SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 14 JANUARY 2018
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and QTH]
The South African Radio League broadcasts a news bulletin each Sunday, in Afrikaans as well as English at 08:15 and 08:30 Central African Time respectively, on HF as well as on various VHF and UHF repeaters. These broadcasts are relayed via Echolink by ZS6JPL. A podcast is available on the League website.
Audio and text bulletins may be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za where you can also sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
We start the bulletin this morning with news of a silent key
It is with deep regret that the Durban Amateur Radio Club announces that the key of Norman Ellor, ZS5YM, went silent in November 2017. He obtained his license in 1956 as ZS9P and was a member of the Durban Branch of the SARL and later of the Durban Amateur Radio Club.
We extend our sincere condolences to his wife Patricia (ex ZS5YL), family and friends.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
BOOK NOW FOR THE SDR WORKSHOP ON 20 JANUARY 2018
ZS6SRC - CELEBRATION OF 30 YEARS IN AMATEUR RADIO
and
EXCITING CHANGES FOR AMATEUR RADIO TODAY
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
BOOK NOW FOR THE SDR WORKSHOP ON 20 JANUARY 2018
The SARL and AMSAT SA will be holding another SDR workshop at the National Amateur Radio Centre from 09:00 - 13:00 CAT on Saturday 20 January 2018. The objective of the workshop is to review the application of SDR dongles and the various software packages made available at previous workshops. Anton Janovsky, ZR6AIC, will be on hand to assist with any technical difficulties. There will be a discussion of the HF Noise monitoring system and the setting up of a server to store the data and AMSAT SA will present a brief update on Kletskous. The cost of the workshop is R50 for SARL and AMSAT SA members and R100 for non-members. Light refreshments will be served. For details and registration visit www.amsatsa.org.za
NEXT WEEKEND THE PEARS NATIONAL VHF AND UHF CONTEST
The PEARS National VHF and UHF contest will take place from 19 to 21 January 2018 and is divided into two 22-hour sessions to spread activity over the whole weekend and benefit from changing propagation. The first session starts at 16:00 UTC on Friday 19 and ends on Saturday afternoon at 14:00 UTC. The second session starts immediately after 14:00 UTC and ends at 12:00 UTC on Sunday 21 January.
The contest is open to all licensed amateurs in South Africa, including non-members of the SARL, as well as amateurs from the neighbouring states. The neighbouring states include Namibia (V5), Botswana (A2), Zimbabwe (Z2), Mozambique (C9), Lesotho (7P) and Swaziland (3DA), but amateurs from Angola (D2) and Zambia (9J) are also invited to participate. All these countries are within the Sporadic-E zone of South Africa and could also be affected by Tropical Tropo conditions.
The PEARS VHF/UHF is a dual contest that includes both analogue and digital as separate contests. It covers the following five contest bands: 50,2 - 50,4 MHz, 70,15 - 70,27 MHz, 144,2 - 144,4 MHz, 432,2 - 432.4 MHz and 1 296,2 – 1 296,4 MHz. There are six different categories to participate in - Base station, Field station, Club Multi-operator station, Rover category, Limited category and a Divisional FM category on 144,400 and 145,000 MHz. Please see the 2018 SARL Blue Book for the rules of the contest or contact Mike, ZS2FM on mikecbosch@gmail.com for further information
ZS6SRC - CELEBRATION OF 30 YEARS IN AMATEUR RADIO
The Secunda Amateur Radio Club will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a week of DXing on six HF bands. Dedicated radio stations for each with their own beam will be setup at the Highveld Sailing Club at Trichardsfonteindam. Radio amateurs from South Africa and SADC countries are invited to join the week and spend time operating each station. Participants are invited to camp and braai with members of the Secunda team. The Club will erect the stations and antennas just bring your tent and food and join the celebrations.
The aim is to make at least 3000 local and DX contacts per band during the period. It is an optimistic target and you are invited to make it happen and enjoy a week of amateur radio fun. For more information, please contact one of the following persons using text messaging or Whatsapp - Gert Botha, ZS6GC, at 082 771 0663 or Lucas Swart, ZS6ACT, at 082 314 3265 or e-mail christokriek461@gmail.com
By 1988 the number of Radio Amateurs in the Secunda area had increased from 4 to 12, enough licensed radio amateurs to form the South-Eastern Transvaal Branch of the SARL. In 1992 the South-Eastern Transvaal Branch at a special AGM voted to become the Secunda Amateur Radio Club obtained the call sign ZS6SRC.
EXCITING CHANGE FOR AMATEUR RADIO TODAY
In December the SARL announced exciting changes for the SARL Magazine programme, Amateur Radio Today. From 21 January, the programme will be in English only and will have an expanded subject content with the main focus on technology and activities that drive the growth of Amateur Radio, not just in South Africa but also on the African Continent and surrounding islands. The new format will also meet the IARU's call to focus on the development and expansion of Amateur Radio in Africa and will become more in line with Sentech expectation that the programme must focus on technical development and encourage experimentation. Old favourites such as the Hamnet, satellite and HF reports will remain a main feature. There will be a new feature weekly featuring VHF activities edited by Mike Bosch ZS2FM as well as amateur radio news from around the world in "Focus on the world".
Amateur Radio Today is inviting persons with an interest in editing and presenting inserts or become an anchor presenter to send a mail to artoday@sarl.org.za with their contact details.
Dawie Conradie, ZR6DHC, who co-produced the programme with Hans van de Groenendaal will be taking a break to spend more time on family and work matters. He told SARL President, Nico van Rensburg that once things have settled down he will return to the fold. "I would like to thank Dawie for his many years of dedication to the programme and look forward to working with Dawie in future on Amateur Radio Today and Amateurradio-in-Aksie," Nico said.
It was envisaged that the Afrikaans magazine programme “Amateurradio-in-Aksie” would shift to an earlier slot between 09.30 – 10:00 local time and still be available for down load on the SARL Web. However, Dawie and his colleagues have decided to take a short break to refocus on the programme. Dawie told SARL news that they will be back with Amateurradio-in-Aksie soon. Details will be announced in SARL News.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Amateur Radio League.
MAY RADIO AMATEUR EXAMINATION
The registration for the May RAE will open on Monday 22 January and will close on Sunday 22 April. The exam will be written on Saturday 19 May.
THE SUMMER QRP CONTEST
The QRP contest is intended to be a fun activity to promote QRP operation between radio amateurs using homebuilt equipment or operating as a portable/field station and using temporary antennas. This is encouraged, but is not a requirement.
The Summer QRP Contest takes place from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC on Saturday 27th January 2018 using Phone and CW with 5 watts (PEP) output or less and there are no antenna restrictions. The first hour is limited to the 40-metre band only, the remaining two hours the contesters are free to use any HF (non-WARC) band as they see fit.
The exchange is a RS or RST report and your 6 figure Grid locator, you can also include your SOTA or Fauna and Flora reference number. Each QSO counts 1 point and there are Prefix or Country multipliers as well as station type multipliers. You log in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format with a summary sheet and labelled "my call sign QRP Contest," must be submitted by 3 February 2018 by email to contest@sarl.org.za. And do not forget the photos of your station in action that must accompany the log entry. Consult the 2018 SARL Blue Book for the complete set of rules.
THE DUBUS MAGAZINE
This magazine is for the serious VHF’er and up. The subscription for DUBUS is due again. The cost for 4 copies will be R 365.00 - the distributors have decided again to give DUBUS to us at a very low price. If you are interested in receiving the magazine, contact Pine, ZS6OB, at pienaarja@gmail.com as soon as possible, he needs to notify the distributors of expected numbers from ZS by the end of January 2018.
REGION 1 VHF/UHF NEWSLETTER
The IARU Region 1 VHF/UHF Newsletter no 76 is available for download from the front page of the SARL web site. The newsletter contains a report of the activities of the Permanent VHF Committee since the 2017 General Conference in Landshut.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. There is no threat of solar flares. In 2017 there were a total of 104 days without sunspots. 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 metre bands will provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, the diary of upcoming events:
17 January – the provincial schools open (and mother’s all over South Africa heave a sigh of relief!)
19 to 21 January – the PEARS VHF/UHF Contest
20 January – the SDR Workshop at the NARC
22 January – registration for the May RAE opens
20 to 28 January – Secunda ARC birthday celebrations
26 January – closing date for articles for the February Radio ZS
27 January – the Summer QRP Contest
30 January – closing date for proposals and synopses for AMSAT SA Symposium papers
31 January – closing date for nominations for Council and SARL Awards and for AGM motions
28 February – closing date for 2018 SARL Hall of Fame nominations
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The SARL and AMSAT SA will be holding another SDR workshop at the National Amateur Radio Centre from 09:00 - 13:00 CAT on Saturday 20 January 2018. The objective of the workshop is to review the application of SDR dongles and the various software packages made available at previous workshops. Anton Janovsky, ZR6AIC, will be on hand to assist with any technical difficulties. There will be a discussion of the HF Noise monitoring system and the setting up of a server to store the data and AMSAT SA will present a brief update on Kletskous. The cost of the workshop is R50 for SARL and AMSAT SA members and R100 for non-members. Light refreshments will be served. For details and registration visit www.amsatsa.org.za
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
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 program, 'Amateur Radio Today' at 10:00 Central African Time. The program 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; 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 Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY, edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
