SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 27 JANUARY 2019
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 on 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.
In the news, today:
ONLY FOUR DAYS FOR YOUR AWARD NOMINATIONS AND MOTIONS
BOOK NOW FOR THE VHF WORKSHOP
and
REPORTS NEEDED ON AN 80 M WSPR BEACON
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
ONLY FOUR DAYS FOR YOUR AWARD NOMINATIONS AND MOTIONS
The closing date for nominations for SARL Awards and trophies, motions for discussion at the AGM and nominations to serve on Council closes at midnight on Thursday 31 January 2019.
The SARL Secretary has received three nominations to serve on Council, there are still two vacancies. Two motions for discussion at the AGM have been received, but no motion from a Club wishing to host the 2020 SARL Day of the Radio Amateur. Two nominations have been received for Honorary Life Membership, three for the Jack Twine, one for the SAATI Award and one for the SOTA Award.
No nominations have been received for the ICOM Excellence Award, the Barney Joel Trophy for HF mobile, the Bert Buckley Six Metre Trophy, the Radio ZS Four Metre Floating Trophy, the Arthur Hemsley 2 metre Trophy, the Radio ZS Two Metre Floating Trophy, the Joseph White Plaque for 430 MHz and above, the Gary Immelman Radio Amateur Heritage Award Floating Trophy or the JJ Pienaar trophy. In November 2018, SARL News reported on the 2 metre FM QSOs between ZS1, ZS3 and St Helena Island.
You are referred to pages 14, 15 and 16 of the December Radio ZS as well as the SARL Communication dated 31 December 2018 for a list of the SARL Awards and Trophies that will be handed out during the Awards Dinner.
BOOK NOW FOR THE VHF/UHF WORKSHOP
One of the many facets of Amateur Radio is exploring the spectrum above 30 MHz. This frequency region has so many opportunities for exploration. If you think making a DX contact is fun, then you have not tried to make a long-distance contact on VHF and UHF, it will blow you away with the pride of an achievement. The SARL has teamed up with AMSATSA to explore this region of the Amateur Radio Spectrum. There is much more talking on a repeater after the Sunday bulletin. Attend the next workshop on Saturday 9 February 2019 at the National Amateur Radio Centre. The workshop starts at 9 am and ends at 14:00. Register now. For details, full programme and registration form, follow the link from the SARL home page, or point your browser to www.amsatsa.org.za.
On 14 January 2019, a letter was sent to Club Chairmen about the VHF/UHF Workshop, but to date the organisers have received no feedback from Clubs. The information on www.sarl.org.za/public/local/ClubsList.asp was used to contact Clubs.
THE SARL RESPONDS TO ICASA
The SARL responds to the ICASA Draft Conformity Assessment Framework for equipment authorisation. The SARL Regulatory Work Group met on a two hour Skype meeting this week to review the draft Conformity Assessment Framework which is aimed at simplifying type approval and paving the way forward for the development of an exemption from the type approval protocol. The latter will be part of a separate discussion during ICASA's 2019/2020 financial year. The group developed the SARL response to the document which will be submitted to ICASA before the 30 January 2019 deadline.
BEACHES ON THE AIR (BOTA)
Sidney Friedman, ZS5SID has compiled a list of Blue Flag beaches in South Africa and submitted the list to Beaches on the Air. The list covers beaches on the Northern Cape, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The KZN listing is complete and the other three provinces will be added soon. To activate a beach, you must advertise the activation on the BOTA Group Facebook Page, make a minimum of 10 QSOs and submit your log together with photographic evidence of the activation. Visit www.beachesontheair.com for more information.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Amateur Radio League.
REPORTS NEEDED ON AN 80 M WSPR BEACON
Lindsay Magnus, ZS1LGM requests radio amateurs in and around Gauteng to monitor his 80 m WSPR beacon at 3,57002 MHz. He is testing a novel antenna configuration and will release more detail about the antenna if the tests are successful. If you have not monitored WSPR before, you will need the WSJTX software and set to mode WSPR with your rig tuned to 3,5686 MHz USB. The WSPR signals are then between 1,4 and 1,6 kHz of your audio baseband. Your PC clock does need to be accurate for the decoding to work so please be sure to use NTP to set the clock. Please send reports to ZS1LGM.QSO@gmail.com. The WSJTX URL is on the SARL home page.
THE FEBRUARY 2019 ISSUE OF RADIO ZS
The February 2019 issue will be available for download from Tuesday 29 January (unless the editor suddenly gets another article!) In this 48 page issue the question is asked - should the South African Women's Radio Club not be reactivated? Read the history of the SAWRC on page 12. Werner, V51JP tells about his holiday in Germany and Mat Erasmus shows how to build an antenna control box. The Belgian team give their views on the 2018 Youngsters on the Air Winter Camp and AMSAT is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a number of awards. In the VHF News column, we look at bouncing radio signals off aircraft and VHF Contesting and SOTA. And there is more in this issue.
TWO CONTESTS NEXT WEEKEND
Clubs hosting the local contests are once again reminded to provide the relevant information to SARL News at least a week before the contest takes place. Nothing was received for the PEARS VHF/UHF contest, the Summer QRP contest, the VHF/UHF QSO Party or the AWA CW Activity Day.
The SARL VHF / UHF QSO Party is a fun activity on the simplex frequencies of the VHF and UHF bands, providing activity for FM stations to test operator ability and station performance on simplex. Get beginners on the air without using a repeater, to have FUN on VHF and UHF. The first leg of the QSO Party will take place from 12:00 to 16:00 UTC on Saturday 2 February 2019 and all FM simplex frequencies on 6, 4 and 2 meters, 70 and 23 cm as per band plan may be used. Log sheets shall be submitted by 11 February 2019 by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za. All the log sheets will be entered into a lucky draw.
The aim of the Antique Wireless Association CW Activity Day is for participants to contact as many amateurs as possible with activity between 14 000 and 14 060 kHz; 7 000 and 7 040 kHz, and 3 510 and 3 560 kHz, and takes to the air from 13:00 – 15:00 UTC on Sunday 3 February 2019. The exchange is an RST report, you name and your Grid Square locator. Log sheets must be submitted by Monday 18 February 2019 to andyzs6ady@vodamail.co.za
Get the complete rules in the 2019 SARL Blue Book.
EAST RAND RADIO CLUB FLEA MARKET
The East Rand Radio Club have their first flea market from 12:00 on Saturday 2 February 2019 at the Clubhouse in Ebenezer Road, Arrowe Park, Benoni. Do not miss out on any specials. To book a table at R20, contact Judy at 079 730 2030 or send an e-mail to zs6erb@gmail.com. The best boerewors rolls ever and nice cold beverages will be on sale.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. Currently only a single, small sunspot that poses no threat of solar flaring is visible. 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 metre bands may provide some DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
31 January – the closing date for Nominations for Council, SARL Awards and AGM Motions.
2 February – The SARL VHF/UHF QSO Party.
3 February – the AWA CW Activity Day.
4 February – the closing date for Summer QRP Logs.
9 February – the VHF/UHF workshop at the NARC.
9 and 10 February – the National Field Day, the CQ WPX RTTY and the PACC contests.
13 February – World Radio Day.
15 February – the closing date for PEARS VHF Logs.
16 and 17 February – the ARRL DX CW Contest.
18 February – the closing date for National Field Day and AWA CW Activity Day logs.
28 February – end of early bird bookings for the Space Symposium and closing date for SARL Hall of Fame nominations.
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The closing date for nominations for SARL Awards and trophies, motions for discussion at the AGM and nominations to serve on Council closes at midnight on Thursday 31 January 2019.
You are referred to pages 14, 15 and 16 of the December Radio ZS as well as the SARL Communication dated 31 December 2018 for a list of the SARL Awards and Trophies that will be handed out during the Awards Dinner.
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 Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY, edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
