SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 4 JUNE 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,
SDR CONVERSATION THIS WEDNESDAY
THE HAMMIES SPRINT NEXT SUNDAY
and
NEWS FROM THE EASTERN CAPE
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
SDR CONVERSATION THIS WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday 7 June, AMSATSA will be holding another SDR conversation. This is a skype based discussion about SDR, anchored by Deon Coetzee, ZR1DE. To join, send your skype details to admin@amsatsa.org.za by Monday evening and you will be called on Wednesday at 20:30 to join the conversation. Please ensure that you have the latest update of Skype installed.
THE HAMMIES SPRINT NEXT SUNDAY
The Hammies Sprint is a fun activity to promote contacts between radio amateurs in Southern African countries with an emphasis on ZU stations. The Hammies Sprint takes place from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC on Sunday 11 June 2017 and is a phone contest on the 40 metre band between 7 063 and 7 100, and 7 130 and 7 200 kHz. The exchange is a RS report and your provincial abbreviation. Stations outside South Africa give a RS report and DX.
Contacts with stations in the same ZS region are worth 1 point and contacts with stations in other ZS regions or DX stations are worth 2 points. Contacts with the Hammies ARC ZS6ZU or ZS2U and/or any other Hammies club that may be registered at the time of the Sprint are worth 5 points. Contacts with any ZU station is worth 3 points and contacts between ZU stations are worth 5 points.
Logs, in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format and labelled “your call sign Hammies,” must be submitted by 18 June 2017 and sent by e-mail to chairman@zs6zu.org.za or zr6dx@iafrica.com. Certificates will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places and certificates will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places for ZU stations.
DEPUTY NATIONAL DIRECTOR FOR HAMNET
HAMNET is happy to announce that Glynn Chamberlain, ZS6GLN, has been appointed as the Deputy National Director for HAMNET. This follows the decision by Johan Marais, ZS1JM, to step down. HAMNET thanks Johan for his service as Deputy National Director and wishes Glynn all of the best for the way forward.
AMSATSA REPORTS SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS WITH THE KLETSKOUS CUBESAT
At the annual AMSATSA space symposium, significant progress with the Kletskous CubeSat was reported by the development team. A new design space frame was released, which is constructed on a locked-in basis and now requires assembly screws. Although based on the original design by Deon Coetzee, ZR6DE, it is much lighter and fully machine produced with the advantage that its manufacture is repeatable exactly as the original. The Electronic Power System is in its final stages and offers advanced controls over the powering of the satellite even should the battery failed.
The Symposium itself was a great success and as delegates said is the highlight on the annual amateur radio technology calendar. Planning for the 2018 is already underway. For more, visit www.amsatsa.org.za
THE NEW LEAGUE WEBSITE
Leon Uys, ZR6LU, reports back from Council that the Web/IT Team is making steady progress towards developing a set of requirements for the new League website. The team used the past week to narrow down most of the infrastructural decisions such as platforms and vendors. They are currently interviewing a shortlist of vendors and will provide feedback to members in this matter very soon. All League members are invited to send their ideas and suggestions for improvements to Leon Uys, ZR6LU, on mobile 082 573 5580 or e-mail to leonuys@gmail.com
RADIO ZS JUNE 2017
The June 2017 issue of Radio ZS can be downloaded from the League website. In this issue, you can read about the International Amateur Radio Union in an article by Don, G3BJ. Brian, G0GSF discusses Multiband Inverted V antennas - the downsides and Leon, ZR6LU, tells you about the rebuilding of the SARL website and explains how you can build a SWR meter for your beacon. Did you know that morse code was the first social network? Read about it in this issue.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League. Take your hand-held to work this week.
WELCOME TO THE NEWS TEAM
The SARL News team welcomes Irene Myburgh, ZS6IEA to the team. Irene will be the voice behind the Afrikaans bulletin next Sunday.
CQ MAGAZINE'S ANNUAL DX MARATHON
Starting 1 January of each year, the DX Marathon is the perfect answer for the DXer who needs that extra incentive to get on the air every day! Simply work as many countries and CQ Zones as you can in each calendar year, regardless of the band or mode.
Congratulations to Geoff Levey, ZS6C, who is the South African and Zone 38 winner for the 2016 CQ Marathon. Geoff worked 193 countries and 34 zones for a score of 227 points.
THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHTHOUSE AND LIGHTSHIP WEEKEND 2017
The International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend event will celebrate its 20th year this August. This year the ILLW takes place during the weekend of 19 and 20 August and it attracts over 500 lighthouse entries located in over 40 countries annually. It is one of the most popular and pleasant international amateur radio events in existence.
Currently there are nearly 200 entries with Germany leading on 40, then Australia with 25 and the USA with 20. In South Africa, the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre, ZS1CT, will activate the Green Point lighthouse, ZA0006 and ZS9V will active the Robben Island lighthouse, ZA0008. To register, see past reports or read the simple guidelines for the weekend in August, check out the dedicated website at https://illw.net/
We go to the Eastern Cape to the next two items
THE GREAT ZUURBERG TREK
Once again, the radio amateur from Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society and Hamnet Eastern Cape provided communications for the Great Zuurberg Trek Mountain Bike race. The 3-day staged race covers 196 km of off-road cycling from gravel to single-track paths and includes a staggering 4 550 m of uphill climbing! The event takes place in the historic Zuurberg area known for the famous Zuurberg Hotel on top of the Zuurberg pass which acted as the start and end for each leg of the race. The JOC was operated from the Zuurberg Hotel by Tony, ZR2TX, who kept the amateur and medics in communication. Radio amateurs were put at strategic points along the route to convey emergency and logistical information and to relay the leaders progress to anxious followers.
Day 1 starts by retracing some of the old ox-wagon tracks and day 2 takes you over the pass and past the famous Anne's Villa - famous as a blacksmith where ox-wagons were repaired and overnight accommodation was provided to travellers on route to Johannesburg. Sunday was the trickiest of the stages and involved a lot of narrow pathways with no vehicle access. This was not only tricky for the riders - several radio amateurs were stationed in places with no vehicle access and had to walk in to their locations.
Once again, the organisers have thanked the amateur community for the professional way in which the service was rendered. We now look forward to the Volkwagen and the Trans-Baviaans Mountain Bike race later in the year.
THE PEARS AGM
The PEARS 2017 AGM was held on Saturday 3 June at the Club's usual venue. The meeting was preceded with a boot sale at 14:00 and the meeting commenced at 15:00. Various awards and certificates were handed over and the normal speeches made. The outgoing chairman Chris Scarr, ZS2AAW, gave a recap of the years activities and the treasurer Clive Fife, ZS2RT, informed those present of the financial position of the Club and took time explaining the financials.
The meeting was followed by a bring and braai with friends and family in attendance. The new committee was elected and details of the committee will be made available as soon as the co-opted positions and portfolios have been finalised.
BARC TO MEET ICASA
The Bloemfontein ARC is holding its June meeting at the Bloemfontein offices of ICASA in Lombaard street on Monday 12 June starting at 18:30. Call-ins on the Naval Hill repeater – 145,600 MHz FM. A bring and braai will follow the meeting. Everybody is welcome.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low to moderate levels. Small but active Sunspot 2661 may be the source of more C-class solar flares. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around eight. The 15 to 30 m bands will provide lots of DX fun, please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
7 June – the SDR Conversation
11 June – the Hammies Sprint
12 June – the Bloemfontein ARC meeting
17 June - World QRP Day
18 June – Father’s Day
22 to 26 June – the SARL Top Band QSO Party
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item
On Wednesday 7 June, AMSATSA will be holding another SDR conversation. This is a skype based discussion about SDR, anchored by Deon Coetzee, ZR1DE. To join, send your skype details to admin@amsatsa.org.za by Monday evening and you will be called on Wednesday at 20:30 to join the conversation. Please ensure that you have the latest update of Skype installed.
This 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.
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 ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
