SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER 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 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:
CQ HOU KOERS AND JAMBOREE-ON-THE AIR NEXT WEEKEND
BEST OF LUCK TO THE RAE CANDIDATES
and
DECEMBER 2019 IS YOTA MONTH
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
CQ HOU KOERS AND JAMBOREE-ON-THE AIR NEXT WEEKEND
Have you contacted your local Voortrekker Commando or Scout Group to assist with CQ Hou Koers on Saturday 19 October or Jamboree-on-the Air from 18 to 20 October?
During CQ Hou Koers, most Voortrekker stations are active from 08:00 until 12:00 CAT on 40 and 20 m and local repeaters. The event overlaps with JOTA, so interesting QSOs between young Voortrekkers and Scouts may be expected. JOTA runs from 22:00 CAT on Friday 18 October to 22:00 CAT on Sunday 20 October.
Please make the effort to chat to the great young people and to expose them to amateur radio. We hope to hear many amateurs and young people on the air. For the Voortrekkers, contact Andries, ZS6VL at orionvoortrekkers@gmail.com and for the Scouts contact Richard, ZS6RKE at richard@sandringhamscouts.co.za
BEST OF LUCK TO THE RAE CANDIDATES
134 candidates will be writing the October radio amateur examination on Saturday 19 October at 24 exam centres in South Africa and Namibia. The SARL News team wishes all the candidates the best of luck for the exam and we hope to chat to you on the air very soon.
THE LATEST ITU NEWS MAGAZINE
The latest ITU News Magazine is available for download and it's all devoted to Spectrum Managing and WRC-19 as well as a preview of WRC-23. On page 72, you can read the article by David Sumner, K1ZZ, Secretary of the International Amateur Radio Union. The article is entitled “Views of the International Amateur Radio Union on WRC 19 agenda items.”
The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) has participated in ITU conferences since 1927 and has been a Sector Member of ITU since 1932, playing an active role in the work of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU–R) and the ITU Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU–D) on behalf of more than three million licensees in the amateur and amateur-satellite services. Overall IARU objectives for WRC 19 are the global harmonization of the amateur 50 to 54 MHz allocation; the maintenance of existing spectrum access for amateurs and the strengthening of protection for radiocommunication services against interference from other generators of radio frequency (RF) energy.
You will find the link to download the magazine on the front page of the SARL web site.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
BBC TELEVISION RECEIVED IN SOUTH AFRICA
Norman, G4AYU posted an old video from 1949 featuring G8IG and ZS1PK on the BBC Archive twitter account. In the video you can listen to G8IG and ZS1PK talking about the reception of TV signals into Cape Town. Have a look at https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1180860261382508544
DECEMBER 2019 IS YOTA MONTH
The Region 1 Youth Working Group is excited to announce that our famous December YOTA Month will happen this year again. We would like to invite you to take part with a call sign with YOTA in suffix. The idea for this is to show amateur radio to young people and to encourage youngsters to be active on the amateur bands. This is a great moment to show amateur radio to the world and to invite newcomers.
Diplomas can be achieved by working the various YOTA suffix special stations which are run by young operators throughout December! This is of course not a contest, but aimed at getting as many youngsters on air from as many countries as possible. The aim is that YOTA stations are in general operated by young people, with the age of maximum 25 years. The event will take place from 00:00 UTC on 1 December 2019 to 23:59 UTC on 31 December 2019.
The SARL Youth Coordinator and Council are busy with the call sign application, and more information will be made available soon.
CLUB NEWS
The Magalies Radio Amateur Club held their AGM on 21 September 2019 and the following members were elected to the committee for 2019/2020.
Chairman: Thys Maree, ZS6MJM
Vice Chair: Chris van Eeden, ZS6CVE
Secretary: Johann du Plessis, ZS6PSS
Treasurer: Pieter Myburgh, ZS6PAM
Social: Kleingert Horn, ZS6HRN
Media: Peter Spicket, ZS6SP and Coba Maree, ZS6CMA
Competitions: Helgard Honiball, ZS6HON
Bulletins: Richard Peer, ZS6UK and Jasper Malan, ZS6JMA
Technical: JJ Snyders, ZS6JSJ
The Bo-Karoo ARC held its AGM on Saturday 5 October at Vanderkloof. A number of Club Awards were handed over to members and the following members were elected to the committee.
Chairman: Pieter Gaybba, ZS3PG
Vice Chairman: Jannie Smith, ZS3CM
Treasurer and Secretary: Alta Gaybba, ZR3PA
Competitions: Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT
Technical: Nico Engelbrecht, ZS6MAJ
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 recent equinox the 10 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:
18 to 20 October – Jamboree on the Air
19 October – the RAE and CQ Hou Koers
21 October – the closing date for QRP and AWA Valve QSO Party logs
26 and 27 October – CQ Worldwide SSB contest
27 October – the Pears HF Competition
02 November – the RaDAR Challenge and the Pretoria ARC Flea Market
09 and 10 November – the SARL Analogue VHF/UHF Contest
10 November – Remembrance Sunday
11 November – Armistice Day and the closing date for RaDAR Logs
To conclude our bulletin, a quick overview of our main news item:
Have you contacted your local Voortrekker Commando or Scout Group to assist with CQ Hou Koers on Saturday 19 October or Jamboree-on-the Air from 18 to 20 October? For the Voortrekkers, contact Andries, ZS6VL at orionvoortrekkers@gmail.com and for the Scouts contact Richard, ZS6RKE at richard@sandringhamscouts.co.za
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
We invite clubs and individuals to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners, in both English and Afrikaans if possible, by following the news inbox link on the South African Radio League web page. News items to be included 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.
