SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 19 MAY 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:
ELECTRONIC VOTING FOR THE AGM MOTIONS
THE ZS3 SPRINT THIS AFTERNOON
and
THE VHF WORKSHOP THIS SATURDAY
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
ELECTRONIC VOTING FOR THE AGM MOTIONS
Have you cast your vote? The electronic voting for the three motions discussed at the 2019 AGM started at 00:00 CAT on Monday 13 May and will continue until 23:59 CAT on Wednesday 22 May. The three motions were published in the 2019 AGM Booklet and can also be found on the Electronic Voting page. A SARL Communication was sent out on Sunday 12 May 2019 containing all the information. At the time of writing the bulletin on Saturday 18 May, 244 of the 1 578 members had cast their vote.
THE ZS3 SPRINT THIS AFTERNOON
The ZS3 Sprint will be on the air from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC this afternoon with phone and CW activity on the 40-metre band. From this year the ZS3 Clubs play a bigger role in the Sprint. The exchange is RS or RST report and your provincial or country abbreviation. ZS3 stations score one point per QSO with stations in ZS3 and two points per QSO with stations in other ZS call areas or Southern African countries.
Scoring for all other stations is two points per QSO with a ZS3 station, and one point per QSO with stations in your own or other ZS call areas (excluding ZS3) or Southern African countries. QSOs with the Northern Cape ARC, ZS3NC, Namaqualand Aero Sport Association, ZS3FLY, the Bo-Karoo ARC, ZS3VDK, or the Kimberley Amateur Radio Club, ZS3KBY are worth five points each, and only one contact per station is allowed. Logs, in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel (available from the Contest Page on www.sarl.org.za) and labelled “my call sign ZS3 Sprint,” must be submitted by 26 May 2019 to zs3nc@qsl.net. Read the rules in the 2019 Blue Book before the contest starts.
REDEFINED SI MEASUREMENT STANDARDS COME INTO EFFECT ON 20 MAY 2019
World Metrology Day is on 20 May. Metrology is the science of measurement and should not be confused with meteorology which is about weather. On World Metrology day, four of the 7 base SI units will change. While this revision underlies all measurements in science, it will not affect our everyday lives, a metre will still be a metre, a litre of petrol will still be a litre of petrol and one ampere will still be one ampere. Why then has there been so much media attention? Redefining SI is with the future in mind, decades ahead when technologies, we may not even have thought about today, may require more accurate measurements.
The actual changes will impact four of the seven base units: the kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole.
The kilogram - will be defined in terms of the Planck constant, a physical constant that is used extensively in quantum mechanics and fixes the scale of quantisation of many phenomena, such as the relation between the energy of a photon (a quantum of light) and its wavelength.
The ampere - will be defined in terms of the elementary charge, the electrical charge carried by a single electron.
The kelvin - will be defined in terms of the Boltzmann constant. The Boltzmann constant relates temperature to energy. It is an indispensable tool in thermodynamics, the study of heat and its relationship to other types of energy.
The mole, not to be confused by the garden variety, will be defined in terms of the Avogadro constant. The Avogadro constant relates to how many elementary entities (usually either molecules or atoms) are present in one mole of a substance.
Do not be confused, your multi-meter will still work as before.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League which is broadcast on the 145,725 MHz repeater in Pretoria.
SARL NEWS BROADCASTS
The SARL News team would like to know if your Club relays, transmits and/or rebroadcasts SARL News on Sundays or during the week? We would like to advertise it. Send the information to zs4bs@netactive.co.za
THE VHF WORKSHOP THIS SATURDAY
The big debate on Saturday 25 May at the VHF workshop at the NARC will examine polarisation of antenna questions. Do not miss the "Horizontal versus Vertical antenna polarisation for long distance VHF communication debate". Various other subjects of interest in taking your amateur radio experience to the next level are also on the agenda.
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 .You can also download the full workshop agenda from links on the two websites.
IARU CALENDAR 200
The International Secretariat of the IARU has issued IARU Calendar 200 during the past week. The main story deals with the IARU’ work at the WRC-19 Preparatory Meeting in Geneva and the preparations for WRC-19 scheduled for 28 October to 22 November 2019 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Member Societies ratified the nominations of Officers for new terms. On 3 May, the IARU Member Societies completed voting to ratify the nominations of Tim Ellam, VE6SH/G4HUA, and Ole Garpestad, LA2RR, to new terms as President and Vice President, respectively, of the IARU, beginning on 9 May 2019. With 57 affirmative votes required for ratification, Tim Ellam received 75 votes and Ole Garpestad received 74 votes.
There are two new Member Society proposals from Region 1. Application for IARU membership has been received from the Saudi Amateur Radio Society (SARS) formed on 25 June 2018 and the Seychelles Amateur Radio Association (SARA) formed in December 2018. Present Member Societies must vote on the two proposals before 9 October 2019.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. There is currently a single sunspot visible and no serious flaring is expected. 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 ZS3 Sprint
20 May – the closing date for AWA Valve QSO Party Logs
22 May – the closing date for the Electronic voting
24 May – the closing date for articles for the June Radio ZS
25 to 26 – the CQ WPX CW Contest
1 June – the West Rand ARC Flea Market
8 June – the SARL VHF/UHF QSO Party
9 June – the Hammies Sprint and the Comrades Marathon
15 June – the SARL Youth Sprint and the Region 1 Kids Day
16 June - Youth Day and Father’s Day
17 June - Public holiday and World QRP Day
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
Have you cast your vote? The electronic voting for the three motions discussed at the 2019 AGM started at 00:00 CAT on Monday 13 May and will continue until 23:59 CAT on Wednesday 22 May. The three motions were published in the 2019 AGM Booklet and can also be found on the Electronic Voting page. A SARL Communication was sent out on Sunday 12 May 2019 containing all the information.
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 programme, '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 Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
