SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 10 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 WEDNESDAY 80 METRE CLUB SPRINT
LAST CHANCE TO BOOK FOR THE AMSAT SA SPACE SYMPOSIUM
and
TECHNICAL PAPER RAISES VISIBILITY OF WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION INTERFERENCE POTENTIAL
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE WEDNESDAY 80 METRE CLUB SPRINT
This is a CW and Phone sprint and the scores of individual operators are added together to get the Club score - the Club station may not participate. The Club with the highest score after the five (5) sprints will be awarded the 2019 SARL 80 metre Club Championship Trophy. It is also to encourage amateurs to achieve their Worked All ZS, Worked All Grid Squares and/or 2019 Worked Zone 39 on 80 metres.
The first Wednesday 80 metre Club Sprint will be on the air from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC on Wednesday 20 March with CW and phone activity on 3 510 to 3 570 kHz; 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 750 kHz. Please note, no contest activity between 3 651 and 3 699.99kHz! The exchange is a RS or RST report and your 4 symbol grid square (e.g. KG30).
You score 2 points for every QSO, with 5 points for the first QSO with each ZS call area (ZS1 to ZS8) and each country outside South Africa. Log sheets in MS Excel format ONLY must be submitted by midnight Wednesday 27 March to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za. The name of the operators Club must be shown on the log sheet. An MS Excel log and summary sheet is available on the Contest page of the League web site.
LAST CHANCE TO BOOK FOR THE AMSAT SA SPACE SYMPOSIUM
The AMSAT SA Space Symposium registration closing date is Thursday 14 March 2019. Join delegates from Gauteng, Namibia, Western Cape and KwaZulu - Natal for this technology event that will take your amateur radio experience to a higher level. The symposium will be held at the Premier Midrand Hotel on Saturday 16 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.
PAY YOUR AMATEUR RADIO LICENCE FEE TO ICASA
The amateur radio licence renewal process is on the go and you can select one of five options - one year for R148, two years for R283, three years for R406, four years for R517, or five years for R617. If you opt for the five-year licence, state on the EFT, 5 Year licence and your call sign and send a proof of payment of the EFT to dkuhrau@icasa.org.za.
The correct account for your ICASA Licence Fee is: NEDBANK Account number: 14 62 00 29 27, Branch Code: 146245 - Corporate Client Services - Pretoria and in the reference field type in your licence number and call sign. DO NOT pay the licence fee to the SARL.
WIN A RASPBERRY PI
If you are 25 years or under, take part in the Hobby-X competition. You could become the lucky owner of a Raspberry Pi kit sponsored by RS components. Simply log on to the URL given on the SARL home page, or found on the SARL Hobby-X stand, complete the information and answer two easy questions. The closing date is 17:00 CAT on Friday 15 March. Watch next week's SARL News for a competition for the over 25's.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Radio League.
TECHNICAL PAPER RAISES VISIBILITY OF WIRELESS POWER TRANSMISSION INTERFERENCE POTENTIAL
A technical paper drafted by IARU Region 1 President Don Beattie, G3BJ is the latest official step to increase the visibility of wireless power transmission (WPT) systems' interference threat to Amateur Radio. Submitted to the Region 1 Interim Meeting, set for 27 and 28 April in Vienna, the Paper will update relevant committees on the topic. Beattie's paper offers an impact analysis of WPT-electric vehicle (WPT-EV) systems on Amateur Radio communications, with a primary focus on WPT systems operating in the 79 - 90 kHz range.
"The IARU engaged with discussions with the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) on WPT in 2017," G3BJ's 20-page discussion notes. The paper warns of "a widespread and serious impact on radio communications operating in the vicinity" of WPT systems if spurious emissions measured at a distance of 10 meters are at current CEPT Recommendation 74-01E and ITU Radiocommunication Sector Recommendation SM.329-12 limits, "given the planned density of WPT-Electric Vehicle Systems." Both the CEPT and ITU recommendations address "unwanted emissions in the spurious domain."
An IARU study of WPT-EV and its potential impact on radiocommunications services already has been submitted to the relevant ITU and CEPT study committees. Broadcasters, land mobile services and others have also expressed concern about spurious WPT-EV emissions. The study stops short of proposing any regulatory action. "This, therefore, is the next challenge - to seek to bridge the divide between WPT manufacturers and the radiocommunications services," the paper concluded.
The Papers to be discussed at the Region 1 Interim Meeting can be found at https://vienna.iaru-r1.org/conference-documents/. Your comments and concerns can be sent to Dennis, ZS4BS for C3 Papers; Geoff, ZS6C for C4 Papers; Rassie, ZS1YT for C5 Papers and Hans, ZS6AKV for C7 Papers. There are some interesting Papers in C4 and C5.
RESULTS OF THE SARL NATIONAL FIELD DAY
The contest Committee received 13 logs and 1 check log for the February leg of the SARL National Field Day. The results are as follows:
Class A
1st the West Rand ARC, ZS6WR - 104 928 points.
2nd the Highway ARC - 87 240 points.
3rd the Sandton ARC ZS6STN - 31 320 points.
Class C
1st Dave Higgs, ZS2DH - 7 056 points.
Class D
1st Johannes van Zijl, ZS4DZ - 18 386 points.
Class E
1st Theunis Potgieter, ZS2EC - 7 854 points.
Class F
1st the Bo Karoo ARC, ZS6/ZS3VDK - 9 540 points.
2nd Woody Collett, ZS3WL - 5 648 points.
3rd Anthony Rouquette, ZS6ANT - 944 points
The check log was received from Bruce Dunn, ZS5XT. Congratulations to the various section winners; the full set of results can be found on the Contest page of the League website.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. Currently there is a single, small sunspot visible. This sunspot was the source of a C-class flare. More C-class flares may be produced during the course of the week. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around one. With the equinox on its way 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 VHF/UHF Analogue contest and the 82nd RSGB Commonwealth contest.
11 March the closing date for Hamnet logs.
14 March the closing date for the Space Symposium registration.
15 March at 17:00 the closing date for the Under 25 Win a Raspberry Pi competition.
16 March - AMSAT SA Space Symposium and the closing date for YL Sprint logs.
20 March the Autumn Equinox and the first Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint.
21 March - SA Human Rights Day.
26 the closing date for your article for the April Radio ZS.
30 and 31 March the CQ WPX SSB Contest.
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The first Wednesday 80 metre Club Sprint will be on the air from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC on Wednesday 20 March with CW and phone activity on 3 510 to 3 570 kHz; 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 750 kHz. Please note no contest activity between 3 651 and 3 699.99kHz! The exchange is a RS or RST report and your 4 symbol grid square (e.g. KG30).
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
