SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 28 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 Johan, 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:
AWA AM AND SSB QSO PARTY NEXT WEEKEND
HORIZONTAL VERSUS VERTICAL ANTENNA POLARISATION - THE DEBATE
and
THE LADY WITH THE LIMP
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
AWA AM AND SSB QSO PARTY NEXT WEEKEND
The AWA Valve QSO party takes place on Saturday 4 May for the AM section and on Sunday 5 May for the SSB section. Both QSO parties run from 13:00 to 17:00 UTC on each day with AM and SSB activity on the 40 and 80 metre bands. The exchange is your call sign, a RS report, a consecutive serial numbers starting at 001 and the type of radio you are using. The scoring is based on your radio - all valve radio: 3 points per QSO; Hybrid radio: 2 points per QSO and Solid State Radio: 1 point per QSO. The log sheets must be submitted by Monday 20 May 2019 to andyzs6ady@vodamail.co.za. Certificates will be awarded to the first three places in each category AM and SSB. As usual, please consult the 2019 Blue Book before the contest.
HORIZONTAL VERSUS VERTICAL ANTENNA POLARISATION - THE DEBATE
Attend the next joint SARL and AMSAT SA VHF workshop on Saturday 25 May and join the debate about Horizontal versus Vertical antenna polarisation for long distance VHF communication. The subject has for several years been surrounded by arguments that Vertical polarisation surpasses Horizontal polarisation in achieving long distance communication on VHF with equal opposite arguments.
Dick Coates, ZS6BUN has carried out extensive technical paper research and reviewed experiential data from world-wide resources and will present his findings and share his own experiences at the workshop.
Other discussions at the workshop include: Update on the Bethlehem and Karoo two metre beacon projects, the West Coast propagation phenomena and three quick fire 10-minute sessions covering the Reverse beacon project, increasing levels of the HF noise floor a growing concern and why VHF and UHF have an important future in Amateur Radio.
The workshop will be held at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre from 08:30 and ends at 13:00. Midmorning light refreshments will be served. The registration fee is R50 for SARL and AMSAT SA Members and R100 for non-members. To register, get details on www.sarl.org.za or www.amsatsa.org.za
160 M DXCC CARD CHECKING
Tjerk Lammers, ZS1J has informed SARL News that he is now also able to check QSL cards for 160 m in addition to his other field checking of QSL cards. The field checking guidelines for 160 meters from the DXCC rules state, a) With an exception for 160 Meters, cards for all current and deleted entities dating back to 15 November 1945 can be checked. Cards for 160 Metres can only be checked by Card Checkers who currently hold an active 160 Metre DXCC, ARRL Headquarters staff who have been authorized by the Manager of the Radiosport Department, or existing Card Checkers who agree to allow their work to be vetted by the Radiosport Department. The Manager of the Radiosport Department shall make a special reporting form available for this purpose. 160 Metre Card Checkers can be found on the complete list of DXCC 160 Card Checkers."
ACTIVITY ON 40 METRES
Listening around the 40 metre band on a Saturday morning, you will hear and work many stations busy with HF assessments for the Radio Amateur Exam. It was noted on Saturday 27 April, that one of the stations in ZS6 was operating outside the phone segment on 40 metres, remember the phone segment is 7 063 to 7 200 kHz. On a WhatsApp group, there were comments about the use of a non-phonetic alphabet and no call signs given by the station answering the call from the person being assessed.
But this is not something new, listen around the bands to QSOs and bulletins call signs without the ZR or ZS prefix, non-standard phonetics, not leaving a pause between QSOs, etc. We are all guilty. Let us work on our voice procedures, just as we insure that the information is correct when we work digital modes.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
THE MAY 2019 ISSUE OF RADIO ZS
We all know about Florence Nightingale, the Lady with the Lamp, but who was the Lady with the Limp? Read about her in the Museum column of the May Radio ZS. With the SARL Top Band QSO Party in June, a second 160 m antenna article is included in this issue as well as information about the SARL Top Band Certificate. You can read about SARL Hamnet Eastern Cape assisting the Mountain Club of South Africa with their national training event and find out how to understand HF propagation reports. To continue and build our hobby, we must accept that young people are our future, so read what the Jeugland ARC have done.
A report back with photographs of the 2019 Day of the Radio Amateur is included. The May 2019 Radio ZS will be available for download from Tuesday 30 April 2019.
A SPECIAL EVENT STATION FROM THAILAND
A special call sign, HS10KING/MM (hotel-sierra-ten-king-stroke-mike-mike) will be on the air from 00:00 UTC on Friday 3 May until 10:00 UTC on Sunday 5 May with activity on 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres, as well as on 2 metres and amateur radio satellites, including the Es'hail 2/QO-100 satellite. The station celebrates the crowning of the new King of Thailand - King Maha Vajiralongkorn. This special station is supported by the Royal Thai Navy and Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (RAST) in association with the Icom Distributor in Thailand, G. Simon Radio Co. Ltd. The station is set up on the aircraft carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebet of the Royal Thai Navy in the Thai Gulf and the radios used will be all be Icom.
FREE PDF OF AMSAT SATELLITE JOURNAL
To celebrate their 50th anniversary, AMSAT North America is making available a free PDF of the March/April 2019 edition of their journal. Articles in this issue include: Engineering Update by Jerry Buxton, N0JY; Educational Relations Update by Alan B. Johnston, KU2Y; AMSAT 50th Anniversary Presidential Retrospectives by Perry Klein, W3PK; Bill Tynan, W3XO (SK) and Barry Baines, WD4ASW and a photo gallery. You can download the PDF from
www.amsat.org/the-amsat-journal-50th-anniversary-edition-march-april-2019/
THE RESULTS OF THE 2019 PEARS VHF/UHF CONTEST
The Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society has released the results of the 2019 PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest held in January 2019.
The overall National winner is Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ with 182 047 points. In the Base Station Analogue Category, first place goes to Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ with 176 967 points with Rickus de Lange, ZS4A in second place with 43 600 points. In the Base Station Digital Category, first place went to Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ with 38 960 points and Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ with 5 080 points in second place.
In the Club Multi-Operator Analogue Category, the Cape Radio Group, ZS1CRG made 71 463 points. There were no entries for the Club Multi-Operator Digital Category or for the Field Station Category. The longest distances worked per band (beyond 400 km) were on 4 m between Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ and Andrew Prideaux, ZS2PA at 1 064 km and on 6 m between Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ and Paul Smit, ZS6NK at 1 360 km.
The Divisional winners are ZS1: The Cape Radio Group, ZS1CRG; ZS2: Gert Schoeman, ZS2GS and Patricia Kruger, ZS2PTY in the first place with Theunis Potgieter, ZS2EC in second place; ZS4: Rickus de Lange, ZS4A; ZS6: Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ in first place and Koos Greyvenstein, ZS6KSG in second place and V51: Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ. There were no entries for ZS3 and ZS5.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. There are currently 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:
29 April the closing date for QRP, ZS4 Sprint and VHF/UHF Digital logs.
1 May Workers Day
3 to 5 May special station HS10KING/MM from Thailand
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 Mothers Day
17 to 19 May the Dayton Hamvention
18 May the radio amateur examination
19 May the ZS3 Sprint
25 May the SARL/AMSAT SA VHF Workshop at the NARC
25 and 26 May the CQ WPX CW Contest
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The AWA Valve QSO party takes place on Saturday 4 May for the AM section and on Sunday 5 May for the SSB section. Both QSO parties run from 13:00 to 17:00 UTC on each day with AM and SSB activity on the 40 and 80 metre bands. The log sheets must be submitted by Monday 20 May 2019 to andyzs6ady@vodamail.co.za. Please consult the 2019 Blue Book before the contest.
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 programme can be heard on VHF and UHF repeaters countrywide and on 7 082 kHz lower side-band. On Monday evenings Amateur Radio Today will be transmitted at 19:30 CAT on 3 620 kHz by Andy Cairns ZS6ADY. 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 Dennis Green, ZS2B, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
