SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 9 APRIL 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 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:

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2017

AMSAT SDR AND RF NOISE FLOOR WORKSHOPS

and

MORE BEACONS NEEDED ON 5 290 KHZ

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

** Notice is hereby given that in terms of Rule 11.4 of the Constitution of the South African Radio League, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Saturday 6 May 2017 at the Bergvallei Estates, Muldersdrift in Gauteng. All the relevant documentation is available for download on the League website in the Members section.

** Two 22 April events not to be missed. If you live in the Western Cape, don't miss the AMSAT SDR workshop on the Bellville campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and in the Johannesburg area there will be a Workshop about the increasing RF noise floor. Full details of these two events can be found on the SARL and AMSAT SA website at www.sarl.org.za and www.amsatsa.org.za.

Registration for the AMSAT SA Space Symposium is now open. Registration forms are available for download on www.amsatsa.org.za. Register early to qualify for the early bird discount.

** Is you e-mail address correct on the South African Radio League database? Kelly at the NARC asks that members please check and update their e-mail addresses. Following a SARL Communication, Kelly receives about 55 bounced e-mails. Go to your call book entry on the League web site and update your e-mail address today.

** To do meaningful research into 5 MHz propagation, more WSPR beacons are needed on 5 290 kHz, a frequency licensed to the South African Radio League and its members for this purpose. Currently there are only two beacons active ZS6SRL at the NARC and ZS1OA in the Cape Town area. Beacons are needed in the Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal in fact in as many locations around South Africa as possible. Currently some interesting propagation has been noticed on the path between Cape Town and Johannesburg.

** DXCC News. Midway (KH4) and Kure Islands (KH7K) have been placed on the list of deleted DXCC entities, effective as of 26 August 2016. This came about as an unintended consequence of action last summer by then-President Barack Obama that expanded the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument to include the north-western Hawaiian Islands west of Ni'ihau Island, making it the largest contiguous protected conservation area under the US flag. (ARRL Letter)

** Club Log is now a Logbook of The World Trusted Partner. Club Log has become the first logging service to achieve Trusted Partner status for Logbook of The World® (LoTW), ARRL and Club Log have announced. Radio amateurs holding LoTW "call sign certificates" who have uploaded logs to Club Log now can readily cross-post them to the highly secure LoTW - the world's largest repository for confirming Amateur Radio contacts.

The Trusted Partner program defines the requirements for an online service to store user credentials with acceptable security. All LoTW users, whether they work through Club Log as a Trusted Partner or not, are responsible for ensuring the security of their credentials. Individuals who rely on a Trusted Partner site for security, have met the requirement to keep LoTW and their credentials secure. Users who allow their call sign certificates to be compromised or who knowingly exploit compromised credentials may lose the privilege of using LoTW and participating in ARRL-sponsored award programs. (ARRL Letter)

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

** The South African Radio League received applications for membership from the following Radio Amateurs:

Deon Fraser ZS5DCF
Michael Smith ZS5MWS
Dudley Garner ZR6AFT
MEB Yates ZR6MEB
Johmar van Zijl ZS6JVZ

Any objections to these membership applications must reach the League Secretary before Wednesday 12 April 2017. Please send your objections to the League Secretary at secretary@sarl.org.za.

** How can Clubs Advance Amateur Radio? There are around 30 amateur radio clubs in the country and they could all play an important part in advancing Amateur Radio in South Africa.
1. The first step is not to become static, but to make, create and innovate new activities that will appeal more to the computer literate and technical minded younger generation.
2. Clubs should make every attempt to attract younger applicants, bearing in mind that they grew up in a modern era, and their interests are quite different from the old-timers, but the common denominator must be amateur radio.
3. Being computer literate, the younger generation can more easily relate to digital communications and modern SDR equipment including space.
4. It is this younger amateur radio generation, such as the Hammies, who one day will need to advance amateur radio further and lead it into the future.

** And now for some beacon news. Leon Uys, ZR6LU, has started beaconing five different modes in the 40 m band. Starting at the top of the hour and then every twenty minutes thereafter he sends a message in WSPR, three second QRSS, Slow Hellschreiber, CWID and finally JT65B. More information can be obtained from his website at www.zr6lu.co.za or the WhatsApp group. Leon is asking that you please send him a reception report when you hear him.

** The results of the VHF/UHF Contest have been announced. Congratulations to the winners!

Contest winners 1st Leg
1st Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ - 132 003 points
2nd Dick Coates, ZS6BUN - 95 996 points
3rd Christo Greyling, ZS6AUI/4 - 95 354 points

Base station Unlimited - Analogue & Digital
1st Dick Coates, ZS6BUN - 95 996 points
2nd Harry Holtzhausen, ZR6AMC - 9 861 points

Base station Limited A - Analogue only
1st Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ - 132 003 points
2nd Jacques Louw, ZS4WW - 29 878 points
3rd Pierre Lindeque, ZS4PF - 33 693 points

Base station Limited 4 Hours
Koos Greyvenstein, ZS6KSG - 34 276 points

Base station Limited A - Digital only
Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ - 64 565 points

Field station Unlimited
Christo Greyling, ZR6AUI/4 - 95 354 points

Field station Limited 4 Hours - Multi Operators
Derrick Du Plessis, ZS1CRG - 9 487 points

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. All the visible sunspots are relatively stable with only a minor chance for an M-class solar flare. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around seven. The 15 to 30m bands will provide lots of DX fun. With the equinox here the 10m band will also hold some surprises on sunlit paths. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

** Let’s look at some upcoming events:

18 April - World Amateur Radio Day
22 April – SDR Workshop - Western Cape and RF Noise Floor Workshop at the NARC
23 April – ZS4 Sprint
6 May – SARL Convention and AGM
6 - 7 May – AWA Valve QSO Party

** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:

Notice is hereby given that in terms of Rule 11.4 of the Constitution of the South African Radio League, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Saturday 6 May 2017 at the Bergvallei Estates, Muldersdrift in Gauteng. All the relevant documentation is available for download on the League website in the Members section.

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 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 Emile Venter, ZS6V, and read by ..............

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

/EX