SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 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 and 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 start the bulletin this morning with the news of a silent key.
It is with great sadness that the IARU reports that the key of ARRL and IARU President Emeritus Larry E. Price, Ph.D., W4RA, of Statesboro, Georgia went silent on 10 September 2019 at the age of 85. The IARU owes a debt of gratitude to Larry for his tireless work for the IARU over the decades to represent the interests of amateur radio in regulatory forums.
We extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
THE SARL WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT
TWO CONTESTS THIS COMING WEEKEND
and
SARL WORKSHOP 28 SEPTEMBER
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE NEXT SARL WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT ON 18 SEPTEMBER
The fourth leg of the SARL Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint takes place from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC on Wednesday 18 September with CW and phone activity. The exchange is a RS or RST report and your grid square (e.g. KG30). You earn 2 points per QSO and an additional 5 points for the first QSO with each ZS call area and DX country worked. Submit your log in MS Excel to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za by Wednesday 25 September. Remember to write the name of your club on the log sheet.
TWO CONTESTS THIS COMING WEEKEND
The second leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Digital Contest is on the air from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 21 September to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 22 September 2019 with activity from 6 metres and up. The QSOs must be two-way point to point and stations must exchange signal reports as well as their location, for example, latitude and longitude or a full six-digit Maidenhead locator. Self-Spotting is allowed. No EME, repeater, satellite, IRLP (Echolink, etc.) or cross-band contacts are allowed. Your log sheets must be submitted by Monday 14 October 2019 by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za. Get the rules on page 51 of the 2019 SARL Blue Book.
The Africa All Mode International DX Contest is on the air from 12:00 UTC on Saturday 21 September to 12:00 UTC on Sunday 22 September 2019. Both single and multi-operator stations may operate for the entire 24-hour period. No mandated breaks are required in the operating time. You may use CW, RTTY and SSB on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres. The exchange is your RS or RST report (not checked during the log checking process), followed by an incremental serial number commencing at 001.
Your log sheet must be submitted in Cabrillo format only to contest@sarl.org.za and be received by Monday 7 October 2019. Read the complete set of rules on page 19 of the 2019 SARL Blue Book.
YOTA 2019 SUMMER CAMP IN BULGARIA SPAWNS SUB REGIONAL CAMPS
Most of those attending the recent Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) summer camp in Bulgaria were first-timers, observed Monty Schebesta, OE3VVU, a participant this year. Some 80 young radio amateurs from 27 countries convened near Sofia between 11 and 17 August to, as he put it, "connect and learn from each other." Monty said the successful 2019 summer camp demonstrated that YOTA is growing quickly, noting too that 40% of the YOTA Summer Camp attendees were young women.
During the week, campers engaged in a variety of workshops that included such activities as building VHF and HF antennas and assembling electronic kits, which, for many, meant learning how to solder. Monty said the focus of the activities and presentations involved learning from each other.
"YOTA is shifting more and more towards a 'youngsters for youngsters' approach, where youngsters teach each other, rather than relying on older generations for input," he said. "The main goal of the YOTA summer camp is to give youngsters the ideas, knowledge, and experiences they require to go back to their home country at the end of the week and start their own youth activities."
Sub regional camps such as those held in Finland, Italy, and Germany in recent years are becoming more common in Region 1, with the next set for late September in the Czech Republic (OL19CAMP), followed closely by a camp in the Netherlands in December.
He anticipates many other youth teams will want to stage sub regional YOTA camps of their own.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
THE SARL RF NOISE WORKSHOP 28 SEPTEMBER
Please book this week so that the final arrangements can be made. The workshop at the NARC on 28 September starts with a panel discussion about various ways to solve mains induced noise. The panel will present a case study and will show how, with a few simple measures, a reduction in mains noise can be achieved. The agenda will also feature a review of the SARL RF Noise monitoring programme, updates on the Noise monitoring software, active antenna designs with reviews of on the air test results, a hand-on session on the deployment and application of dongles to turn your laptop or computer into a powerful receiver and how to identify RF noise sources around your house. Book now. Details and forms are available on www.sarl.org.za. Don't miss this opportunity. After the formal discussion, Anton Janovsky and Brian Jacobs will be giving hands-on assistance to set up a noise monitoring station.
The registration form includes a list of components you can order and take delivery of at the workshop. You will then walk out with a complete noise monitoring system. All you will need is an antenna and an internet connection.
ARRL 2020 HANDBOOKS PRE-ORDER BY 18 SEPTEMBER
The ARRL Antenna book 2020 will soon be available in a boxed set of 4 volumes. The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications will be available in a set of 6 softcover volumes. These books can be pre-ordered. The closing date for pre-order is 18 September 2019. These volumes are unlikely to be stocked in South Africa. Delivery will be via Postnet towards the end of October. ARRL will only have limited stock and will likely run out of stock quickly as happened with the boxed version of the 2019 ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications. Details and order form can be downloaded from a link on www.sarl.org.za
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. With the equinox approaching, the 15 to 30 m bands will provide some good DX fun, especially around sunrise and sunset. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a diary of some upcoming events:
Today until 10:00 UTC the National Field Day
18 September the Wednesday 80 m club sprint
21 and 22 September the Africa all mode contest and the SARL VHF/UHF Digital contest
22 September registration for the October RAE closes
24 September Heritage Day and the ZS SOTA Day
28 and 29 September the CQ WW RTTY Contest
3 October the SARL 80 m QSO Party
5 October the AWA AM Valve QSO Party
6 October the AWA SSB Valve QSO Party
12 October the Spring QRP Contest
18 to 20 October Jamboree on the Air
19 October CQ Hou Koers
To conclude our bulletin, a quick overview of our main news item:
The fourth leg of the SARL Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint takes place from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC on Wednesday 18 September with CW and phone activity. The exchange is a RS or RST report and your grid square (e.g. KG30). You earn 2 points per QSO and an additional 5 points for the first QSO with each ZS call area and DX country worked. Submit your log in MS Excel to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za by Wednesday 25 September. Remember to write the name of your club on the log sheet.
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
We invite clubs and individuals 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 to include 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 7082 kHz lower side-band. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 19:30 Central African Time on 3620 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 Paul Johnson, ZS1S and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
