SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 12 AUGUST 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 begin this bulletin with news of a silent key:
It is with deep regret that we must announce that the key of Arno 'Duppie' du Plessis, ZS6BDD went silent on Sunday 5 August after a long sickbed. Duppie was a really active and enthusiastic radio amateur and was always willing to help and to donate product, time and money to others participating in the hobby.
We extend our sincere condolences to his daughter Linda and sons Johan, Tobie and Stefan, grandchildren, family and friends.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
YOTA 2018 OFF TO A GREAT START
THE SARL HF DIGITAL CONTEST NEXT SUNDAY
and,
THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHTHOUSE/LIGHTSHIP WEEKEND NEXT SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
YOTA 2018 OFF TO A GREAT START
YOTA 2018 hosted by the SARL got off to a great start. Young radio amateurs from 23 countries arrived throughout Wednesday until late into the night but were eager to get started on Thursday morning. Anton Janovsky, ZR6AIC presented a journey into Software Defined Radio. The delegates were presented with a VHF/UHF dongle donated by the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust and the associated cables sponsored by individual donors and AMSATSA. Anton explained the workings of SDR and after the youngsters had downloaded the software from the AMSAT SA website, it was soon afterwards that radio signals were received. After the mid-morning break, it was antenna building time with Guy Eales, ZS6GUY. They each built a two metre, 70 cm crossed Yagi for use with BACAR 6. After lunch the group divided into teams to build five BACARSats.
Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, SARL President and Koos Fick, ZR6KF, SARL Youth Coordinator thanked all the sponsors, both corporate and individual persons for their generous support which enabled the SARL to host this event for the first time on the African continent.
Visit www.sarl.org.za and www.zs9yota.co.za to follow the activity. A more detailed report will be in next week's SARL News. Tune to Amateur Radio Today later this Sunday morning for interviews with some of the young radio amateurs. Also look out for the special event station ZS9YOTA. You will find a list of preferred frequencies on the SARL website.
THE SARL HF DIGITAL CONTEST NEXT SUNDAY
The second of the SARL HF Contests, the HF Digital Contest, is on the air between 14:00 and 17:00 UTC on Sunday 19 August 2018 with digital activity between 14 070 and 14 099 kHz with FT8 on 14 074 kHz; 7 040 and 7 060 kHz with FT8 on 7 074 kHz and 3 580 and 3 600 kHz with FT8 on 3 573 kHz. The exchange is an RSQ report and a consecutive serial number starting at 001. You score two (2) points per QSO with a station in Area 1 to 8 and one (1) point per QSO with a station in Area 9 - the aim of the contest states "for participants to contact as many amateurs in Southern Africa as possible on the 20, 40 and 80 m amateur bands."
You score two (2) points for each area worked on each band, there are only 9 areas and you score two (2) for each station worked on all three bands. Submit your log in ADIF (with a summary sheet), Cabrillo (with a summary sheet) or MS Excel format (the summary sheet is part of the Excel spreadsheet) and labelled "my-call-sign HF Digital" by Monday 27 August 2018 by e-mail to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za. Refer to GR 3.6 and 5.1 to 5.6 for detail about logs and summary sheets.
You stand a chance to win the ZS4BS Trophy Digital which is awarded to the amateur who achieves the highest score during the annual South African Radio League HF Digital Contest and/or the South African Radio League Trophy, awarded to the amateur who achieves the highest score on any one band, during the annual South African Radio League HF Digital Contest.
SARL HF PHONE CONTEST
To date the Contest Committee has only received eighteen (18) logs and one check log for the HF Phone contest! Please submit your Phone log by midnight on Monday 13 August 2018 to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za. Remember to name you log correctly and to include the summary sheet to avoid penalties. Mention your Club on the summary sheet for the Club Participation Trophy. No log from an under 25 amateur has been received. The MS Excel log sheet and a separate summary sheet for ADIF and Cabrillo logs can be found on www.sarl.org.za/public/contests/contestrules.asp. The results will be published in HF Happenings 808.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHTHOUSE/LIGHTSHIP WEEKEND NEXT SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
The ILLW takes place over the weekend of 18 and 19 August and it is not a contest. According to the entry list on https://illw.net/index.php, Namibia has two lighthouses registered and South Africa has thirteen lighthouses registered for the event.
The Overberg ARC will be at the Danger Point as ZS1OAR/L and the operators are Andre, ZS1AZ, Okko, ZS1OKO and Dave, ZS1TBV. We hope to contact all of you.
There is still time to register a lighthouse and take part in this event – East London, Mossel Bay, Richards Bay, Umhlanga, Doringbaai!
SARL YL SPRINT
To date six (6) logs have been received. Submit your log by Friday 17 August to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za
THE BIRDS-2 CUBESATS WERE DEPLOYED FROM THE ISS ON 10 AUGUST
All three carry APRS digipeaters. The trio - BHUTAN-1, MAYA-1 and UiTMSat-1 - will transmit 30 minutes after deployment. Initial mode should be CW on 70 centimetres with each satellite using the same frequency of 437,375 MHz. The normal transmission order is BHUTAN-1 (JG6YKL), MAYA-1 (JG6YKM), and UiTMSat-1 (JG6YKN). Each CubeSat also has an APRS digipeater on 145,825 MHz. Because the CubeSats will be released at the same time, it is possible that the beacon signals from three CubeSats will interfere with each other, as they will turn on at almost at the same time, making copy difficult. Once on, one of the first things it does is transmit the beacon signal, but the CubeSats are programmed so that each will wait a certain amount of time before transmitting the beacon signal. The first satellite released will be the first to transmit, but it will remain silent for long enough to let other two satellites finish their beacon transmissions.
NEW CLUB COMMITTEES
At the AGM of the Zululand Amateur Radio Club, held on 29 July 2017 at Eshowe, the following Committee members were re-elected to serve the members of the club for the forthcoming year
Chairman: Warren Snyders, ZS5WOZ
Vice Chairman: Gerald Scrooby, ZS5GS
Treasurer: Willie Axford, ZS5WI
Secretary: Dawn Snyders, ZS5ME
News Editor: Jo Snyders, ZS5PO
The Sandton Annual General Meeting was held at the NARC on 4 August and was well supported. A new committee was selected as follows:
Chairman: Noel Hammond, ZR6DX
Secretary: Colin Alston, ZS6CLK
Treasurer: Henry Stephan, ZS6MC
Committee members: Graham Busse, ZS6GL, Ronald Verweerdt, ZS6RVC, Justin Porteous, ZS6JGP, Marius Snyman, ZR6MS, Grant Dixon, ZR6WTF and Johan Latsky, ZS6KY.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at very low levels. Currently there are no sunspots visible. This has been the case for 41 of the last 44 days. 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 some DX. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
Today – the International Youth Day
13 August – the closing date HF Phone logs
17 August – the closing date YL Sprint logs
18 and 19 August – the International Lighthouse/lightship weekend
19 August – the SARL HF Digital competition
23 August – the closing date for articles for the September Radio ZS
25 August – the PARC Flea-market
26 August – the SARL HF CW competition
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The second of the SARL HF Contests, the HF Digital Contest, is on the air between 14:00 and 17:00 UTC on Sunday 19 August 2018 with digital activity on 20, 40 and 80 metres. Logs must be submitted by 27 August to zs4bfn@mweb.co.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 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
