SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 08 APRIL 2018
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 the country. Echolink listeners may connect to ZS6JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the Leagues web site.
This audio bulletin may be downloaded from the League's website at www.sarl.org.za where you will find this as well as previous bulletins in text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the web page. While you are there, you may sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
In the news, today:
LAST CALL FOR THE SARL 2018 AGM REGISTRATION
SARL ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM NOW AVAILABLE TO TEST
And
LOTW SUPPORT FOR CQ WORKED ALL ZONES (WAZ) AWARD GOES LIVE
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
LAST CALL FOR THE SARL 2018 AGM REGISTRATION
The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club, host of the 2018 SARL AGM and awards dinner, hereby requests all members who still needs to register for the AGM and awards dinner to please do so. Please send your registration forms to the necessary contacts to allow PARC to finalise the headcount for catering purposes. Cut-off date for registration is 12 April 2018.
If you cannot attend the AGM, please give your proxy vote to a member who will be attending. To all the members attending the Convention weekend, please drive safely and see you on Saturday at the Farm Inn.
SARL ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM NOW AVAILABLE TO TEST
The new SARL Electronic Voting System is now online and available for testing by SARL members. This system will now be available for use by Council as and when decided. Please go the following address and give it a try: www.sarl.org.za/Web3/ElectronicVoting/. Please note that you will only be able to access this system if you are a currently paid-up member of the SARL with voting privileges in terms of the Constitution. Send any comments or queries to webmaster@sarl.org.za.
RADIO ZS APRIL 2018
The April 2018 issue of Radio ZS is available for download from the League web site. In this 60-page issue you can read about the Threats to Radio communication which deals with wireless power transmission, how to engage women in amateur radio, a transceiver project for school children, more information about the Zepp antenna and the awards of the 30 Metre Digital Group. There is more to read in this issue.
The editor thanks Georges Schleger, ZS1II, who provide eight articles for the April issue, including a 23 cm to 2 metre 20 watt Transverter and a 13 cm to 2 metre Transverter.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Amateur Radio League.
THE SECRET OF SUCCESS ON VHF, UHF AND MICROWAVES ARE VERY HIGH GAIN ANTENNA SYSTEMS
We could learn from radio astronomy when after the war, the first large 76 metre parabolic dish was constructed at Jodrell Bank in the UK. In time it was realized that it did not have enough gain. The 27-dish array at Socorro in New Mexico, USA, mounted on a Y-rail line made a great improvement until the 305-metre fixed dish came on stream at Arecibo in Puerto Rico, which in turn was recently eclipsed by the 500-metre fixed dish in China. Currently scientists are anxiously awaiting the completion of the low-array of the SKA in the Outback of Australia and the 3 000-dish mid-array in the Karoo, South Africa in 2024, which will cover a total frequency range of 50 MHz to 15 GHz. This will be the largest radio telescope ever constructed and will be able to record the first galaxies after the Big Bang almost at the edge of the Universe and numerous other strange and unknown phenomena.
Radio amateurs should take cognizance of this and build the highest gain Yagi arrays that they can afford, the results will surprise you as well as the distances achieved. Fortunately, digital operation on Microwave EME uses low power and no longer requires large dishes; a 1-metre dish will do the trick. But when future amateurs start exploring the solar system, then they may need 10-metre dishes and higher power on microwaves to make digital two-way contacts via data and voice. There will always be a group of amateurs who will keep the amateur radio flag flying high through there pioneering and experimental spirit!
LOTW SUPPORT FOR CQ WORKED ALL ZONES (WAZ) AWARD GOES LIVE
The ARRL and CQ magazine have announced the launch of Logbook of The World (LoTW) support for CQ's Worked All Zones (WAZ) Award program, effective immediately. The goal of the project, under way since last year, has been to create the proper technical support system so that radio amateurs can submit LoTW confirmations for WAZ credit, and that has been accomplished, CQ and ARRL said in a joint statement.
LoTW, the ARRL's electronic confirmation system for Amateur Radio contacts, provides contact confirmation when both stations upload their logs to the system, and a match between the logs is confirmed. LoTW has already supported the CQ WPX Award program since 2012.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at very low levels. There are currently no sunspots visible and no flaring activity is expected. 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 may provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
Today until 10:00 UTC the SARL VHF/UHF Digital Contest.
10 April Provincial Schools open.
12 April closing Date for SARL 80m QSO Party Logs.
14 April the SARL AGM and Flea Market.
16 April closing date for SARL VHF/UHF Digital Contest logs.
18 April World Amateur Radio Day.
21 April the Autumn QRP Contest.
22 April the ZS4 Sprint
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club, host of the 2018 SARL AGM and awards dinner, hereby requests all members who still needs to register for the AGM and awards dinner to please do so. Please send your registration forms to the necessary contacts to allow PARC to finalise the headcount for catering purposes. Cut-off date for registration is 12 April 2018.
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
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 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; 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 Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY, edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
