SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 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 the 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 today’s bulletin with a silent key:

It is with sadness that we announce that HartwigHillermann, ZS5WA, became a silent key on 21 September. Condolences to his wife, Mona, family and friends. He was still active until a few years ago in MARC, and will be remembered by many for his humour, and willingness to help others.


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In the news today

IS AMATEUR RADIO ONLY A HOBBY AND NOTHING ELSE?

CONTEST NEWS

ARIA IN CAPE TOWN

RADIO ZS MAGAZINE AVAILABLE 29 SEPTEMBER


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

*** Many amateurs believe that amateur radio is just a hobby and nothing else, and its prime purpose is to make many DX contacts on HF and to collect QSL cards, so why do you need to write an entrance exam for a hobby? But in reality it is more than a hobby as it also provides a service to the public during disasters via Hamnet, or radio communications during public sports events.

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) is the international guardian of amateur radio and liaises directly with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as to innovate and advance amateur radio - and it is sponsored by amateur radio societies around the world including the SARL.

The real facts are that the amateur radio service covers a large range of activities where every amateur can find some aspect of it to enjoy, which also includes experimenting, research and pioneering in the very wide field of amateur radio science and technology all the way to the top end of the microwave spectrum. This is why the ITU refers to amateur radio as a service and not as a hobby as exemplified by CB Radio. Do you think for one moment that the ITU would have allocated so many VHF, UHF, SHF and EHF bands of valuable radio spectrum to hobbyists?


*** On Thursday evening 1 October, you can participate in the second leg of the South African Radio League's 80 metreQSO Party. The contest runs from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC in the band segments 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 800 kHz. The exchange is a RS report, your call sign and name. Contacts with South African stations count 10 points and contacts with stations outside South Africa count 15 points. Log sheets must be submitted by 8 October by e-mail to zs5lp@vodamail.co.za


*** On Saturday 3 October, the South African Radio League's Spring QRP Contest will be on the air from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC. The first hour of this 3-hour contest is on 40 metres only. Thereafter activity can move to other HF contest bands. The exchange is a RS or RST report and your grid locator. Give a realistic RS or RST report and a 6 figure grid locator. Logs must be submitted 10 October by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za

Consult the 2015 Blue Book for the rules.

** The committee has released the provisional results of the second leg of the National Field Day held on 12 and 13 September. Seventeen logs and two check logs were received.

Class A - field station multi-operator
1st West Rand ARC, 126 240 points
2nd Highway ARC, 124 680 points
3rd Welkom ARC, 103 080 points

Class D - field station single operator, QRP
1st Pierre van Deventer, ZS6A/4, 11 880 points

Class E - ultralight portable
1st Dave Higgs, ZS2DH, 16 380
2nd Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE, 1 800

Class F - general stations
1st Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT, 36 540 points
2nd Johan van Zijl, ZS4DZ, 11 120 points
3rd Pam Momberg, ZS6APT, 360 points

In the combined results of the February and September legs of the National Field Day, the results are as follows.

Class A - field station multi-operator
1st Highway ARC, 229320 points
2nd West Rand ARC, 217 068 points
3rd Pretoria ARC, 138 456 points

Class B - field station multi-operator, QRP
1st Potchefstroom ARC, 33 534 points

Class D - field station single operator, QRP
1st Pierre van Deventer, ZS6A/4, 11 880 points

Class E - ultralight portable
1st Dave Higgs, ZS2DH, 16 380 points
2nd Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE, 1 800 points

Class F - general stations
1st Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT, 36 540 points
2nd Johan van Zijl, ZS4DZ, 11 120 points
3rd Graham Busse, ZS6GL, 560 points

The full results can be found in HF Happenings 673. Congratulations to the winners.

*** ARiA in Western Cape features the latest on Kletskous

Book now for the Amateur Radio in Action symposium to be held at CPUT in Bellville on Saturday 10 October. Get up to speed on what is happening with the Kletskous CubeSat with Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, build a better inverted V, build a frequency counter or learn more on how to install a radio in your vehicle. All that and much more in ARiA 2015. Get details, full programme and booking form atwww.sarl.org.za.

*** The October 2015 issue of Radio ZS will be available for download on Tuesday 29 September. In this issue, Koos, ZR6KF, tells about the Youngsters on the Air summer camp held in July in Italy. In portable amateur radio, Richard, G3CWI, discusses batteries for portable use and Henry, ZS1AAZ, gives some homebrew ideas for load shedding. Kevin, ZS6KMD, has an Arduino DC voltmeter in his Arduino column and Chris, ZS4CD, tells us about microwaves and amateur radio. Mike, ZS2FM, has photographs and the story about the recent amateur EME signal picked up by KAT-7 radio telescope in his VHF/UHF news column.

The theme for the November/December 2015 issue of Radio ZS is antennas. Whether for Field Day, SOTA, VHF and UHF, any antenna article is welcome. Thank you to Harold, ZS5CAR, for the information he has already provided. The closing date for your articles is Sunday 8 November 2015. Send it to radiozs@sarl.org.za


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

*** Cape Youth Event on 9 October
If you are under 25 join SARL Youth Coordinator, Koos Fick, ZR6FK for cake and cold drinks on Friday afternoon at 17:00 at the Oakdale Amateur Radio club and find out how to get more out of Amateur Radio. Please confirm your attendance to Nico by SMS to 083 269 9939. If you cannot yet drive, bring your Mom or Dad along, they are also welcome.


*** In this week’s propagation report Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low to moderate levels. Sunspot AR2420 has a complex magnetic configuration that harbours enough 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 51.

The 20 to 15 metre bands will provide lots of DX fun, especially during the late afternoons and in the evenings. 10 metre may also hold a surprise or two.

Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.



**And now for the diary of events

26 – 27 Sep CQ WW RTTY Contest
3 Oct Spring QRP Contest
10 – 11 Oct AWA valve contest
17 Oct YOTACQHouKoers
18 Oct YOTA
24 – 25 Oct CQ WW DX SSB


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

*** Many amateurs believe that amateur radio is just a hobby and nothing else, and its prime purpose is to make many DX contacts on HF and to collect QSL cards, so why do you need to write an entrance exam for a hobby? But in reality it is more than a hobby as it also provides a service to the public during disasters via Hamnet, or radio communications during public sports events.


*** ARiAin Western Cape features the latest on Kletskous

Book now for the Amateur Radio in Action symposium to be held at CPUT in Bellville on Saturday 10 October. Get up to speed what is happening with the Kletskous CubeSat with Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, build a better inverted V, build a frequency counter or learn more on how to install a radio in your vehicle. All that and much more in ARiA 2015. Get details, full programme and booking form on www.sarl.org.za.


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 Dick Stratford, ZS6RO and read by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR.

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

73 and thank you for listening

/EX