SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 17 July 2016

Good morning and welcome to the South African Radio League weekly news bulletin for 17 July 2016, read by ................ [your name, call sign and QTH]

You may tune in to the South African Radio League news bulletin on Sunday mornings, at 08:15 Local Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Local Time in English, on HF as well as on many VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. Echolink listeners may connect to ZS0JPL for a relay.

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

We sadly kick of this bulletin with news of a silent key this morning. It is with sadness that we note the passing of Tom Cooper, ZS1PS, early on Tuesday morning.
Tom was first licensed at the age of 17, he died at age 82 - an active ham for many years. He came to Cape town from Pretoria around 2001 where he held the call sign ZS6TC and was instrumental with Buddy, ZS1MP, in starting the FBARC at Fish Hoek high school 30 years ago.

Tom was an active council member of FBARC and Editor of the club magazine "Dialog" for many years.
He joined the SARL in July 1951 with an unbroken membership of 65 years.

Tom was a member of the Engineering Council of South Africa for many years and was an expert in the registration of Professional Engineers and Technicians. Employed by Armscor. he also worked for periods in England and Italy.
Our sincerest condolenses to his relatives and friends
[PAUSE]

IN THE NEWS TODAY

SIXTH YOUNGSTERS ON THE AIR WEEK

SARL HALL OF FAME NOW ON THE WEB

BURSARY FOR RAE STUDENTS

** Yesterday Saturday 16 July, the 6th Youngsters on the Air week started with over 100 youngsters from 30 Region-1 member societies, including an IARU Region-2 team from USA, and a team from South Africa. The YOTA week is being hosted by the Austrian member society, OeVSV at Wagrain in the Austrian mountains. OeVSV is proudly celebrating their 90th anniversary.
The youngsters will be having a lot of fun with amateur radio, there will be many workshops, they will be optimising their skills in electronics and contesting and will make new international friends. Some activities are - SOTA, COTA, propagation in an ice cave, constructing a homebrew HF antenna and using the antenna for a SOTA station, working with a Raspberry Pi and making a WSPR beacon or using it with DV4mini for digital voice, HAMNET (amateur radio and internet network) and the famous inter-cultural evening where everyone brings food and drinks from their home country.
On Monday 18 July at 10:25 UTC, there will be a telebridge ARISS contact with astronaut Jeff Williams, KD5TVQ, which will give the youth an unforgettable experience. More information and live updates of the event are available at www.ham-yota.com/austria/. If you would like to make a QSO with one of the youngsters, listen out for OE2YOTA which will be on air on most bands using several different modes.

** At the SARL Annual General meeting Awards Dinners the first inductees into the SARL Amateur Radio Hall of Fame were announced. A short article on each person is now available on www.sarl.org.za. Follow the link from the home page.
The SARL Amateur Radio Hall of Fame is on the agenda of the Special General Meeting. Tjerk Lammers ZS6P will explain the election process followed during the first round. He will also table a proposal to amend the rules to allow for another 10 persons to be inducted at the next AGM. If approved the nomination process will open for the 2017 round shortly after the SGM.
The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust Tony Reumerman bursary fund is making two bursaries available for radio amateur examination students under 25 years old who are planning to write the October 2016 examination. Each bursary is valued at R1000 to pay for examination fees and towards tuition fees. To apply complete the form which is available on www.amateurradio.org.za. Closing date is 15 August.

** To date the South African Radio League already has 971 members for the 2016/2017 financial year. Twenty-six clubs have renewed their affiliation. Membership fees were payable on 30 June, but the database will only be cleared at the end of August. If you wish to pay in instalments, please arrange with the League office.

Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from the following persons:
ZS1LJ Liam Jordan.
Any objections to the acceptance of the applications must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin.

** This is the coldest winter that we have experienced for many years with many cold fronts coming up from the cold South Atlantic Ocean and crossing the South and East Coasts. Under these conditions the air temperature recorded on the Earth's surface gradually decreases as the altitude increases, when there are no layers of warm air present that can create temperature inversions, then Tropo Enhancement and Ducting cannot exist. Fortunately the warmer days will start coming back in August and for the next eight months or longer we will enjoy again very strong openings on Tropospheric propagation making very long distance contacts possible on VHF.

** The organizers of the ZS5 sprint expresses their thanks for the great participation in our ZS5 Sprint. Conditions were very trying, on the day, with a lot of different divisions in each others skip zones, but never-the-less a great result judging by the number of logs they received.
A total of 26 logs were received.
The first three places go to:
1) ZS2DK Mitch Rundle 91 Points
2) ZS5DCF Deon Fraser 69 Points
3) ZS1TMJ Sydney Smith 66 Points


** The Centurion Radio Amateur Club held its 41st AGM on Saturday 9th July, 2016 and the following members were elected to the committee:
Chairman: Pam Momberg ZS6APT
Vice Chairman: Wally Moll ZS6BCI
Secretary: Billy Strumpher ZS6WPS
Treasurer: Pam Momberg ZS6APT
Technical: Johan Keulder ZS6CAQ
Social: Gert Viljoen ZR6BV

Congratulations to the new committee.

** At the 60th AGM of the West Rand Amateur Radio Club held on the 9th of July 2017 the following committee have been elected:
Chairman: Geoff Levey - ZS6C
Vice Chairman: Nic Van Duffelen - ZR6AEZ
Treasurer Gert Du Plessis - ZS6GRT
Secretary Phillip Van Tonder - ZS6PVT
Members Rory Crouch - ZS6RBJ, Michelle McNelly - ZS6MEM, Graham McNelly - ZS6GPM, Mileham - ZS6WTF
Co-opted members Keith Liddle - ZS6AGF, Willem Weideman - ZS6X, John Brock - ZS6WL, Nick Dreyer - ZS6NCK
Congratulation to the new club committee and a big thank you to the outgoing committee.

** The ZS2 Sprint is a fun activity to promote contacts between radio amateurs in the Eastern Cape and radio amateurs in Southern African countries. The Sprint will take place next Sunday 24 July 2016 from 14:00 to15:00 UTC. It is a phone and CW contest on the 40-metre band with CW between 7 000 to 7 040 kHz and phone between 7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz and the exchange is a RS or RST report and provincial or country abbreviation.
Scoring for ZS2 stations is 1 point per contact with stations in ZS2 and 2 points per contact with stations in other ZS call areas or Southern African countries. For all other stations it is 2 points per contact with stations in ZS2 and 1 point per contact with stations in own or other ZS call areas (excluding ZS2) or Southern African countries. Contacts with the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society, ZS2PE, or the Border Radio Club, ZS2BRC, are worth 5 points each. Only one contact per station is allowed.
Log sheets in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format and labelled "your call sign ZS2 Sprint," must be submitted by 31 July 2016 and sent to zs2ec@vodamail.co.za. Certificates will be awarded to the 1st 2nd and 3rd place. This will only happen if more than five logs are submitted

** The SARL newsteam consists of a group of volunteers who compile the news stories sent in via the SARL webpage into a news bulletin for consumption by all on a Sunday morning. The group started out a few years ago with just two members but have grown steadily to the present 12 members. We would like to grow the group some more and now invite our amateur friends to join the group with your special skills.

The team is divided into groups. Each team is responsible for the bulletin roughly every three weeks. Should you feel you can dedicate about an hour every third or fourth week to amateur radio and you wish to join our team in bringing the rest of the South African amateur radio community up to date with the latest happenings on the amateur radio front, please contact Dawie, ZR6DHC, via email on zr6dhc@zs6rtb.co.za

PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. All the visible sunspots are currently stable with very little chance of serious solar flares.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 28.
The 20 m band and will provide lots DX fun.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Before we sign off let us look at some important upcoming events:
From now until 23 July - the IARU Region 1 Summer Youth Camp in Austria
24 July - the ZS2 Sprint
30 July - South Afrian Radio League Special General Meeting
30 July - Centurion Amateur Radio Club 41st Anniversary
30 July - SARL SGM at the NARC
30 and 31 July - RSGB IOTA Contest
And that brings us to the end of this bulletin

** 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 not later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.

Persons interested in becoming involved with the SARL news team may contact zr6dhc@zs6rtb.co.za for more information.

We also invite you to join us every Sunday morning for the weekly amateur radio magazine programme 'Amateur Radio Today' at 10 hours local time, 08 hours UTC. The programme may 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; please 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 Dawie Conradie, ZR6DHC, edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.

/EX