Follow this  simple step by step  procedure to register

1.    Register as a user at https://online.icasa.org.za/

2.    On the right hand side of the page click on register.

3.    Create a new account, i.e. email address and insert a  password, then confirm that password.

4.    As soon as you submit the registration you will receive an email with a link that you must click to verify the registration.

5.    Please look in your Junk folder if you do not receive the email.

6.    After completion you can log into the system.

7.    The first time that you start to use the system it will prompt you to create a legal entity by capturing all your personal details.

8.    Uploading a copy of your ID book in the link provided at the bottom of the registration page. Note: only PDF documents are accepted.

9.    After submission it will be subjected to approval by the Authority.

10. After approval by the Authority, you will receive an email indicating that applications can be submitted.

11. Click on the Manage button on the main page under Radio Frequency Spectrum.

12. Click on the Amend Legacy Radio Frequency license Button.

13. Capture your license number, excluding all the dashes, then  upload the  HAREC and HF certificate. If you do not have these certificates then upload a copy of your current or old license in place of the HAREC and HF certificate. If an old expired license then upload the proof of payment as well.

14. The Authority will then complete the next step and return it to you for verification.

15. Verify for correctness and submit.

16. The Authority will then finalize the process and issue an electronic license that can also be downloaded on your Manage page.

Thanks to Noel Hamond ZR6DX SARL RAE Manager

The IARUMS Region 1 Newsletters are available on iaru-r1.org and read it!

New Satellite Book now available - The new ARRL Amateur radio satellites for beginners is now available in South Africa. With the opening of e-commerce, Postnet is operating again and books can be sent to your nearest Postnet. You can make contacts through amateur radio satellites, and even with the International Space Station, using equipment you probably own right now! All it takes is the right information, which you will find in Amateur Radio Satellites for Beginners by Steve Ford

There are dozens of spacecraft in orbit just waiting for your signals, and more are being launched every year. This book is your guide to a whole new world of operating enjoyment.

Amateur Radio Satellites for Beginners will introduce you to new experiences that you may have thought were out of your reach. Start reading and discover how easy it can be! To order the book visit www.amateurradio.org.za. 115 pages plus index.

Report interference and unauthorised use of amateur frequencies - If your transmission or repeater is interfered with by an unlicensed person (s), note as much detail as possible and report the case for investigation to the ICASA  regional office in your area. By policing the amateur bands and reporting transgressions by non-licensed persons we protect the future of the amateur radio spectrum. Send a copy of your email to artoday@sarl.org.za   to allow   the SARL to monitor how wide-spread the problem is.  For a  list of  ICASA Regional managers and contact details visit http://www.sarl.org.za/public/licences/licences.asp  or click here.

Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology - The SARL hosted a very sucessful synposium on 12 April 2019 in Stellenbosch.  It was attended by over 60 delegates. The symposium was supported by contributions from  RF Design, Comtest, F'Sati, Giga Technology and AMSAT SA. The powerpoint presentations are available for download here. Download while still available .

Guidelines for a non SARL member to use the SA-QSL system- Phone Kelley at NARC (011 675 2393) and check that your correct information is on the database – license number and e-mail address are important.

Click on SA-QSL system link (on the left-hand side of the web page) and then click on “Need to Register”. Follow the instructions on the screen. Your username and password will be e-mailed to you which you can use to logon in future.

SARL and not yet SARL Members are requested to check their Electronic QSLs on a regular basis.

2020 Advertising in Radio ZS and the SARL Web site

China, BY. Ten stations (B0CRA, B1CRA, B2CRA, B3CRA, B4CRA, B5CRA, B6CRA, B7CRA, B8CRA and B9CRA) from across the country will be active from 23 UTC on 3 May until 9 UTC on 5 May for this year's "5.5 China Amateur Radio Festival" on air event, organized by the Chinese Radio Amateurs Club (CRAC). See http://www.crac.org.cn/55 for log search, and http://awards.crac.org.cn for the awards.

Columbia, HK. The Liga de Radioaficionados de Bogota (HK3LRB) will host a special event between 1 and 8 June with three special call signs - 5J39FUL, 5K48LRB and 5J85FJR - that will be aired on 80 – 10 m SSB, CW and digital modes. QSL via LoTW ane eQSL. 5J39FUL is for the 39th anniversary of the Fundacion Universitaria Los Libertadores; one of the co-founders was Luis Hernan Linares Angel, HK3AMU (SK). 5J85FJR stands for Fundacion Jorge Reynolds and celebrates the 85th birthday of Jorge Reynolds Pombo (HK3RJ), who is known for contributing to the invention of the pacemaker. 5K48LRB is for the 48th anniversary of the Liga de Radioaficionados de Bogota. A number of certificates will be available, see https://www.qrz.com/db/5K48LRB for information.

Panama, HP. Celebrating the bicentennial of the independence of Panama from Spain, special event call sign HP200I will be active from 1 June to 30 November. Look for activity on 80, 40, 20, 17, 15 and 10 metres SSB and digital modes. QSL via HP1DAV.

Canada, VE. On 19 April NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter (ICAO designator IGY) became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. Celebrating that event, Lali, VE3NE will be active as VX31IGY from 27 May to 27 June, CQ WW WPX CW Contest included. QSL via home call.

VHF, UHF and Microwave Record Table - the latest table of records is available from the VHF SA Record page. Click here to get a copy. Compiled and updated by Paul, ZS6NK - Send your record claim to zssixnk@gmail.com

Focus on VHF and Above

2 May 2021

Audio Version 

At the time of writing today’s program, there has again been little activity on VHF and above this past week.

The Hepburn Charts also show little prospects for tropoducting in the South Atlantic or along the coasts of South Africa for the following week. 

Carl ZS6CBQ has been testing a new 23 cm Yagi antenna this week.

Carl says “On Saturday John ZS6JON and I installed a GTV3-34W Yagi at my QTH on the tower on the other side of my Loop Yagi. I started doing some comparison tests and will need support from all of you to give feed back to John who again is reporting back to Hartmud DG7YBN the designer  of this Yagi. So far it looks very promising after the first few tests that we did with ZS4PF, ZS4N and ZS6BUN. I will give more info later” 

GTV3-34W Yagi 

This looks like an interesting antenna. Looking forward to hearing how it works. 

Cor ZS6CR alerted me to an interesting post on the website of John EI7GL about a 23 cm contact that was made by ship scatter. It is well known that amateurs make use of aircraft scatter at times however this is the first time that I have heard of ship scatter. 

Cesar EA8CXN and Francisco EA8CSB on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands could not complete a contact directly on 1296 MHz due to local mountains. They found that the cruise ship Aidaperla is sailing towards the island of La Palma, and its position iwas visible for both stations.

Aidaperla 

They initially used FT8 to help them align their antennas and then managed to complete a contact on FT8. Thereafter they also managed to complete a SSB contact via ship scatter. You can read more about this contact and watch the video of their SSB contact at https://ea8cxn.es/?p=431&lang=en

What a fantastic contact. 

The other interesting post on John EI7GL website was one posted by Dave who holds the callsigns N7BHC/PJ4VHF and ex ZR2BI with the title “Some thoughts on VHF paths across the South Atlantic ...by Dave, N7BHC”.

Dave says “I have been studying trans-oceanic ducting for many decades (I started out as ZR2BI in East London). The South Atlantic may be the BEST location worldwide for long-haul ducting, both for range and how often the openings occur.” 

Dave goes on to say “Back in 2007-2010, I was trying to drum up trans-Atlantic tropo ducting interest. I am very pleased to see more progress now.  

I introduced John Turner at Saint FM, the local FM radio station, back in 2008-2010 to tropo ducting on the FM broadcasting band. He successfully logged many Angolan, Namibian, and Cape Town FM stations. One December he emailed that he was unsuccessful identifying an Angolan FM radio station as he had interference from a Brazilian station on the same frequency. This was using just a car radio with its whip antenna. 

Back in March 2008, ZD8I on Ascension Island reported that they sometimes heard Cape Town Marine Radio (ZSC) on 156.8 MHz FM. That is an omni antenna to an omni antenna on FM at a range of 4400 km. 

Since then, I spent the next ten years on Bonaire as PJ4VHF.” 

Dave is no stranger to long distance VHF propagation. While on the island of Bonaire with the callsign PJ4VHF, Dave heard the Cape Verde D4C beacon on CW on 144.436 MHz for about 90 minutes (01:00 to 02:30 UTC) on the evening of 6 May 2015. The distance across the Atlantic was 4,694 km. 

Dave says “A contact from ZD7 (St.Helena Is) to PY (Brazil) on 144 MHz (2m) is 100% probable. FM vertical polarization works well but SSB or FT8 on horizontal is even better.” 

You can read more at https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/search?q=PJ4VHF

Thanks John EI7GL for this information. 

Let us get on the air and make things happen! You do not have to rely on Tropoducting to try some long distance communications. What about trying one of the new modes like Q65? What about higher up in the microwave bands? What interesting project are you working on? Share it with us. 

Please send me a consolidated report of your activity or project with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.  

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ. 

 25 April 2021

This week has been a quiet week with no exceptional VHF and above activity being reported locally. 

Willem ZS6WAB 8m beacon on 40.675 MHz has been heard several times in Europe this week.

The first report was on 14 March of this year when the signal was heard in Portugal. 

This week it has been reported several times, on 19 April by Leonidas SV2DCD in Greece.

David, 9H1TX on the island of Malta also heard the 8m beacon on 19 April.

Spiros, SV8CS also from Greece heard the beacon on 19 April.

Francesco, IZ0CBD in Rome, Italy reported reception of the beacon on 20 April and Eduardo, CT7ASY near Lisbon also heard the beacon on the 20 April. 

Well done Willem.

ZS6WAB-8m-bcn-heard-9H1TX-IZ0CBD-SV8CS-SV2DCD-CT7ASY-april-2021.jpg 

Thanks to John EI7GL for the information. On John’s website https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/p/40-mhz.html you can find video clips of the some of the reception reports. 

In the last two weeks there has also been local reports of 10m band openings. A quick look at PSKReporter showed 10m FT8 activity at the time of writing this report at 11:16 UTC. 

Let us hope that there will be some possibilities for VHF TEP propagation between South Africa and Southern Europe in the near future.

Looking at the Hepburn charts 

25 April 2021for the week ahead also shows little chances for tropoducting along the coast. 

Well, that’s all for this week. Hopefully there will be more to report on next week.  

Let me tell the VHF and Above community about your activity on the VHF and Above bands. Those extraordinary long distance contacts that you have made or even that project that you are working on. Please send me a consolidated report of your activity with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za.  

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ. 

18 April 2021

 AUDIO VERSION

Last time I reported that the beacon was acting up. I can now report that the Next Generation Beacon has been running steadily at full power with all three sequences, MGM, CW and Carrier being sent out 24/7 since 9 April at my QTH. It has been powered down between 09:00 and 12:00 on Sunday 18 April so that it does not interfere with the Amateur Radio Today broadcast that also needs to be transmitted from my QTH. The troubleshooting process also helped me to learn more about the inner workings of the Next Generation Beacon platform and to get to know the Beacon Manager software as well as an opportunity to learn more about the programming of the beacon. If the beacon had not acted up, I would have missed out on a learning opportunity. 

Even though the beacon is running on a vertically polarised antenna, it can be received and decoded and it would be great if some of the amateurs in the Gauteng area can listen out for it and provide some feedback. I’m particularly interested in getting some decoded data on the MGM message that is being transmitted as this is what we need to monitor 24/7.

In the last programme I reported about the exceptional tropoducting that was experienced along the West Coast. 

Charles ZS1CF sent me another report of a contact that was made with St Helena last week Wednesday 7 April. 

Charles says “On Wednesday morning at 08h43, Koos, ZS3JPY reported that the 2m band is wide open.  He could tell by listening to his APRS radio. 

In the afternoon at 17h50, Chris, ZS1FC reported hearing the St Helena Island 2m beacon.

 Chris_Beacon.mp3 

I quickly went to my radio and I also received the beacon. 

Charles_Beacon .mp3 

Soon afterwards Naz, ZS1NAZ, also reported hearing the beacon from Cape Town. At 18h20 Dawid, V51DK in Swakopmund also reported hearing the beacon. 

Dawid_Beacon.mp3 

The tropoducting was excellent and I received Kobus in Port Nolloth and Koos in Kleinzee very well.

 Koos_Cobus_Charles.mp3 

In the meantime, Chris tried to contact Gary via WhatsApp but without success. I also sent Gary a WhatsApp and he came back to me at last, but at that stage I could not hear the beacon any more. 

Gary heard me calling but I could not hear him at all. 

Charles_Gary.mp3 

After a long while, Koos in Kleinzee decided to listen and was quite surprised to receive Gary with a S7

Koos_Gary.mp3

Koos_Gary_2.mp3

Koos_Gary_3.mp3 

I kept on listening for one and a half hours but could not hear Gary at all. This time around, it was only Koos who could work Gary!! Congratulations guys!!

This is the very first time the beacon on St. Helena Island was heard by 4 stations across the country and it also proved its value in knowing there is an opening for simplex communication. 

Thanks for listening. Greetings from the West Coast, this is Charles, ZS1CF.”

 Charles, again many thanks fo

I also reported about the great 23 cm contact between Carl ZS6CBQ and Nico ZS4N. And I mentioned that Carl spotted an anomaly over the northern Free State on the Hepburn Charts for that Saturday morning. 

I also asked the following questions: 

• Could this be the reason for the good comms?
• How many other times are there openings that we do not know about?

 In order to answer these questions we need well placed beacons and a beacon monitoring network to collect information about when and where the beacons are heard.

 But this information is not all that needs to be gathered. We also need information about the weather conditions at the time and upper air data that is collected by the radiosondes that are sent up twice a day by the South African Weather Service. Added to this we need to enlist the help of scientists who can analyse the data and make correlations. 

The Next Generation Beacon platform has been designed in a way that it can be easily expanded to enable the running of multiple beacons on multiple bands from a single beacon site. Added to this it can also very easily be used to set up a Synchronised Beacon, allowing the SARL to participate in the IARU 6m Synchronised Beacon Project.

In the US there is an organisation called HamSCI. HamSCI stands for Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation. HamSCI has the following objectives:

• Advance scientific research and understanding through amateur radio activities.
• Encourage the development of new technologies to support this research.
• Provide educational opportunities for the amateur community and the general public.

 You may have heard both Hans and myself mention HamSCI in the past, but to date it has only been the two of us who have participated in any activities. I have assisted with data collection on two occasions with Solar Eclipses. 

On 20 March 2021 Hans and myself did a presentation at the HamSCI 2021 Workshop that was hosted by the The University of Scranton in Scranton, PA and sponsored by the National Science Foundation in the United States.

https://hamsci2021-uscranton.ipostersessions.com/Default.aspx?s=74-34-37-9E-AA-7E-F5-CF-CF-FD-00-3F-96-71-A9-0E

Following the Next Generation Beacon presentation given by myself at the SARL Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology Symposium on 17 March 2021 SANSA Space Science in Hermanus has expressed interest in the project and an exploratory meeting was held on 6 April 2021. SANSA Space Science also took an interest in the HamSCI activities and expressed interest in furthering the collaboration between the South African amateur radio community and themselves as there is a common interest regarding propagation research, both HF and VHF/UHF. SANSA Space Science currently have a HF project running where they are looking for reception reports and data from the amateur community and we will pass on more information about this shortly. 

The SARL beacon project is only just gaining traction and we now have tools that we can use to get this exciting research project under way and we need you to assist. Not only through donations that can be made online via the AMSAT SA website http://amsatsa.org.za/, but we need more technical resources who can assist with developing the reverse beacon monitoring network and assembling of the next beacons once we purchase the hardware. 

Now is the time to take the development of amateur radio to the next level and truly experience the greatest scientific hobby on earth while collaborating with scientists to discover more about propagation than we have ever known before. 

There are exciting times ahead on the VHF and up bands and it is up to us to make it happen.

Let me tell the VHF and Above community about your activity on the VHF and Above bands. Those extraordinary long distance contacts that you have made or even that project that you are working on. Please send me a consolidated report of your activity with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. 

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

21 March 2021 

In the programme of 7 March, I reported about the St Helena Beacon being heard in France by F0FYF. Well there is some controversy over this report and John EI7GL has done further investigations by analysing and comparing audio clips received from Naz ZS1NAZ, who bench tested the beacon, and Dawid V51DK, who also received the beacon very well in Namibia, to the recordings made by Jean-François F0FYF. John EI7GL has concluded that the recording made by Jean-François F0FYF was not from the St Helena beacon. You can read more about this at

Scroll down on the website to the updates dated 10 and 13 March 2021.

It is a very interesting read indeed. Thank you Tom ZS1TA for alerted me regarding this update. 

Also reported on the blogspot of John EI7GL is a report of the 8m beacon of Willem ZS6WAB that was heard in Portugal on 14 March 2021. The frequency of the 8m beacon is 40.675 MHz. More information at

https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/03/south-african-8-metre-beacon-on-40675.html

Very few amateurs know that South Africa has an  allocation between 40.675 MHz to 40.685 MHz specifically for propagation research. 

The replacement Next Generation Beacon for ZS0BET is currently being tested from the QTH of Danie ZR6AGB at grid KG44CH. The beacon currently is putting out 25 W into 2x14 element stacked Yagi antenna. The gain is approximately 15 dB. 

Earlier in the week the antenna was pointed towards grid KF59JR and Derek ZS5Y reported having 88 decodes ranging from -21 dB to -9 dB with the best time being between 14:00 and 16:00 on 15 March.

Later in the week the antenna was again pointed towards KF59JR and Derek again decoded the beacon, however there were fewer decodes than previously.

ZS5Y_NGN_Beacon _Reception_20210318.jpeg

Derek noted the following in his message to me:

“Got nothing throughout after dark. Best times in late afternoon. But not SSB or even CW quality it's deep in the noise. But contacts are possible for sure.” He also told me that they had cloud cover and rain in the evening. That may be part of the reason why the reception of the beacon was weaker. Tropospheric propagation is very dependant on the weather conditions with in the troposphere.

Derek also noted “A great propagation study tool indeed. Tells us so much more already than we knew.”

This is so true, and I believe that we now have a tool that we can really gather very good information about the propagation conditions inland.

Correlating the data collected from the reception reports of this new beacon with weather data, especially upper air data will help us to better understand tropospheric propagation across the interior of the country.

The beacon runs on a 100% duty cycle and during bench testing I found that the temperature on the outside heat sink to be in the region of 47° C. During the week, Danie ZR6AGB has been monitoring the internal and external temperatures of the beacon and experimented with the placement of a fan to improve cooling on the beacon. On Friday morning Danie and I mounted two 120 mm fans on the outside of the heat sink that will make a significant difference to the temperature at which the beacon runs. The beacon will run for the next week from KG44CH and is currently pointing towards Welkom and Bloemfontein. We are looking for reception reports and preferably PI4 decode information from amateurs in those areas. 

The beacon project is now certainly becoming exciting and I’m looking forward to the next phases. 

Hans ZS6AKV and myself did a presentation titled “Beacon Programme to study inland Tropo in South Africa” at the HamSCI Workshop yesterday evening. 

The SARL Technical Symposium, "Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology 2021" will be held on the BlueJeans platform on Saturday 27 March. Registration information is on the front page of the SARL web. There is an electronic form that you need to complete online https://forms.gle/Gvso3dmDorGaR7xq5

Registration closes midnight on 25 March. Remember if you have registered and not received an email within a day or two then you need you make enquiries. Do not leave it until the morning of the 27^th. 

Let me tell the VHF and Above community about your activity on the VHF and Above bands. Those extraordinary long distance contacts that you have made or even that project that you are working on. Please send me a consolidated report of your activity with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. You do not need to be a skilled writer. Just provide me with the information and I will do the rest.

 Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

14 March 2021

 Audio version

On Friday afternoon the Hepburn Tropoducting forecast for the South Atlantic was very good.

The St Helena beacon was heard in Namibia by both Dawid V51DK and Johan V51JH and Dawid reported it getting stronger as the time progressed. 

St_Helena_Beacon_as_heard_by_V51DK.mp3 

The St Helena Beacon is running on 144.475 MHz. 

The Tropoducting forecast was also good along the South Coast and in the late afternoon the East London Repeater was reported being very strong in Port Elizabeth or Gqeberha as it is now known. Jimmy ZS2JIM in PE reported the following about a contact with Lunga ZS2LN in Bhisho “Very good signal from ZS2LN on 145.650. Went onto 145.500, his signal dropped from 5 to 3 but my signal to him still strong.” That is a distance of around 200 km between Bhisho and PE. 

Excellent contacts. 

The VHF / UHF contest is on this weekend and the Tropoducting forecast for Saturday evening was looking promising, I wonder if any contacts were made up the East Coast with KZN.

On Saturday morning I monitored the 46 Long Distance WhatsApp Group and there were a number of amateurs playing on 6m. The West Rand Club also had a club station running.

ZS6WR_VHF_UHF Contest_Station.jpeg 

I have found a very good RSGB presentation on VHF Propagation. This video is a good introduction for the new amateurs who want to start exploring the world above 30 MHz. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yo4IFn6AAY 

In fact the RSGB has a whole range of excellent videos on their YouTube channel if you use the search term VHF once you are on their YouTube channel. They are well worth watching. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRSGB/search?query=vhf

The Next Generation beacon was a bit up and down this week with the load shedding the last couple of days. I am however happy with it’s performance and it is now ready for testing at full power from the QTH of Danie ZR6AGB at grid KG44CH. Listen out for it during the next couple of days on 144.425 MHz. When listening out for the beacon you will here three sequences, MGM, CW and a tone. 

This is what you will here with your radio tuned to 144.425 MHz CW 

ZS0BET_145.425_CW.mp3 

The CW portion of the beacon can clearly be heard. 

This is what it sounds like on 144.424 MHz USB 

ZS0BET_145.424_USB.mp3

 To decode the PI4 message you can either use the MSHV software and select PI4 mode or you can download Pi-RX from  https://rudius.net/oz2m/software/pi-rx/.

If you only hear the CW and tone and no MGM then the beacon has lost satellite status and will start the MGM transmission as soon as the DDS receives valid NMEA time data from the GPS.

I will request Rickus ZS4A to turn off the current beacon in Bethlehem while we test the replacement beacon.

The SARL Technical Symposium, "Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology 2021" will be held on the BlueJeans platform on Saturday 27 March. Keep you eyes on the SARL homepage for when the registration process opens. Remember if you have registered and not received an email within a day or two then you need you make enquiries. Do not leave it until the morning of the 27^th.

Let me tell the VHF and Above community about your activity on the VHF and Above bands. Those extraordinary long distance contacts that you made or even that project that you are working on. Please send me a consolidated report of your activity with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. You do not need to be a skilled writer. Just provide me with the information and I will do the rest.

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ

7 March 2021

Audio version

The St Helena beacon that went on the air in February is certainly being heard. 

On 1 March the beacon was reported by Charles ZS1CF, a distance of approx 3145 km. 

ZD7GWM-Beacon-ZS1CF-144-MHz-01-Mar-2021-map

On 5 March F0FYF reported hearing a beacon in the direction of 200 degrees from his QTH. From the recordings that he made and the direction it seems as if it could be the St Helena Beacon. You can read more about it on the https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ and look at the comments on the F0FYF blog spot at http://f0fyf.blogspot.com/2021/03/balise-inconnue-en-vhf.html

You can also listen to the recordings made. My CW is not good enough to decode the snip-it recorded, but maybe you can.

ZD7GWM-Beacon-F0FYF-TEP-March-2021.jpg

Thanks to the EI7GL for the images and the reports on the St Helena beacon.

Well done to all the amateurs who contributed to making a beacon on St Helena Island a reality. We all know that the good tropoducting conditions in the South Atlantic has lead to many contacts between St Helena Island and South Africa and Namibia and now with the beacon on St Helena running 24/7 we will discover that the path is most likely open more often than we thought. Let us hope that it will soon be heard in Brazil as well. This will certainly renew the efforts to bridge the Atlantic between the West Coast of Africa and the East Coast of Brazil. 

Pine ZS6OB also managed to complete a MSK144 contact on Saturday morning with Derek V51DM. Pine was using 100W into a 2 element homebrew Hexbeam 8 m above ground level and Derek was feeding 1 kW into a 5 element M2 Yagi 18 m above ground level. Well done guys.

ZS6OB_V51DM_MSK144.jpeg

V51DM_ZS6OB_MSK144.jpeg

ZS6OB_Hexbeam.jpeg 

On Friday morning Derek ZS5Y again reported hearing the Bethlehem beacon in Scottburgh on the KZN South Coast. Derek is hearing the beacon  regularly. Are there any other KZN stations hearing the beacon? 

Testing of the Next Generation beacon is progressing and shows that it is working well, however some issues with ground loops between the various boards needs to be taken care of. Once this has been done, testing will resume again. 

Whether you believe it or not, our VHF and above bands are under scrutiny and we need to be able to demonstrate that we are actively using the bands allocated for amateur use. We need to document and talk about what we are doing on these bands. Symposiums and Workshops are where we need to share this information. Do your bit and help us show that we are actively using the bands allocated to us. 

The SARL Technical Symposium, "Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology 2021" that will be held on the BlueJeans platform on Saturday 27 March is the ideal opportunity to share the project that you have been working on with your fellow radio amateurs and an opportunity to show the world that technology is alive and well in Amateur Radio. The Symposium will run from 10:00 - 14:00 CAT and the speaking slots are typically 20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion and questions. 

Let me tell the VHF and Above community about your activity on VHF and Above bands. Those extraordinary long distance contacts that you made or even that project that you are working on. Please send me a consolidated report of your activity with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. You do not need to be a skilled writer. Just provide me with the information and I will do the rest. 

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

Focus on VHF and Above 

28 February 2021

 Audio version 

Not much activity has been reported over the past week, however Dick ZS6BUN and Tom ZS1TA made a 6m Q65-60D contact via ionoscatter on Tuesday. This was the first ZS6 to ZS1 contact on this mode.

Tom said that during this period there was no hint of any beacon activity.

The frequency used was 50.310 MHz and Tom was using 20 W to start off and later increased his power output to 50 W. Tom went on to say “Dick had constant decodes and I received his initial report at -13 dB whilst I replied with a -23 dB. As ever plagued with the insidious noise level here. Nevertheless we plodded on taking just over a hour to complete. I am sure it would have been much sooner if not for the local QRM.”

First_decode_from_ZS6BUN.jpeg

Screen_showing_first_decodes_coming_through.jpeg 

Well done guys. 

Dick ZS6BUN also posted on the various VHF and above WhatsApp groups that Bob Atkins KA1GT has an excellent section on Q65 on his website https://www.bobatkins.com/radio/Q65-basics.html. You will also find a wealth of information on Bob’s website if you are interested in EME and microwaves.

On Friday afternoon Derek ZS5Y reported hearing the Bethlehem beacon in Scottburgh on the KZN South Coast. If I recall correctly this is the first report out of KZN.

 NEXT GENERATION BEACON

The Next Generation Beacon is progressing, although slower than I anticipated. On Friday afternoon I finished mounting and wiring all the boards in the old Storno cabinet. It is now ready for bench testing minus the power amplifier module and then the PA module will be fitted and final testing will take place on Monday.

NGN_Beacon_Hardware.jpg

PA_Module.jpg

Once testing has been completed, the beacon will be connected at the QTH of Danie ZR6AGB for a couple of days for local testing before plans will be made to install the new beacon hardware in Bethlehem. Danie ZR6AGB has been a great help assisting with drilling and tapping of the necessary holes for mounting of the hardware.

ZR6AGB_at_his_Milling_Machine.jpg

Whether you believe it or not, our VHF and above bands are under scrutiny and we need to be able to demonstrate that we are actively using the bands allocated for amateur use. We need to document and talk about what we are doing on these bands. Symposiums and Workshops are where we need to share this information. Do your bit and help us show that we are actively using the bands allocated to us.

The SARL Technical Symposium, "Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology 2021" that will be held on the BlueJeans platform on Saturday 27 March is the ideal opportunity to share the project that you have been working on with your fellow radio amateurs and an opportunity to show the world that technology is alive and well in Amateur Radio. The Symposium will run from 10:00 - 14:00 CAT and the speaking slots are typically 20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion and questions.

Don’t be shy. There is no excuses about not being able to talk in front of people. You are talking on your computer as you would if you were using Echolink. Submit a brief synopsis of your proposed paper in MS Word format by Friday5 March 2021 to artoday@sarl.org.za. If you have not yet sent in your proposal, then get it in an soon as possible.

On Saturday morning Hans ZS6AKV and myself received good news that our proposal to present a paper “Beacon Programme to study inland Tropo in South Africa” at the upcoming 2021 HamSCI Workshop has been accepted. Hans and myself will be co-presenting the paper.

I can help you to tell the rest of the VHF and Above community about your activity on VHF and Above and those extraordinary long distance contacts that you made or even that project that you are working on. Please send me a consolidated report of your activity with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. You do not need to be a skilled writer. Just provide me with the information and I will do the rest.

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

21 February 2021

Audio version  

Well there are certainly guys experimenting with the new Q65 mode and it does seem to work well. 

Dick ZS6BUN let me know that on Sunday he and Derek ZS5Y worked each other successfully using Q65-120E. The contact was on 6m with Derek using 1 W and Dick 5 W. The signal reports over a distance of 506 km was -19 dB and -29 dB.

Dick says “A -29 dB decode is significantly better than obtainable from JT65A. With the latter mode you need a relatively steady signal - not so necessary with Q65. Cape Town SHOULD be relatively easy to work via tropo scatter (as opposed to the west coast’s beloved tropo ducting). 

Thanks Dick for that report on Q65. Certainly a mode to explore further. 

In the last two months there has been two VHF/UHF contests. The PEARS contest from Friday 15 January to Sunday 17 January saw 9 logs being submitted all from either club stations or base stations in both the Analogue and Digital categories. In the Analogue category there were no entries from either field stations and there were no entries in the FM category. 

Three weeks later the first leg of the SARL VHF/UHF FM contest took place on Saturday 6 February and here a total of 31 logs were received of which 6 were from club stations. 

Carl sent me the following report on the SARL VHF/UHF FM contest. 

The VHF/ UHF FM contest of 6 February 2021 was a big success!! Thank you Phillip ZS6PVT and the WRARC for their support.

31 Log sheets were received from members of 6 Clubs. Activity on 6m, 2m and 70cm was great with lots of stations hopping between the 3 bands chasing stations for points.  The West Rand Amateur Radio Club (WRARC) made a huge effort to get their members on the air and gave training on how to compile the VHF/ UHF log sheet. They dominated the contest with 61% of the logs received. Unfortunately, the West Rand Club did not take part under their club callsign. The only club entry was from Pretoria Amateur Radio Club – ZS6PTA.

ZS6PTA had the advantage of longer distances, 50 to 60 km to the west Rand, while the West Rand guys logged mostly shorter distances between Club members … typical distances under 10 km. We need more clubs to support this contest and to get their members to take part.

The winner Kobus Boshoff ZS6BOS set up field station on a hill near Westonaria. Kobus demonstrated the advantage of a field station, further away on a hill working far stations and accumulating points with distance and grid squares.

Stations who are new to VHF/UHF Contests will have to learn that these contests are very different from HF contests. You have to concentrate on distance which can be achieved by using Yagi antennas with gain. Most of the far stations are also on horizontal polarization. Grids squares are your multiplier, so more grids will give you a better score.

Not too many mistakes were found on the log sheets, mostly using the wrong 6 digit grid square. The log sheet calculates the distance for you when the HamCalc.xls file is activated. Some stations had trouble to get it activated but with the assistance of our moderator Koos ZS6KSG and myself ZS6CBQ the logs were sorted out. 

Thanks Carl for that report. This type of feedback is great as it helps the guys to build a strategy on how to approach the contest.

I also found it interesting that you mentioned that most of the far stations had horizontal Yagi antennas. Most FM operators are used to omnidirectional vertical antennas. If everyone operates with antennas on the same polarisation plain then just imagine the additional distances that could be worked. If I recall there is around a 20dB loss between vertical and horizontal polarisation. Please understand me correctly, this is not an argument for horizontal vs vertical. You just need to be aware that there are gains to be made if both the sender and receiver are using the same polarisation. 

On Saturday the SARL/AMSAT SA VHF UHF Workshop took place. The workshop was run on the BlueJeans platform and was attended by no less that 47 participants. One of the participants was a club station ZS6TJ whose club members attended from their clubhouse with the proceedings being projected on a large screen.

Thanks to all the presenters who presented at the workshop and of course to everyone that managed to attend. We are aware that some folk registered, but it seems that they did not receive the link to the event. I do understand the frustration, but one also needs to be proactive and when you register for an event and have not received the login details within a couple of days, then you need to follow up. 

In last week’s programme I mentioned that to get active on the bands above 70 cm you need to home brew using modules that are readily available that you can connect together and generate a signal that can be broadcast. Well the presentation by Anton ZR6AIC was exactly about that and how one can easily assemble some modules that allows you to operate on higher UHF and microwave bands. 

As you will have heard on the SARL News, the next event that you need to look out for and make sure that you attend will be the SARL Technical Symposium, "Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology 2021" that will be held on the BlueJeans platform on Saturday 27 March 2021. 

The Symposium will run from 10:00 - 14:00 CAT and the speaking slots are typically 20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion and questions. This is the ideal opportunity to share the project that you have been working on with your fellow radio amateurs and an opportunity to show the world that technology is alive and well in Amateur Radio. 

Don’t be shy. There is no excuses about not being able to talk in front of people. You are talking on your computer as you would if you were using Echolink. Submit a brief synopsis of your proposed paper in MS Word format by Friday 26 February 2021 to artoday@sarl.org.za. 

The Beacon on St Helena Island is on the air on 144.475 MHz CW. Garry ZD7GWM with the assistance of Daniel ZD7DL and Bradley, who I assume does not have an amateur license yet, has finally erected the X700 antenna  on a pole close to the weather station on the island and is eagerly waiting reception reports for the beacon. 

St Helena Beacon Antenna. 

I would love to let the rest of the VHF and Above community know about your activity on VHF and Above and those extraordinary long distance contacts that you made. It is important to tell our fellow amateurs about the exciting world out there above 30 MHz. Please send me a consolidated report of your long distance activity with any additional photos, audio or video clips to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. You do not need to be a skilled writer. Just provide me with the information and I will do the rest. 

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

31 January 2021

Audio version

Last Sunday while I was listening to AR Today Danie ZR6AGB let me know that the 6m band was open to Cape Town.

Naz ZS1NAZ who acted as the net controller had his hands full trying to record some of the activity and sent me some of the recordings that he made. While the band faded at times you can hear that there were some really strong signal reports. Longest distances were Cape Town to Polokwane.

ZS1NAZ 6m Recording

That was just a short extract of more than 10 minutes of recording that Naz sent me. Some of the callsigns I picked up was ZS1NAZ, ZS1F, ZS1TAF, ZS6CBQ, ZS6OB, ZR6AGB, ZS6WN and ZS6NK.

I asked Naz how did he know that the band was open? Did he monitor any beacons and which beacons did he hear?

Naz ZS1NAZ 

Thanks for the great information Naz and I am sure everyone had loads of fun with you on the band. 

On Saturday morning there was a good FT8 6m contact between Derek ZS5Y in Scottburgh and Derek V51DM in Swakopmund as well.

ZS5Y V51DM FT8 20210130

The VHF Work Group met again on Thursday evening on their usual Skype channel. It was a full house with Derek ZS5Y joining the meeting as well. 

Brian ZS6YZ provided feedback on the progress of the Next Generation Beacon hardware that will replace the current radio at the Bethlehem site. Brian showed a photo of the proposed layout of the boards in the old Storno repeater cabinet that Rassie ZS1YT had made available for the project. There is some work to be done on power supplies for the various boards as they do not all run on 12 V. A power amplifier module also needs a board for with some components for biasing of the gate and source voltages of the Mitsubishi RF module that is going to be used as well as a low pass filter to reduce the harmonics on the output of the PA. Danie, ZR6AGB has offered to assist with any hardware challenges that may arise with mounting the boards in the cabinet. Brian said that he aimed to have the beacon up and running by 20 February which is the date of the next virtual VHF Workshop.

Proposed layout of the NGN Beacon hardware.

Carl ZS6CBQ also reported that Charl ZS3K has possibly found a site for the Karoo Beacon. The farmer who has an existing tower has agreed in principal to accommodate our beacon on his tower. Charl will visit the site and see if it will be suitable. This beacon will need to be solar powered, so the necessary power budgets would need to be calculated. 

There was also a discussion around the beacons that are on the air currently in South Africa and the need for the beacons to conform to the IARU bandplans and recommendations as per the IARU Region 1 VHF Manual.  The Work Group will be drafting a document which will be released via the SARL in the near future to help the beacon owners / operators understand what the current requirements are. 

The VHF Work Group meets on the last Thursday of the month on Skype and any one who would like to join are welcome to send their contact details and Skype name to vhfnews@sarl.org.za and you will be added to the call. 

That’s all for the week. Keep trying to 

make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts. 

Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on. 

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

Focus on VHF and Above 

24 January 2021

Audio version

The exiting news this week is that a 2m beacon has arrived on St Helena Island and Garry ZD7GWM was very excited to take delivery of the beacon. Here is the story sent to me by Dee ZR1DEE. Dee is the XYL of Nazri ZS1NAZ.

Dee says “Kobus ZS3JPY was instrumental in starting the idea of having a beacon for St Helena Island. Well, the time has come, and it is happening as history is being made! 

Now, let’s follow the journey of the beacon and more....

The Beacon frequencies:-

Channel 1: 144.435 MHz

Channel 2: 144.325 MHz

Channel 3: 144.375 MHz

Channel 4: 144.385 MHz

Garry ZD7GWM received the three boxes today, 21 January 2021. He is smiling!

Sponsors that made this possible were :

• Sam ZS6BRZ sponsored a X700H Diamond antenna with transport costs to Cape Town.
• Leon ZS6LMG and Linda ZS6LML sponsored a 20 Amp power supply and 25m of LMR400 coax and connectors.
• Marcos PY7MHZ from Brazil sponsored the CW Beacon.
• Another Marcos, from Mcom Electronica in Brazil being the designer and programmer of the beacon, was instrumental in working with Naz ZS1NAZ to re programme the beacon that he designed and built.

• Pieter V51PJ sponsored a VHF radio and fitted the CW beacon into the radio.
• Johan V51JH on holiday in South Africa transported the equipment to Naz ZS1NAZ.
• Pieter ZS3PV donated another VHF radio as a spare for back up.
• Deon ZS6DEB also donated a VHF radio for back up.
• A golf shirt was made for Garry ZD7GWM with all the amateurs call signs that he has already worked in ZS1 and ZS3. The golf shirt was sponsored by Charles ZS1CF and XYL Hannelie. 

All of the equipment arrived at Naz’s QTH and Kobus ZS3JPY asked Naz ZS1NAZ to test the beacon and it worked fine, and while on test, DISASTER struck! The beacon started transmitting gibberish and the radio stopped putting out power. The race was now on to find spare parts and get the beacon sorted ASAP. Naz ZS1NAZ contacted Kobus ZS3JPY to explain to him what had happened. Kobus said: “Don’t worry I will make a plan’’.

The plan was such that Kobus spoke to Deon ZS6DEB who sent a radio to Kobus. 

The next operation was to get the equipment to St Helena Island.

Kobus ZS3JPY and Naz ZS1NAZ made many phone calls and eventually found the ship leaving to St Helena Island the first week in January 2021. Garry ZD7GWM received the equipment from Customs today (21 January 2021) He even took a day off work to go and collect, so you can only imagine his excitement! He was so overjoyed today that he said: “Finally, it’s here!” with a big smile in his voice. 

A hearty thank you to all the sponsors, and everybody else who contributed unselfishly, in making the St Helena Beacon Project a success.

A special note of thanks goes to Kobus ZS3JPY and his wife, Michelle ZS3TO. Through all this, Kobus ZS3JPY had his leg amputated, was in great pain most of the time, and still managed to pull off the Beacon Project.”  

What a great story and many thanks to all the fellow amateurs who contributed to this successful project. This was a big team effort.

Thanks Dee for sending in this report.  

We now eagerly await the first reception reports for this new beacon on St Helena Island. 

On Friday tropoducting was great along the Southern Cape coast.

This resulted in a remarkable contact via the Riversdale repeater between Trevor ZS1TR in Agulhas and Andre ZS2ZA in Port Elizabeth. 

ZS1TR_ZS2ZA_via_Riversdale_Repeater.mp3

This is a distance of just over 400km from Port Elizabeth to the Riversdale repeater and I have had confirmation that there is no repeater link between George and Port Elizabeth. Only tropoducting. Well done guys.

For the SSTV enthusiasts, there will again be an opportunity to download SSTV images from the International Space Station on 28 – 29 January 2021. Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are planning to transmit Slow Scan TV images on 145.800 MHz FM using the SSTV mode PD-120. The transmissions are part of the Moscow Aviation Institute SSTV experiment (MAI-75). 

Jan 28 - Starts after 12:10 UTC and ends at 17:15 GMT*

Jan 29 - Start about 13:10 UTC and ends at 18:05 GMT*

*Dates and times subject to change. 

ARISS SSTV Blog https://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/

Useful SSTV info and links https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/iss-sstv/ 

The IARU has formed a committee to address world wide demands on the  amateur spectrum above 144 MHz. They have requested information regarding amateur activity on the following bands:

13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz

6 cm 5.65 – 5.85  GHz

3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz 

Any information about activities and experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. We need to assist the IARU with information about the activities on these bands. 

This past Monday evening a group of amateurs who have interests in the above mentioned bands met with me online and we had a very fruitful and informative discussion about the activity on these bands and how they can generate more activity on these bands. Thanks to HAMNET Gauteng taking the initiative to set up the online discussion and inviting the other interested clubs to share with us. I gained a lot of knowledge about what is currently happening on these bands and what is planned for the future. I have also received information to follow up on about some more activity on these bands of interest to us. 

That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts. 

Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on. 

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

17 January 2021

Audio version

Today, I’m opening with the following story that I picked up on Southgate Amateur Radio News. 

Radio amateurs in Israel have lost much of their spectrum between 1 and 6 GHz and suffered a draconian power reduction on 10 GHz 

Israel has three classes of amateur license:

Class A (Advanced) up to 1500 watts

Class B (General) up to 250 watts

Class C (Novice) 100 watts on 4 HF bands, lower power on some higher bands 

Israel's Ministry of Communications amateur allocations document produced on November 17, 2020, shows these changes to amateur allocations between 1 and 10.5 GHz: 

The 23cm band (formerly 1240-1300 MHz) has been reduced to just 1260-1270 MHz and can only be used by Class A holders for Satellite uplink with a maximum power of 25 watts. 

The 13 cm band appears to have remained the same, Class A and Class B have:

2320-2340 MHz 15 watts

2400-2402 MHz 100 watts

2402-2450 MHz 100 milliwatts 

9 cm band which used to be 3400-3475 MHz has been entirely lost 

6 cm band was 5650-5850 MHz now only the satellite segments remain 5650-5670 MHz 50 watts and 5830-5850 MHz 200 milliwatts. Only Class A can use them and it appears to be satellite only operation. 

3 cm band has suffered a dramatic power reduction. 10.00-10.45 GHz maximum power is now just 100 milliwatts and is Class A only (it was 100w Class A, 25w Class B). 10.45-10.50 is satellite only, Class A 100 watts, Class B 25 watts. 

This is now the third country where radio amateurs have lost or are about to lose access to parts of the bands previously allocated to them. All of them within IARU Region 1.

The threat to our VHF and above bands is becoming very real and it is only a matter of time before we start getting reports of changes closer to home. 

The IARU has formed a committee to address world wide demands on the  amateur spectrum above 144 MHz. They have requested information regarding amateur activity on the following bands: 

13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz

6 cm 5.65 – 5.85  GHz

3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz 

Any information about activities, experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. We need to assist the IARU with information about the activities on these bands. 

Carl ZS6CBQ has taken the initiative to try and get more activity on the 23cm band and posted the following on the SARL VHF and UHF Forum. 

“I started a thread on the Forum on 1296 MHz activity in 2016.

There were lots guys interested in this band and some of the guys started building antennas and sourcing equipment. Stations like ZS4A and ZS4PF got their stations working and soon distances of 236 km and more was achieved on a regular basis. 

A few of us made regular use of 1296 MHz but no new stations were joining us. I know of quite a few ICOM IC9700's that were bought and I was wondering why we don't hear these stations on 23cm. It does not make sense to buy an expensive radio and not utilize it fully? 

We reactivated our 23 cm WhatsApp group and 15 guys are in the group so far. We want to assist and get more stations on the band and so far Hennie ZS6EY has gotten his station on the air and I logged my first QSO on SSB on Saturday morning with him. 

Please join us if you are interested, I can add you in our WhatsApp group or we can share information here on the forum.

 The following stations are active on 1296.200 MHz on a regular basis

ZS6CBQ, ZS4PF, ZS4A, ZS6KSG, ZS6EY AND ZS6AIG” 

Great initiative Carl, let us hope that more stations join the group and become active.

The PEARS National VHF and UHF contest is on this weekend and watching the VHF/UHF WhatsApp groups there was a fair amount of activity on Saturday morning on the bands. Earlier in the morning the most popular band was 6m MS and some nice long distance contacts were made. 

Around mid morning Dick ZS6BUN and Mike ZS1TAF reported 6m opening to Cape Town and Mike ZS1TAF reported a contact on 6m with Paul ZS6NK. 

Here is a video posted by Mike ZS1TAF of the 6m beacons he received in Cape Town.

 ZS1TAF_Beacons_2021-01-16_at_08.46.15.mp4 

More 6m contacts were reported between ZS1 and ZS6. 

A while later Koos ZS3JPY reported a 10m FM contact with Leon ZS6LMG via the 10 repeater on the East Rand. 

10m_between_GP_and_West_Coast 2021-01-16_at_09.25.10.mp3 

While 10m is not strictly VHF it shows that when the bands do open then some amazing contacts can be made.

 Just after midday Leon ZS6LMG posted a recording of a conversation on the 438.700 MHz repeater also on the East Rand. 

4387000_20210116_112358.mp3 

I have no words to describe what we have just heard.

 That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts. 

Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.

 Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ. 

10 January 2021

Audio version 

There was some very good 6m activity last Sunday 3 January. Some of the stations that were on the air from around 03:15 until 06:15 local time were Derek V51DM, Andre ZS2ACP, Willie ZS2CC, Tom ZS1TA, Mike ZS1TAF, Christi ZS4CGR and Dick ZS6BUN. Modes used were MSK144 and FSK441. It sounds as if the group had a lot of fun, with some contacts being completed and others just not getting there. Well done to everyone who was on the air from really early on a Sunday morning and had the patience to keep trying. Mike ZS1TAF made the comment “VHF is a game of patience” and it truly is. 

Dick, ZS6BUN celebrated 50 years of holding an amateur radio licence on Wednesday 6th January. Dick was first licensed as G3ZXQ in 1971 when 2m activity was virtually 100% AM until the advent of the infamous ”Liner 2” which put out an SSB signal so bad which Dick says “should have been banned from the airwaves”.

Dick posted a photo on the WhatsApp group showing his first adventures with digital modes working RTTY with a teleprinter. 

Dick also posted a photo of a tuning fork with the comment “If you were working RTTY in the 1960’s and 70’s you simply HAD to have one of these ........”

TeleprinterTuning Fork 

Dick came to South Africa in 1974 “in search of adventure” and operated on 2m as ZS5ZX in Amanzimtoti. He travelled up and down the coast and as far inland as Nottingham Road with a transverter stuck on the end of a TS520. Dick transferred to Johannesburg in 1980 and became ZS6BUN. A brief love affair with the 2m repeaters ensued using a homebrew Wood and Douglas synthesised FM transceiver. 

Wood Douglas 

Business and family commitments limited amateur radio activity until the early 2000’s when PSK31, WSJT and an Icom 706 saw Dick working meteor scatter on 2m and 6m across the region. Marginally EME capable, Dick now runs on all bands from 160m to 23cm from the farm Vrisgewaag, SE of Nigel. Dick is semi-retired from the plastics industry. Dick also takes a keen interest in the benefits this great hobby has on the lives of amateurs as they transition from full time employment into their “Golden Years”. 

Dick is a serious VHF enthusiast

Dick, well done on this great achievement and may you enjoy many, many more years of this great hobby. We also still have so much to learn from you as well. 

Your photo of you with the teleprinter brought back fond memories for me and my experiences with radio telegraphy as late as ‘85 when I was stationed at the research station on Marion Island and radio telegraphy was the mode that we used to send weather data back to the Weather Bureau in Pretoria via the Derdepoort Radio station just off Zambezi Drive. The tuning fork was what you used to adjust the speed of the teleprinter’s motor so that  you could successfully transmit and receive the data. If the speed of the motor was out then you would either receive nothing or Gobeldy Gook.

Last week I mentioned Claude Shannon and a documentary about him called “The Bit Player”. I watched the documentary and certainly recommend that you watch it if you can.  It is available on Amazon Prime Video. More information about the documentary can be found at https://thebitplayer.com/ 

Looking ahead for the next week, at the Hepburn charts, it seems as if there will be good tropoducting on the West Coast again this coming week. There is also fair conditions predicted all along the South and East Coasts from Cape Agulhas to Richards Bay. 

We are still urgently looking for information regarding activity on the following bands: 

13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz

6 cm 5.65 – 5.85  GHz

3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz 

Any information about activities, experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. We need to assist the IARU with information about the activities on these bands. 

That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts. 

Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on. 

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

 3 January 2021

 Audio version

The bands seem to have been quiet the last week with very little activity  being reported on the various groups that I monitor. 

Looking ahead for the next week, the Hepburn charts do not show much chance of good long distance propagation either, but these are all predictions, and we know that predictions and conditions do change.

There is a new digital protocol being developed by the WSJT-X team that will be very interesting for VHF and above called Q65. The quick start user guide available on the web mentions that “Q65 is particularly effective for tropospheric scatter, ionospheric scatter, and EME on VHF and higher bands, as well as other types of fast-fading signals.” The document also mentions “An excellent example of targeted uses is ionospheric scatter on the 6 m band.  Extensive tests on the 1150 km path between K1JT and K9AN have shown that with 300 W output power, nearly every Q65-30A transmission is copied correctly by the other station.  Q65 will enable stations with a modest Yagi and 100 W or more to work one another on 6 m at distances up to ~1600 km at most times, in dead band conditions.  Ionospheric scatter is best near midday and in summer months, but is present at all times.” This sounds interesting! 

Q65 will be introduced in WSJT-X 2.4.0. I did not find a timeline for the release. The current version is 2.2.2 and version 2.3.0-rc2 is already available for beta testers. The user guide can be found at https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/Q65_Quick_Start.pdf 

Scanning the Southgate ARC news site, an interesting title caught my eye.

How Claude Shannon invented the future 

More than 70 years ago, in a single ground breaking paper, Claude Shannon laid the foundation for the entire communication infrastructure underlying the modern information age. 

The first thought that came to mind was the Shannon-Hartley theorem that I had learned in communications theory in my college days. This is directly related to digital communications and weak signal communications, which a large number of us play with. I just needed to dig deeper and it again highlighted something that is very important to us amateurs. 

During 1928, Hartley formulated a way to quantify information and its line rate (also known as data signalling rate R bits per second). This method, later known as Hartley's law, became an important precursor for Shannon's more sophisticated notion of channel capacity.

Claude Shannon's development of information theory during World War II provided the next big step in understanding how much information could be reliably communicated through noisy channels. Building on Hartley's foundation, Shannon's noisy channel coding theorem (1948) describes the maximum possible efficiency of error-correcting methods versus levels of noise interference and data corruption.

Shannon’s theory was published in 1948, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” 

The heart of his theory is a simple but very general model of communication: A transmitter encodes information into a signal, which is corrupted by noise and then decoded by the receiver. Despite its simplicity, Shannon’s model incorporates two key insights: isolating the information and noise sources from the communication system to be designed, and modelling both of these sources probabilistically. He imagined the information source generating one of many possible messages to communicate, each of which had a certain probability. The probabilistic noise added further randomness for the receiver to disentangle. 

Now all of this may seem like Greek to most of you, but the bottom line why this is important and there are some of you who would have realised it already is that the more noise there is the less reliably the message can be received correctly. Noise, is our greatest enemy and the more noise that we experience the less reliably we can communicate. Weak signal modes or not. Weak signal modes are there to assist with the encoding, error correcting and decoding of the message, but noise is the one thing that we all experience in varying degrees and that is fundamentally the reason why some of us can receive a known station better than others. It is all about the noise levels that we experience in our particular locations. This is why the noise measurement campaign that the SARL is participating in is so important. Noise affects each and every one of us. 

One can read more about Shannon’s theory at https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-claude-shannons-information-theory-invented-the-future-20201222/. On this site you will also find a link to Shannon’s paper. 

There is also a documentary about Claude Shannon called “The Bit Player” that is available on Amazon Prime Video. More information about the documentary can be found at https://thebitplayer.com/ 

Just a reminder from last week’s program which is on the SARL website and has been published in the the January 2021 Radio ZS as well. We are urgently looking for information regarding activity on the following bands: 

13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz

6 cm 5.65 – 5.85  GHz

3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz 

Any information about activities, experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. Both Hans ZS6AKV and myself are involved with the IARU Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committee and get all emails sent to VHF News at this address. We need to assist the IARU with information about the activities on these bands. 

That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts. 

Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

27 December 2020

Audio version

We are starting off with two reports found on the Southgate ARC news website.

14 December 2020, Spain: Authorization to use 2,400 MHz extended.

Spain's Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure has extended the authorization for Radio Amateurs to use 2,400.050 to 2,410.0 MHz for QO-100 communications until Dec 26, 2021

15 December 2020 Finland's radio hams ask for 1240-1300 MHz replacement.

Finland lost the important 1240-1300 MHz amateur radio band on April 24, 2020. National society SRAL now asking for 220-225 MHz as a replacement, their initial request for 902-928 MHz having been rejected

The request is to provide spectrum for Amateur Television operation. It seems that currently operation in 1240-1300 MHz is still possible but only by applying for a Special Permit. These Special Permits will cease when the Galileo GNSS constellation becomes fully operational. 

I have previously mentioned with the build up to WRC-19 that our bands are in demand and stressed the importance of creating activity on the VHF and above bands especially the microwave bands and that if we do not use the bands we will loose them. 

You will also recall prior to WRC-19 there was a lot of petitions on the internet amongst radio amateurs regarding the 144 MHz band after the French administration wanted to reallocate it for aeronautical use.

 We have also spoken about the threat to the 23cm band due to the perceived interference with the GNSS GPS system when it goes into full operation. This is agenda item 9.1.b for WRC-23 and goes about the coexistence between the Galileo/GLONASS system and the amateur service. 

There are a number of resolutions on the table for WRC-23 with the following wording: 

Agenda Item 1.2 says “IMT identification in the frequency bands 3 300-3 400 MHz, 3 600-3 800 MHz, 6 425-7 025 MHz, 7 025-7 125 MHz and 10.0-10.5 GHz to conduct and complete in time for WRC-23 the sharing and compatibility studies”. We, amateurs have a secondary allocation in the 10.0 – 10.5 GHz band.

Agenda Item 1.12 says “Possible secondary allocation to the Earth exploration-satellite service (active) for space borne radar sounders in the range of frequencies around 45 MHz to conduct studies on spectrum needs and sharing studies between the Earth exploration-satellite (active) service and the radiolocation, fixed, mobile, broadcasting, amateur and space research services in the frequency range 40-50 MHz and in adjacent bands”. 

We, amateurs have primary and secondary allocations on the 50 MHz to 54 MHz band.

These are only some of the Agenda Items for WRC-23 that mentions studies on spectrum needs and sharing. Right now it seems as if it is only the microwave bands that are on the radar of the administrations. Unfortunately in most of these bands we are only secondary users which means that we are already sharing these bands with primary users on these bands. It is vitally important that we try and protect these secondary allocations. 

These are all very real threats and there is a world wide team of dedicated IARU volunteers who are working tirelessly trying to mitigate these threats at a very high level. 

So how can we assist? 

One of the best ways, is to show that we are actively using these bands, but this is also where one of the biggest challenges are. We do not actually know what activity there is on these microwave bands. 

Some activities that we are aware of are Mesh Networks that have been set up and experimented with for disaster communications. The folk in Gauteng, Secunda and the Southern Cape have been active on the 6 cm band with Mesh Networks. We all also know that the uplink toQO-100 is on the 13 cm band and the downlink is on the 3 cm band. 

So we know a little, but is it enough? We need more detail on these activities, such as how often are these systems in use? How much bandwidth is required or used? What other activities are there?

We are urgently looking for information regarding activity on the following bands: 

13 cm 2.3-2.45 GHz

6 cm 5.65 – 5.85  GHz

3 cm 10 - 10.5 GHz

Any information about activities, experiments that are taking place on these bands or even being planned in the near future. As much documentation that can identify and explain amateur use of the spectrum on the bands would be very useful and can be sent to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. Both Hans ZS6AKV and myself are involved with the IARU Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committee and get all emails sent to VHF News at this address. 

The Next Generation Beacon hardware is now on my bench, but this week I have been wrestling with getting the MSHV software installed and operational on a Raspberry Pi. The MSHV software can decode the Pi4 mode that the next generation beacon generates in it’s MGM message that it transmits. The software also runs on Linux, but cannot run on the native Raspberry Pi operating system and therefore one needs to install Ubuntu onto the Pi. This has its challenges as the documentation is not clear nor up to date and so it has taken a lot of experimentation to find the right combination of Ubuntu and desktop applications that runs on a Pi and is functional and usable, in other words, not stressing the resources available on the Pi. I believe I have found the right combination and once I have completed some basic testing, I can get on with figuring out the hardware and getting some of the boards up and running. There are still some cables and GPS antenna that needs to be acquired locally, which will only happen in the new year as most suppliers are closed this week. 

That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts. 

Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on. 

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ. 

20 December 2020 

Audio version

Over the last weeks there has been a lot of VHF activity, however locally very little it seems. 

The Geminids meteor shower has come and gone with the peak being last weekend. A number of VHF enthusiasts were listening and transmitting, but the conditions were not as expected.  I asked Dick ZS6BUN how it went and he had the following to say “Well, it wasn’t as if a waterfall of rocks was falling out of the sky ! On the Saturday morning Andre, ZS2ACP and I worked on 6m using FSK441 and completed quite quickly - in about 10 minutes which is not bad for 6m. Tom, ZS1TA and I then completed in 10 minutes on 2m using MSK144. That’s quick. On the Sunday morning Andre and I settled down on 2m with FSK441 again and a bottomless coffee pot. 50 minutes and we were done. That’s about average for 2m. This small burst helped though.” 

Dick_ZS6BUN_Geminids_decode.jpeg

I also mentioned last week that I was collecting data for a HAMSCI measurement initiative around the total eclipse of the sun over South America on 14 December. Well it turns out that there was also a Coronal Mass Ejection from the sun that was due to hit us on 13 December and the scientists hoped to find information on our data that we were collecting about the effects of the solar storm. I wonder if that solar storm perhaps had some influence on the meteor shower as well. 

Here is another story of a 144 MHz signal from the Faroe Islands that was heard 3000 km away in Bulgaria during the Geminid Meteor Shower. 

During this year's Geminid meteor shower, many radio amateurs worldwide were busy making contacts on the VHF bands by bouncing signals off the many meteor trails. One of the big surprises however was when the 144 MHz signal from Jon, OY9JD in the Faroe Islands was heard 3075 km away in Bulgaria by LZ1KU! 

Normally the maximum range of meteor scatter contacts is similar to Sporadic-E i.e. in the region of 2300 km. One hop meteor scatter alone certainly couldn't account for the 3075 km distance. 

To put this distance into context, 3075 km is about the same as the distance across the North Atlantic between Ireland and Newfoundland. 

At first, it was thought that the signal might have bounced off two meteors that just so happened to burn up at just the right place and at just the right time. This is certainly not impossible even though it's an unlikely scenario. 

After some investigative work, it now seems likely that the signal from OY9JD actually reflected off the International Space Station as it was passing over Europe! It seems that the 73 x 109 metre spacecraft is large enough to reflect amateur radio signals when it's in the right spot.

Take a look at the whole story on the blog spot of John EI7GL at  https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2020/12/144-mhz-signal-from-faroe-islands-heard.html. It is very interesting to read how this contact was analysed by John. 

Also on John’s blogspot there is a report of a remarkable 144 MHz contact made on 15 December between the West Coast and the East Coast of Australia. 

During an extensive Sporadic-E opening in Australia on the 15th of December 2020, WSPR signals from John VK2IJM and David VK2DVM in Sydney were heard by Peter VK6KXW near Perth in Western Australia. 

The path was in the region of 3200 km which is way beyond the usual 2300 km or so one hop distance from Sporadic-E. It seems likely that on this occasion, the most likely propagation mode was double hop Sporadic-E which is very rare at 144 MHz. 

It looks as if just one WSPR transmission from each of the VK2 stations was decoded at 10:16 and 10:36 UTC. This was about an hour after sunset in Sydney which is 11 hours ahead of UTC.

It's also worth pointing out that the reports from the WSPRnet website say that the VK2 stations were running just 10 watts. 

VK6CPU in Perth was also heard by VK5AYD in Adelaide at around the same time over a distance of 2149 km which was likely to be via Sporadic-E.

It would seem as if double hop Sporadic-E was the most likely mode of propagation for the VK2 stations. 

Dropping down in frequency to the 6m band there was a remarkable 13,000 km opening on 50 MHz between Australia and South America on 12th December 2020. 

With the Summer Sporadic-E season in the southern hemisphere now in full swing, there was a remarkable opening on the 50 MHz band on the 12th of December between Australia and South America. 

The opening which is believed to have been multi-hop Sporadic-E was remarkable because of the distances involved which were in the region of 13,000kms and the fact that some of the signals crossed over part of Antarctica. 

One of the longest distances reported was between VK5BC near Adelaide and PT9FD in the south of Brazil, a distance of 13,530 kms.

Stations in New Zealand were also able to get through to South America with distances in the region of 11,000 km being achieved.

 Again more information can be found on https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2020/12/remarkable-13000-km-opening-on-6-metres.html. 

Staying on 6m, Dennis ZS4BS alerted me to a free e-book about the 6m band. 

Have you ever wondered about the “Magic” of Six Meters? 

It really doesn’t take much on six meters — your existing HF+6 meter rig along with a simple antenna, even a dipole, will work. In this book you’ll find out how I know that dipoles work, along with how to build one of your own.

This book will also provide plenty of insight into how you, too, can “Capture the Magic of Six Meters.” It covers propagation, equipment, software, antennas, awards and contesting, as well as assistance in finding the magic. 

The e-book Capture the MAGIC of Six Meters by Jim Wilson K5ND is available for free download in PDF format from

https://www.k5nd.net/2020/08/capture-the-magic-of-six-meters-ebook/. 

On the SARL VHF/UHF Forum Andy VK6OX wrote the following “I'm a VK ham with many years of 6m operation. I did try with a few ZS stations several years back to organise scheds between Western VK and ZS. For various reasons, things didn't really eventuate.

Here we are now in late 2020 and I'd like to revisit the possibility of making 6m contacts happen between VK and ZS.

The advent of digital transmission methods has meant that even marginal propagation conditions has resulted in successful 2-way contacts. 

Those of you that follow 6m activities globally will know that there have been several successful contacts between eastern VK and South America in the last few days. These contacts have taken place around 2200UTC onward. That's morning time in VK, evening in Brazil/Argentina/Peru etc. The current popular mode of digital transmission is JT65 for the long haul efforts. FT8 can also work but is several dB worse off in the long haul. 

I still believe there is the possibility of making contact with ZS et al in a similar time frame i.e. evening in VK, early morning ZS. 

So in short, if anyone in ZS is at all interested in giving this a go, please get in contact with me. (vk6ox@iinet.net.au) or via various social media platforms!” 

There are some ZS hams who remember 6m CW contacts in the early 90’s between South Africa and Western Australia. 

The 6m band is very under utilised and lack of equipment is not an excuse as every HF radio now days has 6m functionality as well. How about reading the e-book mentioned just now and capturing the magic of 6m for yourself. 

You will also remember that I mentioned in last week’s Focus on VHF that I was going to monitor for the Bethlehem beacon using a similar measurement technique that was used for the HamSCI data collection. Well, I set up my 857D with an AMSAT SA Yagi and started collecting data from just before 18:00 on Wednesday 16 December. Analysing the signals received, I did not find any traces of the beacon signal, however I will keep recording the output of the 857D and hopefully will find the beacon popping up in the recordings. The nice thing about this measurement technique is that you do not need to be in front of the radio and if the beacon is heard with a fairly strong signal then it will definitely be recorded. Once a day I save the recording and then start a new recording, allowing me to go through the recording at my leisure. 

As you have heard on the SARL news the Next Generation Beacon hardware is already on the ground and cleared customs. We are eagerly awaiting the delivery of the shipment and getting to play with the new beacon hardware. Bo Hansen OZ2M, the Danish OZ7IGY beacon project manager and his team has done a superb job of getting the hardware built, tested and shipped after the initial challenges to find some of the components needed. 

That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts. 

Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on.

Focus on VHF and Above

6 December 2020

Audio version   

My apologies for not having a programme last week. A lightning storm took out my ADSL line on the Friday evening. On Saturday morning I discovered that the cellular service was barely alive as well. No data services and a GSM signal that was almost non existent allowing only the odd phone call and SMS to be transmitted.  So without anyway of being able to research the program, or sending the program to Hans ZS6AKV who compiles Amateur Radio Today resulted in me having the day off and thinking about the situation that arose. There is no real solution to the problem, but one thing is certain. The more we become reliant on technology in our everyday lives, the harder it hits us when the technology fails. 

At least we radio amateurs have access to “older” technologies and we understand how it works and this allows us to be able to still communicate with the outside world when all else fails. We need to make sure that we brush up our skills and know how to use the radios, software and systems that are available to us because we never know when we are really going to need it. It is only a matter of time. 

In the last program, I mentioned reports of 10m openings and Jose PY4AQA reported 6m Trans-Equatorial Propagation or TEP between PY4 and EA8 and I said that it was time to dust off those 6m antennas. 

This week there were two reports of TEP openings between Argentina and the Caribbean Islands.

 Etienne P41E on Aruba, managed to complete 33 contacts with Argentinian stations on 144 MHz using a combination of SSB, FM and FT8 modes. The most impressive being the contact with LU2EPO near Buenos Aires in Argentina, a distance of just over 5400 km. One of the TEP contacts on 2m SSB was with LU3FCI who was using a vintage Yaesu FT-780R which is almost 40 years old! 

P41E-TEP-Nov-2020.jpg 

Ettiene P41E also has a very modest station and it just shows what can be done. 

P41E-Nov-2020-VHF-antenna.jpg

P41E-Nov-2020-radios.jpg

The second contact was between Buenos Aires and the Dominican Republic when David Lama, HI8DL reports that on the night of the 29th of November 2020, both he and Edgar, HI8PLE contacted LU2EPO on 144.300 MHz at 23:57 UTC. The mode used for the contacts was SSB and the distance was 6 102km

HI8DL-TEP-Nov-2020-map.jpg 

Thanks to John EI7GL for the information posted on his blogspot at https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/ 

It is time to dust off those 6m and 2m antennas and point them North. 

We also spoke previously about the Geminids meteor shower that is expected in December. Dick ZS6BUN posted the following on the VHF, UHF / SHF West Coast WhatsApp group. 

Dick says “Geminids meteor shower is the best of the year. We should see a pick-up of meteor activity from 4th to 17th December with a peak the night of the 13^th and 14th.

I would like to suggest we get everyone able to get on 2m digital, to meet on the 2m MS freq of 144.360 MHz at say 05h00 on the mornings of Sunday the 13^th and Monday the 14^th.  

We agree before hand:

- Who will tx 1st or 2nd

- MSK144 or FSK441

- 15 or 30 sec periods

- Skeds or free for all 

Suggest we could also have a 6m gathering on 50.280 MHz at 05h00 on Saturday morning the 12 of December.

 According to information on the NASA site regarding the Geminids, during the peak of the activity, approximately 120 meteors per hour can be seen. Not only should this be interesting to experience RF wise, but visually as well if we have clear skies. 

Looking ahead at the Hepburn charts for the South Atlantic there is certainly opportunities for contacts between St Helena Island and Brazil.

Hepburn_Chart_South Atlantic_0000UTC9DEC2020.png

Inland there are a number of days where the conditions may be promising in the early hours of Monday 7 December

Hepburn_Chart_South Africa_0600UTC7Dec2020.png

 and Wednesday 9 December

Hepburn_Chart_South Atlantic_0000UTC9DEC2020.png 

The VHF Work Group next generation beacon project is making progress and the next generation beacon hardware for the test beacon that will replace the current ZS0BET beacon radio in Bethlehem has been ordered and we are awaiting delivery that should take place in the next couple of weeks.

The VHF Work Group is planning to replace the Bethlehem ZS0BET beacon’s radio and the Cape Town ZS1TWO beacon’s radio with Next Generation Beacon hardware. In parallel we are going ahead to complete a third Next Generation Beacon that will be deployed at a suitable site in the Karoo.

AMSAT SA has not only provided a generous donation towards the beacon project, but they have also started a crowd funding project on their website at http://amsatsa.org.za/ in support of the beacon project. The VHF Work Group would like to thank the Trustees of AMSAT SA for their support of the Beacon Project. 

Donations can also be made by EFT. The account is SARL, ABSA Account No  407 158 8849, Branch code 632 005. The reference must be Beacon and your call sign and surname. Please send a copy of the EFT to admin@sarl.org.za 

An article on the Next Generation Beacon programme has also been published in the November issue of the trade magazine Engineer IT.(www.engineerit.co.za)

Thanks to Hans ZS6AKV for publishing the article. Hans is the Executive Editor of the magazine and regularly posts articles about amateur radio activities in the magazine.

A copy of the November edition of Engineer IT can be downloaded at https://www.engineerit.co.za/magazine/engineerit-november-2020/

That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.

Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on. 

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

Focus on VHF and Above 15 November 2020

Audio version

 It seems as if this week has been very quiet regarding VHF and above activities. 

Along the East Coast Phil, FR5DN was hoping for a contact with Dave ZS5DJ, but the conditions just did not allow it to happen.

Along the West Coast, the tropoducting stretched inland for some distance, but at the time of preparing this week’s Focus on VHF, I had not seem any reports of good long distance contacts up the West Coast. 

The VHF/UHF analogue contest has also been on the go from 12:00 UTC on Saturday afternoon. The Cape Radio Group ZS1CRG has set up a field station on Piketberg mountain where they are hoping to get a lot of contacts from St Helena all the way down to Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs. 

The Inland 46 Group was also on the air. Trying to make as many contacts as possible. Inland, VHF propagation seems to be more favourable late at night and in the early mornings. 

Jose PA4AQA also posted two images showing possible Sporadic E conditions between Africa and Brazil. 

I attended a HAMNET Gauteng training exercise that took place in the form of a Fox Hunt or Amateur Radio Direction Finding on Saturday morning. Being able to locate transmitters whether it is a Fox that has been hidden, or an ELB which is an emergency locator beacon of a downed aircraft or a missing hiker, or a rogue interferer causing problems on the amateur frequencies, is a skill all amateurs should master. You never know when you will need to use these skills. I thoroughly enjoyed the morning practising to locate the hidden transmitters and honing those skills again.

Apart from that it was a great morning spent outside with my fellow amateurs enjoying the hobby.

ARDF is a very popular radio sport in both Europe and the US. There is even an IARU ARDF Working Group and these guys are passionate about it.

For some reason ARDF has not been popular in South Africa for a while. Maybe it is time for the more senior amateurs, or the elmers as they like to call us, to teach the younger crowd how it is done. A great activity for a club afternoon and you do not even need anything fancy to hunt for a fox. Just a hand held radio, a hat and some sun block. Just a word of warning. The cheap Chinese radios like the Baofeng radios which are SDR based cannot be successfully used for a fox hunt. A hand held from the big three and some of the Chinese radios like Wouxun that have a proper RF front end will do the job. Once you have mastered some of the basic skills then you can maybe add a tape measure Yagi and an offset attenuator to your fox hunting toolbox.

I have seen that Charles ZS1CF has already proposed a date for the West Coast fox hunt again in early December. 

What other groups have a regular fox hunt? Let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za. 

The VHF Work Group are planning to replace the Bethlehem ZS0BET beacon’s radio and the Cape Town ZS1TWO beacon’s radio with Next Generation Beacon hardware. In parallel we are going ahead to complete a third Next Generation Beacon that will be deployed at a suitable site in the Karoo. 

We have been given the go ahead to find sponsors for the project and require in the region of R60 000.00 for the hardware for the project. We already have in the region of R26 500 available for the beacon project, thanks to the SARL, AMSAT SA, Brian ZS6YZ and Dennis ZS4BS. 

Donations can be made by EFT. The account is SARL, ABSA Account No  407 158 8849, Branch code 632 005. The reference must be Beacon and your call sign and surname. Please send a copy of the EFT to admin@sarl.org.za 

The RF modules have arrived on my workbench and I have already tested all of them to ensure that they are fully functional. I am still waiting to hear when we can place the order for the NGN beacon hardware. The availability of the VCO modules are currently a challenge. 

The new power supply for the Bethlehem Beacon will be sent to Rickus ZS4A early next week to replace the one that was mistreated by the lightning. 

That’s all for the week. Keep trying to make those long distance contacts on VHF and above and do let us know at vhfnews@sarl.org.za when you make those contacts.

Also send us your beacon reports, or tell us about that interesting project that you have been working on. 

Focus on VHF and above is compiled, edited and presented for Amateur Radio Today by Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ.

As of the 31st January 2021, we have a growing population of CW ops. We have a count of 61 amateurs regularly, on CW within the Republic of South Africa.

My aim is to have the call signs and names published in the SARL news letter in April this year, to begin an historic growth pattern, with which we can monitor our significance.

It will be a bi-annual census cut off date on the 1st April 2021, as the first half. Long Island CW club in the States have taken a keen interest in our development as a CW country and have asked if I would send them a copy when published, I said yes by all means.

So just a reminder, if you use a KEY to communicate regularly on CW, and would like your name and call sign be published, as part of an ongoing project you are reminded to e-mail me soon zs6msw@gmail.com

Direct importer of a wide selection of SWR meters, H.F., V.H.F. and U.H.F. base and mobile antennas. Amateur radio transceivers, antenna analyzers, etc. Affordable shipping costs for out of town customers and subsidized shipping to SARL members.Check out all my amateur radio goodies here. 0720268909. 

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