SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 22 JULY 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 Central African Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Central African Time in English, on HF as well as on many VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. The bulletin is relayed via Echolink by ZS6JPL. A podcast is available on the League website.
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.
We begin this bulletin with news of a silent key:
It is with deep regret that we announce that the key of Henk Veenendaal, ZS6ENK went silent on Monday 16 July 2018 at the age of 90 years. Henk will really be missed on the West Rand Amateur Radio Club's weekly morning net.
We extend our condolences to Henk's family and friends during this trying time.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
ZS2 SPRINT TODAY
SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE HF PHONE, DIGITAL AND CW CONTESTS IN AUGUST
And
NEW COMMITTEES FOR CENTURION AND WEST RAND CLUBS
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE ZS2 SPRINT THIS AFTERNOON
This is a fun activity to promote contacts between radio amateurs in the Eastern Cape and radio amateurs in Southern African countries and is on the air from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC this afternoon with CW activity between 7 000 to 7 040 kHz and phone activity between 7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz. The exchange is a RS or RST report and your provincial or country abbreviation.
A QSO with a station in ZS2 is worth 2 points while a QSO with a station in your own or other ZS call areas (excluding ZS2) or Southern African countries are worth 1 point. QSOs with the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society, ZS2PE, or the Border Radio Club, ZS2BRC, are worth 5 points each. Only one contact per station is allowed. For ZS2 stations, a QSO with stations in ZS2 are worth 1 point and QSOs with stations in other ZS call areas or Southern African countries are worth 2 points.
Logs, in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format and labelled "my call sign ZS2 Sprint," must be submitted by 29 July 2018 and sent by e-mail to zs2ec01@gmail.com. A certificate will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the competition, this will only happen if more than five logs are received.
NEW CUBESATS REACH THE ISS
Three new CubeSats have been taken to the International Space Station for deployment in August. The satellites, known as MAYA-1, BHUTAN-1 and UiTMSAT-1 were built in Japan by students from Malaysia, Bhutan, and the Philippines. Collectively known as the BIRDS-2 constellation, the CubeSats will transmit a CW beacon on 437,375 MHz throughout their six-month life. Each is also equipped with an APRS digipeater on 145,825 MHz and two cameras for earth observation. More details on the project are online at http://birds2.birds-project.com/.
(Thanks to RSGB News for this item)
SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE HF PHONE, DIGITAL AND CW CONTESTS IN AUGUST
The aim of the SARL HF Contests is for participants to contact as many amateurs in Southern Africa as possible on the 20, 40 and 80 metre amateur bands. The Phone contest takes place on Sunday 5 August, the digital contest on Sunday 19 August and the CW contest on Sunday 26 August. There are several trophies to be won for each contest as well as for overall results.
The SARL HF Phone Contest will be run from 14:00 to 17:00 UTC on Sunday 5 August 2018 with activity between 14 125 to 14 300 kHz; 7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz and 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 800 kHz. The exchange is a RS report and a consecutive serial number starting at 001. The Silent Keys Memorial SSB Trophy is awarded to the amateur who achieves the highest score; the Joseph White Trophy is awarded to the amateur who achieves the highest score on any one band and the AKYAB Trophy is awarded to the amateur who achieves the highest score in his or her first year of phone (this amateur must have received his or her licence between 1 September 2017 to August 2018).
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Amateur Radio League.
THE RSGB ISLAND ON THE AIR CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND
Many DXpeditions will be on the air leading up to and during next weekend's RSGB IOTA Contest. One list of announced operations is at www.ng3k.com/Misc/iota2018.html. It contains details of some 80 DXpeditions around the world. A lot of infrequently activated locations will be on the air, so even if you are not taking part in the contest it is a great chance to log some rare ones.
(Thanks to RSGB News for this item)
NEW COMMITTEES AFTER CLUB AGMS
At the Annual General Meeting of the Centurion ARC, the following committee members were elected:
Chairman: Ken Gurr, ZS6KN
Vice Chairman: Mario Brazzoli, ZR6UV
Secretary: Wally Moll, ZS6BCI
Treasurer: Billy Strumpher, ZS6WPS
Technical Assistance: Johan Keulder, ZS6CAQ and Dave Smith, ZS6AZP
Clubhouse Manager: Steven Linington, ZS6RCA
At the West Rand Amateur Radio Club’s AGM held on 14 July 2018, the following members were elected to the committee:
Chairman: Geoff Levey ZS6C
Vice Chairman: Nic van Duffelen ZR6AEZ
Secretary: Phillip van Tonder, ZS6PVT
Treasurer: Gert du Plessis, ZR6GRT
Members: Rory Crouch, ZS6RBJ; Stephen Reynolds, ZS6SJR; Shane Clarke, ZS6SC; Hein Schnetler, ZS6HES and Glen Andrew ZS6GGA.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. Currently there have been no sunspots visible for 23 consecutive days. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around one. The 20 and 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:
This afternoon – the ZS2 Sprint
25 July – the closing date for articles for the August Radio ZS
28 July – AGMs of the Cape Town ARC and the Namibian Amateur Radio League, the closing date for RaDAR logs.
28 and 29 – the RSGB Islands on the Air (IOTA) contest
29 July – the closing date for QRP contest logs
30 July – the closing date for ZS2 Sprint logs
05 Aug – the SARL HF Phone Contest
09 Aug – National Woman’s Day and the SARL YL Sprint
12 Aug – International Youth Day and the closing date for the HF Phone logs
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The ZS2 Sprint is a fun activity to promote contacts between radio amateurs in the Eastern Cape and radio amateurs in Southern African countries and is on the air from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC this afternoon with CW activity between 7 000 to 7 040 kHz and phone activity between 7 063 to 7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz. The exchange is a RS or RST report and your provincial or country abbreviation.
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
