SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 18 November 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. The SARL broadcasts 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 via Echolink, connect to ZS0JPL-R.

You can download this bulletin and previous ones from www.sarl.org.za
and also subscribe there to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

Your newsreader this morning is (name), (call sign), on 145,725 from
Pretoria, with relays on 7,066 MHz and 3,695 MHz SSB. (Other news
readers change to suit).

IN THE NEWS TODAY:

CALL TO URGENT ACTION ON 5 MHz

DX HAMVENTION THE THEME FOR 2013 DAYTON HAMVENTION

CW MESSAGE FROM SPACE FITSAT-1 SCHEDULES CHRISTMAS EVE OPTICAL
TRANSMISSION

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

CALL TO URGENT ACTION ON 5 MHz

While Radio Amateurs in the UK are experimenting on the 5 MHz band
South Africa are still awaiting the answer to the SARL's request to
ICASA to allocate one or more 5 MHz channels. This week RSGB news
reported that their popular Sunday evening 5 MHz Sunset Net is changing
frequency. The net, as its name implies, meets around UK sunset time on
Sunday evenings to compare propagation with that during the 5 MHz GB2RS
News earlier the same day. It has for some time met on the UK's 5 371,5
kHz channel. Following a number of reception reports from amateurs in
the Republic of Ireland, the net participants have decided to move the
Sunset Net's frequency to 5 398,5 kHz, with a backup of 5 278,5 kHz,
beginning today, 18 November, as both these latter two channels are
available to EI amateurs.

Wê, here, need your action this weekend and on Monday and Tuesday.
Monitor the channels between 5 250 and 5 450 kHz and report any
transmission heard. We need the date, time and ID of the station or any
information that may assist in identifying the organisation licensed.
The SARL needs this information in preparation for the meeting with
ICASA on Thursday this week. Mail your findings to .
Here is a chance to do something for your amateur radio.

DX HAMVENTION THE THEME FOR 2013 DAYTON HAMVENTION

Newsline reports that the theme for the 2013 Dayton Hamvention 2013
will be DX Hamvention to reflect an important part of amateur radio,
the distant contact. Charles Kaiser, KD8JZR, General Chairman for the
event says that Hamvention is often an important DX destination for
amateurs from all over the globe. "Working DX is often a mix of magic,
conditions, and the diligent application of radio theory", Kaiser said.

A number of key vendors have already committed to returning to
Hamvention® which the Dayton/Montgomery County Convention & Visitors
Bureau estimates produces an economic impact of about $4 million for
Montgomery County and nearly $10 million regionally. Hamvention®, the
world's largest amateur radio gathering, brings about 25 000 people to
the greater Dayton area. The three-day event includes exhibits, a flea
market, forums, education sessions and license exams. The Dayton
Hamvention 2013 is scheduled for 17 - 19 May, visit the website at
www.hamvention.org.

CW MESSAGE FROM SPACE FITSAT-1 SCHEDULES CHRISTMAS EVE OPTICAL
TRANSMISSION

There will be a Christmas present of sorts from amateur radio in space.
On 24 December, the students in Japan, who built the FITSAT-1
satellite, are planning to activate the bird's LED optical array and
flash a message in Morse Code to Earth.

According to JA6AVG, the students plan to start testing the optical
system at the end of November. As such its Morse message beacon may
well be visible from Earth with the unaided eye well before the
scheduled transmission date.

FITSAT-1 is a CubeSat that was developed by students at the Fukuoka
Institute of Technology in Japan. In addition to the optical
transmission system the bird carries a CW beacon on 437,250 MHz and a
data link on 437,445 MHz. There is also a 5,8 GHz data downlink.

CONTEST NEWS

Results of the Spring QRP Contest help on the 20th October 2012 are as
follows

1st Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT - 1 620 points 2nd Gerrit Rautenbach, ZS2XD -
1 512 points 3rd Christopher van Rensburg, ZS3R - 752 points

The results after adding up all of the 4 contests are as follows: 1st
Gerrit Rautenbach, ZS2XD - 4 728 points 2nd Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT - 4
626 points 3rd Pierre van Deventer, ZS6A - 2 560 points

The results of the VHF/UHF contest held on the 15/16th September are as
follows:

ROVER 1st ZS60Y - 6 615 2nd ZS6MHH - 4 499 points

LIMITED ZS4VP 6 992 points

HOME MIXED MODES 1st - ZS1NAZ - Analogue 54 282 / Digital 34 570 2nd -
ZS6A - Analogue 23 556 / Digital 42 924 3rd - ZS6PX - Analogue 3 123 /
Digital 72 684

HOME ANALOGUE ONLY ZS6KTS 7 977

HOME DIGITAL ONLY ZS2ACP 68 917

FIELD STATION ANALOGUE ZS6MRK 54 135

The full results will be published in HF Happenings.

The following are the results of the Antique Wireless Association QSO
Party held on 13 and 14 October 2012:

In the AM section top scores a Denis, ZR6DNS

SSB: 1st Abe, ZS1ZS 2nd Theunis, ZS2EC 3rd Denis, ZR6DNS

Although there were more than 30 stations active on the AM section,
only 2 logs and 2 check logs were submitted.

In the SSB Section, there were more than 40 active stations, but only 4
logs and 2 check logs were submitted.

Thanks to all who participated in the QSO Party.

Certificates for the top scores will be in the mail shortly.

CLUB NEWS

The West Rand Amateur Radio Club will host its next flea market at
12:00 on Saturday 01 December 2012 at their clubhouse in Kroton street,
Weltevredenpark, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. For more information
contact Phillip, ZS6PVT, at 083 267 3835 or Geoff, ZS6GRL, at 082 546
5546.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that solar activity is on the rise.
There are a number of active areas visible on the solar disk which have
the potential for flare activity. Active areas 1 610, 1 611, and 1 614
have complex magnetic configurations and have the possibility for
C-class and isolated M-class flaring.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 102.

All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of DX fun with 15 m
providing the best openings, with 20 m not far behind. There will also
be frequent 10 m openings due to the higher solar activity.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS 18 November - SARL National Field Day still on the go
till 10:00 UTC today. 18 November - Log sheets for the RaDAR Contest to
be in to Lichtenberg Amateur Radio Club (LARK), PO Box 410,
Lichtenburg, 2740 or by email to . 01 December
- West Rand Amateur Radio Club flea market starting at 12:00.

SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news items of
interest to radio amateurs and short-wave 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 17 760 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 UTC on
4 895 kHz ((A new time and frequency!). Reception reports are invited.
We are particularly interested in reports of the 4 895 kHz transmission
on Mondays at 18:30 UTC as the frequency is close to the proposed new
amateur allocation near 5 MHz. Reception reports from all areas in
South Africa would be useful in our bid to ICASA for frequencies pilot
studies. Send reports at the latest by Tuesday 20 November to
.

Sentech sponsors the transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.

You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League
compiled by George Honiball, ZS6NE.

Thank you for listening, 73.

/EX

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