SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 17 JULY 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 '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:

SAARDT MAKES 5 RAE BURSARIES AVAILABLE

FURTHER ARISSAT-1 LAUNCH DELAY

PRESIDENT'S NET TO DISCUSS IARU MOTIONS

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

SAARDT MAKES 5 RAE BURSARIES AVAILABLE

The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust is making bursaries
available for students under 25 who are planning to write the October
2011 Class A Radio Amateur Examination. Through the generous
sponsorship of the Tony Reumerman, ZS6AOG, family, the Trust is able to
offer five bursaries. The bursary includes the examination fee, SARL
student membership subscription for one year and tuition fee of R640.
The total bursary amount is R1000.

The closing date for applications is 31 July 2011 For more details and
an application form go to www.amateurradio.org.za/bursaries.htm.

FURTHER ARISSAT-1 LAUNCH DELAY

The orbiting of ARISSat One has been delayed for a few weeks. According
to ARISSat One Project Manager Gould Smith, WA4SXM, the former Suit-Sat
will not make an appearance in space until sometime in August.

In a news release, Smith said he and ARISS Hardware Engineer Lou
McFadin, W5DID, participated in a teleconference call this week with
NASA to review the Roscosmos spacewalk procedures for the release of
ARISSat One during E-V-A 29. For those who never heard the term before,
E-V-A is an acronym for Extra Vehicular Activity and is NASA-ese for
describing a spacewalk.

Smith now says the discussion centered on preparation procedures
including the battery being charged and assembled into the satellite.
Also discussed were the procedures to remove the protective quilts from
the solar cells and turning on the safety switches prior to deployment.


During a later teleconference Sergey Samburov, RV3DR, announced that
the ARISSat One battery will be charged in late July and a test of the
system will be conducted from the ISS from 30 July at 19:15 to about
12:00 or 14:00 UTC July 31. The standard ARISSat One 2 metre downlink
band plan should be transmitted as well as the FM signal also down
linked on 437,55 MHz.

PRESIDENT'S NET TO DISCUSS IARU MOTIONS

A President's Net will be held on Sunday 24 July from 19:30 to brief
the SARL delegates on the motions on the IARU Region 1 Conference
Agenda. The motions can be downloaded from www.iaru2011.org.za. The
motions cover a wide range of issues affecting amateur radio. The SARL
would like your input. Join us next Sunday for the discussion.

NEW AFRICAN COUNTRY

On Thursday, 14 July the UN General Assembly admitted the Republic of
South Sudan as its 193rd member state. Immediately following the
General Assembly meeting, the flag of the Republic of South Sudan flew
for the first time in front of the UN.

Now that the Republic of South Sudan is a member of the United Nations,
the new country is now a DXCC entity. However the ITU has not confirmed
the new country's callsign prefix.

BARK 40 METRE SUNDAY WINTER WARMER

The Boland Amateur Radio Club will be holding its 40 metre sprint
contest on Sunday 24 July from 15:00 - 18:00 CAT. This is a fun
activity to promote contacts on 40 metres between radio amateurs in
Southern African countries. It is also an ideal opportunity for Mobile
stations, Field stations and RaDAR stations to participate. For more
information go to page 60 of the SARL "Blue book" available on the SARL
web. The full URL is available on the web version of SARL News

( Do not read the url only for web version of SARL News)
http://www.sarl.org.za/public/contes...20Manual_issue
_9.pdf SARL MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

With just two weeks into the new financial year, over 50% of members
have renewed their membership. Invoices were mailed some time ago. If
you have not yet responded with your payment please do so as soon as
possible. Your support of the SARL as the national body is important
for the future of amateur radio. Thank you for your support. When
making bank transfers or electronic payments, please add your name and
callsign so that the office can identify your payment.

SARL WEB REMAINS A CHALLENGE

The SARL Web remains a challenge. While the new hosting company is
sorting out some of the code and scripting issues, Imaginet will be
moving the website to another server on Monday. For the past few weeks
the web had to be reset several times a day. Expect disruption on
Monday morning.

At this stage it looks if we will have a mirror site running in the
next few days when all functionalities will be tested. The website is a
priority for the SARL but before making the final move we want to make
sure that every aspect works. Some of the uncalled for remarks on the
forum will not change the process that we have to follow to ensure that
we do not repeat the problems of the past.

CLUB NEWS

The Centurion Radio Amateur Club held a very successful Annual General
Meeting on Saturday 9th July 2011 at the Scout Hall in Wierda Park. The
following members were elected to the club's new committee:

Chairman: Pam Momberg, ZS6APT; Vice Chairman: James du Toit, ZS6JDT;
Secretary: Billy Strumpher, ZS6WPS; Treasurer: Pam Momberg, ZS6APT;
Ordinary Committee members: Repeater - Pieter du Toit, ZS6PZ; Technical
Training - Rian Venter, ZS6RXY; Technical Forums - Pine Pienaar,
ZS6GST; RAE Training/Events - John Longland, ZS6AA; Additional member -
Ben Booysen, ZS6BTB.

Thanks to the outgoing committee and chairman for their good work
during 2010-2011 and best wishes and strength to the new committee.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to
be at very low to low levels. The parade of small sunspots continue
with another new region forming to the southeast of 1 251 in the
northern hemisphere. Solar activity does remain at very low levels
however and there remains a chance for a C-Class flare. None of the
current regions are magnetically complex.

For the people doing their own frequency predictions the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be less than 35.

With the winter here 20 m will provide the best opportunities for DX
followed by 30 m. There is a chance of 15 m openings to South America.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS 24 July - Boland Amateur Radio Club 40 metre sprint
contest 15:00 - 18:00

CAT. 24 July - President's Net at 19:30 CAT. 27 July - 4th leg of SARL
Club Competition. 30 July - RTA in Durban. 07 Aug. - SARL HF Phone
Competition. 09 Aug. - SARL YL Sprint. 21 Aug. - 3rd leg of SARL
Digital Competition. 28 Aug. - SARL HF CW Competition.

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
'Amateur Radio TODAY', go down the green column and click on 'LISTEN ON
THE WEB'. 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
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