SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 3 MARCH 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:
THE SARL HAMNET 40 M CONTEST THIS AFTERNOON
THE 2019 AGM BOOKLET IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
and
RADIO AMATEUR YOUNG LADIES VOICES OF THE WORLD NEEDED
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE SARL HAMNET 40 M CONTEST THIS AFTERNOON
The SARL Hamnet 40 m contest is a phone contest and is open to all radio amateurs in most of CQ Zone 38. 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.
Log sheets must be submitted by 10 March 2019 by e-mail to contest@peham.co.za. Please read the full set of Rules on page 36 of the 2019 SARL Blue Book before the contest starts this afternoon.
THE 2019 DAY OF THE RADIO AMATEUR
The 2019 AGM Booklet can be downloaded from the front page of the League web site. You will find all you need for the weekend in the Booklet the draft programme for the SARL Symposium as well as the previous minutes, financial reports, the subscriptions for the new financial year and the motions for the AGM. The registration form for the various activities is available in the Booklet as well as a separate document on the web site.
Registration for the SARL AGM will start at 07:00 on Saturday morning 13 April at the Datavoice Auditorium in the Technopark. At 09:00 we plan to take a group photograph of all the delegates and the AGM will start at 09:30. The partners will be visiting JC le Roux for champagne and nougat tasting. After lunch, you can join the ZS SOTA meeting or the VHF/UHF meeting. Where are the satellite enthusiasts? At 15:30 the wine tasting at Blaauwklippen will start.
The SARL Awards Dinner will be held at the Stellenbosch Golf Club next to the Technopark on Saturday evening. The guest speaker will be Sias Mostert, the chairman of the SCS Aerospace Group. In the AGM Booklet, you will find a list of recipients for the various SARL Awards and Trophies. Thank you to those recipients who have notified the League Secretary of their attendance or arrangement for their awards.
MULTICHOICE TAKES UP GOLD AMSAT SA SPONSORSHIP
MultiChoice has become a gold sponsor of the AMSAT SA Space Symposium which will be held in Midrand on 16 March 2019. Registration is still open at the early bird rate with savings for SARL and AMSAT SA members. The early bird registration has been extended till 5 March 2019. The symposium features topics on various aspects of satellite communication, many with practical demonstrations. There are also great prizes to be won sponsored by Sam's Radio and RS components. For details and registration go to www.amsatsa.org.za or follow the link from the SARL home page.
THE MARCH 2019 RADIO ZS AVAILABLE FOR ALL
The Council has decided to make the March 2019 issue of Radio ZS available to all radio amateurs in Southern Africa. Go to the front page of the League web site at www.sarl.org.za and click on the link to download your copy.
THE 2019 CRICKET WORLD CUP
The RSGB is pleased to invite all radio amateurs across the world to join us in celebrating the Cricket World Cup which is being held in England and Wales in 2019. We are organising an International Amateur Radio Marathon for the duration of the competition. The marathon will run from 30 May 2019 to 14 July 2019 and UK and International call signs will be activated on 9 HF bands using SSB, CW and Digital modes. A series of award certificates will be offered based on the number of QSOs made with the special UK and International stations. We are inviting other countries to take part and to activate special call signs with the suffix 19CWC or similar.
The RSGB have released the 31 call signs to be used in England and Wales during the Cricket World Cup, some of them are GB19CWC 2019 Cricket World Cup HQ England; GB19OT Old Trafford, Manchester; GB19HL Headingley, Leeds; GB19EB Edgbaston, Birmingham; GB19LL Lord's, London; GB19AUS Australia; GB19IND India; GB19NZ New Zealand; GB19SA South Africa and GB19SL Sri Lanka.
Is there a South African Radio Club who wants to apply for ZS19CWC and participate in the Cricket World Cup Amateur Radio Marathon? ZS19CWC in QSO with GB19SA.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
RADIO AMATEUR YOUNG LADIES VOICES OF THE WORLD NEEDED
Let your voice be heard in a special music composition by Neli Pantsutaia for the Royal Danish Academy of Music festival taking place in Finland on 9 March 2019 the day after World Womans Day. Neli would like all young ladies who are radio amateurs to send a recording of their voices. The recording is simple, all you need to do is to record CQ CQ, your call sign and your name. Save it in MP3 and send it to neli.pantsulaia@tsc.edu.ge or send a WhatsApp voice note to 0045 91564744. The piece will be performed live by Petra Larson OZ7PR and Inger Lundin OZ7AGR of Denmark.
The project is part of PULSAR 2019 which asks what it is that new music translates. Morse code is intrinsically a translation, Morse is communication, but also rhythm and music. This connection is explored in the project ON/OFF. Can this technologically primitive method of communication be seen as a parallel to the revival of the LPs and cassette tapes within the field of music? Radio Amateurs in live contexts, mimes, dancers, performers, and musicians are integrated in installations and musical works at two ON/OFF events, the opening concert on Thursday 7 March, and the concert and related activities on Saturday 9 March. The tower of the radio house will function as a landmark for PULSAR 2019. During the festival, it will beam blinking signals in Morse code as a luminous musical work. If you need assistance call Anette Jacobs at 073 199 9032.
SABS TC-73 MADE AWARE OF POTENTIAL INTERFERENCE FOR CHARGING SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES
The SARL made a presentation to members of the SABS Technical Committee, TC-73, on the potential interference that Wireless Power Transfer systems for the charging of electric vehicles may cause on the HF bands. The committee discussed the possible implications and supported the SARL call to place the matter formally on the agenda of Work Group 1 which will further review the potential of interference and report back at the next meeting of TC-73 which will be held at the end of May. The May TC-73 meeting will formulate South Africa's official position when the matter is discussed at the CISPR meeting in China in mid-October this year.
Hans van de Groenendaal who made the presentation said that he was encouraged by the positive support during the discussion. While the number of electric vehicles in South Africa is currently low, the potential of a rapid increase is great. Shell recently announced that it will be installing charging facilities on a large number of their forecourts and two major motor vehicle manufactures have already installed charging system in their showrooms.
Some discussions in CEPT suggest that the existing spurious emission limits for inductive SRDs are appropriate but these were developed on a wholly different set of assumptions about duty cycle, location and whether victim and emitter share the same frequency. These standards are not appropriate for WPT which has a high duty cycle with power up to 22 kilowatt, located in residential areas and its harmonics are likely to be spread across a band of frequencies.
THREE CONTESTS NEXT WEEKEND
On Saturday 9 March, you can participate in the first leg of the SARL YL Sprint. Each year on 8 March, International Women's Day is celebrated. The YL Sprint will run from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC with phone activity on 40 metres. A YL received 5 points for a QSO with another YL and 3 points for a QSO with an OM. A note to certain male contesters - the YL Sprint can only be won by the ladies.
The first leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Analogue contest is on the air from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 9 March to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 10 March with SSB, AM, FM and CW activity on 6, 4 and 2 metres, 70 and 23 cm and higher. Why not combine the VHF contest with some SOTA Activity. Find the complete set of rules for these two contests in the 2019 SARL Blue Book.
The 82nd RSGB Commonwealth Contest is a CW only contest which runs from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 9 March to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 10 March with activity on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres. There is also a Team competition and such a team consists of up to five stations. Get the contest rules at https://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2019/rberu.shtml
THE OVERBERG ARC AGM
The Overberg Amateur Radio Club will be holding their AGM on 9 March at Stanford at the QTH of John, ZS1DI and Judy, ZS1JEG. The meeting will start at 10:30 and the braai fires will be going just after the meeting. There will be the usual bring and braai and wood will be supplied. Contact Andre, ZS1AZ, for further information at 072 729 1680 or 028 514 2018 if the mobile does not work. He can also be contacted at andre@zs1az.co.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 good DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
Today the SARL Hamnet 40 m contest and the ARRL DX Phone Contest.
4 March the closing date for RTTY contest logs.
5 March closing of early bird registration for the Space Symposium.
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 the 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 Hamnet 40 m contest is a phone contest and is open to all radio amateurs in most of CQ Zone 38. 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. Please read the full set of Rules on page 36 of the 2019 SARL Blue Book before the contest starts this afternoon.
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 and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
