SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 17 FEBRUARY 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:
BEACHES ON THE AIR
ZS4A FIRST TO RECEIVE SIGNALS FROM OSCAR 100
and
WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
BEACHES ON THE AIR
Sidney, ZS5SID will be activating South Beach, Durban (36929) today Sunday 17 February with activity on 40 metre SSB for the first South African Beach on the Air. Listen out for him and make a QSO. Find out more about Beaches on the Air at www.beachesontheair.com
ZS4A FIRST TO RECEIVE SIGNALS FROM OSCAR 100
Rickus de Lange, ZS4A in Bethlehem was the first station in South Africa to report having monitor QSOs on Qatar OSCAR 100. Rickus pointed his dish skywards and on the eve of the official inauguration of Es’hailsat on 14 February monitored QSOs from the geostationary satellite. Listen to Rickus' recording on www.amsatsa.org.za.
Es’hailsat has been one of the major discussions on the agenda of the AMSAT Space Symposiums over the past two years with Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP providing details of how to set up an inexpensive ground station. The subject will again be on the agenda on 16 March 2019 when Hannes will show the final version of his ground station and make some QSOs during a live demonstration. For this alone do not miss the 2019 Space Symposium to be held on 16 March 2019 in Midrand. There are many other interesting presentations and demonstrations on the agenda. It is an event not to be missed. For details and a registration form visit www.amsatsa.org.za or follow the link from the SARL home page.
AMSAT SA is also proud to announce that AMSAT SA Space Symposium 2019 is being validated by the SAIEE, as per ECSA Policy, under validation no. SAIEE- 2479-V
Es’hailsat is the first geostationary satellite to cover Africa, Europe and the Middle East providing DX opportunities 24 hours per day. The transponder was built by AMSAT DL in Germany and is being managed by the Qatar Amateur Radio Society.
THE SARL RTTY CONTEST NEXT SUNDAY
The SARL RTTY contest is open to all radio amateurs in Southern Africa and encourages QSOs using RTTY. The contest takes place from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC on Sunday 24 February 2019 with activity on 80, 40 and 20 metres. The exchange is an RST report and your grid square (e.g. KF26) and you may work a station once per band. QSOs with stations in Southern Africa are worth 3 points and QSOs with DX stations are worth 1 point. Your log must be submitted by 4 March to contest@sarl.org.za. The full set of rules can be found on page 34 of the 2019 SARL Blue Book. Set yourself a goal – Worked all ZS, the 2019 Worked Zone 39 and/or Worked all Grid Squares on RTTY!
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
RADIO AMATEUR LONE YACHTSWOMAN
At 16:33 UTC on 14 February 2019, radio amateur Jeanne Socrates, VE0JS reached another milestone that no other seventy-year olds have. The 76-year old passed the longitude of Cape Agulhas 20°00´ E, in her yacht SV Nereida. She never saw the most southern tip of Africa, 530 kilometres to the north, as she ploughed on towards Australia and New Zealand.
Many amateur radio operators have shared time with Jeanne, who makes a point of communicating by amateur radio. As she travels the Southern Oceans, she is in contact with numerous amateurs. Details of current skeds are on her QRZ.com page.
She is partway into her non-stop voyage leaving the World’s southern capes to the North! With Cape Horn under her belt and now Cape Agulhas, the next waypoint is the longitude of Cape Leeuwin, in Western Australia. She is attempting to be the oldest woman to achieve this incredible feat, despite having completed this voyage at the age of 73! Her blog can be found at https://svnereida.com/blog. The other marks are the longitude of South East Cape, Tasmania and Southeast Cape, Stewart Island, NZ.
(Thank you, Tom Morgan, ZS1AFS)
THE WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT
There is a trophy in the cupboard at the NARC called the SARL 80 metre Club Championship trophy that has not been in use for some time. It has been decided to put this trophy back to work. The Wednesday 80 metre Club Sprint is a CW and Phone sprint and the scores of individual operators are added together to get the Club score. The Club with the highest score after the five (5) sprints will be awarded the SARL 80 metre Club Championship Trophy. Also, to encourage amateurs to achieve their Worked All ZS, Worked All Grid Squares and/or 2019 Worked Zone 39 on 80 metres. The Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint will run from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC on the third Wednesday of the month - 20 March; 15 May; 17 July; 18 September and 20 November. The rules will appear in the March 2018 Radio ZS and will be sent to Clubs for their news bulletins.
RESULTS OF THE QRP CONTEST
The Contest committee received 7 logs for the QRP Contest held on Saturday 26 January 2019. The results of the contest are:
1st The West Rand Amateur Radio Club, ZS6WR - 366 points.
2nd The Bo-Karoo Amateur Radio Club, ZS3VDK - 180 points.
3rd Volker Otto, ZS3Y - 96 points.
WEST RAND ARC FLEA MARKET
The West Rand Amateur radio club is hosting its next flea market at 12:00 on Saturday 23 February 2019 at their clubhouse in Kroton Street, Weltevreden Park, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. Bring your surplus and support the vendor on the day. For more information contact Phillip, ZS6PVT on 083-267-3835.
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. The 15 to 30 metre bands will provide some DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
Today – Beaches on the Air and the ARRL DX CW Contest.
18 February – the closing date for National Field Day and AWA CW log sheets.
22 February – the closing date for articles for the March Radio ZS.
23 February – the West Rand ARC Flea Market.
24 February – the SARL RTTY contest.
27 February – International Milk Tart Day.
28 February – end of early bird bookings for the Space Symposium and closing date for SARL Hall of Fame nominations.
2 and 3 March – the ARRL DX Phone Contest.
3 March – the SARL Hamnet 40 m contest.
4 March – the closing date for RTTY contest logs.
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
Sidney, ZS5SID will be activating South Beach, Durban (36929) today Sunday 17 February with activity on 40 metre SSB for the first South African Beach on the Air. Listen out for him and make a QSO. Find out more about Beaches on the Air at www.beachesontheair.com
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
