SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE

SARL NEWS SUNDAY 22 APRIL 2007

You are listening to Amateur Radio Station ZS6SRL of the South African
Radio League, the National Body for Amateur Radio in South Africa, with
a news bulletin that is broadcast every Sunday at 08:15 CAT in
Afrikaans and at 08:30 CAT in English. This broadcast can also be heard
on Echolink by connecting to ZS6FCS. To listen to a web stream go to
www.sarl.org.za, click on ARMI and follow the links. This, and previous
bulletins, can be downloaded from the web site of the SARL i.e.
www.sarl.org.za. You can also read or download previous bulletins from
there and subscribe to receive future bulletins by email.

This transmission is by Hans, ZS6KR, on 145,725 and 7,066 MHz from
Pretoria with relays on 3,695, 10,135, 14,235 and 51,400 MHz as well as
438,825 MHz in the Pretoria area. (Other news readers please change to
suit).

In the news today:

HELP THE SARL TO UPDATE THE CALLBOOK

NEXT INTECNET TO FEATURE A DISCUSSION ON THE EASTERN CAPE REPEATER
NETWORK

SOUTHERN AFRICAN DX SURVEY

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

HELP THE SARL TO UPDATE THE CALLBOOK

A call book is only as good as the correctness of its entries. Members
of the SARL are invited to use the advanced facilities to check entries
and send updates to the SARL office.

Please check the callbook entries for your areas using the advanced
features on www.sarl.org.za. Using this tool, members can call up all
the callsigns in a town, or postal code, or even part of a postal code.

For example, if you would like to see all the amateurs in East London,
use the "Postal code" search option and type in "52", this will give
all the callsigns where the postal code in the QSL information begins
with 52. Similarly if one types in "00" it will list all the entries in
the postal code area 00 which is Pretoria and surrounding areas.

Using such a list of names and callsigns please help to identify silent
keys whom have not been reported to the SARL or ICASA. If you have
information about any such person, or a persons who have moved away and
no longer have their South African callsigns, please let the SARL
office know.

The office fax number is 088 011 675 2793, or you can e-mail the
information to Vee Antal at .

If you are not a member of the SARL you cannot use the advanced
facilities, you can however look up your own callsign and supply any
corrections by emailing the details to or faxing it
to 088 011 675 2793. May be it is now time that you joined.

Remember the SARL relies on all amateurs to keep the callbook data
accurate. When last did you check your callbook entry? The SARL
callbook is used by the publishers of international callbooks and web
look-up facilities. It is therefore in your own interest to ensure that
your information is up to date.

Over and above normal QSL information you'd expect to find in any
callbook, did you know that: - You can check to see if a callsign is
active on APRS and even see its last reported location, and that of any
of their SSIDs? - You can see how many QSO's have been confirmed by
this person using the SARL's SA-QSL system? - You can see if you've
worked this station before and had a QSO confirmed on SA-QSL? - You can
see a photo of this person? - You can see their Grid Locator if they
have one listed, and if they do you can also see a Google Earth type
map of the area where they live? In the major centers these maps can be
zoomed in to the point where you can see the car parked in the
driveway. - You can also use this map to pin point your QTH to within a
few meters. - You can see if this person is a SARL member and therefore
accessible through the league's QSL bureau.

NEXT INTECNET TO FEATURE A DISCUSSION ON THE EASTERN CAPE REPEATER
NETWORK

The next INTECNET is on Sunday evening 6 May with Chris Scarr, ZS2AAW,
as the guest speaker. Chris will dicuss the concept behind the Eastern
Cape Repeater Network which now strecthes as far as Cape Town and
Bloemfontein. He will also share some of the new ideas he has for the
network.

The President's Net will precede the Intecnet at 19:00. Graham Hartlett
will give an update on several suggestions made at the AGM and discuss
implememtation strategies discussed at the first council meeting the
week before the net. Intecnet follows the President's net at 20:00.
Clubs are urged to link their local repeater to the conference network.
Send details of the landline to be linked to .

SARL OFFICE FAX FACILITY

The SARL office is using a fax mail system to receive faxes. This
allows for faxes to be distributed to Councillors for their attention.
It is therefore import to send faxes to the full number which is 088
011 675 2793. Please only use this number in the future.

ZR's AND ZU's FAR MORE FORTUNATE THAN THEIR AMERICAN COUNTERPARTS

Technician-class licencees in the USA, who gained extra priveleges on
February 23rd of this year, are still not permitted to operate phone
(voice) on any frequency below their 10 m band allocation.

In addition to all Amateur Radio operating privileges above 50 MHz,
Technicians who never passed a Morse code test now have CW privileges
on certain segments of 80, 40 and 15 meters plus new CW, RTTY, data and
SSB privileges on certain segments of 10 meters.

Thanks to the input of the SARL and its' members, amateurs in South
Africa who hold the equivalent to the USA's technician-class licence,
have for the past two years had almost identical priveleges to their
ZS-counterparts. Even the newly revamped entry-level ZU class licence
has more phone priveleges!

Food for thought while you are mulling over taking the plunge and
finally becoming a league member.

COMPETETION NEWS

SOUTHERN AFRICAN DX SURVEY

Which DX entities are most wanted by Southern African radio amateurs?
How does the most wanted listing for Southern Africa look? Dennis,
ZS4BS, has created a MS Excel spreadsheet containing the 2007 DXCC list
and there is place where you can indicate which DXCC entities you need
on CW, SSB or digital modes (RTTY, PSK, etc). The spreadsheet is
available from Dennis, or you can download it
from the SARL web site at www.sarl.org.za. The closing date for the
survey is 30th June 2007.

PEARS DIGITAL AND MICROWAVE COMPETETION

The Port Elizabeth ARS has informed the SARL Contest Manager that they
have decided to scrap the PEARS Digital and Microwave contest. For the
past two years, there have been no entries.

CLUB NEWS

NEW CLUB

A new club, The Lowveld Radio Amateur Club, was established in
Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. The following members were elected to its
management committee:

Chairman, Piet Badenhorst, ZS6PJB; Vice chairman, Henri Steyl, ZS6ST;
RAE, Helgi Braithwaite, ZS6HB; Repeaters and Technical, Nic Cronje
ZS6WW.

The club installed a new TAIT repeater on 145,675 MHz, giving coverage
to the Nelspruit, White River and Sabie areas and it also covers part
of the N4 main route.

They are also experimenting with APRS, UI VIEW and have an IRLP Node
which is continuously running.

Congratulations with the initiative in the Low Veld, and may your club
go from strength to strength.

KALAHARI-KAROO CLUB ACTIVITIES

The long weekend from 27 April to 1 May is going to be a very busy time
in Division 3. The Kalahari-Karoo Amateur Radio Club reports that the
following activities will be happening:

The Landcruiser Club of South Africa (LCCSA) will be gathering at the
Boegoeberg Dam. Carel, ZS3OBE, will be operating an educational field
station, ZS3FLY, to raise the awareness of amateur radio among the
members of the LCCSA and thereby recruit members to write the RAE. Word
has it that there are 5 or 6 new ZU amateurs amongst the participants.

The Voortrekkers have a "Vasbyt" camping weekend at the Lohatla
Military Training Area. Gerhard, ZS3TG, Daniël, ZS3DS, and Piet, ZS3DI,
will operate an educational field station to give these youngsters
exposure to amateur radio. They will mainly be active on 40, 80 and
occasionally 2 m. Their QTH (camp) will be in KG11nv. They will be on
air from Saturday 28th until Monday 30th April.

The Adventure Radio Club will be visiting Division 3. They will camp on
Verneuk Pan and operate their field station, ZS3ARC.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will
be at very low levels. The geomagnetic field is expected to range from
unsettled to major storm levels on 28 to 29 April. The expected
Effective Sun Spot number for the coming week will be less than 5.

20 and 15 metre will provide best opportunities for DX. There is a
possibility of 15 and 20 metre openings towards India from about 06:00
and again at 13:00 CAT. Conditions are going to be challenging towards
Australia. From about 15:00, there may be good 10, 15 and 20 m openings
towards Europe. Contacts to the USA are going to be very challenging.
For the CW and digital enthusiasts it may also be worth monitoring 10
MHz.

Although the predictions may not be too enthusiatic, HF always has the
capability to surprise you. You will never know what you are missing
unless you switch on your rig, listen and also call CQ.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS

27 April to 1 May - ZS3FLY, with the Land Cruiser Club at
Boegeoebergdam, on the air also ZS1 Amateur Radio Club active from
Verneukpan; 28 to 30 April - ZS3ARK active with the Voortrekkers at
Lohatla; 5 May - Cape Town ARC Flea Market and also the West Rand Radio
Club Flea Market; 6 May - President's Net and Intechnet; 30 June -
Closing date for updating of SA DX Survey.

SARL News depends on clubs and individuals for news items of importance
and interest to radio amateurs. The one and only way to ensure that
your contribution will reach the SARL News team, is to place it in
www.sarl.org.za/newsinbox.asp not later than the Thursday preceding the
bulletin date. It will be appreciated if you will do it in both
Afrikaans and English.

The SARL also invites all listeners to listen to the program Amateur
Radio Mirror International this Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750
MHz in the Pretoria area with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 695 kHz.
Audio is also streamed on www.zs6mrk.org and on Echolink from ZS6FCS as
for this bulletin. A repeat transmission takes place on Mondays at
21:00 on 3 215 kHz. Telkom and Sentech sponsor the ARMI transmissions
on the non-amateur frequencies.

You have been listening to a news bulletin by the South African Radio
League, which was compiled by George, ZS6NE.

A prosperous week to all, 73.

/EX

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