SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 22 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 two silent keys.
It is with deep regret that we announce that the key of Derec Smith, ex-ZS4OH went silent on Sunday 15 September and that the key of Vaughan Koekemoer, ZS6KOE went silent on Wednesday 18 September. Vaughan passed the RAE in May this year.
We extend our sincere condolences to their families and friends.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
THE OFFICE AT THE NARC CLOSED ON MONDAY
ZS SOTA DAY ON 24 SEPTEMBER
and
THE SARL RF NOISE WORKSHOP POSTPONED TO NOVEMBER
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE OFFICE AT THE NARC CLOSED ON MONDAY
The Office at the National Amateur Radio Centre will be closed on Monday 23 September so that Kelley Heslop can enjoy the long weekend. The Office will be open again from Wednesday 25 September.
OCTOBER RAE REGISTRATION CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT
The registration for the October radio amateur examination closes at midnight tonight, Sunday 22 September. No late registration will be accepted after this date. If you have not yet registered, do it now by visiting www.sarl.org.za/public/licences/rae.asp. The examination will be written on Saturday 19 October.
ZS SOTA DAY ON 24 SEPTEMBER
Sid, ZS5AYC reports that Tuesday 24 September is Heritage Day and will also be the second ZS SOTA day of 2019. Let us play radio and see how many Summits we can activate and how many Summit to Summit QSOs we can achieve. For those unable to activate a summit, please chase the activators who need the contacts. If the summit you are activating is in a National Park that is a registered for Worldwide Fauna and Flora, perhaps you can activate the park as well.
LODGING A COMPLAINT WITH ICASA
Interference complaints should be addressed to ICASA's Regional offices. ICASA has provided the SARL with a list of these offices, which is available on the SARL home page.
THE SARL RF NOISE WORKSHOP POSTPONED TO NOVEMBER
The workshop at the NARC planned for 28 September has been postponed, and some of the discussions will now be incorporated in the next scheduled workshop on 23 November. The case study on mains noise and how to overcome it with a few simple measures will be included in the VHF workshop agenda. Workshops require a lot of planning and will only be presented if a minimum of 15 persons sign up to attend. More details will soon be available on the SARL web.
CEPT SE24 AND SRD/MG MEET IN ROMANIA
The latest meeting of the CEPT SE24 and SRD/MG took place in Romania this week. The IARU was there and had submitted three papers for discussion. IARU Region 1 reports:
Of interest to the amateur service were further discussions on Wireless Power Transmission, where papers from the IARU were discussed, including a report on measurements conducted on generic low power WPT systems. The IARU also presented a paper formally asking for appropriate spurious emission limits for WPT for electric vehicles.
The IARU continues to highlight to CEPT and ITU the risks to radio communications services from some forms of WPT systems and is hopeful that CEPT will agree to set relevant spurious emission limits.
The use of spectrum around the 77 GHz amateur band for High Definition - Ground Based Synthetic Aperture Radar devices was also discussed, with the current view being that the two services are not mutually incompatible.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
REMARKABLE OPENING ON 144 MHZ FROM THE AZORES RESULTS IN SEVERAL CONTACTS OVER 3 000 KM
On the evening of 14 and the morning of 15 September 2019, there was a remarkable opening on 144 MHz from the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean to parts of the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Some of the tropo contacts between the Azores and Germany were in excess of 3 000 km, the equivalent distance between Ireland and Newfoundland. The longest contact made on the morning of 15 September was between José, CU3EQ in the Azores and Dieter, DJ6AG in central Germany, a distance of some 3 231 km.
ARRL 2020 HANDBOOKS PRE-ORDERING EXTENDED UNTIL TONIGHT
The 2020 ARRL Antenna Book will soon be available in a boxed set of 4 volumes and 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 tonight Sunday 22 September. These volumes are unlikely to be stocked in South Africa. Delivery will be via Postnet towards the end of October. The 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
LOG SUBMISSIONS
The closing date for logs for the SARL National Field Day is midnight on Monday 23 September, and they must be sent to contest@sarl.org.za
The closing date for logs for the SARL Wednesday 80m Club Sprint is midnight on Wednesday 25 September and must be sent to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za. To date, 49 logs have been received.
CLUB NEWS
The AGM of the Centurion Radio Amateur Club took place on 8 June 2019 at the home of Adri and Ken, ZS6KN. The following members were elected for the 2019/2020 office:
Chairman: Ken Gurr, ZS6KN
Vice Chairman: Brazz Brazzoli, ZR6UV
Treasurer and Secretary: Billy Strumpher, ZS6WPS
Technical and Repeaters: Johan Keulder, ZS6CAQ
Practical Radio Equipment: Dave Smith, ZS6AZP
Club House equipment: Gerrit
News Reader: Andre du Plessis, ZR6AGA
The East Rand Branch AGM will be taking place starting at 12:00 CAT on Saturday 12 October. Move detail to follow.
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 and 12:00 UTC - the SARL VHF/UHF Digital, and the Africa all mode contests
At midnight tonight – the registration for the October RAE closes and pre-orders for ARRL books close
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 and the RAE
23 November – the SARL VHF Workshop
To conclude our bulletin, a quick overview of our main news item:
The Office at the NARC will be closed on Monday 23 September to allow Kelley Heslop to enjoy the long weekend. The Office will be open again from Wednesday 25 September.
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 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 Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
