SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 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:

LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD TAKE PART IN INTECNET THIS EVENING

HAM RADIO DELUXE CHANGES HANDS

7P8 EME DXPEDITION NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

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

LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD TAKE PART IN INTECNET THIS EVENING

This evening at 19:30 the Intecnet will be held on a repeater near you.
Join Chris Burger as he talks through the features and answers
questions about the Logbook of the World.

Since the early days, amateurs have exchanged QSL cards to confirm
contacts. Apart from the fun associated with colourful postcards from
all over the world, the cards also provide a means of verifying claimed
contacts for a wide variety of awards.

Large DXpeditions now make over 100 000 contacts. Confirming these
contacts takes a large amount of work and expense. An electronic means
of confirming contacts would eliminate much of the work and expense,
and also reduce traffic through the world's QSL bureau.

Starting in 2001, the ARRL built a secure database called Logbook of
the World, or LotW. Using LotW, it is very often possible to get
confirmation of a DX contact within 24 hours, a far cry from waiting
months or years for a card to arrive via the bureau.

One of the early proponents of electronic QSLing and the only
non-American alpha tester on LotW was Chris Burger, ZS6EZ. Chris has
placed over a quarter of a million contacts on LotW. He joins us
tonight (25 September) to explain why participation makes sense and
will explain the nuts and bolts of placing your own logs onto LotW.

HAM RADIO DELUXE CHANGES HANDS

Simon Brown, HB9DRV, has sold the rights to his popular Ham Radio
Deluxe software package to a group consisting of Mike Carper, WA9PIE,
Randy Gawtry, K0CBH, and Rick Ruhl, W4PC. All three principals have
more than 25 years of experience with radio data communications. Rick
Ruhl is the president of W4PC Software Inc. whose products include the
PakRatt, PKTerm and Radio Operations Center software suites. Randy
Gawtry is the president of Timewave Technology Inc. whose products
include the PK and DSP families of data controllers and other
commercial data products. Mike Carper is an experienced Fortune 500
technology executive, educator and featured speaker in the areas of
wireless technologies and IT Service Management.

"Simon has done a fantastic job with this software," Carper said. "His
vision for integrating rig control, rotor control, logging, digital
modes, and satellite operations into a single integrated feature-rich
software suite has captivated the ham radio community. We'd like to see
this product continue in a way that respects the hard work put into
this package by Simon and others, maintaining that vision, while
delivering timely fixes and feature enhancements in the future, will be
the number one priority."

"After many years writing the Ham Radio Deluxe software it's necessary
to take a break and hand the whole project over to another team," said
Simon Brown, HB9DRV. "The support effort required has become more than
I can realistically manage, with many thousands of users, new radios
and other hardware appearing all the time and unexpected changes to the
infrastructure used by Ham Radio Deluxe such as QRZ.com. I no longer
have any time at all for other projects. As some of you will know, I
have formed a company called SDR-RADIO.com GmbH and I am now working in
the Software Defined Radio arena with RFspace. This is the technology
of the future; a future I want a part of. In 2012 I plan to return to
England and get back on the air, something I haven't done much during
the last 25 years."

The new owners are in the process of building a development environment
for Ham Radio Deluxe and they plan to begin by addressing some of the
bugs in the existing "To Do List" for an upcoming version 5.1 release.
The 5.1 release, when completed, will be made available at no charge to
registered users.

7P8 EME DXPEDITION NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

The SARL fundraising for the 7P8 EME DXpedition has not yet reached the
target of R10 000. Please support this event with your donation. Full
details are on www.amateurradio.org.za/7p8.htm. This DXpedtion is a
record setting Expedition for EME, as far as infrastructure, equipment,
band coverage & antenna systems are concerned, which has ever visited
another country - all with mobile equipment. The group is covering all
the VHF-UHF frequencies from 50 MHz to 1 296 MHz [excluding 4
metres].on EME.

RAE CLOSING DATE

Students are reminded that the closing date for registration for the
Radio Amateur Examination is Monday 26 September. No late entries can
be accepted.

RAE Instructors are reminded that the regulations that were in force
before 1 April this year will be used in the examination as the final
revised regulations are not available. Please ensure that students are
aware of this.

More information on the RAE and the required forms can be found on
www.sarl.org.za or call Mariska during office hours on 011 675 2393

SARL WEB PROPBLEMS CONTINUE

The SARL Council is painfully aware that there are problems with the
SARL web. The team working on it believe that they will be able to
stabilise the situation soon. When you cannot connect please try again
a little later. The SARL apologizes for the inconvenience.

FOLLOW THE DRAKENSBERG HIKERS

Tonight, 25 Sept., the group of hikers start on the Grand Traverse, a
12 day hike in the Drakensberge. Johan Leslie, ZR4CAA, goes with and he
will keep contact with John Longland, ZS6AA, at the base camp. John
will also be active on KwaZulu-Natal 2 m repeaters and hê requests
amateurs on those repeaters to monitor the repeaters for any possible
emergencies and then pass any QSPs to John, ZS6AA. If any battery power
remains at the end, Johan will be available for chats from 07:00 on 1
October on 7,070 MHz. Go to www.crossroadsadventure.co.za beforehand
for details and the communication procedure.

CQ HOU KOERS

CQ Hou Koers, the Voortrekkers' annual radio communications day, takes
place on Saturday the 15th of October. Young people from across SA and
Namibia will be active on the amateur bands. Please support them.

Radio amateurs are requested to offer their services to local
Voortrekker groups. Because the day coincides with JOTA, it offers
interesting opportunities for interaction between Voortrekkers and
Scouts.

Enquiries may be sent to Andries, ZS6VL, whose email address is
.

ZS6JVT 40 METER YOUTH SPRING SPRINT

Although there were many stations active during the competition, it was
very disappointing that only 5 logs were submitted. It can be
questioned whether it will be worth while to continue with the
competition, but next time it may be beter.

The results are as follows:

1st - ZS6JVT - 55 2nd - ZS44RK - 52 3rd - ZS6NGB - 38 4th - ZR6D - 29
5th - ZS2J - 23

The organizers of the ZS6JVT Youth Spring Sprint thanks all who took
the trouble to send in log sheets.

CLUB NEWS

The West Rand Amateur Radio Club is hosting its next flea market at
12:00 on Saturday 08 October 2011 at the clubhouse in Kroton Street,
Weltevredenpark, Roodepoort. Everyone is very welcome. For more
information, contact Phillip, ZS6PV,T at 083 267 3835.

The East Rand Amateur Radio Club will have their second flea market for
the year on the 1st of October 2011 at the Selpark primary school's
sportgrounds in Pridgeon str, Selection Park, Springs. It will last
from 11:00 till 15:00. For table bookings contact Judy, ZS6JDY, on 079
730 2030 or for more detail send an email to .
Hope to see you all there.

The East Rand Amateur Radio Club is proud to announce its new committee
elected with their AGM on the 17th September as follows:

Chairman Francois Jacobs, ZS6COI Vice Chairmen Glynn Chamberlain,
ZS6GLN &

Leon Lessing, ZS6LMG Honourory Treasurer Andre van Tonder, ZS6HE
Secretary Judy Pretorius, ZS6JDY Web master Glynn Chamberlain ZS6GLN
Repeater Custodian Hampie Findt

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP reports that solar activity has been high with
one X-Class flare and multiple M-Class flares taking place about when
the new sunspot rotates into view on the eastern limb. This region is
not yet in prime position for earth directed Coronal Mass Ejections.

For the people doing their own frequency predictions the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 93.

All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of fun with DX
opportunities at different times of the day.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS 25 September - Last day to enroll for the October RAE.
25 September - Intecnet tonight at 19:30. 26 Sept/7 Oct - ZR4CAA and
ZS6AA active with Drakensberge hiking group. 1 October - East Rand
Amateur Radio Club flea market starting at 11:00. 8 October - West Rand
Amateur Radio Club's flea market at 12:00. 15/16 October - Jamboree on
the air. Till 31 October - ZL-stations with ZM prefixes and ZL4RUGBY
and ZL6RWC on the air.

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, Z6SNE.

Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
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