SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 14 JANUARY 2018

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. These
broadcasts are relayed via Echolink by 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 this morning with news of a silent key

It is with deep regret that the Durban Amateur Radio Club announces
that the key of Norman Ellor, ZS5YM, went silent in November 2017. He
obtained his license in 1956 as ZS9P and was a member of the Durban
Branch of the SARL and later of the Durban Amateur Radio Club.

We extend our sincere condolences to his wife Patricia (ex ZS5YL),
family and friends.

PAUSE

In the news, today:

BOOK NOW FOR THE SDR WORKSHOP ON 20 JANUARY 2018

ZS6SRC - CELEBRATION OF 30 YEARS IN AMATEUR RADIO

and

EXCITING CHANGES FOR AMATEUR RADIO TODAY

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

BOOK NOW FOR THE SDR WORKSHOP ON 20 JANUARY 2018

The SARL and AMSAT SA will be holding another SDR workshop at the
National Amateur Radio Centre from 09:00 - 13:00 CAT on Saturday 20
January 2018. The objective of the workshop is to review the
application of SDR dongles and the various software packages made
available at previous workshops. Anton Janovsky, ZR6AIC, will be on
hand to assist with any technical difficulties. There will be a
discussion of the HF Noise monitoring system and the setting up of a
server to store the data and AMSAT SA will present a brief update on
Kletskous. The cost of the workshop is R50 for SARL and AMSAT SA
members and R100 for non-members. Light refreshments will be served.
For details and registration visit www.amsatsa.org.za

NEXT WEEKEND THE PEARS NATIONAL VHF AND UHF CONTEST

The PEARS National VHF and UHF contest will take place from 19 to 21
January 2018 and is divided into two 22-hour sessions to spread
activity over the whole weekend and benefit from changing propagation.
The first session starts at 16:00 UTC on Friday 19 and ends on Saturday
afternoon at 14:00 UTC. The second session starts immediately after
14:00 UTC and ends at 12:00 UTC on Sunday 21 January.

The contest is open to all licensed amateurs in South Africa, including
non-members of the SARL, as well as amateurs from the neighbouring
states. The neighbouring states include Namibia (V5), Botswana (A2),
Zimbabwe (Z2), Mozambique (C9), Lesotho (7P) and Swaziland (3DA), but
amateurs from Angola (D2) and Zambia (9J) are also invited to
participate. All these countries are within the Sporadic-E zone of
South Africa and could also be affected by Tropical Tropo conditions.

The PEARS VHF/UHF is a dual contest that includes both analogue and
digital as separate contests. It covers the following five contest
bands: 50,2 - 50,4 MHz, 70,15 - 70,27 MHz, 144,2 - 144,4 MHz, 432,2 -
432.4 MHz and 1 296,2 - 1 296,4 MHz. There are six different categories
to participate in - Base station, Field station, Club Multi-operator
station, Rover category, Limited category and a Divisional FM category
on 144,400 and 145,000 MHz. Please see the 2018 SARL Blue Book for the
rules of the contest or contact Mike, ZS2FM on for
further information

ZS6SRC - CELEBRATION OF 30 YEARS IN AMATEUR RADIO

The Secunda Amateur Radio Club will celebrate its 30th anniversary with
a week of DXing on six HF bands. Dedicated radio stations for each with
their own beam will be setup at the Highveld Sailing Club at
Trichardsfonteindam. Radio amateurs from South Africa and SADC
countries are invited to join the week and spend time operating each
station. Participants are invited to camp and braai with members of the
Secunda team. The Club will erect the stations and antennas just bring
your tent and food and join the celebrations.

The aim is to make at least 3000 local and DX contacts per band during
the period. It is an optimistic target and you are invited to make it
happen and enjoy a week of amateur radio fun. For more information,
please contact one of the following persons using text messaging or
Whatsapp - Gert Botha, ZS6GC, at 082 771 0663 or Lucas Swart, ZS6ACT,
at 082 314 3265 or e-mail

By 1988 the number of Radio Amateurs in the Secunda area had increased
from 4 to 12, enough licensed radio amateurs to form the South-Eastern
Transvaal Branch of the SARL. In 1992 the South-Eastern Transvaal
Branch at a special AGM voted to become the Secunda Amateur Radio Club
obtained the call sign ZS6SRC.

EXCITING CHANGE FOR AMATEUR RADIO TODAY

In December the SARL announced exciting changes for the SARL Magazine
programme, Amateur Radio Today. From 21 January, the programme will be
in English only and will have an expanded subject content with the main
focus on technology and activities that drive the growth of Amateur
Radio, not just in South Africa but also on the African Continent and
surrounding islands. The new format will also meet the IARU's call to
focus on the development and expansion of Amateur Radio in Africa and
will become more in line with Sentech expectation that the programme
must focus on technical development and encourage experimentation. Old
favourites such as the Hamnet, satellite and HF reports will remain a
main feature. There will be a new feature weekly featuring VHF
activities edited by Mike Bosch ZS2FM as well as amateur radio news
from around the world in "Focus on the world".

Amateur Radio Today is inviting persons with an interest in editing and
presenting inserts or become an anchor presenter to send a mail to
with their contact details.

Dawie Conradie, ZR6DHC, who co-produced the programme with Hans van de
Groenendaal will be taking a break to spend more time on family and
work matters. He told SARL President, Nico van Rensburg that once
things have settled down he will return to the fold. "I would like to
thank Dawie for his many years of dedication to the programme and look
forward to working with Dawie in future on Amateur Radio Today and
Amateurradio-in-Aksie," Nico said.

It was envisaged that the Afrikaans magazine programme
"Amateurradio-in-Aksie" would shift to an earlier slot between 09.30 -
10:00 local time and still be available for down load on the SARL Web.
However, Dawie and his colleagues have decided to take a short break to
refocus on the programme. Dawie told SARL news that they will be back
with Amateurradio-in-Aksie soon. Details will be announced in SARL
News.

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

MAY RADIO AMATEUR EXAMINATION

The registration for the May RAE will open on Monday 22 January and
will close on Sunday 22 April. The exam will be written on Saturday 19
May.

THE SUMMER QRP CONTEST

The QRP contest is intended to be a fun activity to promote QRP
operation between radio amateurs using homebuilt equipment or operating
as a portable/field station and using temporary antennas. This is
encouraged, but is not a requirement.

The Summer QRP Contest takes place from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC on Saturday
27th January 2018 using Phone and CW with 5 watts (PEP) output or less
and there are no antenna restrictions. The first hour is limited to the
40-metre band only, the remaining two hours the contesters are free to
use any HF (non-WARC) band as they see fit.

The exchange is a RS or RST report and your 6 figure Grid locator, you
can also include your SOTA or Fauna and Flora reference number. Each
QSO counts 1 point and there are Prefix or Country multipliers as well
as station type multipliers. You log in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel
format with a summary sheet and labelled "my call sign QRP Contest,"
must be submitted by 3 February 2018 by email to .
And do not forget the photos of your station in action that must
accompany the log entry. Consult the 2018 SARL Blue Book for the
complete set of rules.

THE DUBUS MAGAZINE

This magazine is for the serious VHF'er and up. The subscription for
DUBUS is due again. The cost for 4 copies will be R 365.00 - the
distributors have decided again to give DUBUS to us at a very low
price. If you are interested in receiving the magazine, contact Pine,
ZS6OB, at as soon as possible, he needs to notify
the distributors of expected numbers from ZS by the end of January
2018.

REGION 1 VHF/UHF NEWSLETTER

The IARU Region 1 VHF/UHF Newsletter no 76 is available for download
from the front page of the SARL web site. The newsletter contains a
report of the activities of the Permanent VHF Committee since the 2017
General Conference in Landshut.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to
be at low levels. There is no threat of solar flares. In 2017 there
were a total of 104 days without sunspots. 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 metre bands will provide lots of
DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further
information.

Finally, the diary of upcoming events:

17 January - the provincial schools open (and mother's all over South
Africa heave a sigh of relief!) 19 to 21 January - the PEARS VHF/UHF
Contest 20 January - the SDR Workshop at the NARC 22 January -
registration for the May RAE opens 20 to 28 January - Secunda ARC
birthday celebrations 26 January - closing date for articles for the
February Radio ZS 27 January - the Summer QRP Contest 30 January -
closing date for proposals and synopses for AMSAT SA Symposium papers
31 January - closing date for nominations for Council and SARL Awards
and for AGM motions 28 February - closing date for 2018 SARL Hall of
Fame nominations

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

The SARL and AMSAT SA will be holding another SDR workshop at the
National Amateur Radio Centre from 09:00 - 13:00 CAT on Saturday 20
January 2018. The objective of the workshop is to review the
application of SDR dongles and the various software packages made
available at previous workshops. Anton Janovsky, ZR6AIC, will be on
hand to assist with any technical difficulties. There will be a
discussion of the HF Noise monitoring system and the setting up of a
server to store the data and AMSAT SA will present a brief update on
Kletskous. The cost of the workshop is R50 for SARL and AMSAT SA
members and R100 for non-members. Light refreshments will be served.
For details and registration visit www.amsatsa.org.za

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 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 4 895 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 Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY,
edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by ..............

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

/EX

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