SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2018

Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ................ [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 with news of a silent key.

It is with deep regret that we must announce that the key of Jan Krause, ZS6BHO went silent on Monday 24 September 2018.

We extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

PAUSE

In the news, today:

THE SARL 80 M QSO PARTY ON THURSDAY EVENING

THE SARL AND AMSAT SA VHF/UHF WORKSHOP ON 20 OCTOBER

and

SARL MEMBERSHIP ANNUAL RENEWALS

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

THE SARL 80 M QSO PARTY ON THURSDAY EVENING

The aim of the 80 metre QSO Party is to create an interest in and activity on the 80-m band. It is a phone only contest and runs from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC on Thursday 4 October 2018. Only frequencies in the segment 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 800 kHz may be used, the segment 3 651 to 3 699.99 is contest free. The exchange is your call sign, a RS signal report and your name. You can participate as a Single Operator station or as Short Wave Listener (SWL).

You earn 10 points for every QSO with a South African station and 15 points for every QSO with a station outside South Africa. Log sheets in MS Excel format ONLY should be submitted by 11 October 2018 by e-mail to 27796600008@vodamail.co.za. PLEASE take note that the e-mail address has changed! Do not use the e-mail as shown in the 2018 Contest Manual.

THE SARL AND AMSAT SA VHF/UHF WORKSHOP ON 20 OCTOBER

The first in the series of VHF/UHF workshops will be held at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre on Saturday 20 October. The programme and booking form are now available for download. Follow the link from the SARL homepage or go to www.amsatsa.org.za The workshop includes topics such as beacon coordination, build a simple 3 cm transmitter, Aircraft scatter on 23 cm, Linear amplifiers for VHF and UHF, and the RSGB Video on meteor and tropo scatter.

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS TO THE 2019 SPACE SYMPOSIUM

AMSAT SA has issued the first call for papers to be presented at the 2019 AMSAT SA Space Symposium to be held on 16 March 2019 in Gauteng. Prospective authors are invited to submit a short synopsis of what they intend to present to admin@amsatsa.org.za. For more details visit www.amsatsa.org.za.

THE ANTIQUE WIRELESS ASSOCIATION VALVE QSO PARTY

The second leg of the AWA Valve QSO Party will be run on 6 and 7 October, with the AM QSO Party running from 13:00 to 17:00 UTC on Saturday 6 October 2018, and the SSB QSO Party running from 13:00 to 17:00 UTC on Sunday 7 October 2017. Activity takes place on 40 metres: 7 063 to 7 100 kHz and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz and 80 metres: 3 603 to 3 650 kHz.

The exchange is your call sign, a RS report, a consecutive serial number starting at 001 and the type of radio used, e.g. HT37 TX. The scoring based on your radio - all valve radio: 3 points per contact; Hybrid radio: 2 points per contact and Solid State radio: 1 point per contact. The log sheets must be submitted by Monday 22 October 2018 to andyzs6ady@vodamail.co.za. Certificates will be awarded to the first three places in each category – AM and SSB.

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

SARL MEMBERSHIP ANNUAL RENEWALS

Final membership renewal notices for the 2018/2019 financial year were sent by e-mail on Friday 14 September and members reacted positively with their payments. A word of thanks to all who have renewed their membership so far. For those who find a one-time payment difficult and prefer to pay in instalments, they can arrange and confirm by sending an e-mail to admin@sarl.org.za. The cut-off date for renewals is 30 September 2018.

Kelley at the NARC Office has received four membership payments with the word “Membership” in the reference field and she cannot allocate the payments. Kelley requests these four persons to contact her with a proof of payment and their call signs so that she can correctly allocate the money. Contact Kelley at admin@sarl.org.za.

When making a payment, please put your call sign in the reference field of the payment.
THE RESULTS OF THE SARL NATIONAL FIELD DAY

The contest committee received seventeen log sheets for the second leg of the SARL National Field Day, held over the weekend of 8 and 9 September 2018. Results are as follows:

Class A - Field station, multi operator
1st the West Rand ARC, ZS6WR - 147 528 points
2nd the Welkom ARC, ZS4WRC - 50 208 points
3rd the Highway ARC, ZS5HAM - 37 920 points

Class C - Field Station, Single Operator
1st Mike Stokes, ZS6AI - 10 836 points

Class D - Field station, single operator, QRP
1st Johan van Zijl, ZS4DZ - 33 372 points

Class E - Ultra Light Portable
1st Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ - 14 112 points
2nd Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE - 1 890 points

Class F - General stations
1st the Bo-Karoo ARC, ZS3VDK/6 - 16 176 points
2nd Aletta Gaybba, ZR3PA - 8 596 points
3rd Roy Walsh, ZS3RW - 1 944 points

The Combined Results of the February and September legs

Class A - Field station, multi operator
1st the West Rand ARC, ZS6WR - 284 808 points
2nd the Highway ARC, ZS5HAM - 164 760 points
3rd the Welkom ARC, ZS4WRC - 112 728 points

Class C - Field Station, Single Operator
1st Mike Stokes, ZS6AI - 10 836 points

Class D - Field station, single operator, QRP
1st Johan van Zijl, ZS4DZ - 33 372 points

Class E - Ultra Light Portable
1st Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ - 14 112 points
2nd Eddie Leighton, ZS6BNE - 4 770 points

Class F - General stations
1st the Bo-Karoo ARC, ZS3VDK/6 - 36 216 points
2nd Aletta Gaybba, ZR3PA - 8 596 points
3rd Roy Walsh, ZS3RW - 2 424 points

The full results are on the SARL website under "Contest Results"

THE MAGALIES RAC ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Magalies Radio Amateur Club held their AGM on 15 September 2018 and the following committee members were elected at the meeting:

Chairman, Secretary and Technical: Thys Maree, ZS6MJM.
Vice Chairman: Chris van Eeden, ZS6CVE.
Treasurer: Pieter Myburgh, ZS6PAM.
Editor Teenspanning: Coba Maree, ZR6CMA.
Bulletin Coordinators: Helgard Honiball, ZS6HON and Richard Peer, ZS6UK.
Social Co-ordinator: Kleingert Horn, ZS6HRN.

Congratulations to the new committee members. Many thanks to those who served last year and for their contribution to the Club.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain 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. With the equinox here the 10 to 30 m bands may, especially at sunrise and sunset, provide lots of DX fun.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:

Until midnight UTC this evening – the CQ World Wide RTTY Contest.
1 October – the closing date for Africa All Mode logs and Clubs to register for the VHF/UHF Day.
4 October – the SARL 80 m QSO Party.
6 October – the East Rand Branch flea market and the AWA AM Valve QSO Party.
7 October – the AWA SSB Valve QSO Party.
9 October – the provincial schools open.
11 October – the closing date for 80 m QSO Party logs.
13 October – the October Radio Amateur Examination and the SARL Spring QRP Contest.
14 to 20 October - Get Your Park on the Air Event
19 to 21 October – Jamboree on the air.
20 October – CQ Hou Koers and the VHF/UHF Day at the NARC.

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

THE SARL 80 M QSO PARTY ON THURSDAY EVENING

The aim of the 80 metre QSO Party is to create an interest in and activity on the 80-m band. It is a phone only contest and runs from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC on Thursday 4 October 2018. Only frequencies in the segment 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 800 kHz may be used, the segment 3 651 to 3 699.99 is contest free. The exchange is your call sign, a RS signal report and your name.

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