SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 8 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.
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 begin the bulletin this morning with news of a silent key.
It is with sadness that we have learnt that Ashley Ware-Lane, ZS1ASH is a silent key. Ashley was a great social entertainer and loved any social events. He had the incredible ability to successfully manage groups and organize events and involved himself in numerous clubs and organisations. Ashley was well known throughout the rescue community as an operator for both ORRU and SARL Hamnet and attended many rescues in his day. He was recently the chairman of the Cape 4X4 Club and the organiser of several SARL Hamnet Winter Exercises, chairman of ZS1FUN and represented South Africa in China at an international kite festival.
His bright and jovial presence will be missed by all but no more than by his family. We extend our sincere condolences to Mari, ZS1MW, Bradley, Celine, his extended family and friends.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
THE RaDAR CHALLENGE NEXT SATURDAY
FIRST WORKED ALL ZS 200 AWARD ON TOP BAND
and
REGISTRATION FOR JOTA JOTI 2018 IS NOW OPEN.
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE RaDAR CHALLENGE NEXT SATURDAY
The RaDAR Challenge is a unique event aimed at promoting the use of Rapidly Deployable Amateur Radio stations. The category of participation (Fixed, Field or Moving) may be changed at any time during the challenge. The points system is so structured as to encourage portable RaDAR operations especially moveable RaDAR stations. RaDAR operators are encouraged to be self-sufficient during each challenge, with not only power supply and communications equipment but food, water, protective clothing and shelter.
RaDAR operators define their own operating time schedule. It’s up to each individual to plan his/her maximum, single period, four hours of operating. The second RaDAR Challenge takes place from 00:00 to 23:59 UTC on Saturday 14 July 2018 with CW, SSB, FM or any legal amateur radio digital mode on all amateur bands, including cross band contacts via amateur radio satellites. The RaDAR challenge requires more than a minimalistic information exchange. The exchange is your call sign, name, RS or RST report and grid locator.
Consult the 2018 Blue Book or the July issue of Radio ZS for all the details.
IARU HF CHAMPIONSHIPS AND WRTC-2018
The IARU HF Championships and the WRTC-2018 will be on the air from 12:00 UTC Saturday 14 July and ending at 11:59 UTC Sunday 15 July 2018. All licensed amateurs worldwide are eligible to participate. The object is to contact as many other amateurs on phone and CW, especially IARU Member Society HQ stations, around the world as possible using the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metre bands. Both Single and Multi-operator stations may operate the entire 24-hour period. WRTC-2018 has 63 teams participating from Germany and they are using the same rules at the HF Championships. South African stations will exchange a RS or RST report and ITU Zone 57. ZS9HQ will give a RS or RST report and SARL. The rules are on page 24 of the July issue of Radio ZS.
FIRST WORKED ALL ZS 200 AWARD ON TOP BAND
Johann van Zijl, ZS4DZ has received the first Worked All ZS 200 Award on 1,8 MHz. Johann received the third and last entry-level certificate on this band in 2013, less than a year after the first winner. The fact that only three entry-level awards have been issued suggests the level of difficulty of this award. Tjerk Lammers, ZS1J, SARL Awards Manager explains that the high noise levels and large antennas required on this band limit the number of amateurs active on this challenging band. It is amazing to think that it is possible to contact over 200 South African callsigns there! As with most recent WAZS awards, the SARLs SA-QSL system played a vital role in confirming the required 200 contacts.
Worked All ZS is the SARLs most popular awards programme. More than 30 entry-level awards were issued last year; the leading station has confirmed contacts with over 1 600 unique South African call signs!
YOTA 2018 - A FEW WEEKS AWAY
With only a few weeks to go to YOTA 2018 in South Africa, the SARL YOTA Events Team is hard at work to conclude preparations for a 7-day programme filled with a range of amateur radio related activities, excursions and lots of fun! Letters to successful candidates to join the South African team have been mailed. The names and callsigns of the team will be announced once the selected team members have confirmed their participation in the event. YOTA 2018 will offer many opportunities to learn more about amateur radio and getting to know fellow amateurs from various other countries.
You can still be involved in making this event a memorable occasion for the visiting as well as the South African teams by sponsoring various aspects of the event. Your financial contributions will make all the difference. For more details visit www.zs9yota.co.za . You can make it happen
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Amateur Radio League.
ZS70BAK AND THE BOLAND AMATEUR RADIO CLUB AGM
The Boland Amateur Radio Club held their AGM on Saturday 1 July and the Club is 70 years old this year. To celebrate the event, a special call sign, ZS70BAK was issued to the Club and it will be used regularly until the end of March 2019. A special QSL card will be mailed to members who QSL direct with a self-addressed stamped envelope. The QSL address is on the BARK website at http://bark.org.za/. You can also QSL via the SARL Electronic QSL system.
During the AGM, the following members were elected to serve on the committee
Chairman: Conradt Esterhuysen, ZS1ES
Vice Chairman and Secretary: David de Kock, ZS1DDK
Committee Members: Rassie Erasmus, ZS1YT, Deon Coetzee, ZR1DE, André Shaw, ZS1AN, Johan le Roux, ZS1RX, Jan van der Vyver, ZS1VDV, and Mike Kellett, ZS1TAF.
REGISTRATION FOR JOTA JOTI 2018 IS NOW OPEN.
The time has come for registration of each Scout Group for the largest Scouting event of the year. Registration can be done at the worldwide site www.jotajoti.info/sign-up-jota-joti-2018/. Registration for this year’s JOTA/JOTI event provides your Group access to the International Jamboree page. You will be able to see at a glance, all the registered stations from around the world, and take part in the largest Scout event to be held each year. This also gives you the opportunity to contact other stations around the world before the event and setup a dedicated time etc to make the contact. Start planning your event now!
Your National JOTA JOTI coordinator can assist you with getting in touch with one of the local Scout Groups. It's not difficult to setup an event at your local Scout Hall. All you need is a couple of Cubs and Scouts and a Scouter or two to organise the weekend. No need to run the entire weekend either; you choose what days to run according to your groups schedule. The busiest times are on the Saturday. For information and assistance from the National JOTA/JOTI coordinator, contact Richard, ZS6RKE at richard.hooper@scouts.org.za
DEDICATED EMERGENCY FREQUENCIES
All Clubs, when new amateurs get their licences, should be reminded that there are certain "Dedicated Emergency Frequencies" for emergency communication and that the Maritime Mobile Net and SARL Hamnet use the following frequencies specifically for that purpose. These frequencies should always, except in an emergency and or daily weather forecasts supplied by the South African Weather Bureau to the Maritime Mobile Net, be kept clear of normal chatter.
For the Maritime Mobile Net – 7 120 kHz and for SARL Hamnet 7 110 kHz are dedicated emergency frequencies as agreed by the IARU - world wide - and should be kept clear of normal amateur communication. It will be appreciated that new amateurs - and we welcome them on the bands - should be made aware of these dedicated frequencies and are only used for daily weather reports to shipping (private) and not for general use.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS
The AGM of the West Rand ARC will take place on Saturday 14 July at the Clubhouse in Kroton Street, Weltevreden Park. The AGM of the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre will take place at the Clubhouse at 14:00 CAT on Saturday 28 July and the AGM of the Namibian Amateur Radio League will take place at 15:00 at the SATCOM boardroom, Jacaranda Street, Windhoek.
OCTOBER RAE REGISTRATION
The registration of candidates for the October RAE opens on Saturday 14 July.
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 m 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:
9 July – the closing date for ZS5 Sprint logs
14 July – The RaDAR Challenge; Registration for the October RAE opens and the West Rand ARC AGM
14 and 15 July – the IARU HF Championships and WRTC 2018
16 July – the closing date for the Newbie logs
17 July – the start of Sandton ARC RAE Classes
21 July – the Winter QRP Contest and the Pretoria ARC Flea Market
22 July – the ZS2 Sprint.
28 July – the AGMs of the Cape Town ARC and the Namibian Amateur Radio League
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The second RaDAR Challenge takes place from 00:00 to 23:59 UTC on Saturday 14 July 2018 with CW, SSB, FM or any legal amateur radio digital mode on all amateur bands, including cross band contacts via amateur radio satellites. The RaDAR challenge requires more than a minimalistic information exchange. The exchange is your call sign, name, RS or RST report and grid locator. Consult the 2018 Blue Book or the July issue of Radio ZS for all the details.
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 Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR, and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
