SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 25 OCTOBER 2015
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by
[your name, call sign and QTH]
You can tune in to the South African Radio League news bulletin on Sunday mornings at 08:15 Central African Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Central African Time in English on HF and on many VHF and UHF repeaters around our country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the League web site.
This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za. You will find this bulletin and previous bulletins in text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the web page. While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
In the news today
RADIO AMATEUR EXAMINATION NEWS
LONG DISTANCES ON VHF DURING SUMMER
and
THANK YOU TO RADIO AMATEURS FROM THE YOUTH
Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items.
** The Radio Amateur Examination has now been completed, the papers have been marked and the results have been published on the League website. The South African Radio League Council would like to congratulate all the new Radio Amateurs and hope to soon hear them on air. Thank you very much too all the Invigilators and HF Assessors who did a sterling job in assuring that the RAE ran so smoothly.
** The League's Emergency Communications arm, Hamnet, is involved in the Summer Communications exercise, taking place as we speak. Sixteen stations are attempting to transmit random messages amongst each other in every three hour slot since midday yesterday (Saturday) until midday today (Sunday) using any one of 13 frequencies. With propagation variations, these frequencies will only apply at specific times of day or night. The exercise is being run in blackout conditions, so no station may use any kind of mains electricity for any purpose whatsoever.
If you like the idea of Emergency Communications and what Hamnet stands for, join us for the Hamnet bulletin during the Amateur Radio Today programme at 10:00 this morning on a repeater near you, or e-mail me, Dave, at zs1dfr@telkomsa.net.
** Long distances are possible on VHF during the summer months says Mike, ZS2FM. Very long distance operation is possible during the hot summer months via the different types of propagation, including year round contacts on satellite and EME. Tropo Scatter (TrS) 1 000 km plus, Tropo Enhancement (TrE) 400 km plus, Tropo Ducting (TrD) 4 000 km plus , Sporadic-E (Es) 2 500 km plus, Meteor Scatter (MS) 2 500 km plus, Aircraft Scatter (AS) plus/minus 1 000 km, Short-path Summer Solstice Propagation (SSSP) 13 000 km plus, Satellite (SAT) 7 000 km plus and Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) plus/minus 20 000 km.
** CQ Hou Koers, the Voortrekkers' national amateur radio communications day, took place on 17 October 2015. Fifteen Voortrekker groups from all over South Africa and one Voortrekker group from Namibia participated in the event. The Sasolburg Radio Club supported the event by having two young amateurs operate their celebratory call sign ZS50SRK. The Voortrekkers thank every radio amateur who took the time and made the effort to support young people during the event, as well as every Voortrekker Group for the enthusiastic participation. Please send logs to cq@orionvoortrekkers.co.za
** Jamboree on the Air and Jamboree on the Internet took place last weekend and Scouts and Guides across the country enjoyed talking via amateur radio with other young people. The Scouts and Guides and their leaders wish to thank all the radio amateurs involved with JOTA and JOTI.
Radio amateurs together with the Scout and Guide leaders are requested to submit a short report of their activities to compile a national JOTA/JOTI report. Please send your report to zs4bs@netactive.co.za by 1 November.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
** An Afrikaans dictionary for the Afrikaans speaking radio amateur is in its beginning stages. After a lengthy period of research and searching for an Afrikaans radio amateur dictionary without any success, the idea of compiling a dictionary ourselves was born. To achieve this goal we are looking for 4 to 5 volunteers who would like to be part of this project in compiling this dictionary. We will also be looking for expert advice from academicals institutions like the University of North West (Potchefstroom) and other likewise institutions. If you are interested and want to get involved in this project, please contact Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN, via e-mail on etienne@afrigrid.com
** The CQ WW DX SSB Contest started yesterday and ends at midnight UTC this evening. Activity is on 160 to 10 metres and the exchange is a RS report and CQ zone, for South Africa that is zone 38.
** The second RaDAR Challenge of 2015 takes place on Saturday 7 November starting at 00:00 UTC and ending at 23:59 UTC. Activity on this international contest is allowed on all amateur bands including cross band contacts via amateur radio satellites. You may use CW, SSB, AM, FM or any legal digital mode, but QSOs via terrestrial repeaters will NOT be allowed.
You can participate as a RaDAR fixed station at home; a RaDAR field station - away from home or as a moving RaDAR station refer to the rules for the modes of transport. The exchange is a call sign, name, RS(T) report, QTH and grid locator. Log sheets must be submitted by 17 November by e-mail to edleighton@gmail.com.
** The PEARS HF contest takes place on Sunday 8 November starting at 12:00 UTC and ending at 16:00 UTC. It is a phone only contest with activity on the 20, 15 and 10 metre band and you can participate as a single operator, base or field station or as a multi operator, base or field station. The exchange is a call sign and RS report. Your log must be submitted by 22 November by e-mail to contest@peham.co.za
** The Pretoria Amateur Radio Clubs Mega Flea Market and the 85th Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 31 October. The Pretoria ARC will be holding a mega flea market on Saturday 31 October 2015 at Pretoria Motor Club in Silverton from 08:00 to 10:00 CAT. The usual hotdogs, coffee, tea and soft drinks will be offered for sale. Everybody is welcome and to book a table, please contact Johan, ZS6JHB on 079 333 4107.
The 85th Annual General Meeting will take place from 11:00 CAT at the Pretoria Old Motor Club. Members and visitors are welcome to come and join in, there will be a bring and braai afterwards. Salads and the fire will be provided; other refreshments will also be on sale. Members and interested parties who want to attend the braai must please contact Johan, ZS6JHB, on 079 333 4107 for catering purposes.
** In the propagation report, Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at moderate levels. Active region 2436 has a complex magnetic configuration and may produce M-class solar flares. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 67.
The 20 to 10 m bands will provide lots of DX fun, especially during the late afternoons and in the evenings. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
And now for the diary of events
Today until midnight UTC the CQ WW DX SSB contest
31 October Pretoria ARC Mega Flea Market and 85th AGM
1 November your JOTA/JOTI Report submitted
7 November the RaDAR Challenge
8 November the PEARS HF Contest
10 November closing date for articles for the November/December Radio ZS
To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.
** The Radio Amateur Examination has now been completed, the papers have been marked and the results have been published on the League website. The South African Radio League Council would like to congratulate all the new Radio Amateurs and hope to soon hear them on air. Thank you very much too all the Invigilators and HF Assessors who did a sterling job in assuring that the RAE ran so smoothly.
** Clubs and individuals are invited to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners, if possible, in both English and Afrikaans, by following the news inbox link on the South African Radio League web page. News items for inclusion in the bulletin should reach the news team no later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.
You are welcome to join us every Sunday morning for the weekly amateur radio magazine programme Amateur Radio Today at 10:00 Central African Time. The programme can be heard on VHF and UHF repeaters countrywide and on 7 082 kHz lower side-band and on 7 205 kHz and 17 760 kHz AM. There is also a podcast available from Dick Stratford, ZS6RO. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 18:30 Central African Time on 3 230 kHz AM.
We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; send these by e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za. Sentech sponsors the radio transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.
You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Carina Green (Dave, ZS1DFR is part of the Hamnet exercise), and read by
..
From the entire news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
73's and thank you for listening
/EX
