SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 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 around the country. The bulletin is 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 Highway ARC announces that the key of Peter Antony Crowther, ZS5PX, went silent on Sunday 4 February 2018. He will be sorely missed by all the Club members.
We extend our sincere condolences to his family in the UK and friends.
PAUSE
In the news today:
SARL YOUTH SPRINT NEXT SATURDAY
A SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING TO BE HELD ON 14 APRIL 2018
and
THE VHF PATH BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND SOUTH AFRICA IS A CHALLENGE
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
SARL YOUTH SPRINT NEXT SATURDAY
The Youth Sprint is a fun activity to celebrate the Youth and to promote contacts between young radio amateurs in Southern African countries. Call “CQ Youth Sprint” between 08:00 to 10:00 UTC on Saturday 17 February on 7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz.
The exchange is a RS report and the operator’s age. Contacts between stations in the age group 25 and younger are worth 5 points, contacts between stations in the under 25 group and over 26 group is worth 2 points and contacts between stations in the age group 26 and older are worth 1 point.
Logs in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format with a summary sheet labelled “my call sign Youth Sprint,” to be submitted by 24 February 2018 by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za. The age of the operator must be shown on the summary sheet and all the logs received will be entered for a draw for a Student membership of the SARL. Certificates will be awarded for all logs that are submitted correctly and prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the competition.
SDR WORKSHOP HEAD TO DURBAN
The SARL and AMSATSA SDR workshop will head to Durban on Saturday 3 March. The workshop will be hosted by the Highway Amateur Radio Club at the Durban Yacht Club. The workshop will be presented by Anton Janovsky, ZR6AIC, and will include the basics of Software Defined Radio, how to set up a dongle and run various software packages as well as how to participate in the SARL RF Noise monitoring project. Pre-registration is necessary. A VHF and HF dongle as well as a memory stick with software can be ordered on the registration form. For the full programme and a registration form visit www.amsatsa.org.za. The closing date is Friday 23 February 2018. Do not delay as no late registrations can be accepted.
SECOND CALL FOR SPACE SYMPOSIUM PAPERS
AMSAT SA has issued a second call for submission of papers for the annual Space Symposium to be held at the Innovation Hub, Pretoria on Saturday 19 May 2018. The theme is Exploring Amateur Radio with satellites and new space frontiers. The date for submission is now 28 February 2018. For details visit www.amsatsa.org.za.
A SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING TO BE HELD ON 14 APRIL 2018
The SARL Secretary has received a request for a Special General Meeting and the Council has decided that the SGM will be held at 08:00 CAT on Saturday 14 April 2018 at the Farm Inn Lodge in Pretoria. The SARL AGM will follow at 09:00 CAT at the same venue. All the relevant information will be included in the SARL AGM Booklet that will be made available at the end of February. The AGM Booklet will be available from the League web site. Hennie Maas of “Sterre en Planete” is the guest speaker at the SARL Awards Dinner.
The Registration form for the 2018 National Convention will be made available on the League web site during the coming week. The accommodation is not part of the registration form, this must be done directly with Farm Inn.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Amateur Radio League.
SILENT KEY NOTIFICATIONS
The SARL News Team requests that when a Silent Key notification is posted on the forum, that that information will also be placed in the news inbox on the League web site. In this way, Kelley can update the SARL database and the name will be recorded in Radio ZS.
HOSTING THE 2019 SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION
Is your Club planning to host the 2019 SARL National Convention? Please come along to the SARL AGM on Saturday 14 April 2018 and put forward your Club’s proposal. Contact the League Secretary for more information.
THE VHF PATH BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND SOUTH AFRICA IS STILL THE GREATEST CHALLENGE ON 144 MHz
Many years ago, the first attempt was made by Bill Hosey, VK6ACY (now ZS6CCY), near Perth and Mike Bosch, ZS2FM, in Port Elizabeth, assisted by Andre ZS2ACP and the late Jim Frans, ZS2JF, to establish a two-way contact across the Indian Ocean. We took turns to transmit CW CQs for an hour or so daily on 144 MHz for a full month, separated by listening periods, without any success. At that time, we did not have the facility of the Hepburn Forecasts to predict Tropo Ducting across the Indian Ocean.
Many years later Ken Bainbridge, VK6RH, spokesman for the West Australian Radio Group tried to interest South African VHF amateurs to participate in the new chirp modulation tests, but the chirp equipment would come at a price. Unfortunately, support was not forthcoming, so a brilliant amateur science project just died.
Recently Andy Hemus at Carine, a suburb of Perth in Western Australia tried to revive interest in a VHF path between VK and ZS. He says that if there is a VHF path from Eastern Australia to LU, VP8, CE etc, then here must be a VHF path between Western Australia and the East Coast of South Africa too. Who would like to take up the challenge?
CANCELLED LICENCES
The League Secretary has received e-mails from members about their call sign shown as “cancelled licence” on the SARL Call Book and database, but they have paid the licence fees. Members are requested to furnish Kelley with a scanned copy of the valid licence so that she can update the record on the database.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. There is currently one sunspot visible. There is a small chance of flaring from this region. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around five. 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:
13 February – World Radio Day
14 February – closing date for PEARS VHF/UHF logs
17 February – the SARL Youth Sprint
17 and 18 February – the ARRL DX CW competition.
24 February – the West Rand ARC Flea Market.
25 February – the SARL Digital competition.
28 February – closing date for proposals and synopsis for AMSAT SA Space Symposium papers and the closing date for nominations for the SARL Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.
3 March – SDR Workshop at the Durban Yacht Club
4 March – the SARL HAMNET 40 m Simulated Emergency Contest
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The Youth Sprint is a fun activity to celebrate the Youth and to promote contacts between young radio amateurs in Southern African countries. Call “CQ Youth Sprint” between 08:00 to 10:00 UTC on Saturday 17 February on 7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz.
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
