SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 21 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.

In the news today:

ZS30SRC – CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF AMATEUR RADIO

THE PRETORIA ARC IS HOSTING THE 2018 SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION

and

CALLING ALL VHF AMATEURS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

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

ZS30SRC - CELEBRATION OF 30 YEARS IN AMATEUR RADIO

The Secunda Amateur Radio Club, ZS6SRC, is celebrating its 30th anniversary from Saturday 20 to Sunday 28 January with a week of DXing on six HF bands using the special call sign ZS30SRC. QSL via the operator’s instructions. Dedicated radio stations for each band with their own beam have been setup at the Highveld Sailing Club at Trichardsfontein Dam. Radio amateurs from South Africa and SADC countries are invited to join the week and spend time operating each station.

As part of the celebrations, there is a raffle for a G5RV antenna, donated by Sam’s Radios. The Secunda ARC thanks Sam for the donation. The raffle tickets cost R50 each and can be obtained from Christo, ZR6LJK or Gert, ZS6GC. 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 by e-mail to Christo, ZR6LJK at christokriek461@gmail.com

THE PRETORIA ARC IS HOSTING THE 2018 SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION

The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club will be presenting the 2018 SARL National Convention at the Farm Inn Country Lodge (www.farminn.co.za/) at Silver Lakes in Pretoria East over the weekend of 13 to 15 April. The Farm Inn provides various luxury accommodation for those who would like to stay over on Friday and/or Saturday evening. The accommodation rates for their economy rooms are Single Rooms at R650 per person per night and if you are sharing at R550.00 per person per night. On Saturday afternoon between the flea market and other activities, you can enjoy a game drive at R150 per person. All delegates who would like to stay over must arrange and book accommodation in advance. To book your accommodation online go to www.farmin.co.za or contact Farm Inn reservations on 012 809 0266 or 012 809 0277

The SARL AGM will start at 09:00 on Saturday morning 14 April with the SARL Awards Dinner that evening. Registration forms for the National Convention will be published on the SARL web site soon. The Pretoria ARC will be hosting a mega flea market, amateur radio displays and information kiosks on Saturday 14 April. The flea market is open to all radio amateurs who would like to sell their excess amateur goods, we also would like to call on all companies and businesses who would like to make use of this opportunity to display and sell their products and/or services.

Tables for the flea market and information kiosks will be made available on the day, take the opportunity now and book your table early to prevent disappointment. Bookings for tables will close on Tuesday 10 April 2018. The information kiosks are aimed at giving organizations the opportunity to promote amateur radio activities and services such as SOTA, satellites, beacons, etc. We would like to call on all businesses and amateur radio organisations like clubs and related institutions to step forward and book your kiosk for the day. More information on the day's program and the names of organizations who will participate in the day's activities will be communicated to all during the weekly SARL news bulletins.

For more information, please contact Almero du Pesani, ZS6LDP, at almero.dupisani@up.ac.za or call him on 083 938 8955 or you can contact Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN, at etienne@afrigrid.com or call him on 082 553 0542

HAMMIES CLASS-B RAE COURSE

The Hammies ARC, ZS6ZU, will be running a Class-B RAE course starting on Saturday morning 27 January at the NARC at Sentech, Radiokop. All interested youngsters aged between 10 and 15 are invited to participate in this exciting event. Classes will be held every Saturday morning from 09:00 to 12:00 CAT and will be complemented by electronic projects and other fun activities. This is a great opportunity to get the youth involved in technology and amateur radio. For further information contact Noel Hammond, ZR6DX, at zr6dx@iafrica.com or Graham Busse, ZS6GL, at grahambusse@vodamail.co.za

PICO-BALLOON FROM ARGENTINA

AMSAT Argentina has informed SARL News that they launched a Pico-Balloon on Friday 19 January that is heading towards South Africa. Radio amateurs are asked to listen out on WSPR on 14 075.6 USB for LU1ESY and upload the spots to the internet. The balloon, LU1ESY, can also be tracked from http://lu7aa.org/wspr.asp.

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

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE 2018 SARL ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

As of Saturday 20 January, the status of documentation for the 2018 SARL AGM is as follows. There are five vacancies for the 2018/2019 SARL Council – two nominations have been received. Four nominations have been received for the Jack Twine Merit Award, one nomination for the Barney Joel Trophy, one nomination for the Arthur Hemsley 2 Metre Trophy and one nomination for the SAATI Award. One motion for discussion has been received.

Visit the AGM Information page at www.sarl.org.za/members/agm/AGMMembers.asp where you will find guidelines for the motion(s) you want to discuss at the AGM. There are template documents for the various awards and the process for nomination to serve on Council as well as the Nomination form is also available. Is your Club planning to host the 2019 SARL National Convention? Well there is a document with guidelines available on the same web page. Send your nominations for Council, SARL Awards and motions to reach the SARL Secretary, secretary@sarl.org.za, by midnight on Wednesday 31 January 2018.

SARL AMATEUR RADIO HALL OF FAME NOMINATIONS FOR 2018

The SARL Amateur Radio 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 SARL Web site, accessible via a link on the home page. From 2018, a maximum of one living member and one deceased member will be inducted annually.

Nominations will be accepted until Wednesday 28 February and must be sent to secretary@sarl.org.za. On-line voting will take place in March. Please view the existing profiles on the Hall of Fame page where you will also find a nomination template and nominate deserving candidates for 2018. Existing profiles serve as examples of good nominations.

CALLING ALL VHF AMATEURS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

There must be at least a few HF amateurs in the following African countries, who might become interested in VHF too. These countries are all within single-hop Sporadic-E range from South Africa. They are: Angola (D2), Zambia (9J), Mozambique (C9), Namibia (V5), Botswana (A2), Zimbabwe (Z2), Swaziland (3DA) and Lesotho (7P). FM sound channels of Band III television stations, grouped around 53,750 MHz, have been heard almost daily at Port Elizabeth in earlier years, from around 12:00 CAT for an hour or two during the Sporadic-E season. On rare occasions a French speaking station, possibly from the Congo, has also been copied at signal strength of S9 on FM. Since both the Congo and Kenya are on the Equator, double-hop Sporadic-E communications should also be possible at times on VHF with them. Many African TV stations have gone to satellite, but there are still a few that could act as beacons, so watch the frequencies around 53,750 MHz on FM.

So, the question is how many radio amateurs from the African states would become interested in VHF communications? Even if only one amateur in each country would take up the challenge and run some skeds or maybe erect a VHF beacon, then we could learn a lot about the strong Sporadic-E propagation conditions that prevail in mid-Africa. Likewise, we could for the first time get to know something about Tropical Tropo propagation, which is affected by wind shear, etc. If you are listening to this programme from somewhere in Africa, then please send a list of amateurs in your area with their email addresses to artoday@sarl.org.za. We would like to encourage some of them to develop an interest in the exciting world of VHF and above.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. There is only a single sunspot visible with no threat of solar flares. 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.

Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:

22 January - registration for the May RAE opens
20 to 28 January – ZS30SRC - Secunda ARC birthday celebrations
26 January - closing date for articles for the February Radio ZS
27 January - the start of the Hammies ARC Class B training and 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
3 February – the East Rand Flea Market and the closing date for the Summer QRP logs
4 February – the AWA CW Activity Day
10 and 11 February – the SARL National Field Day and the CQ WPX RTTY Contest
28 February - closing date for 2018 SARL Hall of Fame nominations

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

The Secunda Amateur Radio Club, ZS6SRC, is celebrating its 30th anniversary from Saturday 20 to Sunday 28 January with a week of DXing on six HF bands using the special call sign ZS30SRC. QSL via the operator’s instructions. Dedicated radio stations for each band with their own beam have been setup at the Highveld Sailing Club at Trichardsfontein Dam. Radio amateurs from South Africa and SADC countries are invited to join the week and spend time operating each station. As part of the celebrations, there is a raffle for a G5RV antenna, donated by Sam’s Radios.

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 Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by ……………………................

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

/EX