SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 6 MARCH 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

PROJECT LEXICON IN FULL MOTION

THE ZS1MM BEACON ON 144,415 MHz CW

and

MAKING HAMNET MORE ACCESSABLE

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

**** Project Lexicon is now in full motion. The planning phase of the
project is now completed and the project team started in January with
the implementation phase which aims at completing certain tasks and
reaching important milestones. The foundation of the implementation
phase is the completion of project's website, www.projeklexicon.co.za.
The purpose of the website is to facilitate a central integrated
solution that will oversee and manage the translation process and to
store all elements of the translation process in a central SQL
database. Ryan, ZS6GGR, is the website administrator and he is also
responsible for the functional design and workflow behind the
integrated translation process. Please visit the website and send your
comments and suggestions to Ryan at , your input in
this regard in finalizing the website will be much appreciated. Cobus,
ZS1DJR, also tabled the first draft of the layout, index and format of
the text book which will be used as aguideline for what the final
version will look like. The project team now needs to evaluate the
sample provided in order to finalize the layout, format and index of
the book. The project team identified 3 important milestones to be
achieved, these are 28 March, the launch of the website which will also
mark the start of the translation process, end of September 2016 the
final date on which the translation of the wordlist is to be completed
and end of November will see the first draft of the book and its
content. Etienne, ZS6EFN and Louis, ZS6SK, arealso involved in putting
together a proposal for the Department of Science and Art who expressed
an interest in the project.Be on the lookout for more news on the
project development and form part of this exciting project. For more
information please feel free to contact Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN at
or Ryan Gibson, ZS6GGR at

**** The Bredasdorp VHF beacon operated by Leon Korkie, ZS1MM, has been
copied in Cape Town, Knysna, Worcester and heard via meteor scatter in
Nigel. It is equipped with a dipole antenna that mainly favours an
East/West direction between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. An increase
of signal strength will occur when a temperature inversion appears at
an altitude below 450 metres, but the range via Tropo Enhancement is
limited to 400 km, about 100 km East of Knysna. On the other hand when
a temperature inversion occurs at a higher altitude above 450 metres or
up to about 2000 metres then Tropo Ducting is created, which is often
caused by an approaching cold front to the Cape. This will extend the
VHF range from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and possibly East London,
yielding very strong signals for several hours. So keep an eye on this
beacon, the weather reports and the Hepburn Forerecasts. Of course, it
is entirely possible to hear weak signals with deep QSB almost daily
from th

is be acon via Tropo Scatter, but longer distances will require a high
gain horizontal Yagi with a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA). Please send in
reception reports.

**** At the monthly meeting of Hamnet Western Cape, held on Wednesday
the 2nd of March, considerable time was spent discussing how best to
make the bulletins attractive to the new listener, or potential Hamnet
member. There are many listeners who don't call in to announce their
presence, but who also don't find the prospect of using their hobby
effectively in service to their local community attractive enough to
warrant making contact with the regional directors and joining Hamnet.
Listeners to our bulletins are reminded that they can get extra
information from their local club chairmen, or any other Hamnet member,
as to how to join up and become more active. Hamnet Western cape has a
bulletin every Wednesday evening starting at 19h30 local time,
transmitted on the 145.700 repeater in Cape Town, and relayed on to
3760kHz and 7110kHz lower side band, as well as 144.300Mhz upper side
band, and also on Echolink via ZS1DCC-R, one of the two echolink nodes
in Cape Town. Please feel free to call in and listen each week. Your
local Hamnet Division distributes news in a similar fashion, so look
out for the bulletins on the most prominent repeaters in your area.

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

**** Nominations for the SARL Amateur Radio Hall of Fame have now
closed.Eighteen nominations were received. Nominees include deceased
radio pioneers like John Streeter, Dixon Bennett and Dave Larsen, as
well as individuals who continue to contribute to amateur radio to this
day.The Hall of Fame seeks to preserve the history of amateur radio in
South Africa by honouring those that have made a lasting contribution.

The voting system can be accessed through the nominations page on the
SARL Web site. A link is provided on the home page under "Activities".
SARL members can vote for up to five nominees.

Please vote as soon as possible. Voting will close at the end of March.

**** Joins the SARL as member now at half price. 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.

Membership of the SARL currently stands at 1638 plus 47 affiliated
clubs **** Western Cape Amateurs to have a socializing "bring and
braai". The Boland ARC would like to cordially invite all Western Cape
clubs and club members to attend a weekend of SOCIALISING at the "Ou
Skip" Caravan Park, Melkbos Strand, on the 2nd of April 2016. You are
most welcome to attend our social offering for the weekend (evening of
1 April till the morning of 3 April), or just for the day on Saturday.

Day entries are R50 p/p Caravan bays are R175 p/n Chalets are also
available.

Please note that you will need to bring a BRAAI GRID, refreshments,
eats, etc.

There will be an attendance raffle on Saturday at 12h00: an Eco Zoom
oven - (briquette burning oven) kindly donated by Norman Tinkler, and
vino from local estates - (kindly donated by BARK). Ou Skip offers a
number of entertainment facilities for old and young. A swimming pool
and Putt-putt course is available. There is also a small shop to cater
for immediate needs.

Bring the XYL and juniors along!

Diarize this date now!

**** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is
expected to be at low levels. Currently only a few small sunspots are
visible and none of them poses a threat for serious solar flares.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 37.

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

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

6 March - the SARL Hamnet 40 m Contest 6 March - closing date for logs
for the digital contest 13 March - closing date for logs for the Hamnet
contest 19 March - SARL VHF/UHF Analogue/Digital Contest 2 April RaDAR
challenge 7 April - South African Radio League 80 m QSO Party 9 April -
South African Radio League Autumn QRP Contest

To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.

**** Project Lexicon is now in full motion. The planning phase of the
project is now completed and the project team started in January with
the implementation phase which aims at completing certain tasks and
reaching important milestones. The foundation of the implementation
phase is the completion of project's website, www.projeklexicon.co.za.
The purpose of the website is to facilitate a central integrated
solution that will oversee and manage the translation process and to
store all elements of the translation process in a central SQL
database. Ryan, ZS6GGR, is the website administrator and he is also
responsible for the functional design and workflow behind the
integrated translation process.

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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