SARL NEWS SUNDAY 09 FEBRUARY 2014
Good morning, 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 and call sign), on 145,725 MHz
from Pretoria, with a relay on 7,066 MHz SSB. (Other news readers
change to suit).
SILENT KEY
It is with regret that it has to be announced that the key of Lourens
van Niekerk, ZS6AKB, a member of the East Rand Club, became silent on
the 22nd of January after a heart attack.
Our sincere condolences to his relatives and friends.
(PAUSE)
In today's SARL News:
NEXT INTECNET TO EXPLORE YOUTH IN AMATEUR RADIO
YOUTH SPRINT ON 15 FEBRUARY
NEW UK BASED AMATEUR RADIO TV SHOW ANNOUNCED
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and
other important and interesting items.
NEXT INTECNET TO EXPLORE YOUTH IN AMATEUR RADIO
The next INTECNET will be held on Tuesday 11 February at 19:30 as part
of the SARL Youth week. Radio amateurs are invited to join a debate
what they think should be done to attract more young people into the
hobby. We were hoping to have featured a number of young radio amateurs
to join the net but to date non have come forward. This is perhaps even
more reason to debate the issue how to attract more young people in
into Amateur Radio and how to keep them involved.
Intecnet will be carried on repeaters in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and
Pretoria, as well as on echolink. If you are a young radio amateur put
your name forward to be selected to be part of the panel. To have your
repeater linked to the network, please send an email to
by today 18:00 (Sunday 9 February).
YOUTH SPRINT ON 15 FEBRUARY
This is a fun activity to celebrate the Youth and to promote contacts
between young radio amateurs in Southern African countries. Call "CQ
Youth Day" on Saturday 15 February 2014 from 10:00 to 12:00 local time.
The exchange is a RS report and the operator's age. It is a phone
sprint on the 40-metre band (7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz).
Log sheets and summaries shall be submitted within 7 days after the
contest and must be sent to . The closing date
for log submissions is 22 February 2014. The age of the operator must
be shown on the summary sheet. All the logs received will be entered
into a draw for a Student Membership of the SARL and many other prizes.
Listen to SARL News next week for more details. Visit
www.hamradio.org.za for more details.
Are you and your club facilitating young people?
NEW UK BASED AMATEUR RADIO TV SHOW ANNOUNCED
Three United Kingdom amateurs will be taking to Internet television
later this month with a new amateur radio based video podcast program
of their own.
Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, KI7UP, says that the new show is
called The TX Factor. Its hosts are Bob McCreadie, G0FGX, Mike Marsh,
G1IAR and Nick Bennett, 2E0FGQ. All are broadcast professionals who
plan to explore all aspects of amateur radio's fascinating hobby as the
show progresses month to month.
For example, episode one later this month will visit the United
Kingdom's Marconi Centre. It will also spend time with the Norman
Lockyer Observatory Group learning about how repeaters function and
also visit a mountaintop location to discuss the Summits on the Air
project. Episode 2 in March will include a visit to the world famous
Bath Buildathon and a close up look at the FUNcube Dongle.
Down the road look for shows dealing with such topics as the history of
amateur radio, the gear available to amateurs, antennas, operating
modes, propagation, radio sports, current news and just about anything
related to the magical world of amateur radio.
The downloadable video podcast stream should be compatible with most
smart phones, tablets and smart TV's as well as traditional laptops and
desktop PC's. The TX Factor is sponsored by Yaesu Musen Company of
Japan and United Kingdom ham radio supplier Martin Lynch & Sons Ltd. It
will be available free of charge to download beginning on February 21st
at www.txfactor.co.uk.
REGISTER EXAMINATION CENTRES FOR THE RAE
All affiliated clubs wishing to administer a RAE examination centre
must re-register for 2014, before 21 February 2014, even if you are not
sure if there will be any candidates for this coming examinations.
The SARL is currently changing to an online registration system.
Therefore we need all the most recent information of the examination
centres. The planned date for roll out is March 2014. This new online
registration will be an improvement on the current manual system.
Exactly how the system will work will be communicated to all clubs and
chief invigilators of the exam centres to help the candidates register.
We thank everyone for their support.
To register your Exam Centre, on the SARL website go to Licencing /
Radio Amateur's Examination and follow the link to "Exam Centre
Registration" on the left-hand side.
AMATEUR RADIO PIONEER JOHN S. STREETER FO-A4Z (A1A, ZS1W)
Our modern amateurs have a lot to be grateful for to our early radio
amateur pioneers, who experimented, persevered and laid the foundation
of amateur radio in this country against all the odds.
One notable name in the history of radio in South Africa is John Samuel
Streeter who became interested in radio in 1909 but owing to an
unfavourable letter from the then postmaster-general it was considered
best to lie low, and it was not until after World War 1 in 1919, that a
fresh start was made with crystal sets and spark transmitters.
The first valves were used in South Africa in the early 1920s such as
the type M-OR that heralded experiments with AM telephony on long and
medium waves. John Streeter used the call sign A4Z and was the first
amateur on phone, and made the first music broadcasts in South Africa
to the public in Cape Town who listened in on their crystal sets. John
Streeter became Mr. Radio of the time with regular headlines in the
local newspapers. He also made the international news headlines when he
established the first "wireless" contact on 20 metres between South
Africa and the USA. The Radio Informer, a Canadian publication wrote in
its December 1925 edition: "South African radio amateur talks with the
US for the first time".
By the way our first radio amateur and pioneer was W. E. Dixon Bennett
FO-A3V (ZS4F, ZS4W, ZS5EG) who completed his coherer receiver and spark
transmitter in 1903 and became the first licensed radio amateur in 1904
while resident in Pretoria, i.e. 110 years ago. Dixon Bennett had to
wait another year before he made his first spark contact with a new
amateur, named Ensor, in Pretoria. All the above events occurred long
before the discovery of propagation modes on VHF. You can read more in
"The Dawn of Amateur Radio in South Africa" in the "Radio Amateurs and
Events of bygone days forum" as posted on the SARL General Forums.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will
be at active levels. Sunspot AR1968 has a "beta-gamma-delta" magnetic
field that harbours enough energy for X-class solar flares.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 120.
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. With the higher
solar activity there may be some good 6 m openings in the early
evenings as well.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further
information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
11 February - Intechnet on Youth in Amateur Radio at 19:30 CAT. 15
February - Youth Sprint on the air, 10:00-12:00 CAT. 21 February - Last
day to register radio amateur examination centres. 22 February - Logs
for Youth Sprint to be in to . 28 February -
Closing date for Youth Essay Competition 15 March - Last day to submit
proposals for papers for the 2014 SA AMSAT space symposium to
The 2014 SARL Diary of Events will be available for download in the
coming week from www.sarl.org.za. Get a copy and keep it handy in your
radio shack.
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 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 16:30 UTC on
4 895 kHz. The website also lists various other retransmissions.
Reception reports, comments and suggestions are invited. Send an email
to . Sentech sponsors the transmissions on the
non-amateur frequencies.
You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League
compiled and edited by George Honiball, ZS6NE.
Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
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