SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 09 SEPTEMBER 2018
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and QTH]
The South African Radio League broadcasts a news bulletin each Sunday in Afrikaans as well as English, at 08:15 and 08:30 Central African Time respectively, on HF as well as on various VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. The bulletin is relayed via Echolink by ZS6JPL. A podcast is available on the League website. Audio and text bulletins may be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za where you can also sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
In the news, today:
THE AFRICA ALL MODE CONTEST AND THE SARL VHF/UHF DIGITAL CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND
50 MHZ AND WRC-19
and
SARL HF CONTEST RESULTS
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE AFRICA ALL MODE CONTEST AND THE SARL VHF/UHF DIGITAL CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND
The objective of the Africa All Mode contest is to stimulate contesting from Africa. All participating stations worldwide may work any country during the contest period. African DXCC entities are defined as those valid per the ARRL DXCC AF listing published at the time of the contest. The contest runs from 12:00 UTC on Saturday 15 September to 12:00 UTC on Sunday 16 September 2018 with CW, RTTY and SSB activity on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres. The exchange is your RS(T) report and a sequential serial number commencing at 001. No paper entries will be accepted for contest or checking purposes. Entries must be submitted in Cabrillo format only and be received no later than Monday 1 October 2018. Entries must be sent to contest@sarl.org.za
The second leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Digital contest is on the air from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 15 September to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 16 September 2018 with RTTY, PSK and other digital modes on 6, 4 and 2 metres as well as 70 and 23 centimetres and higher. The Contest is open to all licensed Radio Amateurs in South Africa, Namibia (V5), Botswana (A2), Zimbabwe (Z2), Mozambique (C9), Lesotho (7P) and Swaziland (3DA). Only contacts with these countries will count. The exchange is an RSQ report as well as the station location e.g. latitude and longitude or full six-digit Maidenhead locator or accurate area, address or location. Log sheets must be submitted by 24 September 2018 by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za. The log sheet should be renamed by the participant to include his/her call sign.
Please read the complete set of rules before the contests. They can be found in the 2018 SARL Contest Manual as well as the September issue of Radio ZS.
50 MHZ AND WRC-19
The South African Radio League presented its position regarding the WRC-19 Agenda item 1.1 considering the spectrum needs in Region 1 for the amateur service in the band 50 to 54 MHz at the WRC-19 Industry Preparatory meeting held by the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS) on Thursday 6 September.
The amateur service is looking for spectrum alignment at WRC-19 in all 3 ITU regions (globally), with a 4 MHz primary allocation at 50 to 54 MHz. The IARU believes that spectrum sharing can be covered through regulatory footnotes in RR Article 5, which would protect existing television service areas in Eastern Europe and provide a basis for national sharing with respect to the land mobile and fixed services and secondary radiolocation (wind profiler) usage.
SARL Regulatory Manager, Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV presented the SARL position which is based on the IARU global position. Currently South Africa has access to 50 to 54 MHz. This is not so for Region 1, except for the eleven African countries as listed in footnote 5.169. No change should be considered to this footnote, which means the South African position remains unchanged.
The IARU proposes that 50,0 to 50,5 MHz be allocated to the amateur service on a shared primary basis and 50,5 to 52 MHz be allocated on a shared secondary basis. Footnote 5.169 is to be expanded by those administrations who may allocate all or part of the frequency range 52 to 54 MHz, ensuring that the amateur service does not interfere with services in other countries.
ICASA questioned if there have been any reported cases of interference to services in neighbouring countries. The SARL confirmed that over the many decades that South Africa had access to 50 - 54 MHz no inference has ever been reported.
The meeting accepted the SARL proposal which will now be tabled at SADC and ATU WRC preparatory meetings. There are a number of other issues on the WRC agenda that could affect amateur radio, and the League has indicated to DTPS that the SARL will present its position papers shortly.
VHF DAY AT NARC ON 20 OCTOBER 2018
Proposals for interesting papers have already been received and from comments received it appears that such an event is long overdue. The workshop will be held from 09:30 - 14:30 at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre in Gauteng. There will be a nominal cost of R50 for SARL and AMSAT SA members and R150 for non-members.
It is planned to make a skype link available to clubs who are interested in transmitting the event on their local repeaters. Clubs need to register with the organisers by 1 October 2018. Where available PowerPoint presentations will be made available on the web prior to the start of the workshop.
This is an advance notice and an invitation for papers and presentations. Interested authors are invited to send a synopsis of their paper and presentation by 15 September 2018 to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. If you are interested in attending, send an e-mail to admin@amsatsa.org.za and your name will be added to the mailing list to receive information as it becomes available. Registration will open on 20 September 2018.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Radio League.
SEPTEMBER'S "US ROUTE 66 ON THE AIR" SPECIAL EVENT MARKS 19TH YEAR
The 19th annual Route 66 on the Air special event, celebrating the storied highway between the west coast and the US heartland, got under way yesterday 8 September and continues until 16 September. The Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club (CBARC) of San Bernardino, California, sponsors the event, which features 21 stations, including two rovers, operating from sites along or near the path of US Route 66. The 2 x 1 call signs with a W6 prefix will be active on CW, SSB and digital modes, as well as some VHF and UHF repeater operation. Listen out for W6A to W6U during the event period. Commemorative QSL cards and certificates will be available. Visit http://w6jbt.org/ for all the information
What about a Route 62 event here in South Africa?
THE RESULTS OF THE SARL HF CW CONTEST
The Contest Committee received seven logs for the SARL HF CW contest held on 26 August.
1st Hans Kappetijn, ZS6KR – 56 points
2nd Jan Botha, ZS4JAN - 54 points
3rd Barry Nugent, ZS2NF and John Golby, ZS1ZC – 46 points each
The highest score on a single band was achieved by John Golby, ZS1ZC with 46 points on 40 metres.
The Club competition
1st Pretoria ARC – 56 points
2nd Bloemfontein ARC – 54 points
3rd Highway ARC – 50 points
4th Port Elizabeth ARS – 46 points
THE COMBINED RESULTS OF THE SARL HF PHONE, DIGITAL AND CW CONTESTS
1st Jan Botha, ZS4JAN – 214 points
2nd Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ – 204 points
3rd Max Rossi, ZS5MAX – 174 points
4th Hans Kappetijn, ZS6KR – 140 points
The Club Competition
1st Bloemfontein ARC – 347 points
2nd Highway ARC – 293 points
3rd Bo-Karoo ARC – 237 points
The full set of results can be found in HF Happenings 811
FINAL RESULTS OF THE SARL HF PHONE AND DIGITAL CONTEST
In terms of General Rule 9 of the 2018 SARL Contest Manual, the results of the SARL HF Phone and Digital contest as published in HF Happenings 808 and 810 are now deemed as the final results.
FINAL RESULTS OF THE SARL YL SPRINT
In terms of General Rule 9 of the 2018 SARL Contest Manual, the contest committee received one objection to the results published in HF Happenings 809.
1st Alta Gaybba, ZR3PA and Sonet de Wet, ZS3SW – 113 points each
3rd Judy Pretorius, ZS6JDY – 104 points
4th Jocelyn Hallendorff, ZS6JKL – 97 points
The results as published in HF Happenings 811 are now deemed as the final results.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. Currently there are no sunspots visible. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around one. The 15, 20 and 30m bands may provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
15 September – the East Rand Branch AGM, and the final date for authors to submit a synopsis of their papers and presentations for the VHF Day
15 and 16 September the Africa All Mode International DX Contest, and the SARL VHF/UHF Digital contest
16 September – registration for the October RAE closes
17 September – the closing date for National Field Day logs
20 September - registration opens for the VHF Day
22 September – the Cape Town ARC meeting
24 September – the closing date for VHF/UHF Digital logs and for articles for the October Radio ZS,
29 and 30 September – the CQ World Wide RTTY Contest
1 October – the closing date for Africa All Mode logs and Clubs to register for the VHF Day
4 October – the SARL 80 m QSO Party
20 October – VHF/UHF Day at the NARC
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The Africa All Mode contest and the SARL VHF/UHF Digital contest are on the air next weekend, 15 and 16 September. The Africa All Mode contest involves CW, RTTY and SSB activity on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 metres – Africa working the world! During the VHF/UHF Digital contest you can use all the digital modes operating from 6 metres and up. Please read the complete set of rules before the contests. They can be found in the 2018 SARL Contest Manual as well as the September issue of Radio ZS.
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
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 program, 'Amateur Radio Today' at 10:00 Central African Time. The program can be heard on VHF and UHF repeaters countrywide and on 7 082 kHz lower side-band 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; please 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 Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
