Updated 3 June 2008

Listen Amateur Radio Mirror International
Sundays: 08:00 UTC
17570kHz
  9750 kHz
  7082 kHz
Repeat broadcast
Mondays 19:00 UTC
3215

Wireless Microphone kit

Entry Level License Syllabus

ZU STUDY GUIDE

HF Assessment

 Go back to SARL main site
 

News release "2007 SARL FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

SARL YOUTH SPRINT 16 June 2008 

OPERATING GUIDELINE 

The SARL Youth Sprint will take place on Youth Day 16 June 2008 from 10:00   to 12:00 and is aimed at putting as many as possible young radio amateurs or young people interested in amateur radio in touch with each other in a competitive environment. To assist young people who are not licensed (as yet) the following guideline will assist in being able to participate under the supervision of a licensed radio amateur from his or her station.

Callsign: use the callsign of the licensed radio amateur followed by your name eg   ZS6XYX operated by John

To make a contact you can call CQ after having checked that the frequency is clear. Or you can go back to another station calling CQ Youth Sprint. 

1. Go back to a CQ Youth Sprint Call

ZS6ABC this is ZS6XYZ operated by John 

ZS6XYZ operated by John this is ZS6ABC. My name is Sipho. Your report is 5918 (Readability 5, Signal strength 9 he is 18 years old)  Thanks for calling me. ZS6AYZ this is ZS6ABC 

ZS6ABC thanks for the call and the 5018 report. My name is John and I am operating from the shack of George ZS6XYZ. Your number is 5916.

Good luck in the contest 

Make sure that you have entered all the information in the log 

Move away from the frequency and look for another station calling CQ or look for a clear frequency and call CQ. 

2. Call  CQ as follows:

Before calling, you should listen for at least 30 seconds to see whether the frequency is clear. If you do not hear anyone else on or near the frequency call:   CQ CQ CQ Youth Sprint,  this is Zulu Sierra Six Xray Yanky Zulu operated by John. 

Listen for a reply. If nothing heard call again 

When using phonetics please use the correct ones as listed below

The number given is the RS report plus the age of the participant.

Signal reports are exchanged according to the standard Readability-Strength code, usually abbreviated RST.  The Tone part is only used for CW communication, so for Phone it is RS – Readability and Strength only. The meanings of the RS values are as shown below: 

READABILITY

1 -- Unreadable

2 -- Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable

3 -- Readable with considerable difficulty

4 -- Readable with practically no difficulty

5 -- Perfectly readable

SIGNAL STRENGTH

1 -- Faint signals, barely perceptible

2 -- Very weak signals

3 -- Weak signals

4 -- Fair signals

5 -- Fairly good signals

6 -- Good signals

7 -- Moderately strong signals

8 -- Strong signals

9 -- Extremely strong signals

LOGBOOK 

The participant must write up a log. The same information must also be included in the log book of the radio amateur hosting the non-licensed young person.

 A typical log sheet will look like this 

First Name:                                                                                                                           

Surname

Postal address

Email

Age

Date: 16 June 2008

Here are the rules of the sprint:

 1.                    Aim.

This is a fun activity to promote contacts between young radio amateurs in Southern African countries.  Call “CQ Youth Day” 

2.                   Date and Time.   

16 June from 08:00 to 10:00 UTC [10:00 to 12:00 CAT] 

3.                   Exchange 

The exchange is a RS report and the operator’s age. 

4.                   Frequency

It is a phone sprint on the 40-metre band 

5.                   Scoring 

Contacts between stations in the age group 25 and younger are worth 5 points.

Contacts between stations in the under 25 group and over 26 group is worth 2 points

Contacts between stations in the age group 26 and older are worth 1 point. 

6.                   Log Sheets 

Log sheets and summaries shall be submitted within 15 days after the contest and can be sent by e-mail to hfcontests@netactive.co.za or by snail mail to the Bloemfontein Radio Amateur Club, PO Box 12104, Brandhof, 9324.  The age of the operator must be shown on the summary sheet. 

7.         Closing date for log submission: 1 July 2008.  All the logs received will be entered into a draw for a Student Membership of the SARL and other prizes.

Every participant under 25 years old  will receive a certificate

Winner of the Spaceweek Essay competition

Katlego Zabala, Sekano-Ntoane Secondary School 1926 Mabalane Street Tshiawelo

Katlego will be presented with his laptop early in December.

5 RUNNER-UPS CHOSEN IN INTO SPACE WITH AMATEUR RADIO ESSAY COMPETITION 

Joining the winner of the Into Space with Amateur Radio Essay Competition, Katlego Zabala, a learner at the Sekano-Ntoane Secondary School are five runner-ups who will each receive a 40 metre Direct Conversion receiver kit. They are two brothers from the John Vorster Technology High School, Jan Louw Kampman ZU6JLK and Rieks Kampman ZU6HK, from the George Technical High School in Durban Sebastian Cooper and Cameron Mckenzie who is a learner at the Northwood Boys High School also in Durban.  The only  girl amongst the runner-ups is Natalie Vermaak who is a learner at the Newton Park Technical High School in Port Elizabeth. 

Congratulations to the winners. The prizes will be presented as soon as the kits are available. All participants will receive a certificate which will be mailed during the first week in December. 

The standard of all entries was very high. The learners did thorough research on their chosen subject and presented the judges with a very difficult task to decide on the winning essay and the five runner-ups.

The wining Essay (Scroll down for runner-up essays)

The Future of Space in Support of Mankind
by Katlego Zabala

Space as a whole has been and still is quite a mystery to mankind.  It was for this very reason that the human mind began to enquire about this celestial wonder.  This has led to many pioneering feats being achieved.  Even to this day the world works towards complete knowledge of our universe in its entirety. Read more

Runner up essays

Space  Cameron Mckenzie Click to read
           Jan Louw Kampman Click to read
            Rieks Kampman Click to read
            Sebastian Cooper Click to read
            Natalie Vermaak Click to read    

GET A BURSARY TO STUDY AMATEUR RADIO

The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust has announced details of it YARP 2007 bursary scheme. YARP is the acronym for Youth For Amateur Radio Programme. Bursaries are available for both the entry level license and the full licence. 

For both license classes the bursary will cover the lecture, examination and first year license fees and a printed copy of the SARL course material. 

Upon the completion of the course and the passing of the theory and practical examination, the Trust will sponsor  a year’s membership of the SARL. 

Application must be made on the prescribed form available HERE 

JUST LICENSED AND NO RIG YET? GET ON THE AIR WITH ECHOLINK

Talk for free!
So you have just received your new ZU, or ZR  or ZS callsign and you can’t wait to make amateur radio contacts …. You can’t because you have no equipment as yet.  Echolink can end your frustration within a few minutes. After reading this article you could be accessing any of the 2000 repeaters linked to the system and work some DX.
For licensed hams, EchoLink^® software opens up new possibilities for communicating around the world with other amateurs.  Your PC links you to any of thousands of other stations over the Internet. There are more than 170,000 registered users in 158 nations worldwide! 
As a newcomer to amateur radio all you need is a PC, a microphone, speakers and an Internet connection. A dial-up will work but a broadband connection will deliver better quality.

How to get connected?

First you need to download the Echolink software.  EchoLink^® software is offered free of charge to licensed Amateur Radio operators worldwide, for Amateur Radio use only.  Please note that you must hold a valid Amateur Radio license in order to use EchoLink.  After installing the program, you must provide proof of license if you wish to use it.
Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD, developed EchoLink in early 2002. In an astonishingly short period of time, EchoLink has become one of the dominant Amateur Radio VoIP systems. The free EchoLink software for Windows can be downloaded at www.echolink.org.  

When you start the EchoLink software, your computer taps the Internet to connect to an EchoLink server. Before you can make your first connection to the network, your call sign must be verified. . This can take minutes or hours, depending on the state of the system, but it helps reduce the chances of non-hams entering the EchoLink network.  
Once you’re validated (you only do this once), the rest is easy. The EchoLink server acts like a telephone switchboard in cyberspace. It maintains a directory of everyone who is connected at any moment. After browsing the directory, you can request a connection between your computer and that of another amateur.
Here’s where it becomes interesting. The amateur on the EchoLink receiving end may be sitting in front of his computer with a headset and microphone. Or he may have his computer connected to a base radio at his station that is acting as an RF relay to a handheld transceiver or mobile rig. Or the destination station may be part of a repeater system. In any case, once the connection is established, anything you say will wind up being heard in the other amateur’s headset, or transmitted over the air.
At your end of the EchoLink connection, you may be the one wearing the headset, or using a simplex connection to your base radio, or using a repeater. When you connect to an individual station, the custom is to call in the same fashion as you would during a traditional on-air conversation: “ZS6ABC from ZU1XYZ.” Or if you are connecting to a distant repeater system: “ZU1XYZ, Pretoria, South Africa, (You need to hesitate about 2 seconds before speaking to compensate for the delay.)

The EchoLink servers also support conferencing where several amateurs can converse in a roundtable fashion. There are even EchoLink nets that meet within these conference areas on a scheduled basis.

EchoLink Setup

To run EchoLink you’ll need a PC with Windows 98/2000/XP and a sound card. The software is easy to set up. A “wizard” function guides you through each step.
If you want to enjoy EchoLink conversations while sitting at your computer, you will need a microphone headset. These are commonly available from computer shops. The microphone plug attaches to the microphone input jack of your sound card and the headphone plug typically attaches to the SPEAKER OUT jack. In addition to setting up the EchoLink software, you may also need to adjust your sound card VOLUME and RECORDING control settings in Windows.
If you are using a wireless router you may not be able to connect to Echolink without changing some of the settings. EchoLink requires that your router or firewall allow inbound and outbound UDP to destination ports 5198 and 5199, and outbound TCP to port 5200.  Source ports are dynamically assigned.  If you are using a home-network router, you will also need to configure the router to "forward" UDP ports 5198 and 5199 to the PC on which EchoLink is running. 

The EchoLink website, www.echolink.org includes many help files and a FAQ that will assist you in setting up.