SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 25 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 our 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.
IN THE NEWS TODAY:
VHF LONG DISTANCE CONTACTS
BO KAROO AMATEUR RADIO CLUB BOARD ELECTION
and
UPCOMING EVENTS
We start this mornings bulletin with special wishes for all our Christian friends who today celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. May you be blessed with peace, love, joy and gratitude on this special day.
** This is the season to make long distance contacts on VHF, even with low power. The months of December through to February could produce VHF contacts of thousands of kilometres across the sea on 144 MHz via Tropo Ducting, as well as countrywide contacts in the morning and nighttime. Sporadic-E (Es) propagation peaks in January where the 50 MHz band produces extremely strong signals up to 2500 km. Es communication is also possible on 70 MHz and 144 MHz. SSB and FM contacts have been made on 50 MHz during the Quadrantids meteor shower early in January, while digital contacts should be possible on 144 MHz throughout this period. Local Es contacts usually appear in the morning and late afternoon, whereas DX from Namibia or further north appears for an hour or so around midday. So don't miss these opportunities and watch the 50 MHz beacons for early warnings, and enjoy Es openings as the VK and ZL stations do.
** During the 2016 AGM of the Bo Karoo Amateur Radio Club at Die Sandgat the following people were elected to the board for 2017:
Chairman ZS3PG Pieter Gaybba
Vice Chairman ZS1TBP Thys Louw
Secretary ZR3PA Alta Gaybba
Competition Coordinator ZS1DJR Cobus Rabe
Technical ZS6MAJ Nico Engelbrecht
WAGS and WAZS ZS4CGR Christie Grobelaar
Additional Member ZS3WL Woody Collet
We trust that the elected members will keep the club going strong. The club is also excited about the new blood joining the hobby and look forward to a new year full of challenges.
We wish all our members as well as all other amateurs all the best for the New Year.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. There are currently no sunspots visible. 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 18.
The 15 to 30m bands will provide lots of DX fun.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
** Lets look at some upcoming events:
31 December End of 2016 CQ Marathon
1 January Start of 2017 CQ Marathon
14 - 15 January Hunting Lions in the Air
20 - 22 January PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest
28 January Summer QRP Sprint
** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item: This is the season to make long distance contacts on VHF, even with low power. The months of December through to February could produce VHF contacts of thousands of kilometres across the sea on 144 MHz via Tropo Ducting, as well as countrywide contacts in the morning and nighttime.
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 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 pod cast 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 Emile Venter, ZS6V, and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
