SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 28 JULY 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 in 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:
THE SARL HF PHONE, DIGITAL AND CW CONTESTS IN AUGUST
FOURTEEN LIGHTHOUSES REGISTERED FOR ILLW
and
SSTV ACTIVITY FROM THE SPACE STATION
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE SARL HF PHONE, DIGITAL AND CW CONTESTS IN AUGUST
The aim of the SARL HF Contests (the League’s Premier Contest) is for participants to contact as many amateurs in Southern Africa as possible on the 20, 40 and 80 m amateur bands. You can participate as a Single Operator Single Band; a Single Operator All Band; a Multi Operator Single Band or a Multi Operator All Band station. The exchange is a realistic RS, RSQ or RST report and a consecutive serial number starting at 001
The HF Phone Contest will run from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC on Sunday 4 August 2019 and the Silent Keys Memorial SSB Trophy, the Joseph White Trophy and the AKYAB Trophy are awarded for the Phone Contest.
The HF Digital Contest with RTTY and PSK activity only takes place from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC on Sunday 18 August 2019 and the SARL Digital Trophy and the ZS4BS Digital Trophy are awarded for the Digital Contest.
The HF CW Contest is on the air from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC on Sunday 25 August 2019 and the Silent Keys Memorial CW Trophy and the Anon Trophy can be won.
The Contest Committee will, with the results of all three contests, determine the winners of the HOS Trophy, the Fred Mills Trophy, the SAWRC Trophy for YLs, the SARL Youth Trophy and the Club Participation Award.
Submit your logs in ADIF, Cabrillo (with a summary sheet) or use the MS Excel spreadsheet and labelled “my call sign HF Phone or HF Digital or HF CW,” by 12 August, 26 August and 2 September respectively. Send the logs to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za. The MS Excel log sheet and the summary sheet is available on the Contest page of the League web site. Find the complete set of rules on page 38 of the 2019 SARL Blue Book.
N1MM LOGGER+ IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE
Al, AB2ZY is a new member of the N1MM Logger+ development team who is focused on preparing the popular logging program to support other languages beyond English. He is seeking a "set of user volunteers to work with me to get this ready for general distribution." According to Al, this team will "consist both of people who are willing to do translation work and those who wish to test translated languages." An experimental version of N1MM Logger+ will be built from the production code base at regular intervals and made available to volunteers for testing. If you send an e-mail to Al expressing an interest, please also tell him which language you would like to help with and whether you would like to help with translation, testing, or both. His e-mail address is akozak@hourglass.com
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
FOURTEEN LIGHTHOUSES REGISTERED FOR ILLW
To date fourteen Southern African Lighthouses have been registered on ILLW.net for the 2019 International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend taking place on 17 and 18 August. They are the lighthouses at Pelican Point, Walvis Bay, the 300th lighthouse to register; Robben Island; Roman Rock, Cape Agulhas; Cape Columbine; Cape Hangklip; Green Point, Cape Town; Slangkop; Cape Recife; Donkin Reserve; North Head and South Head at Saldanha Bay; Cooper and Tugela Bluff.
The 2019 South African Lighthouse Award will be available to all amateurs – activators and chasers – who submit a log showing the QSOs you have made with Southern African Lighthouses during the ILLW. The Award is a PDF Certificate that you can print, put it in a frame and hang on the wall in your shack! Send your log to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za.
ARISS - RS0ISS - SSTV ACTIVITY
Gaston Bertels, ON4WF reports that ARISS Russia is planning SSTV test transmissions. A Russian MAI-SSTV event is planned from the International Space Station for Monday 29 July from 13:15 - 21:25 UTC and for Tuesday 30 July from 13:50 - 19:50 UTC. The transmissions are expected to be on 145.800 MHz FM in the SSTV mode PD120. This session is the routine MAI-75 activity that is only active for a few orbits. It appears that most of the world will get a shot during the two day run.
CONTEST RESULTS
The Bo-Karoo ARC apologies for the error in the contest results of the SARL Newbie Contest held on 6 July 2019. The first place in the contest went to Brad Mostert, ZS6WWW. The Club has contacted Brad.
The Contest Committee received 49 logs for the third SARL Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint held on Wednesday 17 July 2019. From the 49 logs it was determined that 547 QSOs were made during the Sprint.
1st the Bo-Karoo ARC – 718 points (15 logs)
2nd the West Rand ARC – 559 points (13 logs)
3rd the Boland ARC – 459 points (15 logs)
4th the Hibiscus Coast ARC – 150 points (3 logs)
5th the Bloemfontein ARC – 99 points (2 logs)
6th the Cape Town ARC – 44 points (1 log)
After three legs of the Contest, the West Rand ARC are in the lead with 1 395 points, followed by the Bo-Karoo ARC with 1 306 points and the Boland ARC with 1 110 points. The fourth leg of the SARL 80 m Club Sprint takes place on Wednesday 18 September 2019!
VACANCIES IN THE NEWS TEAM
The SARL News Team still has a vacancy for a Bulletin compiler/editor, and two vacancies for proof-readers, one English and one Afrikaans. If you want to join the News Team, please contact Dennis at zs4bs@netactive.co.za or Anette, ZR6D at jhjacobsza@gmail.com
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 18 to 30 m bands may provide some DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
29 July – the closing date for log sheets for the RaDAR Challenge, QRP contest and ZS2 Sprint
3 Aug – the Pretoria ARC Flea Market
4 Aug – the SARL HF Phone contest
9 Aug – the SARL YL Sprint and the Women’s Day public holiday
10 Aug – The SARL Youth Sprint for the International Youth Day
17 and 18 Aug – the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend
18 Aug – the SARL HF Digital Contest
25 Aug – the SARL HF CW Contest
To conclude our bulletin, a quick overview of our main news item:
The aim of the SARL HF Contests (the League’s Premier Contests) is for participants to contact as many amateurs in Southern Africa as possible on the 20, 40 and 80 m amateur bands. The Phone contest takes place on Sunday 4 August, the digital contest on Sunday 18 August and the CW contest on Sunday 25 August. Please find the complete set of rules on page 38 of the 2019 SARL Blue Book.
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 by Andy, ZS6ADY 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 Paul Johnson, ZS1S and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
