SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER 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:

OCTOBER 2011 RAE CANDIDATE EXAM NUMBERS RELEASED

7P8EME DX-PEDITION A GREAT SUCCESS

SARL MEMBERSHIP NOW 1 345

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

OCTOBER 2011 RAE CANDIDATE EXAM NUMBERS RELEASED

The SARL has released the Candidate Examination Numbers for the October
Radio Amateur Examination, which will take place on 20th October 2011.
The list can be obtained by visiting www.sarl.org.za and clicking on
the link in the news item on SARL TODAY.

174 Candidates have entered for the examination including one visually
handicapped person for whom special arrangements have been made. This
is the largest number of candidates recorded in recent years.

Letters will be mailed to the candidates during the course of this
weekend. Should there be any queries about an examination centre,
please contact Mariska at the office at 011 675 2393.

7P8EME DX-PEDITION A GREAT SUCCESS

The 7P8EME DX-pedition was a great success. The team managed to make in
total 320 QSO's. 274 QSO's on 2 metres EME, 23 QSO's on 70 cm EME, 18
QSO's on 23 cm EME and 5 QSO's on 6 metres EME, all using JT65. On HF
(CW) a few DX contacts were made in between EME operations by Wynand,
ZS6ARF, while some pleasant chats were conducted on 40 metres with
South African Radio amateurs by Pieter. ZS6PA.

The team would like to thank all sponsors, especially Dan, HB9CRQ, the
South African Radio League, the South African Amateur Radio Development
Trust Multisource Telecoms and all radio amateurs who supported the
expedition. A full report will be published on the web during next week
and in Radio ZS.

SARL MEMBERSHIP NOW 1 345

Last week the SARL membership stood at 1 345. Members who have not
renewed will no longer have access to member facilities such as the QSL
bureau, Radio ZS and the members' only section on the web, which
includes access to the forum.

If you have not renewed your membership you can still do so by paying
your subscription as soon as possible. If you have mislaid your
invoice, please call Mariska on 011 675 2393 for details.

If you have never been a member of the SARL why not join now. By
joining the SARL you are strengthening the voice of the SARL and the
IARU in areas where it counts most. Details of how to join can be found
on www.sarl.org.za.

SA AMSAT ISSUE FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS

SA AMSAT has issued the first call for papers for the 2012 Space
Symposium to be held in Durban on Saturday 12 May 2012, at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal. If you would like to present a paper,
please send a brief synopsis to reach SA AMSAT by no later than 31
January 2012. The theme will be 50 years of OSCAR, celebrating the
launch of the first amateur radio satellite on 12 December 1961.

SARL WEB SLOW PROGRESS

The team working on the SARL web is making progress but it is slow.
Peter Hers, ZS6PHD, reports that there was a dramatic improvement on
Friday by disabling some parts of the site, which are causing problems.
He said that there is still a lot of work to identify problems at the
detail level and to fix them. The SARL acknowledges the amount of
effort that Peter and others, who are assisting him, are making in
solving the problems.

AMATEUR RADIO FEATURED WELL AT THE IAC2011

Amateur Radio featured in several papers presented at the sixty second
International Astronautical Congress held on African soil in Cape Town
for the first time since the formation of the International
Astronautical Federation in 1951.

Several papers highlighted Amateur Radio involvement in satellites and
SETI. A paper by Dr Jakobus van Zyl and Johann Lochner, ZE6CBC, both
engineers at SunSpace, covered a global geographical survey of received
signal's strength in the VHF band. The data collected by SumbandilaSat,
S067, provides useful information for selecting future ground station
locations for minimum interference. The study further gives an
indication of frequencies to use for command and telemetry
communication at existing ground stations. More details will be
included in future SARL news and on Amateur Radio Today.

At the congress, the Department of Science and Technology announced
that the department will support the launch of the single CubeSat built
by the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. As covered in last
week's SARLNEWS the CubeSat includes an HF beacon on 14,099 MHz which
will have interesting applications in Amateur Radio. The article about
the HF beacon is available on www.amsatsa.org.za.

SARL RESPONDS TO CAPE TOWN CITY RE ANTENNAS

The SARL has responded to the draft Telecommunications Infrastructure
Policy for the City of Cape Town. During discussions the City's
Environmental Agency confirmed that amateur radio antenna masts and
structures are excluded from the Telecommunications Infrastructure
Policy. The SARL has requested that the amateur radio exclusion
statement be incorporated in the policy.

This does not mean that amateur radio antennas and structures are not
regulated. These structures are still governed by the building
regulations. However Amateur radio towers under 15 metres are exempt
from environmental scoping as laid down in the environmental protection
act.

"AMATEURRADIO IN AKSIE"

"Amateurradio in Aksie" is an Afrikaans news program aimed at Afrikaans
speaking radio amateurs. The program will be compiled on a weekly basis
and made available for download from www.amateurinaksie.co.za, on
Monday mornings. While you are visiting the website also make an effort
to sign the guest book.

Clubs and individuals are urged to download the program and even use it
during club bulletins or even as a standalone news program. Everybody
is welcome to give input to the program and we encourage people to do
so via the website. We look forward to have as many listeners as
possible.

CQ HOU KOERS

CQ Hou Koers, the Voortrekkers' annual radio communications day, takes
place on Saturday the 15th of October from 08:30 until 12:00 CAT.
Calling frequencies are 3 670, 7 085 and 14 240 kHz and local
repeaters. Young people from across SA and Namibia will be active on
the amateur bands. Please support them. The Voortrekkers are
celebrating their 80th anniversary and the call signs ZS80VT and ZS6VTS
will also be used.

Enquiries may be sent to Andries, ZS6VL, with email address
.

CLUB NEWS

The Centurion Radio Amateur Club will present a technical talk on the
club's two meter repeater, frequency 145,775 MHz, commencing at 19:30.

Tonight will be a repeat of last week's discussion, which was cut short
due to bad weather conditions.

The subject for the talk this evening is: "Feed lines as matching
transformers" and it answers a question recently posed on the SARL
forum, namely: "Can one match an antenna by altering the length of its
feed line?" And of course there will also be a tongue in cheek amateur
story!

This very interesting discussion will be presented by Pine, ZS6GST.

CONTEST NEWS

PEARS HF DX CONTEST

The aim of the PEARS HF DX Contest is to encourage Southern African
radio amateurs to work DX. The contest will take place on Sunday 13
November 2011 starting at 12:00 and ending at 16:00 UTC with SSB
activity on 20 and 15 metres. Participation can be as a Single
Operator, Base or Field Station or as a Multi Operator, Base or Field
station. Stations may use the maximum power permitted according to the
regulations in the country of operation.

The exchange is your call sign and signal report and one point is
earned with each QSO. A station may be contacted once on each contest
band. Field stations must multiply their score by two and a further
multiplier of two is available if the station uses a non-gain antenna
with reference to a dipole. Then the score is multiplied by the number
of countries contacted.

Should more than three logs be received per category, a certificate
will be awarded to the winner in each category. Log sheets must be
submitted by 30 November 2011 to PO Box 10402, Linton Grange, Port
Elizabeth, 6015 or by e-mail to .

This contest replaces the PEARS HF Contest that was scheduled for
Sunday 4 December 2011.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that solar activity is expected to be
at moderate to high levels. New sunspot 1 313 is crackling with C-class
flares. There are currently nine numbered regions on the visible disk.

For the people doing their own frequency predictions the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 70.

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

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

DIARY OF EVENTS

15 October - CQ - Hou Koers. 15/16 October - Jamboree on the air. 20
October - Radio Amateur Examination. 30 October - Intechnet on proposed
new license. Till 31 October - ZL-stations with ZM prefixes and
ZL4RUGBY and ZL6RWC on the air. 13 November - Pears HF DX Competition
12:00 till 16:00 UTC. 30 November - Due date for submission of log
sheets for the Pears HF DX Competition. 31 January 2012 - Due date for
submission of proposed papers for the 2012 SA AMSAT Space Symposium.

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 Gustav, Z6SBWN.

Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
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