SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 9 DECEMBER 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 four silent keys.
It is with deep regret that we announce that the keys of Mannie de Beer, ZS6AK, Chris Tippet, ZS5CEV, Dave (Ian) Williams, ZS6JW and Frans Swanepoel, ex-ZS3ABL went silent in the past weeks.
Mannie de Beer, who passed away on 25 October, was a founding and honorary life member of the Centurion Radio Amateur Club.
Chris Tippet passed away on Saturday, 1 December in the Amber Valley Frail Care Centre in Howick. He was an active member of the Midlands ARC and was also a SARL member. We extend our sincere condolences to his wife Pam and family.
Dave Williams passed away peacefully on Sunday 2 December after a short illness. He was a member of the Pretoria ARC and a SARL member.
Frans Swanepoel passed away on Tuesday 4 December 2018.
We extend our sincere condolences to the families and friends of these four radio amateurs.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
THE 2019 SARL DAY OF THE RADIO AMATEUR
FOX-1CLIFF LAUNCHED SUCCESSFULLY, NOW DESIGNATED AO-95
and
THE RESULTS OF THE VHF/UHF CONTESTS
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE 2019 SARL DAY OF THE RADIO AMATEUR
The Boland Amateur Radio Club will be hosting the 2019 SARL Day of the Radio Amateur at two venues in Stellenbosch on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 April 2019. SARL Hamnet is planning a meeting for Friday morning and the SARL Symposium will be run on Friday afternoon and into the early evening. The SARL AGM will be held on Saturday morning. These events will take place at the Datavoice House Auditorium in the Techno Park at Stellenbosch. The SARL Awards Dinner will be held at the Stellenbosch Golf Club on Saturday evening.
On pages 14, 15 and 16 of the December Radio ZS, you will find a list of the SARL Awards and Trophies that will be handed out during the Awards Dinner. Five Councillors will be retiring at the 2019 AGM, nominations to fill these five vacancies are invited. Motions for discussion at the 2019 AGM are also invited. Nominations for these Awards and Trophies, nominations for Council and motions for the AGM must be submitted to the SARL Secretary by midnight on Thursday 31 January 2019 using the e-mail secretary@sarl.org.za. Nomination templates and a template for motions can be found by following the link in the 2019 Day of the Radio item in the Members Only section.
ZS100WWI CERTIFICATES
In the past week, ZS100WWI Certificates have been e-mailed to everybody in the log sheet. Well, almost everybody. E-mails to the following call signs either bounced or there is no e-mail on the database for the call sign - ZS6F; ZS1WOP; ZS5IE; ZS2NB; ZS5JX and ZS5OG. The following call signs got lost in translation - ZS6AWH/m; ZS6OLR; ZS6FSN; ZS1MOS; ZS1WAP/6 and ZS2RAI. Please contact Dennis, ZS4BS at zs4bs@netactive.co.za with your correct e-mail and call sign so that your certificate can be sent to you.
FOX-1CLIFF LAUNCHED SUCCESSFULLY, NOW DESIGNATED AO-95
Satellite enthusiasts soon will have another "bird" to use. AMSAT's Fox-1Cliff CubeSat was successfully launched and placed into orbit this week. A SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle carried Fox-1Cliff and several other satellites, including other Amateur Radio payloads, into space at approximately 1334 UTC on 3 December from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, following a 1-day launch delay.
The Fox-1Cliff downlink for FM voice and data-under-voice (DUV) is 145,920 MHz. Uplinks are 435,300 and 1 267,300 MHz. In addition to Fox-1Cliff, the SpaceX SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission carried FUNcube on ESEO, JY1-SAT, K2SAT, and ExseedSat. The reusable Falcon 9 vehicle launched 64 payloads in all.
A VACANCY FOR A NEWS COMPILER/EDITOR
The SARL News Team has a vacancy for a news compiler/editor from early 2019. Emile Venter, ZS6V has notified the Team that he will be relocating to New Zealand in the new year. The Team thanks Emile for his work as bulletin compiler and wishes him and his family all of the best in New Zealand. If you are proficient in English and Afrikaans and would like to join the News Team, please contact Dennis Green, ZS4BS on e-mail zs4bs@netactive.co.za.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Radio League.
NEW TWO AMATEUR ISS CREW LAUNCHED FOLLOWING THE ABORTED OCTOBER FLIGHT
Three astronauts, including two radio amateurs, have docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on the first crewed Soyuz vehicle launch since a dramatic failure in October. The astronauts, from the US, Canada and Russia, left Kazakhstan at 1130 UTC on 3 December and the Russian space agency Roscomos confirmed their successful docking at the station. On board were David Saint-Jacques, KG5FYI, a Canadian engineer, astrophysicist and medical doctor; space veteran Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX, of Russia and Anne McClain of the US. Investigators have blamed a faulty sensor, said to have been damaged during assembly in Kazakhstan.
RESULTS OF THE VHF/UHF ANALOGUE CONTEST
The results of the second leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Analogue contest held on 10 and 11 November as well as the combined results of the contest have been released.
Base Station - Single operator
1st Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ - 110 020 points
2nd Pierre Lindeque, ZS4PF - 47 637 points
3rd Rickus de Lange, ZS4A - 17 186 points
Field Station - 4 hours
1st Koos Greyvenstein, ZS6KSG - 60 414 points
2nd the Cape Radio Group, ZS1CRG - 16 148 points
Limited - 4 hours
1st Jacques Louw, ZS4WW - 37 700 points
2nd Vernon Fryer, ZS6AIG - 13 703 points
Overall winners - Analogue both legs
1st Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ - 275 562 points
2nd Pierre Lindeque, ZS4PF - 122 750 points
3rd Christo Greyling, ZR6AUI/4 - 80 709 points
Overall winners - Digital both legs
1st Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ - 44 037 points
2nd Andrι Botes, ZS2ACP - 42 038 points
3rd Christo Greyling, ZR6AUI/4 - 9 573 points
Congratulations to all the winners. The full set of results are on the SARL web site under Contest Results.
NEW COMMITTEE FOR THE SABC AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
At the club's AGM held on 1 December 2018, the following committee members were elected:
Chairman: Pieter van Wyk, ZS6PVW
Vice Chairman: Yvonne, ZR6TBL
Secretary: Magda van Wyk, ZS6MVW
Treasurer: Lizette Pienaar, ZS6LZT
Webmaster: Marianne, ZS6ANA
Social: Magda van Wyk, ZS6MVW
Technical and repeater: Pieter van Wyk, ZS6PVW and Mark Esilva, ZS6MAE
Technical assistants: Magda van Wyk, ZS6MVW and Riaan Barkhuizen, ZS6BAR
The AGM was followed by a social gathering in the form of a Bring and Braai. We thank the previous committee members for their hard work and wish the new committee the best of luck.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. Currently there is only a single sunspot visible that poses no threat of solar flares. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around one. The 15 to 30 m bands may provide some 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 ARRL 10 m Competition.
10 December the closing date for Newbie Logs.
12 December all provincial schools close.
14 December Geminids Meteor Showers.
16 December the Day of Reconciliation.
17 December Public Holiday.
21 December the Summer Solstice.
22 December - Ursid Meteor Showers.
25 December Christmas Day.
26 December Family Day and the closing date for the January Radio ZS.
31 December End of the YOTA Month, the 2018 CQ DX Marathon and the ARRL International Grid Square Hunt.
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The Boland Amateur Radio Club will be hosting the 2019 SARL Day of the Radio Amateur at two venues in Stellenbosch on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 April 2019. SARL Hamnet is planning a meeting for Friday morning and the SARL Symposium will be run on Friday afternoon and into the early evening. The SARL AGM will be held on Saturday morning. These events will take place at the Datavoice House Auditorium in the Techno Park at Stellenbosch. The SARL Awards Dinner will be held at the Stellenbosch Golf Club on Saturday evening.
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 Emile Venter, ZS6V, edited by Dennis Green, ZS4BS and read by
................
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
