SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2019
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and QTH]
The South African Radio League broadcasts a news bulletin each Sunday in Afrikaans as well as in English at 08:15 and 08:30 Central African Time respectively on HF and on various VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. The bulletin is relayed on Echolink by Johan, ZS6JPL. A podcast is available on the League website. Audio and text bulletins may be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za where you can also sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
We begin the bulletin with news of two silent keys.
It is with deep regret that the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre announces that the key of their Vice-Chairman Noel Futter, ZS1FW went silent on Tuesday 29 October at his home. Noel was a past chairman of CTARC and hosted the weekly CTARC Monday evening net.
We extend our sincere condolences to his wife Joan, family and friends.
It is with sadness that we learned of the passing away of Gerald Klatzko, ZS6BTD on Friday 1 November 2019 at the age of 95. Throughout his amateur radio career, he made major contributions to the amateur service. He was one of the first to experiment with slow scan television. For many years he assisted NASA to link astronauts with their families using amateur radio links from MIR, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. For over two decades he was the co-producer and presenter of Amateur Radio Mirror International. Gerald thank you for your contribution to amateur radio. May you rest in peace.
A special tribute will be presented on Amateur Radio Today later this morning
PAUSE
In the news, today:
THE SARL VHF/UHF ANALOGUE CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND
THE SARL WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT ON 20 NOVEMBER
and
A NEW WORLD RECORD ON 630 METERS?
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE SARL VHF/UHF ANALOGUE CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND
The second leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Analogue contest will be on the air from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 9 November to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 10 November 2019 with SSB, FM and CW contacts on 6, 4 and 2 m, 70 and 23 cm and higher. All QSOs must be two-way point to point and the exchange is a RS or RST report and your location either a six-digit Maidenhead locator, or latitude and longitude.
Please consult page 48 of the 2019 Blue Book for all the information about the contest multipliers and scoring, etc. Your log sheet must be sent to contest@sarl.org.za by Monday 2 December 2019.
THE 2020 SARL BLUE BOOK
The Contest team is busy working on the 2020 SARL Blue Book and requests Clubs hosting contests to submit any changes they would like to make as well as confirm e-mail addresses for log submissions. Members are requested to submit requests for new contests as well. Please send requests, suggestions and changes to contest@sarl.org.za by Wednesday 20 November 2019.
THE 2020 SARL DIARY OF EVENTS
The SARL Secretary is busy drawing up the 2020 Diary of Events and invites Clubs to submit the dates of their Club Meetings, Flea Markets and other Club activities. Send the information to secretary@sarl.org.za by Wednesday 20 November 2019.
THE SARL WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT ON 20 NOVEMBER
The last leg of the 2019 SARL Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint takes place from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC on Wednesday 20 November with CW and phone activity. The exchange is a RS or RST report and your grid square (e.g. KG30). Send your log sheet by e-mail to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za by Wednesday 27 November and remember to write the name of your Club on the log sheet. The MS Excel log sheet can be found on the Contest page of the League web site.
Who will take the 80 m Club Trophy? It is between the Boland, the Bo-Karoo and the West Rand clubs.
THE NOVEMBER RADIO ZS
The November 2019 issue of Radio ZS is available for download. There is information about the 2020 SARL National Convention and the IARUs view on the WRC-19 Agenda points. Hans, ZS6AKV says radio amateurs need a mindset shift and Tjerk, ZS1J tells us about an Icom AH-4 Tuner controller. Reinhardt, DC5ZM explains how to Measure Power Level, Return Loss and SWR, using Mobile Radio Directional Couplers at GHz Frequencies. Robert, V51RS tells us about the Etosha Repeater and we visit Walvis Bay Radio in the Museum Piece. We also have a look at APRS. And there is more in this 64 page issue.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
THE VHF AND RF NOISE WORKSHOP ON 23 NOVEMBER 2019
Book now for the last event of 2019. The VHF and RF Noise Workshop will be held at the NARC on Saturday 23rd November 2019. The programme and the booking form are available by following the links on the SARL web page. Learn how to mitigate mains generated noise affecting HF and VHF weak signals, new beacons update, the telegram VHF opening alert system, active antennas, sniff out noise in your shack, inland tropospheric ducting and more.
A NEW WORLD RECORD ON 630 METERS?
Eric Tichansky, NO3M and Roger Crofts, VK4YB, are claiming a new world distance record on 630 meters (472 to 479 kHz). They worked each other on 14 October at 10:32 UTC using the JT9 mode. Eric said the contact represented the culmination of 2 years of effort around every equinox since September 2017. "Hopes were wearing thin as we were moving away from the recent equinox on 23 September," he said. "Even when the path may have been open over the past 3 weeks, either end would be plagued with QRN." He said that while the opening that facilitated the record-breaking contact was not comparably as strong as past openings, "something special was obviously at play." The contact covered 14 979 kilometres, topping the previous record of 13 441 kilometres set by Roger Crofts, VK4YB and Kenneth Roberson, K5DNL, by nearly 1 538 kilometres. Eric said his transmit antenna is a 20,5 metre top-loaded vertical and the receive antenna is a full-sized eight-circle array comprised of short verticals. The transmit/receive at VK4YB is a linear-loaded vertical.
AWA VALVE QSO PARTY RESULTS
The second leg of the AWA Valve QSO Party was held over the weekend of 5 and 6 October, with AM on the Saturday and SSB on the Sunday. It was pleasing to hear so many AM stations on the bands on Saturday, but no logs were submitted for the day. The AWA station logged 22 stations on AM. Unfortunately, there were also many, who it sounded like, were using AM for the first time as they found it was a mode on their radios. Quite a few of these were overmodulating to such an extent that one could not make out what they were saying. They were also splashing so across the band that it made it difficult for some of the other stations to operate within the allocated frequencies. It seems the art of transmitting on AM has either been forgotten or in some cases never learned.
The SSB leg was held on Sunday afternoon and there were even more stations taking part in this leg. A total of 58 call signs were gleaned from the 6 logs that were submitted. First place in the SSB went to John Watson, ZS1WJ with Theunis Potgieter, ZS2EC in second place and Roy Walsh, ZS3RW in third place.
Congratulations to those scoring the highest points and thanks to all those who took part in the 2 days.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. There is only a small sunspot visible that recently made its appearance. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around one. The 15 to 30 m bands will provide some good DX fun, especially around sunset. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a diary of some upcoming events:
9 and 10 November the SARL Analogue VHF/UHF Contest
10 November - Remembrance Sunday (101 Years since the end of WW1)
11 November the closing date for RaDAR Logs
18 November the closing date for PEARS HF Logs
20 November - SARL Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint and closing date for submissions for the 2020 Blue Book and Diary of Events
23 November the SARL Newbie Sprint and the VHF/RF Noise Workshop
23 and 24 November the CQ WW DX CW Contest
30 November the West Rand Flea market
To conclude our bulletin, a quick overview of our main news item:
The second leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Analogue contest will be on the air from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 9 November to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 10 November 2019 with SSB, FM and CW contacts on 6, 4 and 2 m, 70 and 23 cm and higher. Please consult page 48 of the 2019 Blue Book for all the information about the contest multipliers and scoring, etc.
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
We invite clubs and individuals 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 to include in the bulletin should reach the news team no later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.
You are welcome to join us every Sunday morning for the weekly amateur radio program, Amateur Radio Today at 10:00 Central African Time. The program can be heard on VHF and UHF repeaters countrywide and on 7 082 kHz lower side-band. A rebroadcast by Andy, ZS6ADY can be heard on Monday evenings at 19:30 Central African Time on 3 620 kHz. We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; please send these by e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za.
You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
