SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 8 MARCH 2015

Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ………………………………………… [Name, call sign and QTH]

You can tune into the South African Radio League news bulletin on Sunday mornings at 08:15 Central African Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Central African Time in English on HF and on many VHF and UHF repeaters around our country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the South African Radio League web site.

This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the South African Radio League website at www.sarl.org.za. You will find this bulletin and previous bulletins in text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the web page. While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

In the news today

AFRICA ALL MODE DX CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND

VHF AND UHF CONTESTS ADVANCE AMATEUR RADIO

5 MHZ ACTIVITY WEEKEND

and

SARL@HOME TO ADDRESS DXING AND CONTESTING

Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items.

** The Africa All Mode International DX Contest is new on the contesting calendar and is attracting the attention of the DX community. The contest runs for 24 hours starting at 12:00 UTC on Saturday 14 March and ending at 12:00 UTC on Sunday 15 March. You can operate CW, phone and/or RTTY on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres and the exchange is a RS or RST report followed by an incremental serial number commencing at 001. You may work any DX entity, but note that QSOs with African entities count 10 points and all other QSOs count 1 point.

This is an ideal opportunity to work entities for your All Africa Award. Read all about the contest on page 50 of the 2015 Blue Book, also visit www.africadxcontest.org/index.html

** All VHF and UHF contests have a common goal and that is to break existing distance records, encourage the improvement of radio equipment and Yagi beam antennas, as well as to learn more about propagation conditions. VHF and UHF Contests regularly conducted throughout the year can inspire more activity on the 50, 70, 144, 432 and 1 296 MHz bands on both analogue and digital and especially encourage the younger generation to get interested in VHF activity also. After all, future radio communications will be concentrated on these frequencies or higher as bandwidth becomes a greater priority.

There are currently three-major VHF/UHF contests in South Africa, they are the PEARS National VHF/UHF contest in Summer, January; the South African Radio League VHF/UHF contests in Autumn, March, and again in the Spring, September, covering different propagation conditions during the year. It is recommended that VHF amateurs support these special contests, which could help to advance amateur radio science. The next South African Radio League VHF/UHF contest is scheduled for 21 and 22 March 2015. Please make an effort to support it.

** The South African Radio League 5 MHz activity weekend will be held on 28 and 29 March. The first slot will be run each day from 06:00 - 08:00 Central African Time with the second slot from 18:00 to 22:00 Central African Time. This is an SSB activity on 5 260 KHz and is only open to League members

Participation Certificates for the September 2014 5 MHz activity weekend are being processed and will be e-mailed to participant shortly. A recent computer crash has delayed the process. Fortunately, hard copies of the logs are available. The certificate will be sent by e-mail in PDF format.

** SARL@home to address DXing and contesting. The next SARL@Home will feature a presentation about DXing and contesting and will be held at 10:00 Central African Time on Saturday 28 March at the National Amateur Radio Centre. Chris Burger, ZS6EZ, will be doing the presentation and answering your questions. There are not many people in the world who have the knowledge and practical experience of DXing and Contesting as Chris has. To attend this informative presentation, simply call the office on 011 675 2393 to confirm your attendance or send an e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za

** The South African Radio League QSL bureau handles 60 000 cards annually. QSL Manager, Willem Weideman, ZS6X, reports that the QSL bureau annually handles in excess of 60 000 cards. The bureau is a free service to member but volume conditions apply.

Reporting to the South African Radio League Council last weekend, he said that the QSL bureau has a large number of cards for amateurs who are not members of the League. QSL cards can be claimed by sending an email to zs6wwj@gemail.com. He said that although he had sent emails to the non-members for whom the QSL bureau is holding cards, there was little response. As non-claimed cards cannot be stored indefinitely, the League has set a deadline for 30 November 2015 after which unclaimed cards will be disposed of. On a regular basis, members are sent their cards.

You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.

Application for membership of the South African Radio League has been received from A S Boldireff-Strzeminski, ZS1ADV, and Lambertus Martheuns van Rooyen, ZSL1137.

Any objections against the acceptance of the applications must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin. The membership of the South African Radio League currently stands at 1 623 members plus 38 affiliated clubs

** The South African Radio League 2015 Blue Book is now available in web format at www.zs4bfn.co.za/bluebook.asp. It is still work in progress.

** This evening at midnight is the closing time and date for your Hamnet 40 metre contest logs to be submitted. Send your log to contest@peham.co.za.

** There will be a lot of CW activity on the bands next weekend with the running of the RSGB Commonwealth Contest. Also known as the BERU contest, it is on the air from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 14 March to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 15 March with activity on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres. You will find all the information at www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2015/rberu.shtml

** The South African Radio League VHF/UHF Contest is on the air from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 21 March to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 22 March 2015 with participation as a base station, a field station, a Club / Multi operator station or a 4 hour limited category station. It is CW, SSB, FM and digital on 6, 4 and 2 metres, 70 and 23 cm and higher. All the information is on page 26 of the 2015 Blue Book available at www.zs4bfn.co.za/bluebook.asp.

** In the propagation report, Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at low levels. The solar disk is almost blank with only two sunspots currently visible. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 57.

The 20 to 10 m bands will provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

** The news team is still in need of volunteers who can assist with the compilation, translation, proofreading and editing as well as recording of the South African Radio League news bulletins. If you are able to help, please contact Dawie, ZR6DHC, on zr6dhc@zs6rtb.co.za

And now for the diary of events

Today – the closing date for logs for the Hamnet 40 m contest
14 and 15 March - Africa All Modes International DXCC contest and the RSGB Commonwealth Contest
21 and 22 March - South African Radio League VHF/UHF Contest
28 March – SARL@Home about DXing and Contesting
28 and 29 March – 5 MHz Activity Weekend and the CQ WPX SSB Contest
9 April - last day to register for the May RAE
11 April – Open day for the 2015 Stars of Sandstone

To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.

The Africa All Mode International DX Contest is new on the contesting calendar and is attracting the attention of the DX community. The contest runs for 24 hours starting at 12:00 UTC on Saturday 14 March and ending at 12:00 UTC on Sunday 15 march. You can operate CW, phone and/or RTTY on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres. This is an ideal opportunity to work entities for your All Africa Award. Visit www.africadxcontest.org/index.html

** Clubs and individuals are invited to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners, if possible, in both English and Afrikaans, by following the news inbox link on the South African Radio League web page. News items for inclusion in the bulletin, should reach the news team no later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.

You are welcome to join us every Sunday morning for the weekly amateur radio magazine programme ‘Amateur Radio Today’ at 10:00 Central African Time. The programme can be heard on VHF and UHF repeaters countrywide and on 7 082 kHz lower side-band and on 7 205 kHz and 17 760 kHz AM. There is also a podcast available by Dick, ZS6RO. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 18:30 Central African Time on 4 895 kHz AM.

We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; send these by e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za. Sentech sponsors the radio transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.

You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Dave Reece ZS1DFR and read by ……………..…………………

From the entire news team, best wishes for the week ahead.

73's and thank you for listening

/EX