SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 6 MARCH 2016
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by
[your name, call sign and QTH]
You can tune in to the South African Radio League news bulletin on Sunday mornings at 08:15 Central African Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Central African Time in English on HF and on many VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the Leagues web site.
This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the Leagues website at www.sarl.org.za. You will find this bulletin and previous bulletins in text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the web page. While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
In the news today
PROJECT LEXICON IN FULL MOTION
THE ZS1MM BEACON ON 144,415 MHz CW
and
MAKING HAMNET MORE ACCESSABLE
Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items.
**** Project Lexicon is now in full motion. The planning phase of the project is now completed and the project team started in January with the implementation phase which aims at completing certain tasks and reaching important milestones. The foundation of the implementation phase is the completion of projects website, www.projeklexicon.co.za. The purpose of the website is to facilitate a central integrated solution that will oversee and manage the translation process and to store all elements of the translation process in a central SQL database. Ryan, ZS6GGR, is the website administrator and he is also responsible for the functional design and workflow behind the integrated translation process.
Please visit the website and send your comments and suggestions to Ryan at zs6ggr@gmail.com, your input in this regard in finalizing the website will be much appreciated. Cobus, ZS1DJR, also tabled the first draft of the layout, index and format of the text book which will be used as aguideline for what the final version will look like. The project team now needs to evaluate the sample provided in order to finalize the layout, format and index of the book. The project team identified 3 important milestones to be achieved, these are 28 March, the launch of the website which will also mark the start of the translation process, end of September 2016 the final date on which the translation of the wordlist is to be completed and end of November will see the first draft of the book and its content.
Etienne, ZS6EFN and Louis, ZS6SK, arealso involved in putting together a proposal for the Department of Science and Art who expressed an interest in the project.Be on the lookout for more news on the project development and form part of this exciting project. For more information please feel free to contact Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN at etienne@afrigrid.com or Ryan Gibson, ZS6GGR at zs6ggr@gmail.com
**** The Bredasdorp VHF beacon operated by Leon Korkie, ZS1MM, has been copied in Cape Town, Knysna, Worcester and heard via meteor scatter in Nigel. It is equipped with a dipole antenna that mainly favours an East/West direction between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. An increase of signal strength will occur when a temperature inversion appears at an altitude below 450 metres, but the range via Tropo Enhancement is limited to 400 km, about 100 km East of Knysna. On the other hand when a temperature inversion occurs at a higher altitude above 450 metres or up to about 2000 metres then Tropo Ducting is created, which is often caused by an approaching cold front to the Cape. This will extend the VHF range from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and possibly East London, yielding very strong signals for several hours. So keep an eye on this beacon, the weather reports and the Hepburn Forerecasts. Of course, it is entirely possible to hear weak signals with deep QSB almost daily from this be acon via Tropo Scatter, but longer distances will require a high gain horizontal Yagi with a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA). Please send in reception reports.
**** At the monthly meeting of Hamnet Western Cape, held on Wednesday the 2nd of March, considerable time was spent discussing how best to make the bulletins attractive to the new listener, or potential Hamnet member. There are many listeners who don't call in to announce their presence, but who also don't find the prospect of using their hobby effectively in service to their local community attractive enough to warrant making contact with the regional directors and joining Hamnet.
Listeners to our bulletins are reminded that they can get extra information from their local club chairmen, or any other Hamnet member, as to how to join up and become more active. Hamnet Western cape has a bulletin every Wednesday evening starting at 19h30 local time, transmitted on the 145.700 repeater in Cape Town, and relayed on to 3760kHz and 7110kHz lower side band, as well as 144.300Mhz upper side band, and also on Echolink via ZS1DCC-R, one of the two echolink nodes in Cape Town.
Please feel free to call in and listen each week. Your local Hamnet Division distributes news in a similar fashion, so look out for the bulletins on the most prominent repeaters in your area.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
**** Nominations for the SARL Amateur Radio Hall of Fame have now closed.Eighteen nominations were received. Nominees include deceased radio pioneers like John Streeter, Dixon Bennett and Dave Larsen, as well as individuals who continue to contribute to amateur radio to this day.The Hall of Fame seeks to preserve the history of amateur radio in South Africa by honouring those that have made a lasting contribution.
The voting system can be accessed through the nominations page on the SARL Web site. A link is provided on the home page under "Activities". SARL members can vote for up to five nominees.
Please vote as soon as possible. Voting will close at the end of March.
**** Joins the SARL as member now at half price. You can join the SARL for the remaining period of the financial year for only R240 as a full member. If you are a pensioner and over 65 years of age the rate is R140. If you join now you will be a member till 30 June 2016 when the SARL will invoice you for the next year's membership. Full details are on www.sarl.org.za and select membership in the left-hand column. For more information, call Vonnie at the NARC at 011 675 2393. Join the SARL today, it is the right thing to do if amateur radio is important to you.
Membership of the SARL currently stands at 1638 plus 47 affiliated clubs
**** Western Cape Amateurs to have a socializing "bring and braai". The Boland ARC would like to cordially invite all Western Cape clubs and club members to attend a weekend of SOCIALISING at the "Ou Skip" Caravan Park, Melkbos Strand, on the 2nd of April 2016. You are most welcome to attend our social offering for the weekend (evening of 1 April till the morning of 3 April), or just for the day on Saturday.
Day entries are R50 p/p
Caravan bays are R175 p/n
Chalets are also available.
Please note that you will need to bring a BRAAI GRID, refreshments, eats, etc.
There will be an attendance raffle on Saturday at 12h00: an Eco Zoom oven - (briquette burning oven) kindly donated by Norman Tinkler, and vino from local estates - (kindly donated by BARK). Ou Skip offers a number of entertainment facilities for old and young. A swimming pool and Putt-putt course is available. There is also a small shop to cater for immediate needs.
Bring the XYL and juniors along!
Diarize this date now!
**** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. Currently only a few small sunspots are visible and none of them poses a threat for serious solar flares.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 37.
The 20 to 10 m bands and will provide lots DX fun.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
6 March the SARL Hamnet 40 m Contest
6 March closing date for logs for the digital contest
13 March closing date for logs for the Hamnet contest
19 March - SARL VHF/UHF Analogue/Digital Contest
2 April RaDAR challenge
7 April - South African Radio League 80 m QSO Party
9 April - South African Radio League Autumn QRP Contest
To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.
**** Project Lexicon is now in full motion. The planning phase of the project is now completed and the project team started in January with the implementation phase which aims at completing certain tasks and reaching important milestones. The foundation of the implementation phase is the completion of projects website, www.projeklexicon.co.za. The purpose of the website is to facilitate a central integrated solution that will oversee and manage the translation process and to store all elements of the translation process in a central SQL database. Ryan, ZS6GGR, is the website administrator and he is also responsible for the functional design and workflow behind the integrated translation process.
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 magazine 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; 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 Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN, edited by Brian Utterson, ZS6AE, and read by
.
73 and 88, thank you for listening
/EX
