SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 1 DECEMBER 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 in English at 08:15 and 08:30 Central African Time respectively on HF and 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.
In the news, today:
THE 5 AND 10 MHZ WAZS AND WAGS WEEKEND
THE RESULTS OF THE SARL WEDNESDAY 80 M CLUB SPRINT
and
THE DECEMBER RADIO ZS
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE 5 AND 10 MHZ WAZS AND WAGS WEEKEND
Most radio amateurs will spend time on 80 and 40 meters looking for contacts for their Worked All ZS and Worked All Grid Squares awards. But there are radio amateurs who like a challenge and therefore over the weekend of 7 and 8 December 2019 you can participate in the 5 and 10 MHz WAZS and WAGS Challenge.
This is NOT a contest! It is an opportunity to get the necessary QSOs for your WAZS and WAGS on the 60- and 30-meter bands and an opportunity to collect information about the propagation on these two bands.
The challenge runs from 00:00 CAT on Saturday 7 December to 23:59 CAT on Sunday 8 December. Please note that SSB activity on 30 meters is only during local daylight hours, CW and digitals modes are 24/7. For the propagation study, please send a copy of your log to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za. And if you have the required QSOs, apply for your Worked All ZS and Worked all Grid Squares on 60 and 30 meters.
FIVE MHZ FOR THE FALKLANDS
Major changes to the Falklands Islands Communications Laws have been announced by the Falkland Islands Communications Regulator. These were published in the official Falkland Islands Gazette on 11 November 2019 and came into force on 15 November 2019. One of these has resulted in the new WRC-15 60-meter Secondary Allocation becoming available to Falklands Radio Amateurs. The allocation 5 351.5 - 5 366.5 kHz, with a maximum power of 25 W EIRP has been granted for Amateur Radio operations in the islands.
TESTING THE SARL E-MAIL SYSTEM
A new e-mail system has been installed and used for the distribution of SARL News last weekend. And the gremlins decided to help out. Thank you to Peter, ZS1PHD who did tests on the system during the week to smooth out the process.
JOIN THE SARL NOW AT THE HALF YEAR TARIFF
From Friday 29th November 2019, you can join the SARL and pay the half-year tariff, which normally comes into effect on 1 January. Complete the SARL Membership Application form and transfer your membership fee by EFT into the SARL bank account. Ordinary Members will pay R250; Senior Members (over 65) will pay R150; Spouse Members will pay R90 and Student Members will pay R60. The banking details are SA Radio League, ABSA, account no 4071 588 849 branch code 632 005, please type your call sign into the reference field.
THE 2020 SARL NATIONAL CONVENTION
Have you thought about nominating a fellow radio amateur for one of the SARL Awards or trophies? Someone who has gone that extra mile for the Club and amateur radio! In the December 2019 issue of Radio ZS you will find information about the SARL Awards and Trophies. Also, more about the 2020 National Convention to be held on 3 and 4 April 2020 and the call for motions and nominations to serve on Council. Which Club plans to host the 2021 SARL National Convention? You can find the relevant documents on the AGM Documents page in the Members Only section on the League web site. The closing date for nominations for awards, Council and motions is Friday 31 January 2020. Do not wait until 30 January to send in your nominations, do it now!
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
DECEMBER RADIO ZS
The December 2019 issue of Radio ZS is available for download. Read the message from the SARL President and get all the information on the 2020 SARL National Convention. Find out what happened at WRC-19. What do earthquakes and HF propagation have to do with each other? ZS6AKV says solar conditions look favourable for space exploration and ZS3RW shows you what SARL Hamnet Northern Cape have been doing.
In the VHF/UHF News column, you can find out how to catch a falling star, while in the HF News column we look at the WARC bands. We look at some antenna ideas and also tell you about the night before Christmas. And there is more in this 60-page issue.
THE DRAFT 2020 COMPETITION MANUAL AND DIARY OF EVENTS
Thank you to the Clubs and individuals who responded with comments for the draft 2020 Competition Manual and the Diary of Events. The two documents will now be finalised and uploaded to the League web site. An A3 Year-at-a-Glance calendar will also be made available.
CONTEST NEWS
The contest committee received 52 logs for the last Wednesday 80-meter Club Sprint, including a checklog. These 52 logs reflect 1 071 QSOs during the evening of 20 November.
1st Boland ARC – 1 339 points from 19 logs
2nd Bo-Karoo ARC – 722 points from 12 logs
3rd West Rand ARC – 612 points from 12 logs
4th Hibiscus Coast ARC – 173 points from 4 logs
The overall results after the 5 sprints:
1st Boland ARC – 3 736 points
2nd West Rand ARC – 2 875 points
3rd Bo-Karoo ARC – 2 355 points
4th Hibiscus Coast ARC – 599 points
The top contesters are:
1st David de Kock, ZS1DDK – 413 points
2nd Romeo Nardini, ZS6ARQ – 365 points
3rd Cliff Jones, ZS6BJU – 246 points
A summary of the Wednesday 80-meter Club Sprint will be published in the next HF Happenings. Congratulations to the Boland ARC and thank you to everybody for taking part.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP reports that 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 17 to 30-meter bands will provide some good DX fun, especially around sunset. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, the diary of events:
Today – the start of the YOTA Month
2 December – the closing date for VHF/UHF Analogue log sheets
4 December – the provincial schools close
7 and 8 December – the 5 and 10 MHz WAZS and WAGS Weekend
9 December – the closing date for Newbie Party log
14 and 15 December – the ARRL 10 m Contest
To conclude our bulletin, a quick overview of our main news item:
Most radio amateurs will spend time on 80 and 40 meters looking for contacts for their Worked All ZS and Worked All Grid Squares awards. But there are radio amateurs who like a challenge and therefore over the weekend of 7 and 8 December 2019 you can participate in the 5 and 10 MHz WAZS and WAGS Challenge.
This is NOT a contest! It is an opportunity to get the necessary QSOs for your WAZS and WAGS on the 60- and 30-meter bands and an opportunity to collect information about the propagation on these two bands.
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
We invite clubs and individuals 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 to include 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 by Andy, ZS6ADY 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, edited by Herman Erasmus, ZS6CTA and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
