SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 31 AUGUST 2014

Good morning and welcome. You are tuned to a bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ……………………………………. from ………………………………

You can tune in to our news bulletin on Sunday mornings at 08:15 CAT in Afrikaans and at 08:30 CAT in English on HF and on many VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for an audio stream. A podcast is also available from the South African Radio League webpage at www.sarl.org.za as well as on www.podpage.co.za

You will find this bulletin and previous bulletins in text format on the League web page under the News link on the left-hand side. While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

In the News today

THE RTA HEADS FOR PRETORIA ON 13 SEPTEMBER

JAMBOREE-ON-THE-AIR AND CQ HOU KOERS IN OCTOBER

DECEMBER IS YOTA MONTH

and

THE SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE HF CW CONTEST THIS AFTERNOON

The leading story this week

** The RTA held at the NARC last week was a great event and judging by e-mails received, something not to be missed. Pretoria is next. The RTA will be held at the innovation Hub on Saturday 13 September. Full details, programme and registration forms are available are on the South African Radio League web. Booking for this event will close on Tuesday 9 September. The programme will be the same as presented last week with Tony Voorveld, ZS6CCD, exploring his magic lamps, Stewart Moss, ZS6SGM, taking you through the WSPR programme and the 5 MHz research projects plus all the other interesting presentations.

** The South African Radio League Youth Net will be on the air every first Sunday of the month. The next net is on Sunday 7 September at 15:00 local time on 7070 kHz. Join the next youth net and get talking. Youth Net is not just for giving a report but to have a discussion on a youth relevant subject. The 7 September net will chew over the subject “Facebook: are there other social media platforms that you think are better? Youth Net is for the youth for under 25.

** The next 5 MHz activity weekend will be held on 20 and 21 September 2014. South African Radio League members are invited to take part in a 5 MHz activity weekend dedicated to propagation research. The activity is focussed from 13:00 - 20:00 on each day and comprises various activities during designated time slots. The activity is open to all South African Radio League members and to all radio amateurs living permanently outside the borders of South Africa. More details on the South African Radio League web.

** The WSPR-Tutorial for receiving has been updated. If you are interested in the mysteries of propagation, then WSPR is the tool at your disposal. To experience this fascinating tool, all you need is an SSB transceiver, a simple antenna, a computer, internet access and an optional sound card interface to connect the transceiver to your computer.

Stewart Moss, ZS6SGM, has updated his tutorial. It can be down loaded from a link on www.sarl.org.za, click on propagation research.

** Jamboree-on-the-Air will be on the air over the weekend of 17, 18 and 19 October and CQ Hou Koers will be on the air on 18 October. Hopefully you and your Club have made contact with the local Scout Group, Girl Guide Company or Voortrekker Commando and started the arrangements. If you are looking for a Scout Group or Girl Guide Company near you, contact Dennis, ZS4BS, at zs4bs@netactive.co.za and if you are looking for a Voortrekker Commando near you, contact Andries, ZS6VL, at andries.visagie@natref.com. We will of course inform these Youth Movements where to find a radio amateur or amateur radio club.

If you would like a special JOTA or CQ Hou Koers call sign, complete the ICASA application form, add a motivation and submit it via the South African Radio League. Do it now. If you have a call sign, make sure it is still valid.

** December is YOTA month! IARU Region 1 Youth Coordinator Lisa Leenders, PA2LS, reports that December is Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) month. After having the first December YOTA month in 2013, the YOTA team is busy planning the next one. During the whole month of December 2014, several countries will become active with YOTA as a suffix in the call sign, including South Africa.

The idea for this is to break the ice for some youngsters and to give them the opportunity to take the microphone in the hand and make a QSO via amateur radio. The YOTA group is growing fast and weekly youngsters are asking to participate. Let us all make Youngsters on the Air a popular event in amateur radio and let us all help to put youngsters on to the amateur radio train! More detail to follow.

Do something special for the youth of our country.

** The second HAMNET Gauteng South work session on the sky command station for the month of August took place on Sunday 24 August 2014 at the QTH of Chris, ZS6COG. The reason for moving the Sky-Command station from Bedfordview - Dawn View to Spaarwater is twofold. One relates to security issues at the Dawn view site where regular break-ins are a real threat. The second relates to the level of HF noise on the high site. To this end the following actions were taken - a 24 metre pole was extended and fitted with brackets and antennas. On HF, a travelling wave dipole is being installed and on VHF/UHF, an X-200 vertical antenna will do service. The feed line used is LMR 400 and a 48 cm rack with double insulation and air filter system is fitted with three new PSU units and the Sky command rigs. Once re-erected the antenna system should sit at 29 metres so members all over the Ekurhuleni area and southern suburbs of Johannesburg should be able to work the station with ease.

Work commenced at 11:00 and the last wheels started turning back home after dark around 18:30. As usually the hard work was followed by a debriefing session where all the positives and negatives were discussed and the way forward was mapped. You too can be part of this winning team. We are working hard to ensure our communications capabilities are at the ready.

Radio amateurs that assisted in this second work session include – Glynn, ZS6GLN; Peter, ZS6PHS; Pieter, ZS6VRK; Francois, ZS6COI; Judy, ZS6JDY; Shane, ZS6ZSB; Stephen and his XYL Elaine; Abel, ZS6EBL; Chris, ZS6COG, and XYL Elsabe, ZR6MME; Leon ZS6LMG couldn't make it but he helped previously.

The next discussion around the HAMNET Gauteng South Sky command station will be at the monthly HAMNET Gauteng South meeting on Thursday 4 September 2014 at the 9th Benoni Scout Hall in Ebenezer Road, Benoni - Arrowe Park. You are invited to bring along a friend and introduce them to HAMNET Emergency Communications. HAMNET - We get the message through, whatever it takes.

You are listening to a bulletin of the South African Radio League and now we look at contesting news and news from the Clubs.

** This afternoon from 13:00 to 16:30 UTC you can participate in the South African Radio League HF CW Contest with activity on 20, 40 and 80 metres. The exchange is a RST report and a consecutive serial number starting at 001. You can take part as a single operator single band; a single operator all band; a multi operator single band or a multi operator all band station. CW contacts count 2 point, count two points for each call area on each band and count 2 points for each station contacted on all three bands. Get the complete rules in the 2014 South African Radio League Contest Manual.

You can submit your log in Cabrillo or ADIF format or make use of the MS Excel spreadsheet available from www.zs4bfn.co.za/downloads.asp. Include your call sign in the name of the log, e.g. ZS4BS log.adi. Remember to indicate your club - it goes towards the Club Completion.

There will be a lucky draw for an ARRL Antenna book valued at over R900. To enter the lucky draw, a participant must submit a log with a minimum of 15 contacts

** The Committee only received eleven logs for the South African Radio League HF Digital Contest held on 17 August 2014. These eleven amateurs made 206 QSOs. The results are as follows

1st Roger Jones, ZS6RJ, 120 points
2nd Jan Botha, ZS4JAN, 84 points
3rd Noel Hammond, ZR6DX, 76 points
4th Nico Oelofse, ZS4N, 60 points

Club Competition
1st West Rand ARC, 208 points
2nd Bloemfontein ARC, 166 points
3rd Pretoria ARC, 54 points

The highest score achieved on a single band was by Roger Jones, ZS6RJ, with 56 points on 20 metres.

The winner of the lucky draw prize is Theunis Potgieter, ZS2EC

Thank you for all the logs and congratulations to Roger and the West Rand. The full results are available in HF Happenings 620.

** Eddie, ZS6BNE, and a team of amateurs are planning to activate two new summits in the Free State for SOTA on Saturday 20 September. The summits are in the Moolmanshoek area between Ficksburg and Rosendal. Joining Eddie will be Rudi, ZS6DX, Andries, ZS6VL, Cliriska, ZU6BV, and Angelo, ZU6M. More details to follow.

** Application for membership of the South African Radio League have been received from the following persons - Hennie Heyns Steenkamp, ZS3HHS, and Allen Herweg, ZS6HWG.

Any objections against the acceptance of these applications must reach the South African Radio League Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin. To date, 1 308 members have renewed their membership and there are 30 clubs already affiliated to the South African Radio League for this year

** The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club (PARC) held its annual general meeting on 26 July. A new committee was elected and the first committee meeting has already been held. The new committee comprises the following members - Johan de Bruyn, ZS6JHB (chairman); Jan (Pine) Pienaar, ZS6OB; Fritz Sutherland, ZS6SF; Andre van Tonder, ZS6BRC; Graham Reid, ZS6GRJ; Vincent Harrison, ZS6BTY; Pierre Holtzhausen, ZS6PJH; Craig Symington, ZS6RH; Almero du Pisani, ZS6LDP; Pieter Fourie, ZS6CN; Tony Crowder, ZS6CRO; Louis de Wet, ZS6SK; Tjerk Lammers, ZS6P and Theo Bresler, ZS6TVB.

As a club with more than 100 members, PARC needs a large committee. The new committee is congratulated on their election. The clubs thanks Pierre ZS6PJH who, because of personal circumstances, declined to again stand as chairman, but makes time to serve as a committee member.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at low levels. Previously active Sunspot AR2146 continues to decay and other visible regions are stable. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 60. The 20 to 10 m bands will provide lots of DX fun with 20 m providing the best openings with 15 m not far behind.

Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

** What is in the Diary of Events?

31 August - South African Radio League HF CW Contest
6 and 7 September – the IARU Region 1 SSB Field Day and the RSGB SSB Field Day
7 September - South African Radio League Youth Net
13 September – RTA at the Innovation Hub
20 September – SOTA activation in the Free State
20 and 21 September – 5 MHz Activity weekend
21 to 26 September – the IARU Region 1 General Conference in Bulgaria
17 to 19 October – JOTA and CQ Hou Koers

You can get more information on these and other happenings on the South African Radio League website at www.sarl.org.za

We end this week’s news with a look back at our top story

The RTA held at the NARC last week was a great event and judging by e-mails received, something not to be missed. Pretoria is next. The RTA will be held at the innovation Hub on Saturday 13 September. Full details, programme and registration forms are available are on the South African Radio League web. Booking for this event will close on Tuesday 9 September.

That brings us to the end of this week’s news broadcast

The South African Radio League invites you to listen to Amateur Radio Today every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria area, on the 145,650 MHz network in Johannesburg with relays on 7 082, 7 205, and 17 660 kHz. There is a podcast by Dick, ZS6RO. For web-streaming and Echolink by Chris, ZS6FCS, visit www.sarl.org.za, click on 'Amateur Radio Today', go down the green column and click on 'LISTEN ON THE WEB'.

A repeat transmission can be heard on Mondays at 16:30 UTC on 3 230 kHz. The website also lists various other retransmissions. Reception reports, comments and suggestions are invited. Send an email to artoday@sarl.org.za. Sentech sponsors the transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.

South African Radio League News invites clubs and individuals to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and short-wave listeners. Submit news items, if possible in both English and Afrikaans, to www.sarl.org.za/newsinbox.asp, no later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.

You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League compiled and edited by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, and read by ………………………………………….

Thank you for listening.

/EX