SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 6 MAY 2012

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. For audio over 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 17570 and 7,066
MHz from Pretoria, with relays on 3,695 MHz SSB. (Other news readers
change to suit).

IN THE NEWS TODAY:

SA AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM IN DURBAN ON SATURDAY

PROPAGATION STUDY ON 5 MHz PUBLISHED

NATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO DAY

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

SA AMSAT SPACE SYMPOSIUM IN DURBAN ON SATURDAY

If you have not yet booked for the SA AMSAT Space Symposium to be held
at the University of KwaZulu Natal this Saturday, 12 May, do it now.
The programme is packed with presentations and demonstrations covering
a wide range of subjects of interest to radio amateurs and persons who
have an interest in science and technology.

Telkom is the lead sponsor making it possible to have speakers from all
over South Africa. The SA National Space Agency is sponsoring the
attendance of students and learners and a number of companies have come
on board with attendance prizes. From RF Design there are four Tiny
track APRS boards to be won, Comtest and RS are donating multi meters.
Visit www.amsatsa.org.za for the programme, list of attendance prizes
which is growing everyday and registration form. The early bird
registration fee for SARL and SA AMSAT members has been extend till
Monday evening.

PROPAGATION STUDY ON 5 MHz PUBLISHED

A paper entitled Comparison of propagation predictions and measurements
for mid-latitude HF near-vertical incidence sky wave links at 5MHz has
just been published in the peer-reviewed, academic journal, Radio
Science. The paper, by Dr Marcus Walden, G0IJZ, compares near-vertical
incidence sky wave, or NVIS, measurements from the UK 5 MHz beacon
network with HF propagation predictions using VOACAP and ASAPS
software. A link to the manuscript can be found on www.rsgb.org.uk.

The SARL has submitted a proposal to ICASA to allocate spectrum in the
5 MHz band for radio amateurs in South Africa to do propagation
research on this band. An amateur allocation in the 5 MHz band is on
the ITU WRC-015 agenda.

One of the problems with Amateur allocations at 40 and 80 metres is
that the two bands are an octave apart in frequency. At stages when the
MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency) falls below 7 MHz in the 300 to 500 km
distance range, the LUF (Lowest Usable Frequency) is still above 4 MHz.
This is especially true in the late afternoon/early evening. This
leaves Radio Amateurs without a direct workable HF frequency over these
moderate distances. When the MUF falls below 7 MHz, the lower portion
of 5 MHz is perfectly in the OTF (Optimum Traffic Frequency) range that
then stretch from about 4,9 to 5,6 MHz range. Ean Retief, ZS1PR, found
that in studies carried out in a commercial application, that during
times of low Solar Flux, 5 MHz could be used right through the day in
preference to frequencies just below 7 MHz. He also observed that in
winter the band is very quiet during the day and excellent for Packet
radio as well phone. In times of high Solar Flux 5 MHz can be used from
sundown

right trough the night till well after dawn when there is no daytime
"skip zone" on 5 MHz.

The SARL is following up with ICASA and has asked the agency to fast
track the application.

NATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO DAY

At the recent strategic indaba, the Council of the SARL decided to set
a day aside to be called National Amateur Radio Day, celebrating
Amateur Radio as a National Resource and its diversity as the most
exciting of all scientific hobbies.

This year National Amateur Radio Day will be held on Saturday 16 June
which is also youth day. Council selected the date as the youth is the
future of amateur radio. The day will however not detract from older
and senior amateurs. It will be all inclusive.

The objective is to take amateur radio to the public by exhibiting and
doing live demonstrations of the various aspects that make amateur
radio great and a fun thing to be part of. It is planned that the
activity be run from 09:00 - 16:00.

Council will finalise the programme at it meeting this week. Be sure to
tune in to SARLNEWS next Sunday to get all the details and watch out
for a SARL letter in your email inbox after that and on the web.

RADIO AMATEUR EXAMINATION NUMBERS ON THE WEB

Candidates who have registered to write the Radio Amateur Examination
on Thursday 24 May can look up their examination number and venue where
the examination will be written on the web. Visit
www.amateurradio.org.za/RAE.htm or link from the news item on the SARL
home page on www.sarl.org.za.

168 Candidates have registered for the May examination. The exam starts
at 19:00 and candidates have three hours to complete the two sections
of the examination. Candidates should report to the examination centre
by 18:30 and bring their ID book or other suitable identification. We
wish candidates success in the exam.

EME WORKED ALL CONTINENTS

On Tuesday evening 1 May, Andre van Deventer, ZS2BK, worked PY2GN via
EME and this was the sixth QSO required for the Worked all Continents
Award. Andre has now made an EME contact with a station in Africa,
Europe, Asia, Oceania, North and South America.

Congratulations to Andre.

CONTEST NEWS

SARL VHF/UHF Contest results.

Only 8 logs were received which consisted of 6 Home stations and 2 Club
stations. Where were all the other club stations? Geoff Levey, ZS6GRL,
SARL Contest Manager, would like to issue a challenge to all the clubs
countrywide to take part in the next leg in September 2012. It is up to
the clubs to generate interest amongst their members to the wonders of
VHF/UHF.

Analog results.

Rover station. ZS6MHH 1 448 points

Single operator Home stations. 1st - ZS1NAZ 112 890 Points 2nd - ZS6A
31 455 Poins 3rd - ZS6PX 12 746 Points

Multi Operator Club Station. 1st - ZS6WR 43 932 Points 2nd - ZS6MRK 40
733 points

Digital results.

Single operator home station. 1st - ZS5Y 106452 Points 2nd - ZS6A
102438 Points 3rd - ZS2ACP 100775 Points

Multi Operator Club Station. 1st - ZS6MRK 20 556 Points 2nd - ZS6WR 5
346 Points

Congratulations to all the winners. Thanks go to the stations who sent
in a log. A special word of thanks to Tienie Herbst, ZS6MHH, who went
the extra mile.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the Solar activity remains at
moderate levels. The sun's surface is peppered with smaller, fairly
quiet sunspots.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions the expected effective
sunspot number for the week will be around 51.

All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of DX fun with 15 m
providing the best openings with 10 m not far behind.

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

All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of DX fun with 15 m
providing the best openings with 10 m not far behind.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS 6 May - This afternoon, ZS3 Sprint, 14:00 to 15:00 UTC.
12 May - SA AMSAT space symposium; visit www.amsatsa.org.za for details
and registration. 12/13 May the AWA Valve QSO party, 15:00 to 19:00
CAT. 13 May - Log sheets for ZS3 Sprint to to be in to ZS3 Sprint, PO
Box 1049, Kathu, 8446 or by e-mail to . 19 May - 14:00
PEARS AGM at the Italian Club, Charlo, Port Elizabeth with a boot sale
prior to the AGM with a bring and braai afterwards. 28 May - Logs for
AWA Valve QSO party to be in to or AWA of
Southern Africa, P O Box 12320; Benoryn 1504.

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 175,70 MHz in the Pretoria area, with relays on
7 082, 7 205 and 17 570 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 17:30 UTC on
3230 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 Johan Marais, ZU1JM.

Thank you for listening, 73.

/EX

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