SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 25 DECEMBER 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 may tune in to the South African Radio League news bulletin on
Sunday mornings, at 08:15 Local Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Local
Time in English, on HF as well as on many VHF and UHF repeaters around
our country. Echolink listeners may connect to ZS0JPL for a relay.

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

IN THE NEWS TODAY:

VHF LONG DISTANCE CONTACTS

BO KAROO AMATEUR RADIO CLUB BOARD ELECTION

and

UPCOMING EVENTS

We start this mornings bulletin with special wishes for all our
Christian friends who today celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. May
you be blessed with peace, love, joy and gratitude on this special day.

** This is the season to make long distance contacts on VHF, even with
low power. The months of December through to February could produce VHF
contacts of thousands of kilometres across the sea on 144 MHz via Tropo
Ducting, as well as countrywide contacts in the morning and nighttime.
Sporadic-E (Es) propagation peaks in January where the 50 MHz band
produces extremely strong signals up to 2500 km. Es communication is
also possible on 70 MHz and 144 MHz. SSB and FM contacts have been made
on 50 MHz during the Quadrantids meteor shower early in January, while
digital contacts should be possible on 144 MHz throughout this period.
Local Es contacts usually appear in the morning and late afternoon,
whereas DX from Namibia or further north appears for an hour or so
around midday. So don't miss these opportunities and watch the 50 MHz
beacons for early warnings, and enjoy Es openings as the VK and ZL
stations do.

** During the 2016 AGM of the Bo Karoo Amateur Radio Club at Die
Sandgat the following people were elected to the board for 2017:

Chairman ZS3PG Pieter Gaybba

Vice Chairman ZS1TBP Thys Louw

Secretary ZR3PA Alta Gaybba

Competition Coordinator ZS1DJR Cobus Rabe

Technical ZS6MAJ Nico Engelbrecht

WAGS and WAZS ZS4CGR Christie Grobelaar

Additional Member ZS3WL Woody Collet

We trust that the elected members will keep the club going strong. The
club is also excited about the new blood joining the hobby and look
forward to a new year full of challenges.

We wish all our members as well as all other amateurs all the best for
the New Year.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to
be at low levels. There are currently no sunspots visible. No major
solar flaring is expected.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 18.

The 15 to 30m bands will provide lots of DX fun.

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

** Let's look at some upcoming events:

31 December - End of 2016 CQ Marathon 1 January - Start of 2017 CQ
Marathon 14 - 15 January - Hunting Lions in the Air 20 - 22 January -
PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest 28 January - Summer QRP Sprint

** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
This is the season to make long distance contacts on VHF, even with low
power. The months of December through to February could produce VHF
contacts of thousands of kilometres across the sea on 144 MHz via Tropo
Ducting, as well as countrywide contacts in the morning and nighttime.

And that brings us to the end of this bulletin

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 programme 'Amateur Radio Today' at 10:00 Central African
Time. The programme 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 pod cast 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; please 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 Emile Venter, ZS6V,
and read by ..............

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

/EX

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