SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 02 JUNE 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 Orlando Canha, ZS6OLC went silent on Friday 24 May 2019.

We extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Pause:

In the news, today:

THE SARL VHF QSO PARTY AND THE HAMMIES SPRINT NEXT WEEKEND

SARL VHF WORK GROUP BEACON

and

RESULTS OF THE ZS3 SPRINT AND AWA VALVE QSO PARTY

Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.

THE SARL VHF QSO PARTY AND THE HAMMIES SPRINT NEXT WEEKEND

The SARL VHF / UHF QSO Party is on the air on Saturday 8 June and the Hammies Sprint is on the air on Sunday 9 June. The VHF/UHF QSO Party is a fun activity to make QSOs without using a repeater and will run from 12:00 to 16:00 UTC with FM and SSB activity on 6, 4 and 2 meters and on 70 and 23 cm as per the band plan.

QSOs must be two-way point to point and the exchange is your call sign, your name and age and a signal report. Try making QSOs on different bands. Submit your log sheets by Monday 17 June by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za. All the log sheets will be entered into a lucky draw.

The Hammies Sprint is a fun activity to promote contacts between Hammies and radio amateurs in Southern African countries with an emphasis on ZU stations and will run from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC next Sunday. The exchange is a RS report and your and provincial abbreviation, stations outside South Africa give a RS report and DX. Phone activity takes place between 7 063 and 7 100 and between 7 130 and 7 200 kHz.

Logs, in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel labelled "my call sign Hammies," must be submitted by e-mail by Sunday by 16 June 2019 to chairman@zs6zu.org.za or zr6dx@iafrica.com. The MS Excel log sheet can be found on the Competition page of the League web site. The rules for both contests can be read in the 2019 SARL Blue Book.

SARL VHF WORK GROUP BEACON

SARL VHF Work Group reports rapid progress with Bethlehem Beacon, which is being developed as part of the long distance beacon research programme. The two 28 element Yagi antennas are assembled and the splitter and harness and tuning of the antennas will take place in the next week. The brackets to attach the antennas to the mast of the Vrystaat Amateur Radio Club will be completed also during the week. The keyer of the radio being used is being redesigned to ensure that the CW signal that is generated is of such a quality that it is machine readable as the ultimate goal is to deploy an automated monitoring system, the reverse beacon network that has been mentioned in the past. A call will be made later in the coming week whether sufficient progress has been made to be able to establish an installation date.

SOLAR POWER FOR THE HOMEOWNER

The Sandton Amateur Radio Club is holding a talk at the National Amateur Radio Centre on Saturday morning 8 June starting at 09:00. Edwin Isted, ZS6EDI will be talking about Solar Power for the homeowner. The talk will cover the following topics - Load Shedding Solutions, Sizing a Solution, Battery Technologies, Generators, Usage behaviour and timing, Power Security and Wiring Considerations. A donation of R25.00 payable on the day is to cover refreshments. Please RSVP to zr6dx@iafrica.com

SABS TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

SABS Technical Committee TC73 appoints several workgroups to deal with EMC The SABS Technical Committee TC73 met this past week and after a lengthy discussion on how best to deal with EMC standards and related issues established a number of workgroups. The SARL was represented by Brian Jacobs, ZS6YZ, Leon Lessing, ZS6LMG and Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV. The SARL will be represented on several of the workgroups, in particular those that will deal with CISPR and interference issues. The workgroups will be meeting in the next few weeks. The priority will be on new proposals from CISPR on interference limits from Wireless Power Transfer system for electric vehicle and South Africa's position when proposed limits will have to be voted on in the next two months.

You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League, which can be heard on the 145.750 MHz repeater relayed by the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre.

CONTESTING IN JUNE
The SARL Youth Sprint will be on the air from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC on Saturday 15 June while the IARU Region 1 is promoting Kids Day as a day-long activity on 80 to 10 metres. Monday 17 June is World QRP Day. From 20 to 24 June, you can participate in the SARL Top Band QSO Party and work towards your Top Band Certificate. Get all the information in the 2019 Blue Book.

CONTEST RESULTS

The ZS3 Sprint was well supported during poor band conditions on 19 May 2019. The Committee received 20 logs of which were control logs. The results are as follows for the hour on the air:

1st Woody Collet, ZS3WL - 122 points
2nd Schalk van Vuuren, ZS1LL - 74 points.
3rd Michelle van der Merwe, ZS3TO - 64 points

The Northern Cape Amateur Radio Club thanks everybody who participated and submitted logs.

Eight logs were received for the AWA Valve QSO party held on 4 and 5 May and there were a good number of participants in the SSB section even with the poor band conditions.

In the AM category
1st Johan van Zijl, ZS4DZ
2nd Barry Nugent, ZS2NF

In the SSB category
1st John Watson, ZS1WJ
2nd Nico Oelofse, ZS4N
3rd Port Elizabeth ARS, ZS2PE operated by Theunis, ZS2EC

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 may provide some DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:

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 Father's Day
17 June - Public holiday and World QRP Day
20 to 24 June - the SARL Top Band QSO Party
21 June - Winter Solstice
21 to 23 - Ham Radio 2019 in Friedrichshafen
22 June - the AGM of the Namibian Amateur Radio League in Windhoek
22 and 23 June - the ARRL Field Day

To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:

The SARL VHF / UHF QSO Party is on the air on Saturday 8 June and the Hammies Sprint is on the air on Sunday 9 June. The VHF/UHF QSO Party is a fun activity to make QSOs without using a repeater and will run from 12:00 to 16:00 UTC with FM and SSB activity on 6, 4 and 2 meters and on 70 and 23 cm as per the band plan. The Hammies Sprint is a fun activity to promote contacts between Hammies and radio amateurs in Southern African countries with an emphasis on ZU stations and will run from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC next Sunday.

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. 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 Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY and read by ..............

From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.

/EX