SARL NEWS SUNDAY 18 MAY 2008
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 that is transmitted 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 ARMI and follow the links for details. PLEASE NOTE! For audio via Echolink, connect to ZS0JPL-R.
You can download this and previous bulletins from www.sarl.org.za and you can subscribe there to receive future bulletins by email.
Your newsreader this morning is (name), (call sign), on 145,725 and 7,066 MHz from Pretoria with relays on 28,325, 14,235, 10,130, 7,066 and 3,695 MHz SSB as well as 51,400, 438,825 and 1 296 MHz FM in the Pretoria area. (Other newsreaders please change to suit).
SILENT KEY
It is with regeret that the Magalies Amateur Radio Club has to announce that one of its old members , Gijs de Vries, ZS6AKO, became silent key on the 2nd May in the age of 84 nyears. Our sincerest sympathy to his wife Nellie, children, grand children and friends.
(PAUSE)
In today's SARL News:
SARL CHANGES BANK
THE PORT ELIZABETH RTA IS A MUST ATTEND
FLY THROUGH THE IONOSPHERE
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more detail on these and other important and interesting news items.
SARL CHANGES BANK
The council of the SARL has decided to move the SARL bank accounts from Standard Bank to ABSA. If you are paying an account by bank transfer or the internet please note the following details:
Account name: South African Radio League;
Bank: ABSA;
Branch code: 632 005;
Account number: 4071588849.
When paying electronically always ask the bank to send an email to admin@sarl.org.za or a fax to 088 011 675 2793.
THE PORT ELIZABETH RTA IS A MUST ATTEND
If you within a couple of hours’ drive from Port Elizabeth you are urged to take the plunge and drive to the friendly city to attend the RTA. The programme is simply the best of any RTA presented before. Just look at the line up from learning all about Spread Spectrum Communications, to a practical load down on the PEARS WIFI system and all about how the SKA - Square Kilometre Array will affect radio communications in some areas of South Africa. These are just some of the presentations. In addition, if that is not enough to get you there the attendance prizes should. HRO South Africa has sponsored a Yaesu VX120E VHF hand-held, a MFJ artificial ground and a JNC GPS. From Commco you can win DIY wireless burglary alarm. It all happens on 31 May 2008 with registration at 08:15 and the programme starting at 09:00.
Get the full details on the www.sarl.org.za.
RADIO ZS IN THE MAIL AND ON THE WEB LATER THIS WEEK
Later this week another edition of Radio ZS will be in the mail to members and available on the web. This edition is filled to the brim with must read articles and projects, build a lightning predictor to warn you when lightning is approaching your area. This interesting project was designed by John Willescroft, ZS6EF, and contains all the details you need to build this handy gadget. Our international correspondent Dave Ingram writes about the WARC bands and Australia's VK4FUQ explains the benefits of a noise cancelling loop antenna. In addition, all the regulars. Do not miss this edition.
If you join now you will get this edition of Radio ZS and the next one as part of the two months’ free membership. You have to sign up for 14 months but only pay for 12 and that at the cash back rate of R305. The normal rate for 2008/ 2009 is R320. Membership is only activated after receipt of payment with the application. What’s more, you get access to the member’s only section of www.sarl.org.za with back issues of Radio ZS and other interesting downloads.
FLY THROUGH THE IONOSPHERE
Without leaving home, anyone can fly through the layer of ionized gas that encircles Earth at the edge of space itself. All that is required is an Internet connection and a free copy of Google Earth available for download from http://earth.google.com/.
NASA calls the ionosphere “the last wisp of Earth's atmosphere that astronauts leave behind when they enter space”. The realm of the ionosphere stretches from 50 to 500 miles above Earth's surface where the atmosphere thins to near vacuum and exposes itself to the fury of the sun. Solar ultraviolet radiation breaks apart molecules and atoms, creating a globe-straddling haze of electrons and ions.
Using a Google Earth interface, users can fly above, around and through these regions getting a true 4D view of the situation. "The fourth dimension is time”. This is a real-time system updated every 10 minutes.
The proper name of the system is CAPS, short for Communication Alert and Prediction System. Earth-orbiting satellites feed the system up-to-the-minute information on solar activity; the measurements are then converted to electron densities by physics-based computer codes. It is important to note that CAPS reveals the ionosphere not only as it is now, but also as it is going to be in the near future.
According to propagation specialist Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, this model can provide Radio Amateurs a broad view of what the ionosphere is doing 'now’.
“For radio amateurs, this is a great application because it enables them to figure out what frequencies that are going to be available for communicating with any part of the world they want to communicate with at that moment in time. The importance of this new product is the fact that this is likely the first physical model of the ionosphere available to the widespread Amateur Radio community. At this stage it only offers a broad view now - but it is a sign of things to come,” Carl said.
Want to fly through the ionosphere visit http://science.nasa.gov/.
NOW IT IS HERE NOW IT IS GONE
Swift action by members, alerting the SARL Webmasters that all was not well with the SARL website, and their quick response, resulted in a clean web. Someone had used Henry Chamberlain's password and posted URL addresses of adult sites creating the impression that postings came from Henry. The forum portion was quickly closed down and the investigation started to find out how it happened. Needless to say, Henry's password was changed.
CONTEST NEWS
The following contest results have been released:
VHF/UHF Sprint held on 24 February: 1st Marius Preston, ZS4MP, with 52 points, 2nd Dennis Green, ZS4BS, with 46 points and 3rd Tyron Brown, ZU5T, with 20 points.
SARL VHF/UHF Contest held on 15 and 16 March: Field station multi operator, Pretoria ARC 54 682 points; Field station Single operator, East Rand ARC, ZS6ERB, with 10 917 points; Fixed station, Bert Howes, ZS6HS, with 790,5 points.
Autumn QRP Sprint held on 20 April: 1 watt class, Pierre van Deventer, ZS6BQS, with 2 400 points; 5 watt class 1st Jan Botha, ZS4JAN, with 3 484 points, 2nd Allan Wood, ZR1AAH, with 1 120 points, 3rd Vidi le Grange, ZS1EL, with 588 points and 4th Gary Potgieter, ZS5NK, with 336 points.
To date, the SARL Contest Manager has received no results of the SARL Hamnet 40 metre contest held on 2 March.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be very low. The geomagnetic field is expected to be mostly at quiet to unsettled levels except on 20 May when minor storm levels are expected. The expected Effective Sun Spot number for the coming week will be less than 5. DX conditions will generally be good to the North and poor in the general Northwesterly directions.
15 and 20 metres will provide best opportunities for DX. There is a possibility of 15 and 20 m openings towards India from about 14:00 CAT. Conditions to Australia will be very challenging. From 14:00, there may be good 15 and 20 m openings towards Europe. Contacts with the USA are going to be very challenging. 10 MHz is looking promising after dark for the CW and digital enthusiasts.
Local conditions are going to be good on 40 m during the daytime. 30 m may perform well during the middle of the day over the longer distances. 80 m is the frequency of choice in the evenings, thunderstorms and static permitting! Not too long from now 160 m will start be quite useful again. Remember that this is only a prediction and that HF always has the capability to surprise you, but you will never know unless you switch your rig on, listen and also call CQ.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
23 to 25 May – Exercise Double Barrel 3;
31 May - RTA in Port Elizabeth;
8 June - Closing date for entries for the Kempton Park Amateur Radio Technical Society logo competition.
SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news stories of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners. Submit news stories 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 the programme Amateur Radio Mirror International, on the air every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria area with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 590 kHz. For the web stream and Echolink by ZS0JPL-R visit www.sarl.org.za, click on ARMI and follow the links. A repeat transmission can be heard Mondays at 21:00 CAT on 3 215 kHz. Sentech sponsors the ARMI transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.
Dennis, ZS4BS, compiled today's South African Radio League news bulletin.
Thank you for listening. 73.
/EX
