SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 19 JULY 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 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 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.
We start the bulletin with news of 3 silent keys
Malcolm Kriel ZS4SM (ex ZR6MDK) became silent key on 15 July 2015 after a battle with dementia. Our sincere condolences to his XYL Sheila, daughter Gwen, brother Basil and all his other family and friends.
Malcolm was also an ex Permanent Force Member of the Corps of Signals - Member of the SA Legion and The MOTH. The memorial service will be held at West View Methodist Church, Cnr of Botha Ave and Tortelduif Road, Wierdapark, Centurion at 12:00 on Friday 24th July 2015. It is requested that all Military Veterans wear Association Blazers and Full Medals. Enquiries: Gwen - 084 674 9999 or Basil Kriel - 079 358 2886.
Deryck van Loggerenberg, ZS6KQ passed away on Sunday morning, the 12th July at the age of 80 after a long stay in hospital at the beginning of the year.
He obtained his call sign in 1970, and Amateur Radio was a life long passion. From Radio Marshall at Kyalami and the Total Rally, Ham Radio opened the door to so many interesting worlds.
He is survived by his wife Merilyn, Grant (ZR6AAT) and Brendan. Brendan now lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Deryck is fondly remembered at the Pretoria Amateur Radio Club where he was a member for many years.
Flip Britz, also involved in translating the news bulletin in Afrikaans, passed away on 11 July 2015. He fell from a ladder, broke two ribs and was taken to hospital where he developed hart problems, and subsequently passed away due to a heart attack. Flip had two call signs, ZS4GE and ZS6BSO of which the first call sign was his favourite. He was also member of the league for 45 years.
PAUSE
In the news today
ICASA - SARL MOU TO BE SIGNED SOON
WATCH OUT FOR 144 MHz DX SIGNALS FROM St. HELENA ISLAND & BRAZIL
SARL NEW MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS
WEEKLY PROPOGATION REPORT
RESULTS OF THE ZS5 SPRINT CONTEST
Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items.
** At the quarterly ICASA - SARL Liaison meeting held on Thursday last week the revised memorandum of agreement dealing with the relationship between the SARL and ICASA was tabled. Both parties are in agreement with the content. ICASA has been undergoing a major reorganisation which has resulted in changes to the delegation of authority, a process that is expected to be completed in the next few weeks. Once ICASA's delegation of authority has been agreed, the designated ICASA person will review and sign the document. In the interim the procedures as set out in the daft will be followed. The MOU deals with the RAE examinations, repeater and various other licensing issues
The meeting also discussed problems of interference to amateur radio transmission in the 430 to 440 frequency range. Radio Amateurs should however note that in the ISM band which covers 433,040 - 434,790 MHz no protection against interference can be claimed
The SARL agreed to report any interference or unlicensed operation in the rest of the 70cm band to ICASA. Radio Amateurs who experience interference or become aware of illegal operation should send full details, such as frequency, time and type of interference and if possible an audio recording, to vhf@sarl.org.za. More details of the meeting will be covered in the SARL letter to members which will be sent by email to all members in the next few days.
** There are many excellent Tropo conditions across the Atlantic between Brazil and the West coast of Africa is often predicted by the Hepburn Troposheric Ducting Forecasts. Marcos PY1MHZ has taken cognizance of this and is now running a 28 Watt beacon on 144,290 MHz into a 5 element Yagi pointing at our west coast. Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ has responded by turning the beam of his V51VHF beacon on 144,429 MHz to Rio de Janeiro. Bruce ZD7VC on St. Helena Island said that while he was still connected with St. Helena Radio ZHH he regularly spoke to Walvis Bay Port Control V5Y and trawlers on the 156 MHz Maritime channels, and often listened to the SABC FM broadcasting stations. He intends to build a 144 MHz beam for portable operation from a high site that favours the South African west coast. Here is a DX station located only 3000 km from Cape Town that will be a sitting duck for Tropo Ducting, so start building your Yagi beam antennas.
** Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from the following persons:
. ZSL1165 Rudolf Truter
. ZSL1166 Willem Krugel
Any objections to the acceptance of the applications must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday after the bulletin.
Membership of the SARL currently stands at 1134 plus 28 affiliated clubs
** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. None of the visible sunspots are actively flaring.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 45.
The 20 to 15 m bands will provide lots of DX fun, especially during the late afternoons and in the evenings.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
** The results of the ZS5 Sprint held on Sunday 5 July have been released. The Contest Committee received 27 logs for the Sprint.
1st Highway ARC, ZS5HAM, 116 points
2nd Bradley Glen, ZS5BG, 99 points
3rd Johan van Zijl, ZS4DZ, 89 points
4th Mitchel Mynardt, ZS6YH, 87 points
The full results are available in HF Happenings 663. Thank you to all who participated and congratulations to the winners.
The results of the SARL 80 m QSO Party and the ZS4 Sprint are still outstanding.
And now for the diary of events
18 to 25 Julythe 5th Youth on the air Summer camp in Italy
25 July closing date for the Winter QRP logs
25 and 26 July the RSGB Islands on the Air contest
2 August the South African Radio League HF Phone Contest
To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.
** Clubs and individuals are invited to submit news items of interest to radio amateursandshortwave listeners,if possible, in bothEnglish andAfrikaans, 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 Stratford, ZS6RO. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 18:30 Central African Time on 3 230 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 Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN, edited by Brian Utterson, ZS6AE and read by
..
From the entire news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
73 and thank you for listening
/EX
