SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 19 APRIL 2015
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by
[your name, call sign and QTH]
You can tune into the South African Radio League news bulletin on Sunday morn-ings 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 League web site.
This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the 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
NEW SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE LEADERSHIP
MESSAGE FROM THE REGION 1 PRESIDENT
SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE AWARDS
and
SIX METRE DXCC AWARD FOR ZS4TX
Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items.
** At the first Council meeting following the AGM, Fritz Sutherland, ZS6SF, was elected as the President of the South African Radio League. Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, was elected as the Vice President. The other portfolios will be allocated at the Council meeting held on 19 April 2015. Congratulations to Fritz and Nico.
** Don Beattie, G3BJ, the President of IARU Region 1 says, I am pleased to have this opportunity to convey a message to everyone at the SARL AGM. The SARL is a valued member of IARU Region 1 and I very much welcome the participation of its members in the work of the IARU.
Our two organisations share a 90th anniversary this year and both have made a val-uable contribution to the growth and development of amateur radio over nearly a century. Enthusiastic volunteers are increasingly hard to find today, yet amateur ra-dio will only prosper if it has strong representation at national level, through member societies like the SARL, and globally through the IARU.
So on behalf of the whole Executive Committee of IARU Region 1, I congratulate the SARL on reaching this 90th milestone, and look forward to working with the SARL Board on the many challenges that amateur radio faces in the future.
** The South African Radio League Annual General Meeting was held on Saturday 18 April 2015 at the Bloem Spa Hotel in Bloemfontein. There were 25 members pre-sent with 210 proxies carried. President Geoff Levey, ZS6C, opened the proceed-ings, followed by the remembrance of silent keys. The president presented his re-port, which is available on the League website. The Treasurer, Riaan Greeff, ZS4PR, presented the financial report and the new membership fee structure. The motion for the membership fees was accepted unanimously.
The Legal Adviser, Johann Marais, ZS1JM, provided comprehensive feedback on the motion from the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre. The AGM closed at 13:20.
** Prof. Martie Hoffman of the University of the Free State was the guest speaker at the SARL 90 Awards Dinner and spoke about his work at the Boyden Observatory outside Bloemfontein and the Digital Planetarium on Naval Hill.
** The following awards were presented at the 2015 South African Radio League 90 Awards Dinner held in Bloemfontein last night.
Honorary Life Membership of the South African Radio League was bestowed on Tjerk Lammers, ZS6P. The Willie Wilson Gold Badge was awarded to Willem Weideman, ZS6X and the Jack Twine Merit Award was presented to Noel Ham-mond, ZR6DX, and Nick Dreyer, ZS6NCK. The Presidents Award was awarded to Bert Lausecker, ZS5LB
The Icom Excellence Award, the premier award of the South African Radio League was presented to Stewart Moss, ZS6SGM. Stewart has been instrumental in getting the WSPR propagation research off the ground, having supported several clubs and individual amateurs. He set up the ZS6SRL WSPR beacon, has written tutorials and analyzes the results, which will make up the reports to ICASA.
The Tinus Lange 7066 Technical Excellence Award was presented to Frik Wolff, ZS6FZ
The South African Radio League HF Contest Awards
The Silent Keys Memorial Trophy SSB and Joseph White Trophy were presented to Jan Botha ZS4JAN.
The SARL Digital Trophy, the ZS4BS Digital Trophy, Silent Keys Memorial Trophy, the Anon Trophy and the HOS Trough (Highest Operating Score) were awarded to Roger Jones ZS6RJ.
The Fred Mills Trophy was awarded to Theo Bresler, ZS6TVB and the Club Partici-pation Award was presented to the West Rand Amateur Radio Club.
The Ray Webber VHF/UHF Trophy was awarded to Carl Minne ZS6CBQ.
The Operating Awards
The Arthur Hemsley 2 metre Trophy was awarded to Allan Saul ZS1LS. The Radio ZS Two Metre Floating Trophy was awarded to Nasri Gasant, ZS1NAZ, and Andre Pretorius, V51B. The Barney Joel Trophy was presented to Dennis Green ZS4BS, the Bert Buckley Six metre Trophy was presented to Bernie van der Walt ZS4TX and the Radio ZS Four Metre Floating Trophy awarded to Paul van Spronson, ZS1V.
Radio ZS Awards
The Gary Immelman RA Heritage Award Floating Trophy was awarded to Francois Steyn, ZR1AIK, for Retro Radio - n kykie na die baie lang golwe. The JJ Pienaar Trophy was presented to Hannes Coetzee ZS6BZP for A first study into the propa-gation of 5 MHz (60 m) signals using the South African ionosonde network, and the Radio ZS Shield awarded to Mike Bosch, ZS2FM.
The Hamnet Shield was awarded to Hamnet Western Cape.
Council awards the Arland Ussher Gold Pen Award for the highest marks in the two RAE's during 2014. The awards were presented to Kelvin Killian, ZS5IW, 98% and Carel Scheepers, ZU6CDS, 80%
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
** DXCC on 6 Metres. On 15 April, Bernie van der Walt, ZS4TX, became the fifth ZS to obtain the DX Century Club certificate on 50 MHz. The DXCC is issued for proven contacts with at least 100 entities on the ARRL's DXCC list. In most cases, these entities correspond to countries, as we know them.
Bernie's Bloemfontein location frustrated him for many years, as he was too far south to take advantage of the majority of ionospheric openings. He made a plan by constructing a remote-control station on the Limpopo river and became the envy of all Magic Band operators by working over 1 600 stations in 78 countries in the past six months.
Bernie joins ZS6WB, ZS6AXT, ZS6EZ, and ZS6NK, on this illustrious list. He also becomes only the second operator in South Africa to claim DXCC on 10 different frequency bands.
Bernie is already one of four operators at the top of the DXCC Honour Roll, indicat-ing that he has established confirmed contacts with stations in all existing entities.
** HABEX-10 is set to launch on 25 April 2015. The High Altitude Balloon Experiment - HABEX will be taking to the skies for the 10th time at 06:00 on Saturday 25 April 2015. This launch is part of the Global Space Balloon Challenge, which sees more than 250 balloon launches during April 2015 - worldwide.
The payload will include the following:
1. An APRS tracker active on 144,800 MHz with call sign ZS6COG-11
2. A Simplex, or Parrot Repeater - active on 438,550 MHz
3. A SSTV Camera streaming still images from altitude on FM using Scottie 1 mode and active on 433,400 MHz
For more information and the information sheet on HABEX-10 visit the site www.habex.za.net. Information about the payload and frequencies used are availa-ble on www.habex.za.net/?p=94. Information has been posted on the South African Radio League Events forum. Prepare your APRS and SSTV modes for the digital part and remember a simplex repeater will be operational as well. See you from the air!
** In the propagation report, Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at low to moderate levels. Sunspot AR2321 has a "beta-gamma" magnetic field that harbours energy for M-class solar flares. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 104.
The 20 to 10 m bands will provide lots of DX fun, especially during the late after-noons and in the evenings. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
And now for the diary of events
25 April The HABEX-10 launch from Lichtenburg
3 May the ZS3 Sprint
9 and 10 May AWA Valve Contest
21 May Radio Amateur Examination
To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.
** At the first Council meeting following the AGM, Fritz Sutherland, ZS6SF, was elected as the President of the South African Radio League. Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, was elected as the Vice President. The other portfolios will be allocated at the Council meeting held on 19 April 2015. Congratulations to Fritz and Nico.
** Clubs and individuals are invited to submit news items of interest to radio ama-teurs 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 from 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
