SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 24 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.

We begin the bulletin with news of two silent keys.

It is with deep regret that we announce that the keys of Charl Cilliers, ZS1RE of Kuilsrivier, and Nick van Rensburg, ZS6NVR of Potchefstroom, went silent in the past week. Charl was always active on the repeaters in the Western Cape. Nick will be remembered as a good friend and radio amateur by his friends and Club members.

We extend our sincere condolences to their families and friends, and we think of Nick’s wife Issie and their son Wouter.

PAUSE

In the news, today:

THE SARL RTTY CONTEST THIS AFTERNOON

EXPERIENCE THE FIRST AMATEUR RADIO GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE

and

THE SARL HAMNET 40 M SIMULATED EMERGENCY CONTEST NEXT SUNDAY

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

THE SARL RTTY CONTEST THIS AFTERNOON

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 this afternoon with activity on 80, 40 and 20 metres. The exchange is an RST report and your grid square (e.g. KG41) and you may work a station only 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!

THE 2019 DAY OF THE RADIO AMATEUR

Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology. On 13 April the SARL will be presenting a symposium in Stellenbosch entitled, Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology. This a call for papers. If you are interested in sharing your knowledge and experience in new Amateur Radio technologies, please submit a short synopsis by 28 February 2019. Address your proposal to Deon Coetzee at pcoetzee715@gmail.com

Registration for the SARL AGM will start at 07:00 on Saturday morning 13 April at the Datavoice Auditorium in the Technopark with the AGM starting at 09:30. While the AGM is in session, the partners will be visiting JC le Roux for a champagne and nougat tasting. During the afternoon you can attend a cellar tour at Blaauwklippen or attend the meeting of ZS SOTA. Other interest groups are welcome to arrange meetings during the afternoon, please notify the League Secretary of the meeting for the programme.

The SARL Awards Dinner will be held at the Stellenbosch Golf Club next to the Technopark on Saturday evening. The Boland ARC suggests that members from out of town make use of AirBNB and other such web sites to book accommodation in Stellenbosch for the weekend.

The 2019 AGM Booklet will be made available for download on Friday 1 March 2019. This document will contain all the AGM information as well as the awards and trophies that will be presented at the Awards Dinner.

EXPERIENCE THE FIRST AMATEUR RADIO GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE

Imagine working DX to many parts of the world, 24 hours a day, with an antenna not larger than a DSTV dish. To get first hand exposure and access to information on how to build an inexpensive ground station register for the AMSAT SA Space symposium. It will be held on 16 March 2019 in Midrand, Gauteng. Full details, the programme and the registration form are available at www.amsatsa.org.za. Many other papers will be presented, many with practical demonstrations. There are great attendance prizes to be won by courtesy of Sam's Radio. 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 number SAIEE- 2479-V.

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

WORKED ALL STATES ON 60 M

Andre Botes, ZS2ACP reports that it took him 55 minutes to work the 50 US States on 60 metres using FT8 for his Worked All States award. And the first South African amateur to achieve WAS on 60 metres. Well done Andre!

THE MARCH 2019 ISSUE OF RADIO ZS

The March 2019 issue of Radio will be available for download from Monday 25 February 2019. In this issue you can read about the Northern Cape ARC celebrating their 10th birthday, charging electric cars not being without their challenges, and a review of the HT-1A 20/40 m dual band CW QRP transceiver. In Satellite News, you can read about the successful launch of Es'hail Sat; in VHF/UHF News we look at the myth of VHF Line-Of-Sight; and we show you what to do with those old phone chargers. We look at a rain-gutter loop antenna and publish the rules of the new Wednesday 80 m sprint. This and more in the March 2019 Radio ZS.

THE SARL HAMNET 40 M SIMULATED EMERGENCY CONTEST NEXT SUNDAY

The SARL Hamnet 40 m contest is a SSB contest and is open to all Radio Amateurs in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lesotho, Marion Island and South African Antarctica and only QSOs with these areas will count. The contest takes place from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC on Sunday 3 March 2019, with phone activity in the band segments 7 063 to 7 100 kHz and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz.

You can participate as a single operator stationary mobile station; a single operator portable station; a multi-operator portable station or a single operator base station. The exchange is a RS report followed by a three-figure number as per category of participation. The scoring consists of points accumulated from all contacts, multiplied by a multiplier. The multiplier consists of the number of call areas worked, multiplied by a power multiplier.

Log sheets must be submitted by 10 March 2019 by e-mail to contest@peham.co.za. Get the full set of rules on page 36 of the 2019 SARL Blue Book.

OTHER CONTESTING IN MARCH

The first leg of the SARL YL Sprint is to celebrate International Women’s Day (8 March each year) and will be on the air from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC on Saturday 9 March 2019. On the weekend of 9 and 10 March, you can also participate in the SARL VHF/UHF Analogue contest, and for the CW fraternity there is the 82nd RSGB Commonwealth contest. On Wednesday 20 March, the first Wednesday 80 m sprint will be run from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC. See page 36 of the March Radio ZS for the rules.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS

The SARL has received membership applications from Rehan Nieuwoudt, ZS1RWN; Heather Holland, ZS5YH and Gabriël Marais, ZS6GJM. Any objections to these membership applications must reach the League Secretary before the Wednesday following this bulletin. Please send your objections to secretary@sarl.org.za

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 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:

Today – the SARL RTTY contest.
27 February – International Milk Tart Day.
28 February - International Heartburn Day
28 February – end of early bird bookings for the Space Symposium; closing date for SARL Hall of Fame nominations and the closing date for an SARL Symposium paper synopsis.
1 March – 2019 SARL AGM Booklet made available.
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.
9 March – the SARL YL Sprint.
9 and 10 March – the SARL VHF/UHF Analogue contest and the 82nd RSGB Commonwealth Contest.
11 March – closing date for SARL Hamnet logs.
16 March – AMSATSA Space Symposium.
20 March – the SARL Wednesday 80 m sprint.

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

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 this afternoon with activity on 80, 40 and 20 metres. The exchange is an RST report and your grid square (e.g. KG41) and you may work a station only once per band. The full set of rules can be found on page 34 of the 2019 SARL Blue Book.

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 Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by ..............

From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.

/EX