SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 12 JANUARY 2020
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. 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 SARL WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT ON 15 JANUARY
THE PEARS NATIONAL VHF/UHF CONTEST ON 17 TO 19 JANUARY
and
NASA TV COVERAGE OF THREE SPACEWALKS IN JANUARY
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
SILENT KEY
It is with deep regret that we announce that the key of Barry Jackson, ZS2H went silent key on Sunday morning 29 December 2019. Barry, aged 90, was a long-time member of the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society, a respected amateur and motor car enthusiast.
We extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends.
PAUSE
THE SARL WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT ON 15 JANUARY
The first leg of the Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint will be held from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC on 15 January. The exchange is an RS or RST report and your 4-character grid square. You score 2 points for every QSO made and 2 points for the first QSO with each grid square worked. Log sheets in MS Excel format ONLY, must be submitted by 23:59 CAT on Sunday 19 January by e-mail to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za. When submitting log sheets, it should be renamed by the participant to include his/her call sign. The name of the operators Club must be shown on the log sheet. Please note that the Magalies ARC relays their bulletin on 3 640 kHz at 17:30 UTC on Wednesday evenings, so please avoid 3 640 kHz. The full set of rules are on page 64 of the 2020 Blue Book.
THE 432 MHZ TROPO RECORD ALSO EXTENDED
On Saturday 28 December 2019, Ian, GM3SEK in the south-west of Scotland managed to work the Monteverde Contest Club, D41CV on 432 MHz to set a new world record for tropo on the band. The distance for this FT8 contact was an amazing 4 562 km. Considering the fact that it was on the 70 cm band and that the south-west coast of Scotland was one of the longest sea paths to Cape Verde Islands, it seemed as this might be a long term record.
It was not to be however, as just a few days later on Wednesday 1 January 2020, Nick G4KUX in the county of Durham in the north of England also worked D41CV in the Cape Verde Islands. This FT8 contact on 432 MHz pushes the record out a further 80 km or so to 4 644 km.
THE PEARS NATIONAL VHF/UHF CONTEST ON 17 TO 19 JANUARY
The PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest will be run over two sessions from 17 to 19 January. The first 22-hour session starts at 16:00 UTC on Friday 17 January and closes at 14:00 UTC on Saturday afternoon 18 January. The second 22-hour session commences immediately after 14:00 UTC on Saturday and ends at 12:00 UTC on Sunday 19 January.
You can participate as a Base station, a Field station, a Club Multi-Operator station, a Rover station, a Limited station or a 144,400 MHz and 145,500 MHz FM station. Activity using CW, SSB, FM and digital modes takes place on 6, 4 and 2 m, 70 and 23 cm. All ZR, ZS and ZU amateurs may participate, as well as amateurs from the six neighbouring countries, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho and eSwatini and only contacts with these states will count. The exchange is call signs, signal reports and the grid locator.
Separate log sheets are required for analogue and digital QSOs. Your log sheet must indicate the category, your name and surname, call sign, locator en e-mail address. On the log sheet indicate the date, time, frequency, call sign of the station worked, signal reports received and the grid locator of the station worked. Log sheets must be submitted to contest@peham.co.za by Friday 14 February. The full set of rules are on page 23 of the 2020 Blue Book.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
THE 2020 SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION
The SARL 95 National Convention, which includes the Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology Symposium, the Annual General Meeting and the SARL 95 Dinner Dance, will be held over the weekend of 3 to 5 April at the Wanderer’s Club facilities in Johannesburg. The Sandton and Hammies ARCs are hosting the event.
NASA TV COVERAGE OF THREE SPACEWALKS IN JANUARY
Four astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station for three spacewalks in January to complete battery upgrades and finalize repairs to an invaluable cosmic ray detector. Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Christina Koch of NASA are scheduled to conduct spacewalks on Wednesday 15 January and Monday 20 January to finish replacing nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion batteries that store power generated by the station’s solar arrays on the station’s port truss.
Assuming the battery work goes as planned, NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan KI5AAA and space station Commander Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP of ESA (European Space Agency) will exit the station on Saturday 25 January, to finish installing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer’s (AMS) new cooling apparatus and lines begun in November and December, and verify they are ready for use.
Live coverage of all three spacewalks will begin at 10:30 UTC on NASA Television and the agency’s website https://www.nasa.gov/live. For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
SWISS SPECIAL EVENT STATION
Members of the Association des Radio-amateurs de la Cote (HB9HI) will activate the special event station HE2JOJ until 31 January to mark the 3rd Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. QSL via HB9HI, direct or by the Bureau. A special certificate will be available, all the information can be found at www.hb9hi.ch/he2joj. The Youth Olympic Games, an international multi-sport event organized by the International Olympic Committee, aimed at bringing together talented young athletes aged 15 to 18 from around the world. SARL News is aware of two South Africans, from Lady Grey and Barkley-East, who are taking part.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. There are currently no sunspots visible. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around two. The 15 to 30 m bands will provide some good DX fun. For more information, please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za
Finally, a diary of some upcoming events:
15 January – The SARL Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint
17 to 19 January – The PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest
21 January - The closing date for submitting the synopsis of papers for the SARL 95 Symposium and the Highway ARC meeting
25 January – The Summer QRP Contest and the Cape Town ARC meeting
31 January – The closing date for AGM motions, SARL Award nominations and Council nominations.
1 February – The SARL VHF/UHF QSO Party and registration opens for the May RAE
2 February – AWA CW Activity Day
7 and 8 February – Council meeting at the NARC
8 and 9 February – The SARL National Field Day
To conclude our bulletin, a quick overview of our main news item:
The first leg of the Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint will be held from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC on 15 January. The PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest will be run over two sessions from 17 to 19 January. Find the rules on page 64 and 23 of the 2020 Blue Book.
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
We invite clubs and individuals to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners, in both English and Afrikaans if possible, 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 Herman Erasmus, ZS6CTA and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
