SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 26 MAY 2019
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and QTH]
The South African Radio League broadcasts a news bulletin each Sunday in Afrikaans as well as English at 08:15 and 08:30 Central African Time respectively on HF as well as on various VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. The bulletin is relayed on Echolink by Johan, 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 start the bulletin with news of a silent key
It is with deep regret that we announce that the key of George Lawrence Pearson, ZS2E went silent on 28 January 2019. He was originally from Port Elizabeth and had moved to Klerksdorp.
We extend our sincere condolences to his wife, family and friends.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
THE RSGB CRICKET WORLD CUP AMATEUR RADIO MARATHON
THE MAY 2019 RAE RESULTS
and
VHF BEACON TEST TRANSMISSIONS
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE RSGB CRICKET WORLD CUP AMATEUR RADIO MARATHON
The Cricket World Cup will take place in England and Wales from 30 May until 14 July. UK and international call signs will be active on nine HF bands on SSB, CW, and digital modes. Award certificates will be offered based on the number of contacts made with the special UK and international stations. Sponsors are inviting other countries to take part and to activate special call signs with the suffix "19CWC" or similar. A total of 31 special call signs will be on the air in the UK, with GB19CWC representing the 2019 Cricket World Cup Headquarters in England. Listen for other "GB19" prefix call signs. Teams will field special event stations as well. Details, including the rules for awards and a list of international call signs, are on the RSGB website at http://rsgb.org/cricket.
Theunis, ZS2EC will be operating ZS19CWC during the marathon period.
THE MAY 2019 RAE RESULTS
Examination results for the RAE held on Saturday 18 May at 24 exam centres around the country were published on the SARL website yesterday. 168 candidates registered to write the exam, but 27 did not attend the exam session. 129 candidates passed the exam, unfortunately 12 failed. Council congratulates and welcomes all the successful candidates on the air and wishing you all the very best on your journey within the radio amateur service.
A sincere thank you to Kelley, our Office Administrator and to the RAE Manager, Noel, ZR6DX including the group of dedicated and talented volunteers of invigilators, lecturers and individuals that contributed to a successful May 2019 RAE.
A special word of thanks to Cheryl Holliday, who made her home available for the Durban exam centre, despite her bereavement on the passing of her husband, Dave Holliday, ZS5HN, a week before the RAE.
WPT HIGH ON THE IARU EMC COMMITTEE MEETING
This week the IARU Region 1 EMC committee met to review the outcome of the recently held Vienna Interim Meeting as well as the interference potential of wireless power charging of electric vehicles. The meeting was attended by Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV and Brian Jacobs, ZS6YZ.
The information gleaned from the meeting will stand the SARL in good stead when the SABS TC73, which deals with electromagnetic compatibility and interference, meets on Wednesday 29 May. The SARL has placed WPT as an emerging need on the agenda. The issue about WPT is that there are no agreed interference limits. Some discussions in CEPT suggest that the existing spurious emission limits for inductive SRDs are appropriate. These were developed on a wholly different set of assumptions about duty cycle, location and whether victim and emitter share the same frequency and are not appropriate for WPT(EV). WPT(EV) is high duty cycle, located in residential areas and its harmonics are likely to be spread across a band of frequencies
It is important that South Africa rejects any notion that WPT can be likened to a cell phone or a toothbrush charger.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League which is relayed on the Highveld ARC 145,7875 MHz repeater.
VHF BEACON TEST TRANSMISSIONS
The first beacon to be deployed as part of the SARL VHF long distance beacon research programme by the VHF/UHF/Microwave work group is being tested. The beacon has been installed at the QTH of Danie Terblanche, ZR6AGB in grid KG44CH with a horizontal Yagi pointing towards Welkom and Bloemfontein. Brian Jacobs, ZS6YZ said that the Beacon is running 25 W with the message ZR6AGB ZR6AGB ZR6AGB KG44CH which is repeated every 60 seconds on the frequency of 144,425 MHz FM. Tune your radio to 144,424 MHz USB to listen to it. It is the test phase before final installation at the Bethlehem site. Comments and reports are invited by email to vhfnews@sarl.org.za. The workgroup meets monthly on Skype and the next Skype call will be on 30 May 2019 at 20:00. To join the group, send an e-mail to vhfnews@sarl.org.za with your Skype name.
WRC 19 INDUSTRY PREPARATORY MEETING AGREES TO SUPPORT IARU 50 MHZ POSITION
This week both Brian Jacobs, ZS6YZ and Hans van de Groenendaal ZS6AKV attended the 6th WRC 19 Industry Preparatory meeting where DTPS and industry discuss South Africa's position on various Agenda Items.
ZS6AKV made a presentation and updated the group on the SARL and IARU's view on the agenda item to harmonise 50 - 54 MHz band across all three ITU regions. The SARL attends these meeting to ensure that any new decisions on spectrum to be considered at WRC 19 does not infringe on amateur allocations.
The 50 - 54 MHz band is currently allocated to South African Radio Amateurs by a foot note. One of the issues to watch is a new regulation considering sharing parts of the band with wind profilers. During that discussion at WRC it is important that 50.0 - 50.5 MHz is protected as spectrum for weak signal communications and not to be shared with wind profilers.
CONTEST RESULTS
The Contest committee received 36 logs for the second Wednesday 80 m Club Sprint held on 15 May even though propagation was not very favourable. During the March leg, 744 QSOs were made compared to 277 QSOs for the May leg. Seven Clubs are represented in the results. The full set of results can be found in HF Happening 848.
1st the West Rand ARC 352 points (10 logs)
2nd the Bo-Karoo ARC 254 points (10 logs)
3rd the Boland ARC 177 points (8 logs)
After two legs of the Sprint, the overall results are
1st the West Rand ARC 787 points
2nd the Boland ARC 651 points
3rd the Bo-Karoo ARC 574 points
The results of the SARL VHF/UHF Digital Contest held in April are as follows:
1st Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ - 25 416 points
2nd Rickus de Lange, ZS4A - 17 358 points
3rd Gert Botha, ZS6GC - 4 230 points
4th Elna Botha, ZS6EB - 2 461 points
CLUB NEWS
The West Rand Amateur Radio Club is hosting its next flea market at 12:00 on Saturday 1 June 2019 at their clubhouse in Kroton street, Weltevreden Park, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. Bring your surplus and support the vendor on the day. For more information contact Phillip, ZS6PVT on mobile 083 267 3835.
The OTL Club held their AGM on Saturday 18 May 2019 and a new committee was elected. Congratulations to all and all the best for the year ahead.
Chairman: Pieter Jacobs, ZS6XP
Secretary: Yvonne Jansen Van Rensburg, ZS6BSH
Technical: Ernst Du Plessis, ZR6BDZ
For any enquiries about the OTL Club, please send an e-mail to admin@zs6otl.org.za
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at 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 some good DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
Today the CQ WPX CW Contest until midnight UTC
1 June the West Rand ARC Flea Market and the Boland ARC meeting
8 June the SARL VHF/UHF QSO Party
9 June the Hammies Sprint and the Comrades Marathon
15 June the SARL Youth Sprint and the Region 1 Kids Day
16 June - Youth Day and Fathers Day
17 June - Public holiday and World QRP Day
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The Cricket World Cup will take place in England and Wales from 30 May until 14 July. UK and international call signs will be active on nine HF bands on SSB, CW, and digital modes. Award certificates will be offered based on the number of contacts made with the special UK and international stations. Theunis, ZS2EC will be operating ZS19CWC during the marathon period.
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 programme, '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. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 19:30 Central African Time on 3 620 kHz. We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; please send these by e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za.
You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Dennis Green, ZS4BS and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
