SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 31 MARCH 2019

Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and QTH]

The South African Radio League broadcasts a news bulletin each Sunday in Afrikaans as well as 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 on Echolink by ZS6JPL. A podcast is available on the League website. Audio and text bulletins may be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za where you can also sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

We start the bulletin this morning with news of a silent key:

It is with deep regret that we announce that the key of Peter Scott, ZS1KW went silent on 28 February 2019.

We extend our sincere condolences to his wife Glenda, family and friends.

PAUSE

In the news, today:

THE SARL 80 M QSO PARTY

THE SARL PLANS TWO ADDITIONAL VHF BEACONS

and

SARL HAMNET EASTERN CAPE ASSISTS THE MOUNTAIN CLUB OF SOUTH AFRICA

Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.

THE SARL 80 M QSO PARTY

The first leg of the SARL 80 m QSO party will take place from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC on Thursday 4 April 2019 with phone activity between 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 800 kHz. Please note that the segment 3 651 to 3 699.99 kHz is contest free. The exchange is your call sign, a RS report and your name. A QSO with a station in South Africa counts 10 points and a QSO with a station outside South Africa counts 15 points. Log sheets in MS Excel format ONLY must be submitted by 11 April 2019 by e-mail to louis.zs5lp@gmail.com, please note that the e-mail address in the Blue Book is wrong. The log sheet is available from the Contest page on the League web site.

BOOKING FOR THE DAY OF THE RADIO AMATEUR

There are still 19 seats available for the SARL Awards Dinner on Saturday evening 13 April at the Devondale Golf Estate. Bookings for the Donner closed at Midnight tonight, 31 March 2019.

Registration for the SARL Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology Symposium is still open until Friday 5 April. You can continue to send your registration forms and proxy forms for the AGM. Can the 2018 attendance recoded be improved by the amateurs in the Western Cape?

THE SARL PLANS TWO ADDITIONAL VHF BEACONS

Over the past few months the Beacon Workgroup has been engaged in putting together a proposal for two additional beacons to be used for propagation studies. One beacon is to be deployed near Bethlehem in the Free State and a second beacon somewhere in the centre of the country equidistant from the Western Cape and Gauteng where the two centres of activity are on the VHF and above bands. The working group has made the decision to go ahead and procure the necessary equipment for the beacons and to deploy the beacon in Bethlehem first and use this site as the test site while efforts are made to procure a site in the central Karoo. A site has been identified in the Karoo and the working group is now busy putting a proposal together to take to the owner of the site.

The working group has also been discussing VHF propagation and forecasting over the inland areas. Along the coast there are the Hepburn charts, but these charts do not really help for the inland areas, or so it is believed. Over the last months some interesting correlations have been made between the actual propagation being experienced by the various forecasting models. It turns out that the Hepburn charts do give an indication of possible band openings inland. Even more interesting however, are the correlations being made between the actual propagation and some of the weather forecasting models available. Expect to hear more about this at one of the upcoming VHF/UHF and Microwave workshops and at the SARL Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology symposium in Stellenbosch on 12 April. Do no delay, book while you can still benefit from the SARL subsidised attendance fee. Details on www.sarl.org.za.

If you would like to be part of the VHF Working Group, send your Skype name to vhfnews@sarl.org.za and you will be included in the meetings.

TWO CONTESTS NEXT WEEKEND

The first RaDAR Challenge for 2019 takes place on Saturday 6 April from 00:00 UTC to 23:59 UTC with each RaDAR operator define his/her own operating time schedule. It is up to each individual to plan his/her maximum, single period, four hour ops and consider propagation with the ultimate goal of inter-continental RaDAR to RaDAR communications in mind. Share your plans with others to coordinate times. All amateur bands are allowed including cross band contacts via amateur radio satellites and CW, SSB, FM or any legal amateur radio digital mode can be used. The Challenge is not a "contest" as such, it's an individual challenge. Get all the information on page 30 of the 2019 Blue Book.

The first leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Digital Contest will be run from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 6 April 2019 to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 7 April 2019 with activity on 6, 4 and 2 metres, 70 and 23 cm and higher as per band plan. Participation can be as a single operator, a multi operator, a Portable/Field Station or a Limited 4 Hour station. The exchange is an RST or RSQ report and the six-digit Maidenhead locator of the station. Get all the information on page 51 of the 2019 Blue Book.

You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Radio League.

SARL HAMNET EASTERN CAPE ASSISTS THE MOUNTAIN CLUB OF SOUTH AFRICA WITH THEIR NATIONAL TRAINING MEET 2019.

Every two years the Mountain Club of South Africa host a national training meet, which is rotated around the country and hosted by various MCSA sections. This year the event was hosted by the Eastern Cape Section. It was held in the Baviaanskloof and ran from Wednesday 20 March to Sunday 24 March. Kudu Khaya was the base of operations and provided a great location for the JOC. Andrew Gray, ZS2G, Director SARL Hamnet Eastern Cape was tasked with keeping the MCSA members in contact with each other and for manning the JOC. Andrew set up a small team consisting of himself, Gert, ZS2GS, Colin, ZR2CRS and Jimmy, ZS2JIM, Glen, ZS2GV, Tony Allen, ZR2TX, and Dave Higgs, ZS2DH.

SARL Hamnet Eastern Cape deployed a portable UHF repeater at Bergplaas in the Baviaanskloof. Cross band repeaters were deployed to link the individual, the teams rotated through 3 scenarios on a one-per-day basis. The teams were issued radios with both the MCSA S&R frequency and an amateur VHF frequency backup channel. Each of the teams had a radio amateur in the team.

Colin, ZR2CRS and Jimmy, ZS2JIM manned the JOC - and not just from a radio perspective but logistically as well. This included signing members in and out as well as the issue and receipt of equipment and radios for the teams. In the final closing speeches on Saturday evening, SARL Hamnet was thanked and the appreciation of each of the team leaders and the event management team were also noted. A job well done! A full report will appear in the May Radio ZS.

THE RESULTS OF THE FIRST WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT

The contest Committee received 43 logs for the first leg of the SARL 80 m Club Sprint, 42 logs were submitted by the closing date. Eleven (11) Clubs are represented in the results.

1st Boland ARC - 474 points (10 logs)
2nd West Rand ARC - 435 points (8 logs)
3rd Bo-Karoo ARC - 320 points (6 logs)
4th Highway ARC - 285 points (6 logs)

The complete set of results can be found in HF Happenings 840. The second leg of the SARL 80 m Club Sprint takes place on Wednesday 15 May 2019 and no, we have no control over propagation!

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

The SARL has received membership applications from Robert Hill, ZSL1200 and the Mooirivier Amateur Radio Club, ZS6MOI. Any objections to these membership applications must reach the League Secretary before the Wednesday following this bulletin. Please send your objections to secretary@sarl.org.za

PRETORIA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB BOOT SALE

Pretoria Amateur Radio Club will host their next boot sale on Saterday 6 April 2019 at their usual place at Pretoria Old Motor Club, in Keuning Street, Silverton. The starting time is 10:00 and the gates will open for sellers at 09:30. Our famous boerewors rolls and drinks will be available. Come and enjoy the morning with us. To book a table or to get more information, please contact Almero du Pisani ZS6LDP on 083 938 8955 or send an email to almero@up.ac.za

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. With the equinox on its way the 10 to 30 m bands will provide some good DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:

31 March – closing date for registration for the SARL Awards dinner.
01 April – the closing date for VHF/UHF Log sheets.
04 April – the SARL 80 m QSO Party.
5 April - closing date for registration for the SARL Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology Symposium.
06 April – the RaDAR Challenge and the Pretoria ARC Flea Market.
6 and 7 April - the SARL VHF/UHF Digital Contest.
12 April – the SARL Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology Symposium and the closing date for 80 m QSO party logs.
13 April – the SARL AGM and Awards Dinner.
15 April – the closing date for RaDAR log sheets.
18 April – World Amateur Radio Day
20 April – the Autumn QRP Contest and the ZS4SRK Balloon Contest
21 April – the ZS4 Sprint and the May RAE Registration closes.

To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:

The first leg of the SARL 80 m QSO party will take place from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC on Thursday 4 April 2019 with phone activity between 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 800 kHz. Please note that the segment 3 651 to 3 699.99 kHz is contest free. The exchange is your call sign, a RS report and your name. Log sheets in MS Excel format ONLY must be submitted by 11 April 2019 by e-mail to louis.zs5lp@gmail.com, please note that the e-mail address in the Blue Book is wrong. The log sheet is available from the Contest page on the League web site.

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. There is also a podcast available from Dick Stratford, ZS6RO. 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 Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY, edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by ..............

From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.

/EX