on 7th
April. He had not been in best of health for some time. Our sincere
condolences to his wife Dot, other relatives and friends.

(PAUSE)

In the news today:

RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION SYMPOSIUM FOR CAPE TOWN NEXT SATURDAY

SOUTH AFRICANS MAY NOW OPERATE IN RUSSIA

DO NOT CONFUSE THE SARL WEB WITH THE FORUM

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

RADIO TECHNOLOGY IN ACTION SYMPOSIUM FOR CAPE TOWN NEXT SATURDAY

The South African Radio League will present the first of its annual
series of Radio Technology in Action Symposiums in Cape Town on
Saturday 7 May 2011. The event will be held at the Cape Peninsula
University of Technology.

The programme features presentations for persons interested in radio
and satellite technology as well as those who are just technology
curious. The symposium starts at 09:00 with a presentation highlighting
Amateur Radio as a valuable resource for young people as a primer for a
career in communication and electronics, it affords older people the
opportunity for further education to enhance their enjoyment of the
Amateur Radio, which is generally accepted as the most rewarding of all
scientific hobbies. For technicians in Industry it is a valuable
resource for experiential learning. The presentation will be followed
by a panel discussion on how amateur radio can benefit older persons
when they retire from full time work.

The first technology presentation will focus on Field Programmable Gate
Array (FPGA) devices including a simple explanation, its advantages,
where it is used and how radio amateurs and electronic hobbyists can
incorporate these devices in their projects.

A student presentation will focus on the development of two student
satellites at CPUT including a visit to the laboratory areas where the
satellites are being constructed. The project includes the building of
two CubeSats, one measuring 10x10x10 cm and a three unit CubeSat.

Rapid Deployment of Amateur Radio, also called RaDAR, will focus on the
deployment of amateur radio in field conditions focussing on how
amateur radio can be deployed to provide communication when a disaster
strikes.

There will also be an update on KletsKous and SAiSAT, two satellite
projects recently launched by the South African Satellite Association
(SA AMSAT).

Get the full programme on www.sarl.org.za and select RTA. Watch the
promotional video clip from the same page of the home page at
sarl.org.za.

SOUTH AFRICANS MAY NOW OPERATE IN RUSSIA

Russia has become the latest nation to sign onto the pan-European CEPT
licensing agreement. According to the IARU Region 1 website, the
Russian State Radio Frequencies Commission decided on 10 March that the
Russian Federation would join both the CEPT and ECC Recommendation.
This makes it possible for every CEPT license holder, which includes ZS
and ZR licences, to operate on the territory of the Russian Federation.


There are a few caveats. Among them is that Russia will only permit
such CEPT operation by a foreign station for a limit of three months,
without any additional permission needed. Also, the call sign to be
used in CEPT operations will be RA followed by the foreign amateur's
personal call letters.

DO NOT CONFUSE THE SARL WEB WITH THE FORUM

The SARL web has two sections, an open section which can be viewed by
anyone world-wide and carries most of the news items and articles. This
part of the web has a very large national and international following.
The members' only section is available to members only and carries
membership benefit items such as Radio ZS. This section is in the
process of being expanded.

The forums are exactly what the word means, a discussion place where
people share technical information and comments about the operational
side of amateur radio. It is this section, the forum, which will from 1
July be limited to members only. Nothing else has changed or is
changing.

Interesting technical and amateur radio operational articles are
invited for publication in Radio ZS or on the SARL web pages. Please
send articles and news items for Radio ZS to or, if
more suitable for publication on the SARL web, to .

COMPETITION NEWS

MARCH 2011 VHF CONTEST RESULTS

Congratulations to the following:

Divisional winners, digital. ZS1LS ZS2ACP ZS3SVD ZS5Y ZS6A

Divisional winners, analog. ZS3SVD ZS5Y ZS6A

Overall results, digital.

1) ZS5Y 143 223 points 2) ZS2ACP 138 856 points 3) ZS6A 113 758 points
4) ZS1LS 101 352 points 5) ZS3SVD 82 328 points

Overall results, analog.

1) ZS5Y 6 471 points 2) ZS6A 1 979 points 3) ZS3SVD 470 points 4) ZS6HS
248 points

Longest distance worked. 2 m ZS1LS 1 301 km 4 m ZS1ACP 1 183 km 6 m
ZS1LS 1 537 km

EME during the contest. (Ps. EME is not counted towards the main
contest). ZS1LS worked on 2 m raw score 788 923 points with longest
distance QSO 13 976 km ZS5Y worked on 23 cm raw score 2 910 222 points
with longest distance 10 428 km

The winner of the "Lucky Draw" prize is Pierre, ZS6A.

SARL QRP CONTEST HELD ON THE 16TH APRIL 2011

5 logs were received. The following statistics were derived from the
logs: Number of stations who participated - 56 Number of QSOs made - 85
Number of prefixes worked - 12 Number of phone QSOs made - 74 Number of
CW QSOs made - 11 Number of home stations - 3 Number of field stations
- 2

A special word of thanks to Eddie, ZS6BNE, who interrupted his journey
back home from the AGM, to setup a field station next to the road and
managed to make a few contacts.

The results are as follows: 1st ZS6XT - Pieter Jacobs 924 points 2nd
ZS6A - Pierre van Deventer 300 points 3rd ZS2EC - Theunis Potgieter 210
points 4th ZS3AOR - Pieter Bosman 160 points 5th ZS6BNE - Eddie
Leighton 36 points

The winner of the Lucky Draw prize is ZS3AOR - Pieter Bosman.

HF PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is at moderate
levels. New sunspots 1 202 and 1 203 were numbered on Thursday and it
looks like 1 202 has already faded away. NASA's Solar Dynamics
Observatory is monitoring a hole in the sun's atmosphere -a "coronal
hole." Coronal holes are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up
and allows the solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing
from this coronal hole is expected to reach Earth on April 30th-May
1st. NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of geomagnetic activity at
that time. For the people doing their own frequency predictions the
expected effective sunspot number for the week is about 50.

With the increase in the solar flux the improvement of the DX
conditions are also very noticeable. DX openings are now once again
occurring on a daily basis and even 6 m is showing signs of life.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS

1 May - ZS3 Sprint a phone and CW contest on the 40 metre band runs
from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC. 7 May - RTD in Cape Town. 18 to 22 May -
Follow Dayton Hamvention via W5KUB.com. 25 May - Closing date for
nominations for NSN awards, visit www.amateurradio.org.za. 18 June -
Programming in Windows course in Gauteng. Book at www.sarl.org.za.

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 17 750 kHz. There is also a podcast by ZS6RO. For a
web-stream 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 18:30 CAT on 3 230 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, ZS6NE.

Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX