SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 14 MAY 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 Central African Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Central African 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. A podcast is available from the League’s web site.
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:
THE SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
YOU CAN STILL REGISTER FOR THE AMSATSA SPACE SYMPOSIUM
and
THE ZS3 SPRINT NEXT SUNDAY
Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items.
** To start the bulletin this morning, we wish all the mothers a very special Mother’s Day today!
** The SARL News Team would like to apologise to Henk Toxopeus, ZS1ACD, whose call sign was incorrectly used in the silent key notification in SARL News of 7 May 2017.
** The South African Radio League Annual General meeting was held in Krugersdorp on 6 May 2017. In SARL News last Sunday, we reported on the various trophies and awards that were handed out at the Awards Dinner.
The AGM was attended by some 60 League members carrying many proxy votes. The meeting was well structured and was completed without any problems. As part of the financial report, it was decided to keep the membership fees for the 2017/2018 financial year unchanged. The motion to facilitate electronic voting was also passed. Electronic voting will be implemented as soon as the Constitution and Rules of the South African Radio League has been amended. The Council’s Strategic plan was presented and approved by the meeting.
The election for Council did not require any voting as there were 10 nominations. Louw Erasmus, ZS6LME, Paul van Spronsen, ZS1V, Dennis Green, ZS4BS, and Chris Turner, ZS6GM, are in the second year of their two-year term. Geoff Levey, ZS6C, Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, and Rassie Erasmus, ZS1YT, were re-elected for a two-year term of office. At the AGM, Cliff Smyth, ZS6BOX, Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN, and Leon Uys, ZR6LU, were nominated for a two-year term of office. Congratulations to the re-elected and new councillors.
In his concluding remarks Nico, ZS6QL, congratulated the new councillors on their election. He thanked the West Rand Amateur Radio Club for hosting the AGM and the annual awards dinner. The 2018 SARL National Convention will be hosted by the Pretoria Amateur Radio Club.
At the brief Council meeting convened immediately after the AGM, Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, was elected as President and Chris Turner, ZS6GM, as Vice President. Cliff Smyth, ZS6BOX, was appointed as Treasurer and Rassie Erasmus, ZS1YT, as acting League Secretary. The other portfolios will be decided on at the Council meeting of 16 May 2017 and will be reflected on the back page of Radio ZS.
** The AMSATSA Space symposium on 27 May 2017 promises to be one of the most exciting events on this year's calendar. Learn how you can operate on the new geostationary satellite to be launched later this year giving South Africans 24-hour communication with a simple put together ground station. Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, has done the work and will share it with you. Denel Spaceteq will share details about their work on the EO-Sat1 satellite being built for SANSA to become part of the African earth observation satellite network. Anton Janovsky will show you and demonstrate how to build a SDR with a Raspberry Pi. Find out how the Kletskous project has progressed including a demonstration of the transponder and other sub-systems plus many more interesting discussions and demonstrations.
There are awesome attendance prizes to be won including two Pi Top laptops, 2 Raspberry Pi starter kits and 2 Raspberry Pi dummy kits, a MFJ artificial ground and a MFJ world receiver. Full programme and registration details are available on www.amsatsa.org.za or request details by sending an e-mail to admin@amsatsa.org.za
** 5 MHZ propagation report. The 5 290 kHz propagation research project report for the first quarter of 2017 is now available from the League web site by following the link from Propagation Research on the left-hand side of the home page. The report was compiled by Stewart Moss, ZS6SGM, and includes many interesting graphs.
** The May Radio Amateur Examination will be written on Saturday 20 May 2017. The news Team wishes all the candidates the best of luck with the exam.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
** The League has received application for membership from Daniel Small, ZSL1176, and Philip Du Buisson, ZSL1177. Any objections to these membership applications must reach the League Secretary before Wednesday 17 May 2017. Please send your objections to secretary@sarl.org.za
** The ZS3 Sprint, a fun activity to promote contacts between radio amateurs in the Northern Cape and radio amateurs in Southern African countries, will be on the air next Sunday 21 May from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC. It is a phone and CW contest on the 40 metre band with CW between 7 000 to 7 040 kHz and SSB between 7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz. The exchange is RS or RST report and your provincial or country abbreviation.
Contacts with stations in ZS3 are worth 2 points and contacts with stations in your own or other ZS call areas (excluding ZS3) or Southern African countries are worth 1 point. ZS3 stations score 1 point for contacts with stations in ZS3 and 2 points for contacts with stations in other ZS call areas or Southern African countries. Contacts with the Northern Cape ARC, ZS3NC, Namaqualand Aero Sport Association, ZS3FLY, the Kalahari Karoo ARC, ZS3ARK, the Bo-Karoo Radio Club, ZS3VDK, or the Sutherland ARC, ZS3OBS, are worth 5 points each. Only one contact per station is allowed.
Logs, in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format and labelled “your call sign ZS3 Sprint,” must be submitted by 22 May 2017 and sent by e-mail to zs3nc@qsl.net. A certificate will be awarded to the first, second and third places in the competition.
** The results of the Autumn QRP Contest held on 8 April 2017 have been released. Eight logs and 1 check log were submitted and the results are as follows:
1st West Rand ARC, ZS6WR – 1 764 points
2nd The Hammies ARC, ZS6ZU - 546 points
3rd Romeo Nardini, ZS6ARQ - 540 points
Congratulation to the West Rand
** The VHFers would like to congratulate the following radio amateurs on their awards from the SARL Awards Dinner.
Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ, was awarded the Joseph White Plaque for his UHF achievements on 432 MHz. He also received the Ray Webber ZS6RSW VHF/UHF Trophy for achieving the highest points in the 2016 SARL VHF/UHF contests.
Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ received the Arthur Hemsley 2 Metre Trophy for his individual achievements in the 2 metre band, while Paul Smit, ZS6NK, received the Bert Buckley Six Metre Trophy for his outstanding activity on the magic band.
The Radio ZS Two Metre Floating Trophy was awarded jointly to Dick Coates, ZS6BUN, and Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ, for their longest distance achieved on this band using digital modes. Well done to all.
** DXCC reinstatement of Midway and Kure islands. On 31 March the ARRL announced that Midway and Kure Islands had been placed on the list of DXCC deleted entities. "The stated reason for this action,” the ARRL reported on 11 May, "was because of changes in the administration resulting from changes in Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument", which includes Midway and Kure. "After further review it has been found that the deletion of these two entities is not supported by the changes that were made to the relevant administrations. Therefore, the deletions from the DXCC list should not have occurred and the two entities, Midway Island KH4 and Kure Island KH7K, will return to the DXCC list as separate entities".
** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. There are currently no sunspots visible. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around one. The 15 to 30 m bands will provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
The diary of events
Today – Mother’s Day and the AWA Valve SSB QSO Party
20 May – the radio amateur examination
21 May – the ZS3 Sprint
25 May – closing date for the June Radio ZS
27 May – the AMSATSA Space Symposium and the East Rand Branch Flea Market
28 May – the SARL digital contest
** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news items
The South African Radio League Annual General meeting was held in Krugersdorp on 6 May 2017. In SARL News last Sunday, we reported on the various trophies and awards that were handed out at the Awards Dinner.
The AGM was attended by some 60 League members carrying many proxy votes. The meeting was well structured and was completed without any problems. As part of the financial report, it was decided to keep the membership fees for the 2017/2018 financial year unchanged. The motion to facilitate electronic voting was also passed. Electronic voting will be implemented as soon as the Constitution and Rules of the South African Radio League has been amended. The Council’s Strategic plan was presented and approved by the meeting.
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 Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR, and read by ..............
73 and 88, thank you for listening
/EX
