South African Radio League News, Sunday 1 June 2014
Good morning and welcome. You are tuned to ZS6SRL the official voice of the South African Radio League. The South African Radio League broadcasts a weekly news bulletin on HF and many VHF/UHF repeaters every Sunday morning at 08:15 CAT in Afrikaans and at 08:30 CAT in English. Listeners on Echolink may connect to ZS0JPL for a streamed version.
You may download an audio version of this bulletin by following the link on the front page of the South African Radio League website at www.sarl.org.za. While you are there, you may also obtain a text version of this bulletin. You may also sign up to receive future bulletins via e-mail.
This bulletin is read by ……………………………(your name, call sign and QTH where applicable)
IN THE NEWS TODAY
HAMNET TO SUPPORT THE COMRADES MARATHON THIS SUNDAY
THE SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE APPOINTS A NEW ADMINISTRATOR
and
RAE RESULTS RELEASED
The leading story this week
HAMNET is supporting the Comrades marathon today. 28 Radio Amateurs from various KwaZulu-Natal clubs, Highway, Durban, Midlands, South Coast and Zululand are providing communication for the Comrades Marathon today. Radio links with the Joint Operations Centre (JOC) located at the Municipal Disaster Management Centre have been set up at selected watering points and report on readiness and any other operational issues which will be relayed to the race organisers.
The Comrades Marathon is the world's oldest and largest ultra-marathon run over a distance of approximately 90 km between the capital, Pietermaritzburg and Durban. The first Comrades Marathon took place on 24 May 1921, Empire Day, starting out-side the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg with 34 runners. It has continued since then every year with the exception of the war years 1941 to 1945, with the direction alter-nating each year between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, the so called up and down runs. This year it is a down run.
Mariska sent this message on her last day as the South African Radio League's office administrator. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the radio amateurs who have crossed my path over the past 22 years, to say goodbye, and also thank you to those who made a difference in my life. I enjoyed my time here at the South African Radio League and I am truly going to miss you. Thank you for being a positive influence on my life. Thanks to all Councilors from 2009 until now, it was nice to work with you all! Everything of the best for all of you! Goodbye!”
The South African Radio League has appointed a new Administrator. A sub-committee of the Council of the South African Radio League has conducted inter-views with a number of applicants for the vacant administrator post to handle the administration of the South African Radio League and manage the National Amateur Radio Centre. Vonnie Oelofse was the successful candidate and was appointed to start her association with the South African Radio League on Monday 2 June. The Council welcomes Vonnie and wish her a successful career with the South African Radio League.
The May RAE Results have been released. Many new radio amateurs will be on the air from this week as the results of the May Radio Amateur Examination have been published on the South African Radio League web. The South African Radio League RAE Manager, Gideon Jannasch, ZS4GJA, reported a good pass rate, 118 candidates were successful. Call signs for candidates who summited all the paper-work prior to the examination have been published and they may start using their new call signs immediately. If you have passed and there is no call sign against your name, please submit the outstanding paperwork without delay to rae@sarl.org.za. Congratulations to all the successful candidate and welcome on the air. If you did not make it this time, you are encouraged to write the October examination.
The SARL@HOME to be held on 7 June has been cancelled. The next SARL@home covering surface mount technology has been cancelled as there was not enough interest to make the event viable. Anyone interested in learning more about how to work with surface mount components is invited to send an email to rta@sarl.org.za to be added to the mailing list for notification of the next SMT course.
Do not delay booking for the South African Radio League Radio Technology in Action Symposium. The first South African Radio League Technology in Action symposium will be held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday 21 June. The programme features a great variety of subjects of interest to radio amateurs and electronic enthusiast. A number of presentations will be supported by practical dem-onstrations. For an RTA to be a viable activity a minimum of 35 delegates are re-quired. Bring a friend along and share with him or her how to enjoy the many facets of amateur radio. To assist with arrangements please book now. The current booking is about 50% of the minimum target of 35 delegates. Full details can be found on the South African Radio League web.
The ZS6KTS Beacon Temporary off the air. The Kempton Park Amateur Technical Society 5 MHz beacon is temporary off the air due to a technical problem, which is expected to be resolved soon. Logs are still coming in for operation during the 5 MHz activity weekend, which means that evaluation will only be completed during the coming week and results announced next weekend. Stay tuned and follow the South African Radio League home page for results and information about the ZS6KTS beacon and other 5 MHz activity.
You are tuned to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League and now we look at some contest news.
The ZS4 Sprint is a fun activity to promote contacts between radio amateurs in the Free State and radio amateurs in Southern African countries. The Sprint takes place on Sunday 8 June from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC with phone activity on 7 130 - 7 190 kHz and CW activity on 7 000 - 7 040 kHz.
Log sheets shall be submitted by 16 June 2014 to zs4srk@gmail.com. A certificate will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the competition.
Application for membership of the South African Radio League has been received from the following persons:
Sarel du Plessis, ZSL1106;
Herman Hefer, ZSL1107;
Mathinus Pretorius, ZSL1108;
Corrie Hefer, ZSL1109; and
Dicky van Ruiten, ZSL1110.
Any objections against the acceptance of these applications must reach the Secre-tary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin. The membership of the South Afri-can Radio League currently stands at 1 735 members.
Another FCC exam session took place in Pretoria during May. Chris Burger, ZS6EZ, and Fritz Sutherland, ZS6SF, from Pretoria and Marc d'Hotman de Villiers, ZS6MDH, and Leon Lessing, ZS6LMG, from the East Rand conducted the examination at the University of Pretoria, on behalf of the American Radio Relay League.
Despite a lot of initial interest, only one candidate took the examination. Almero du Pisani, ZS6LDP, passed all three examinations and now sports the Extra class call sign, AC2NN. He is in the process of registering as an examiner.
The team intends to hold two sessions each year to coincide with the South African Radio League's RAE in May and November. Clubs with sufficient interest can also request sessions at their own premises. Further details and complete study materials can be found through ZS6EZ's profile on QRZ.com.
Now some news about the KARTS Flea Market and AWA Open Day. The 2nd annual combined KARTS flea market and AWA open day took place on Saturday 24 May 2014. The AWA 40 m SSB net was active on the air with Rad, ZS6RAD, behind the microphone from the venue in Kempton Park. The flea market was as expected a beehive of activity with a lot of wheeling and dealing taking place. It turned out to be a most successful, enjoyable and memorable day. A sincere thank you to everyone that participated in some form or another, from the role players behind the planning, organising and executing of many tasks, including the vendors and sellers, to all the club members, and ending with all the visitors for their support and participation in this excellent event. See you all again next year!!!
You are tuned to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League and we now look at the HF Propagation report from Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP.
Hannes reports that the expected solar activity will be at low levels. None of the visible sunspots are posing a threat for strong solar flares. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 40.
All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of DX fun with 20 m providing the best openings with 15 m not far behind.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
WHAT IS IN THE DIARY OF EVENTS TODAY?
On Sunday 4 June, work the Free State during the ZS4 Sprint.
On Saturday 21 June you can attend the RTA in Durban, visit the South African Ra-dio League website and book you place.
The South African Radio League Top Band QSO Party will be on the air from 19 to 22 June, get your 160 metre antenna into the air.
You can get more information on these and other happenings on the South African Radio League website at www.sarl.org.za
We end this week’s news with a look back at our top story
HAMNET is supporting the Comrades marathon today. 28 Radio Amateurs from various KwaZulu-Natal clubs, Highway, Durban, Midlands, South Coast and Zululand are providing communication for the Comrades Marathon today. Radio links with the Joint Operations Centre (JOC) located at the Municipal Disaster Management Centre have been set up at selected watering points and report on readiness and any other operational issues which will be relayed to the race organisers.
That brings us to the end of the news
The South African Radio League invites you to listen to Amateur Radio Today every Sunday morning at 10:00 local time on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria area, and on the 145,650 network in Johannesburg with relays on 7 082, 7 205, and 17 660 kHz. There is a podcast by Dick, ZS6RO. For web-streaming and Echolink by Chris, 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 3 230 kHz. The website also lists various other retransmissions. Reception reports, comments and suggestions are invited. Send an email to artoday@sarl.org.za. Sentech sponsors the transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.
South African Radio League 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, no later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.
You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League compiled by Dennis Green, ZS4BS.
Thank you for listening.
