Why does one only see the error in the date after the bulletin has been posted?
SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 17 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.
We begin the bulletin with news of five silent keys.
It is with deep regret that we announce that the keys of Viv Moore, ZS2VM; Wolfram Wagner, ZS6KE, and Francois de Villiers, ZR1ACF went silent in the past week. Viv passed away on 7 March, Wolfram on 9 March and Francois on 11 March.
We extend our sincere condolences to Wolfram’s wife Elke and to the family and friends of these three radio amateurs.
It is with deep regret that we announce that the key Marie Aline Gosselin, ZR6MAG went silent on 22 February 2019 after a very devastating cancer took her away.
We extend our sincere condolences to Gaelle, ZR6GAG, Rene Paul ZS6GBJ, Gwendolyne and four grandchildren, family and friends.
The founder of the G QRP Club and Amateur Radio author, the Rev George Dobbs, G3RJV, of Littleborough, England, died on March 11 at the age of 75. Dobbs was reported to have been in ill health for some time and had been living in a care facility, where his condition recently deteriorated.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
SARL SHIRTS AVAILABLE
THE VENUE FOR THE AWARDS DINNER CHANGED
and
GREECE IS THE LATEST NEWCOMER TO 60 M
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE WEDNESDAY 80 METRE CLUB SPRINT
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. 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.
SARL SHIRTS AVAILABLE
Louw, ZS6LME is running a project to provide a neat SARL shirt for SARL Members and there is enough stock at the supplier from Extra Small to 5 Extra Large! The short-sleeved shirt costs R345-00 while the long-sleeved shirt costs R380-00, both shirts have the SARL logo embroidered on them. A name tag is available at 55-00. Photos of the shirts and the name tag can be seen on the SARL forum and the SARL Facebook page.
Please order as follows: send an e-mail zs6lme@gmail.com and confirm how many short or long-sleeved shirts are ordered and indicate if you want a name tag. Confirm your nearest POSTNET address for delivery - cost R100-00 extra. Pay the correct amount in the following account - Erasmus Ing Trust account at ABSA, account number 40 4947 8830 and in the reference: B52 plus your call sign. Delivery is about 3 weeks after receipt of payment.
If you are in the Pretoria area and you want to collect the shirt (s), please report it in your e-mail and an appropriate arrangement can be made to collect it to save POSTNET costs. If you are in the Johannesburg area, it can be arranged that the shirt(s) can be collected at the NARC. It is possible to place an order for delivery at the upcoming AGM in Stellenbosch. Simply indicate this on the email when placing the order. If you have any queries, please call Louw, ZS6LME on 082 552 6859
GREECE IS THE LATEST NEWCOMER TO 60 M
A ministerial decision dated 26 February 2019 published in the government gazette of 5 March 2019 introduced a new Frequency Allocation Table for Greece. It authorizes amateur radio use of 5 351.5 – 5 366.5 kHz on a secondary basis at 15 W EIRP under the ITU 60 m amateur allocation decision of WRC-15. A list of the World Wide 60 m allocations can be found on the Band Plan page of the League website at www.sarl.org.za.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Radio League.
THE 2019 DAY OF THE RADIO AMATEUR
The venue for the SARL Awards Dinner on Saturday evening 13 April has changed. The new venue is the Devonvale Golf Estate in Bottelary Road, Stellenbosch. The venue has seating for 100 guests; to date 79 seats have already been booked.
You can download the Registration form, the 2019 AGM Booklet and the proxy form from the front page of the League web site. In the AGM Booklet you will find the minutes of the 2018 AGM, the financial reports and accounts, the proposed budget for 2019/2020, the subscriptions for the 2019/2020 financial year and the three motions to be discussed at the AGM. To date only 37 copies of the Booklet have been downloaded.
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. There are still 5 places open for the partners visit to JC le Roux for champagne and Nougat tasting.
It is important that you attend the AGM in person or via a proxy, as the various reports and financial items must be considered and voted on. If you cannot attend the AGM, please arrange with a member who is attending to carry your proxy vote. If we do not have a quorum by 09:30 on 13 April, no meeting can take place.
THE FCC REQUESTING COMMENTS ON TWO AMATEUR RADIO LICENSE PROPOSALS
The ARRL reports the FCC has invited public comments on two separate proposals on amateur radio licensing. One is the ARRL’s 2018 Petition for Rule Making, which asks the FCC to expand HF privileges for Technician licensees to include limited phone privileges on 75, 40, and 15 meters, plus RTTY and digital mode privileges on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters. The ARRL is proposing Technician holders have 200 watts PEP output in the additional allocations.
The other proposal is RM-11829, asking the FCC to create a “Tyro” license class that would require a minimal online examination as well as mentoring by an Amateur Radio licensee of Technician class or higher. A “tyro” is a novice or a beginner. Read the full ARRL story at
www.arrl.org/news/
KARTS AGM
The Kempton Park Amateur Radio Technical Society held their AGM on Saturday 9 March and the following members were elected to the committee.
Chairman: Stephen Stuttard, ZS6SKY
Vice Chairman: Corrie de Beer, ZS6CDB
Secretary: vacant
Treasurer: Barry Els, ZS6OY
Technical Manager: Tamsanqwa Semela, ZS6MOZ
Echolink and Webmaster: Johan Nortje, ZS6NJJ
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. With the equinox on its way the 15 to 30 m bands will provide some good DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
19 March – the Highway ARC monthly meeting.
20 March – the Autumn Equinox and the first Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint.
21 March - Human Right’s Day.
26 March – the closing date for your article for the April Radio ZS.
30 and 31 March – the CQ WPX SSB Contest.
1 April – the closing date for VHF/UHF Analogue logs.
2 April – the Provincial schools re-open.
4 April – the SARL 80 m QSO Party.
6 April – the RaDAR Challenge and the Pretoria ARC Flea market.
6 and 7 April – the SARL VHF/UHF Digital 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. 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 Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
