SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 20 DECEMBER 2016

Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League 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.

SILENT KEYS


It is with deep regret that we must inform you that the key of Mickey Warr, ZS1WA, became silent on Sunday 13 November after being ill for some time.

Our sincerest condolences to his wife and family

It is also with regret that we note the peaceful passing of John Tyrer, ZS6JET, on Wednesday 16/11/2016. As a blind operator, Ham radio kept John in touch with many. Although not radio active in recent years, we will miss him.

Our sincere condolences to his wife Laura and the rest of the family.


PAUSE


IN THE NEWS TODAY

SDR WORKSHOP

CONTESTS FOR 2017

BEACONS COVERING SOUTH AFRICA

and

SARL WEBSITE UPGRADE

Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting stories.


**** On Saturday 26 November 2016 AMSAT SA in cooperation with the SARL will be holding a workshop on Software Defined Radio. The morning programme which starts at 9 am, will feature an introduction to SDR, well supported by videos. There will be a few practical demonstrations including a SDR repeater using a Raspberry Pi board by Anton Janovsky ZR6AIC. Cor Rademeyer ZS6CR will talk about a SDR transponder concept and there will be an update on the Kletskous project.

Registration opens at 9 am with the workshop running from 9.30 till about 12:30. After the workshop you are invited to stay for an open discussion on future SDR event planning.

To register for the SDR workshop point your browser to www.amsatsa.org.za. The cost is R20 to cover light refreshments plus a voluntary donation to the AMSAT SA Kletskous CubeSat project. You may pay online or at the door, but please complete the registration form.


*** The SARL has been improving the security of the website, and one of the changes has been to make passwords case-sensitive. In the past it did not matter whether you typed your password in upper case or lower case or any combination, but it is now necessary for your password exactly to match the password stored for you - and most of these were all in upper case.

Members can set or change a custom password at any time. A link to this page now appears at the top of the left-hand column on the SARL home page.

If you are still having difficulty with your access then the following page should answer your questions: www.sarl.org.za/ProblemsLoggingOn.asp

*** Geoff Levey, ZS6C, requests all the Clubs and Individuals who host the various contests please to check that the details are correct for their contest(s).

Especially check the contact details.

Please send an email to contest@sarl.org.za for any changes required.

The deadline for any change is the 25th November 2016. The manual can be downloaded from www.sarl.org.za/public/contests/contestrules.asp

**** Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ, of Rosh Pinah blew the dust off his 50,300 MHz CW beacon and tested it with his instruments up to 90 Watts output. He will operate this beacon with a 3 element horizontal Yagi pointing to the centre of South Africa during the months of December and January. A 20-Watt beacon on 70,005 MHz CW will also be in operation with a 6 element horizontal Yagi. Watch out for Sporadic-E openings from Namibia between 12:00 and 14:00 CAT or for DX further afield. These two beacons will also be useful during the forthcoming PEARS VHF/UHF contest.

Pieter is also running another beacon about 8 km from his QTH on a frequency of 144,429 MHz CW with 20 Watts into a 6 element horizontal Yagi beaming across the Atlantic at Brazil. He intends to move this beacon at a later date to Luderitz or Swakopmund or perhaps Walvis Bay to be close to the sea. This should be of great benefit to PY1MHZ at Rio de Janeiro as well as ZD7VC at St. Helena Island, who will be monitoring it. When Tropo-Ducting occurs across the Atlantic then stations from as far south as Cape Town and as far north as Swakopmund, including stations some distance inland, will be in a wonderful position to work ZD7VC.


**** The SARL Amateur Radio Hall of Fame honours individuals who have made
lasting contributions to Amateur Radio in Southern Africa, and aims to
preserve its history.

SARL members elected nine inaugural members this year. It was decided to
allow another batch of up to ten members during 2017, after which a
maximum of two members will be inducted annually.

Nominations are now open. The Hall of Fame page is accessible from the
SARL Home Page. The nomination page already shows four nominations.

Several stalwarts of Amateur Radio did not make it in the initial round,
in some cases because they had not been nominated. Let's ensure that all
the deserving get included, so that their contributions can be preserved
for posterity.

Nominations close at the end of February 2017. A nomination template is
available on the Web site. The nominations already listed can be used as a
guideline for what is required.

*** The Westrand Amateur radio club is hosting its next flea market at 12:00 on Saturday 26 November 2016 at their clubhouse in Kroton street, Weltevredenpark, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. For more information contact Geoff ZS6C at 082-546-5546.



PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at very low levels. No major solar flaring is expected.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 10.

The 15 to 20m bands will provide lots of DX fun. There is a chance of weak 10m openings on north-south sunlit paths.

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


Now for the diary of events:

26 November – West Rand Flea Market
Also on 26 November 2016 the SDR workshop
26 - 27 November - CQ WW DX CW Contest
3 - 4 December - UK/EI DX SSB Contest
4 December - SARL Digital Contest
10 - 11 December - ARRL 10m Contest
11 December - SARL Youth Net

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, in both English and Afrikaans if possible, 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; 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