SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 21 APRIL 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 ZS4 SPRINT THIS AFTERNOON
IARU ARGUES FOR PROTECTION FROM WPT SPURIOUS EMISSIONS
and
INTERNATIONAL MARCONI DAY
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE ZS4 SPRINT THIS AFTERNOON
The ZS4 Sprint will run from 14:00 to 16:00 UTC this afternoon, Sunday 21 April with phone activity during the first hour and CW activity during the second hour. ZS4 stations will give a RS or RST and the name of their town while all other stations will give a RS or RST report and their province or country name. Phone activity between 14:00 - 15:00 UTC takes place between 7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz while CW activity between 15:00 - 16:00 UTC takes place between 7 000 to 7 040 kHz. Log sheets in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel and labelled “my call sign ZS4 Sprint,” must be submitted by 29 April 2019 by e-mail to zs4srk@gmail.com. The MS Excel log sheet can be downloaded from the Contest Page on the League web site.
THE IARU ARGUES FOR PROTECTION FROM WPT SPURIOUS EMISSIONS
The IARU was again represented at the meeting last week in Ankara, Turkey, where committee SE24 (Short Range Devices) met to undertake further work on the Work Item concerning Wireless Power Transmission. SE24 is considering both WPT for electric vehicles and also generic WPT applications. The IARU has made extensive input on the potential impact on radio communications from spurious emissions from WPT devices and much of this is captured in CEPT ECC Report 289, published earlier this year.
At the Ankara meeting further input was made by the IARU and other interested parties and there will be a meeting of SE24 dedicated to WPT issues in early July. Also, in Ankara, the IARU attended the SRD Maintenance Group meeting (SRD/MG) where it was noted that further work was needed in SE24 before spurious emission limits for WPT devices could be addressed in a regulatory sense. The IARU was represented in Ankara by Don Beattie G3BJ, Region 1 President, who is leading the IARU work on WPT.
ASTRONAUT AND PIONEER FOR AMATEUR RADIO IN SPACE OWEN GARRIOTT, W5LFL, SK
Owen K. Garriott, W5LFL, the US astronaut who pioneered the use of Amateur Radio to make contacts from space, died on 15 April at his home in Huntsville, Alabama. He was 88. Garriott's amateur radio activity ushered in the formal establishment of Amateur Radio in space, first as SAREX (the Shuttle Amateur Radio Experiment), and later as ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station).
"Owen inspired legions of Amateur Radio operators worldwide to support human spaceflight Amateur Radio endeavours and for countless individuals to become amateur radio operators," observed ARISS-International President Frank Bauer, KA3HDO.
Garriott, thrilled radio amateurs around the world by making the first contacts from space during 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 during a 1983 Space Shuttle Columbia mission. Thousands of amateurs listened on 2-metres FM, hoping to hear him or to make a contact. Garriott ended up contacting stations around the globe, among them such notables as the late King Hussein, JY1, of Jordan, and the late US Senator Barry Goldwater, K7UGA.
Garriott simply used a handheld transceiver with its antenna in the window of Spacelab-1. "I managed to do it in my off-duty hours and it was a pleasure to get involved in it and to talk with people who are as interested in space as the 100 000 amateurs on the ground seemed to be," Garriott recounted during an interview published in the February 1984 edition of QST. His son, Richard Garriott, W5KWQ, was a private space traveller to the ISS, flown there by the Russian Federal Space Agency and he also carried amateur radio into space.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Radio League.
INTERNATIONAL MARCONI DAY
Organized by the Cornish Radio Amateur Club, the International Marconi Day (IMD) is a 24-hour amateur radio event held annually to celebrate the birth of Guglielmo Marconi (25 April 1874). It is not a contest, but an opportunity for amateurs around the world to make contacts with historic Marconi sites using HF communications techniques. This year's event will be held on Saturday 27 April, from 00:00 to 23:59 UTC. Details, including information on the Award Certificates and the listing of participating stations, can be found at http://gx4crc.com/.
RESULTS OF THE SARL VHF/UHF CONTEST
The results of the first leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Analogue contest have been released. Five logs and one check log were received. Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ submitted the Checklog. The results are:
Base Station
1st Rickus de Lange, ZS4A - 52 694 points
2nd Koos Greyvenstein, ZS6KSG - 43 023 points
3rd Pierre Lindeque, ZS4PF - 39 953 points
4th Pine Pienaar, ZS6OB - 26 690 points
Field Station
1st The Cape Radio Group, ZS1CRG - 9 490 points
Congratulations to the winners
THE RESULTS OF THE SARL 80 METER QSO PARTY DELAYED
The Durban ARC informed SARL News that due to difficulty with a received log sheet, there will be a slight delay in the publication of the contest results.
AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITE GROUND STATION ARTICLE IN HACKSPACE MAGAZINE
The May edition of HackSpace magazine, issue 18, featuring articles by radio amateur Jo Hinchliffe, MW6CYK is available as a free PDF. On pages 34 to 47 is his special feature on Space, which explains how you can build a SatNOGS satellite ground station to receive amateur radio satellites. Jo's article “Make a Slim Jim Antenna” appears on pages 110 and 111. Also, in the magazine, on pages 96 to 99, Ben Everard explains how to build an ISS count down timer. You can download the free HackSpace magazine PDF from
https://hackspace.raspberrypi.org/issues/18
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. Currently there are a couple of sunspots with stable magnetic configurations visible. These sunspots may be the source of minor solar flaring. 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 will 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 ZS4 Sprint and registration for the May RAE closes.
24 April – the closing date for material for the May Radio ZS
27 April – Freedom Day and the International Marconi Day
29 April – the closing date for QRP, ZS4 Sprint and VHF/UHF Digital contest logs
1 May – Worker’s Day
4 May – the AWA Valve AM QSO Party
5 May – the AWA Valve SSB QSO Party
11 and 12 May – Mills on the Air event
12 May – Mother’s Day
17 to 19 May – the Dayton Hamvention
18 May – the May RAE
19 May – the ZS3 Sprint
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The ZS4 Sprint will run from 14:00 to 16:00 UTC this afternoon, Sunday 21 April with phone activity during the first hour and CW activity during the second hour. ZS4 stations will give a RS or RST and the name of their town while all other stations will give a RS or RST report and their province or country name.
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. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 19:30 Central African Time on 3,620 kHz. We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; please send these by e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za.
You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY, edited by Dennis Green, ZS2B and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
