SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2016

Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South
African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and
QTH]

You can 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 and on many VHF and UHF repeaters
around the country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for a
relay. A podcast is available from the League's web site.

This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the League's website at
www.sarl.org.za. You will find this bulletin and previous bulletins in
text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the web page.
While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by
e-mail.

In the news today

HAMNET WESTERN CAPE INVOLVED IN MARSHALLING THE 99ER CYCLE TOUR

REPORTS OF THE ZS1MM VHF BEACON ON 144,414 MHz

and

JOIN THE SARL NOW AT HALF PRICE

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

** Hamnet Western cape was involved last Saturday the 6th in
marshalling the 99er Cycle Tour around the Northern Suburbs of Cape
Town. The 102km race, and accompanying 64km short race, was patrolled
by 12 rover operators, distributed evenly along the track. 5000 riders
left Durbanville in batches from 06h00 to 07h45, on their way
circuitously via the R44, direction Wellington, then Westerly towards
Philadelphia, and then South-westerly down to the N7 inbound to Cape
Town, before turning left back up and into Durbanville for a finish by
13h00. APRS monitored all rovers, plus the 5 ambulance or rescue
vehicles, and a temporary digipeater especially set up on the farm
Meerendal assisted reception in hilly terrain. There were no major
injuries, though lots of riders bailed out because of punctures or the
severe heat, the lunchtime temperature in Durbanville reaching 34
degrees!

Hamnet Western Cape thanks the trusty volunteers who took part, and
look forward to the next event on Sunday the 14th.

** Dick Coates, ZS6BUN, reported from Nigel that he received a short
meteor burst from the ZS1MM beacon at Bredasdorp on 144,414 MHz CW,
which is horizontally polarized. Johan Groenewald, ZS2CX, at Knysna,
about 300 km away, also confirmed that he heard a continuous beacon
signal via Trop Scatter with QSB while conditions were still poor at
the time. An approaching cold front to the Cape would create Tropo
Ducting and considerably strengthen the signal along the southern
coast, as well as extending its range to Port Elizabeth and beyond.
Please send in reports and watch any changes in signal strength.

** You can join the SARL for the remaining period of the Financial year
for only R240 as a full member. If you are a pensioner and over 65
years of age the rate is R140. If you join now you will be a member
till 30 June 2016 when the SARL will invoice you for the next year's
membership. Full details are on www.sarl.org.za and select membership
in the left-hand column. For more information call Vonnie at the NARC
at 011 675 2393. Join the SARL today, it is the right thing to do if
amateur radio is important to you.

You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.

** Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from the
following persons:

.. Waiting for Listener's callsign Marthinus Wessel Rautenbach . ZSL1157
Tim Stirk

The following clubs have submitted applications for affiliation. .
Kimberley Amateur Radio Club . Highway Amateur Radio club

Any objections to the acceptance of the applications must reach the
Secretary before or on the Tuesday after the bulletin.

Membership of the SARL currently stands at 1624 plus 45 affiliated
clubs

** The Radio ZS Editorial Committee, at its meeting on 11 February,
approved a policy allowing each SARL affiliated club and Hamnet to
place an advertisement of 1/4 page in Radio ZS. The content of all
advertisements shall be restricted to club activities and shall not
include any material of a commercial or personal nature. The location
of advertisements inside the magazine is decided during the final
layout process and no particular page, or position on a page, can be
guaranteed. The publication of the advertisement is always subject to
the availability of suitable space, to be decided at the discretion of
the Editor. The policy will be published in Radio ZS and is available
from the Editor at

** Following the request for articles for Radio ZS in SARL News of
Sunday 7 February, the Editor would like to thank Dave, ZS1DFR, and
Tim, ZS6TIM, for their articles. The article from Tim will be used in a
future issue of Radio ZS. The request to Clubs about rally
communications has unfortunately not had any response. The closing date
for articles is Wednesday 24 February and they must be sent to
.

** The Youth Sprint is a fun activity to celebrate the Youth and to
promote contacts between young radio amateurs in Southern African
countries. Call "CQ Youth Sprint." The Sprint takes place on Saturday
20 February from 08:00 to 10:00 UTC and the exchange is a RS report and
the operator's age. It is a phone sprint on the 40-metre band, 7 063 to
7 100 and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz

Contacts between stations in the age group 25 and younger are worth 5
points; contacts between stations in the under 25 group and over 26
group is worth 2 points and contacts between stations in the age group
26 and older are worth 1 point. Logs, in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel
format and labelled "your call sign Youth Sprint," must be submitted by
27 February 2016 by e-mail to . The age of the
operator must be shown on the summary sheet. All the logs received will
be entered into a draw for a Student membership of the South African
Radio League.

Certificates will be awarded for all logs that are submitted correctly.
Prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the
competition. All logs with more than 10 contacts will entered for a
lucky draw.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected
to be at low to moderate levels. Sunspot AR2497 has a "beta-gamma"
magnetic field that harbors enough energy for M-class solar flares.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 45.

The 20 to 10 m bands will provide lots DX fun.

Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further
information.

Now for the diary of events

14 February - the SARL National Field Day 14 February - the SARL Youth
Net at 15:00 UTC on 7 070 kHz 15 February - closing date for the PEARS
VHF/UHF logs 21 February - Zululand ARC 21st Birthday luncheon 24
February - closing date for articles for the March 2016 Radio ZS 27
February - the West Rand ARC Flea Market 28 February - The SARL Digital
Contest 29 February - the Leap Year Challenge 1 March - closing date
for AWA CW logs

To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item 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 magazine 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; send these by
e-mail to . Sentech sponsors the radio transmissions
on the non-amateur frequencies.

You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN,
edited by Brian Utterson, ZS6AE, and read by ....................

73 and 88, thank you for listening

/EX

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