SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2017
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and QTH]
You may tune in to the South African Radio League news bulletin on Sunday mornings, at 08:15 Local Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Local Time in English, on HF as well as on many VHF and UHF repeaters around our country. Echolink listeners may connect to ZS0JPL for a relay.
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:
2018 SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION
THE SARL DIGITAL CONTEST
and
THE THREE MAJOR VHF AND UHF CONTESTS ALSO COVER THREE DIFFERENT SEASONS
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
BLACK FRIDAY MEMBERSHIP
The Council thanks all the radio amateurs who paid R99 on Friday 24 November to join the South African Radio League. Kelley, the League Administrator, says she received many deposits without a call sign in the reference field and cannot allocate the payments. Please ensure that if you paid the R99, that Kelley knows who you are.
You are also requested to complete the electronic membership application form available on www.sarl.org.za/public/membership/join.asp
THE 2018 SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION
The 2018 SARL National Convention, which includes the AGM and Awards Dinner, will be hosted by the Pretoria ARC over the weekend of 13 to 15 April 2018. Mark this weekend in your diary.
In terms of Rule 16.9 of the Constitution, a call is made for nominations to serve on Council. At the 2018 AGM, Louw Erasmus, ZS6LME, Dennis Green, ZS4BS, Chris Turner, ZS6GM, Rassie Erasmus, ZS1YT, and Paul van Spronsen, ZS1V, will retire. ZS6LME, ZS4BS, ZS6GM and ZS1YT have indicated they are available for re-election if nominated.
Further a call for nominations for SARL operating awards, Radio ZS awards and for motions for discussion at the AGM. Visit the AGM Information page on the Members Only section of the web for the template documents for your nominations and motions. Send your nominations and motions to the SARL Secretary at secretary@sarl.org.za by midnight on Wednesday 31 January 2018.
DECEMBER YOTA MONTH
December is YOTA month when several youngsters from IARU Member Societies will become active on the air with YOTA as suffix in the callsigns. From Friday 1 December to Sunday 31vDecember 2017, international YOTA stations will attempt to make many contacts worldwide with each other. This event is aimed at young people and is a golden opportunity for Clubs to get youngsters who are interested in or want to find out more about Amateur Radio on the air. It is not a formal contest, but a way to get our current young amateurs on the air contacting hundreds of other youngsters around the world.
The SARL has registered a special call sign ZS9YOTA on the IARU Region 1 website as an educational call sign for use by clubs and individuals during December. To reserve a slot to use the ZS9YOTA callsign daily or for information please contact Koos, ZR6KF, via e-mail at koos.zr6kf@gmail.com or alternatively to Nico, ZS6QL, at zs6ql@mweb.co.za. The schedule and applicable rules will be available on the SARL website.
Looking forward to hearing our younger generation on the air during December month!
THE SARL DIGITAL CONTEST
On Sunday 3 December 2017 from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC, you can participate in the last digital contest as well as the last local contest of 2017. The aim of the SARL Digital contest is to establish as many contacts as possible between radio amateurs in Southern Africa using the PSK31 / RTTY mode(s). The contest is open to all radio amateurs in Southern Africa.
Activity takes place on 80, 40 and 20 metres PSK31 at the lower end and RTTY at the upper end of the specified frequencies. Please note that USB must be used at all times. A station may be contacted twice on each band once on RTTY, once on PSK31.
The exchange is a RSQ report plus a sequential serial number starting at 001. QSOs with stations in Southern Africa are worth 3 points and 1 point for QSOs outside this area. The first contact with each area listed below will be used as a band multiplier. Area 1 to 6 is ZS1 to ZS6; Area 7 is 3DA, 7P, 7Q, 9J, C9, A2, D2, V5, Z2, ZD7, ZD9, ZS7, ZS8, FR, 3B8, 5R, FH and D6 and Area 8 is stations in the rest of the world. Logs, in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format and labelled "your call sign Digital Contest," must be submitted by 10 December 2017 by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Amateur Radio League.
THE THREE MAJOR VHF AND UHF CONTESTS ALSO COVER THREE DIFFERENT SEASONS
The three major VHF and UHF Contests also cover three different seasons, which could yield different propagation conditions. The PEARS National VHF and UHF Contest is scheduled for mid-summer in January, the first leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Contest is scheduled in autumn in March and the second leg is in spring in September. Tropo Enhancement and Ducting could be affected by weather conditions during these periods. See the complete rules for these contests in the 2018 Blue Book which will be available in December 2017.
PEARS HF DX CONTEST RESULTS
The official results of the PEARS HF DX contest held on Sunday 5 November are as follows:
1st Hugo Ras, ZS2HR - 752 points,
2nd PEARS, ZS2PE, - 124 points,
3rd Al Akers, ZS2U, - 64 points.
Thank you to Theunis Potgieter, PEARS Contest committee organiser.
BO-KAROO ARC AGM
The AGM of the Bo-Karoo ARC was held on Saturday 18 November at the Sandgat near Vanderkloof Dam. There was a good turn out of members and visitors.
The committee elected are
Chairman: Peiter Gaybba, ZS3PG
Vice Chairman: Thys Louw, ZS1TBP
Secretary: Alta Gaybba, ZR3PA
Technical: Nico Engelbrecht, ZS6MAJ
Members: Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XT, Woody Collet, ZS3WL and Cobus Rabe, ZS1DJR
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at very 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 one. The 15 to 30 m bands will provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the web site spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a diary of some upcoming events:
Today – the CQ WW DX CW Contest until midnight UTC
1 December – Start of YOTA month
3 December – SARL Digital Contest
9 – 10 December – ARRL 10 Meter Contest
1 January – start of the ARRL International Grid Chase and the 2018 CQ Marathon
30 January – closing date for proposals and synopses for AMSAT SA Symposium papers
31 January – closing date for nominations for Council and SARL Awards and for AGM motions
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The Council thanks all the radio amateurs who paid R99 on Friday 24 November to join the South African Radio League. Kelley, the League Administrator, says she received many deposits without a call sign in the reference field and cannot allocate the payments. Please ensure that if you paid the R99, that Kelley knows who you are.
You are also requested to complete the electronic membership application form available on www.sarl.org.za/public/membership/join.asp
This brings us to the end of this bulletin
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 programme 'Amateur Radio Today' at 10:00 Central African Time. The programme 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 pod cast available from Dick Stratford, ZS6RO. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 18:30 Central African Time on 4 895 kHz kHz AM.
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 Emile Venter, ZS6V, and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
