SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 01 JULY 2018
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 ZS6JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the League’s web site.
This audio bulletin may be downloaded from the League's 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.
We begin this bulletin with news of a silent key:
It is with deep regret that we must announce the passing of Gert Louw, ZS1FG of the South Cape.
We extend our sincere condolences to his wife Miemmie, family and friends.
PAUSE.
In the news, today:
KELLEY HESLOP UNDERWENT SURGERY ON 29 JUNE
THE ZS5 SPRINT THIS AFTERNOON
And
YL ACHIEVES 100 SOTA ACTIVATOR POINTS
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
KELLEY HESLOP UNDERWENT SURGERY ON 29 JUNE
Kelley Heslop, our Office Administrator underwent some surgery to address a shoulder problem that could lead to serious long-term consequences, impacting on the mobility of her left arm if not performed.
We thank Gail Hammond, the wife of Noel, ZR6DX, who is in the office during Kelley’s absence taking calls and answering e-mails. Thanks Gail.
We wish Kelley all the best and a speedy recovery.
THE ZS5 SPRINT THIS AFTERNOON
The ZS5 Sprint is a fun activity to promote contacts between radio amateurs in KwaZulu-Natal and radio amateurs in Southern African countries and will be run from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC this afternoon. The Sprint is a phone and CW contest on the 40-metre band. For stations in KZN, the exchange is a RS or RST report and your town name or abbreviation. For stations outside KZN, the exchange is a RS or RST report and your provincial or country abbreviation.
SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWBIE PARTY
The SARL Newbie Party is a fun activity to encourage all new radio amateurs to become active and the first leg takes place from 08:00 to 20:00 UTC on Saturday 7 July 2018 with phone activity on 80, 40 and 20 metres.
The exchange and the scoring depend on the time that you have been a radio amateur, this is explained in the rules. Log sheets in MS Excel format must be submitted by 16 July 2018 by e-mail to ZS3VdK@webmail.co.za. A certificate will be awarded for first, second and third places.
Please consult the 2018 Blue Book for the rules of both these contests.
RAE COURSE
The Sandton Amateur Radio Club in conjunction with the SARL, will be holding a RAE Class A course at the National Amateur Radio Centre at Radiokop. The course is scheduled to be held on Tuesday evenings starting from 18:00 to 21:00 CAT. The first lecture and registration will be held on Tuesday 17 July. If you know of friends or family wanting to obtain an amateur radio license, and for further details please e-mail Noel at zr6dx@iafrica.com or Grant at grantdixon48@gmail.com. All ages are welcome.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Amateur Radio League.
YL ACHIEVES 100 SOTA ACTIVATOR POINTS
Congratulations to Magda Swart, ZS6MMS, who has become the second YL in South Africa to achieve 100 points for activating summits. Magda got her 100 points after activating ZS/KN-345 Hluku and ZS/KN-204 Klipspruit on Thursday 28 June 2018. Magda joins Adele, ZS5APT with 100 and more activator points. Well done Magda!
The team at Sani Pass went on to activate Hodson’s Peak North and South on Saturday 30 June.
WRTC 2018 ACTIVITY PROGRAMME
Five awards will be available for contacts made with the 63 competing stations in the World Radiosport Team Championship over the weekend of 14 and 15 July. The 63 call signs will be announced on 12 July during the opening ceremony. The awards are Worked All WRTC Stations (minimum one QSO with each WRTC station) WRTC Sprint (work all 63 WRTC stations as fast as possible) WRTC Most QSOs (work up to 630 QSOs with WRTC stations: 63 callsigns x 5 bands x 2 modes) WRTC 2018 Distance Challenge (the kilometres between you and the WRTC stations will be summed up for all QSOs) Assistant Judge (special prizes will be drawn among all those who send in their log until 18:00 UTC on 15 July) See www.wrtc2018.de/index.php/en/activities/wrtc-2018-en for detailed information.
RESULTS OF THE HAMMIES SPRINT
The Hammies Sprint was held on 10 June and sixteen logs were received.
Class A
1st Deon Fraser, ZS5DCF - 100 points.
2nd Woody Collett, ZS3WL - 94 points.
3rd Hammies ARC ZS5ZU operated by Gerald Scooby, ZS5GS - 67 points.
Class B
1st Kayla de Wet, ZU3K - 47 points.
2nd Nathan Busse, ZU6X - 38 points.
3rd Robert van der Meulen, ZU6BOB - 29 points.
A big thanks to the following for operating the Hammies Club stations - Gerald Scooby, ZS5GS for ZS5ZU, Sonet de Wet ZS3ZW for ZS3ZU and Alastair Skudder, ZS6RAS for ZS6ZU.
14 AND 15 JULY A BUSY WEEKEND
The weekend of 14 and 15 July is a busy weekend with the IARU HF Championships and WRTC-2018 from Germany. Activity for both these contests is on 80 to 10 metres using phone and CW. South African stations will give a RS or RST report and Zone 57 (our ITU zone). On 14 July, the second RaDAR Challenge for 2018 takes place as well as the West Rand ARC AGM.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. Currently there are 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 20 and 30 metre bands may provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
This afternoon – the ZS5 Sprint
2 July – the closing date the Top Band logs
7 July – the SARL Newbie QSO Party
9 July – the closing date for ZS5 Sprint logs
14 July – the RADAR Challenge and the West Rand AGM
14 and 15 July – the IARU HF Championships and WRTC-2018
16 July – the closing date for the Newbie logs
17 July – start of Sandton ARC RAE Classes
21 July – the Winter QRP Contest and the Pretoria ARC Flea Market
22 July – the ZS2 Sprint.
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
THE ZS5 SPRINT THIS AFTERNOON
The ZS5 Sprint is a fun activity to promote contacts between radio amateurs in KwaZulu-Natal and radio amateurs in Southern African countries and will be run from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC this afternoon. The Sprint is a phone and CW contest on the 40-metre band. For stations in KZN, the exchange is a RS or RST report and your town name or abbreviation. For stations outside KZN, the exchange is a RS or RST report and your provincial or country abbreviation. Please consult the 2018 Blue Book for the rules of this contest.
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 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 Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY, edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
