SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 5 MARCH 2017

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 in to 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’s web site.

This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the League’s 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.

PAUSE

In the news today,

SARL HAMNET 40 M CONTEST THIS AFTERNOON

VOTING FOR THE SARL AMATEUR RADIO HALL OF FAME HAS COMMENCED.

and

SARL VHF/UHF CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND

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

** Get out of the house this afternoon and set up a field station in the local park in your suburb or on the sidewalk in front of your house or as last resort in your garden! The South African Radio League Hamnet 40 m Simulated Emergency Contest is on the air from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC and you can make contact with radio amateurs in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho, Marion Island and South African Antarctica. Only contacts with these areas will count. It is a phone contest in the band segments 7 063 to 7 100 kHz and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz. You can participate as a Single operator stationary mobile; a Single operator portable; a Multi-operator portable or a Single operator base station. Get the complete rules in the 2017 Blue Book or the March 2017 issue of Radio ZS and get out of the house!

** The SARL Hall of Fame honours individuals who have made significant contributions to amateur radio in South Africa. Their memory is preserved on a page on the League’s web site. The first group of members was inducted into the Hall of Fame during 2016. Another group of up to ten will be inducted at the SARL Awards Dinner in May. Essays outlining the contributions of the 21 nominees can be found on the Hall of Fame page, accessible through a link on the SARL Web site front page.

Voting is open until the end of this month. Reading the nominations is well worth your while, as the nominees have shaped our hobby. They include historical stalwarts like Dixon Bennett and Koos and Annie van der Merwe, as well as modern-day contributors to our hobby.

Vote today!

** We are now in the TEP season that usually covers the period from mid February until April and again from September to November. It only manifests in a North/South direction across the magnetic dip equator, making DX contacts possible on 50 MHz from South Africa to Southern Europe and as far East as Israel. Paul Smit, ZS6NK, at Polokwane has turned the ZS6TWB beacon on 50,044 MHz North again for the TEP season. However, during the last few years the TEP season has been very short due to the approaching minimum of Solar Cycle 25.

** The first leg of the South African Radio League VHF and UHF Analogue and Digital Contest will be run from 10:00 UTC Saturday 11 March to 10:00 UTC Sunday 12 March 2017. Activity will be on 6, 4 and 2 metres, 70 and 23 cm and higher.

The VHF/UHF contest is a test of operator ability and station design. To promote activity on the VHF/UHF and microwave bands. To encourage Amateurs to work greater distances than usual by operating portable/ field stations in favourable locations and by optimising equipment and operating techniques at both field and home stations

The rules are too lengthy to post in this bulletin, but you will find them in the 2017 Blue Book and in the March 2017 issue of Radio ZS. 

You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League. Did you show amateur radio to someone this week?

** Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY, has joined the SARL News Team and will head up Team 3. Andy, welcome to the News team.

** The Beacon Workshop scheduled for 11 March at the NARC has been postponed to June. More details to follow.

** The RSGB Commonwealth Contest will be on the air from 10:00 UTC Saturday 11 March to 10:00 UTC Sunday 12 March 2017. This CW only contest ill run on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres. Visit www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2017/rberu.shtml for the rules.

** The South African Radio League has received application for membership from the following Radio Amateurs and Club.

Tony Allen, ZR2TX
Vrystaat Amateur Radio Club, ZS4B
B Greyling, ZS4BEM
Dave Trezona, ZS4DT
Phillip Esterhuizen, ZS4PJ
Errol Wilson, ZS5EGW
André Ferreira, ZS6ANF
Louis Kloke, ZS6LEK
J du Toit, ZS6TOI

Any objections to these membership applications must reach the SARL Secretary before Wednesday 9 March 2017. Please send your objections to the SARL Secretary at secretary@sarl.org.za

** The Provisional results of the South African Radio League National Field Day. The Committee received 26 logs and 1 check log for the February leg of the National field Day. Some of the logs had to be rescored because the formulae in the Excel spreadsheet had been altered or deleted.
 
Class A
1st Highway ARC, ZS5HAM, 155 880 points
2nd Welkom Radio Club, ZS4WRC, 79 200 points
3rd West Rand ARC, ZS6WR, 62 316 points
 
Class C
1st Hugo Ras, ZS2HR, 960 points
2nd Lucas Swart, ZS6ACT, 600 points
3rd Magda Swart, ZS6MMS, 450 points

Class D
1st Johan van Zijl, ZS4DZ , 36 144 points
2nd Geoff Lotz, ZR6XZ/1, 31 824 points
3rd Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ, 4 320 points
 
Class E
1st Dennis Green, ZS4BS, 8 748 points
2nd Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE, 6 120 points
 
Class F
1st Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT, 29 460 points
2nd Roy Walsh, ZS3RW, 1 740 points
3rd Gerrit van Vente, ZS6DV, 850 points
 
Check log
Nick Dreyer, ZS6NCK
 
The complete set of results can be found in HF Happenings 743 which can be downloaded from www.sarl.org.za/hf_happenings.asp

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. None of the active regions visible on the Sun poses any threat for strong flares. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around six. The 15 to 30 m bands will provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Now for the diary of events

This afternoon – SARL Hamnet 40 m Contest
11 and 12 March – the SARL VHF/UHF Contest and the RSGB Commonwealth Contest
25 March - SDR Workshop in Cape Town
25 and 26 March – the CQ WPX SSB Contest

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

Get out of the house this afternoon and set up a field station in the local park in your suburb or on the sidewalk in front of your house or as last resort in your garden! The South African Radio League Hamnet 40 m Simulated Emergency Contest is on the air from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC and you can make contact with radio amateurs in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho, Marion Island and South African Antarctica.

** 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 podcast available from Dick Stratford, ZS6RO. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 18:30 Central African Time on 4 895 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 Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Richard Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by ……………………………………………..

73 and 88, thank you for listening

/EX