SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 18 FEBRUARY 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
around the country. The bulletin is 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 two silent keys.

The Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Club (PEARS) regrets to announce the
passing of Trevor Scarr ZS2AE, at the age of 85 after a brief struggle
with lung cancer. Trevor was a radio ham for many decades, and he was
instrumental in establishing the earlier club repeaters, which
subsequently morphed into the Eastern Cape Repeater Network. In
recognition of this and his other contributions to the hobby, he was a
recipient of the prestigious Jack Twine Award. Trevor was a man of many
talents. Upon his retirement he relocated to a retirement complex,
where he became the full-time organist at the weekly church services.
His passing has left a hole in many places and lives. Our condolences
to his family.

We extend our sincere condolences to Chris, ZS2AAW, Vanessa, ZS2VS,
family and friends.

It is with great sadness that we report that Scamp Porter ex-ZS6SMP
passed away suddenly on 19 January in Cape Town. Scamp was a member of
the Sandton ARC for many years. Under his previous call sign ZR6SR he
was active on VHF and was a keen and important member of the Sandton
Club's team which mounted a field station at Breedt's Neck in the
Magaliesberg to participate twice-annually in the VHF/UHF contest.

Few people in amateur radio were aware that Scamp had a very successful
previous life in motor racing, coming 1st together with John Conchie in
the Saloon car category in the first 9-hour endurance race at Kyalami
in 1961. He went on to develop saloon car racing and rally driving for
Renault and driving in the Total Economy Run. He later moved to Toyota,
and finally hung up his racing helmet in 1972. Scamp retired from
running his own workshop a few years ago and moved to Cape Town where
he worked with his son Colin, now ZS1RS. He was always an absolute
gentleman with a great sense of humour matched to an all-encompassing
smile.

We extend our sincere condolences to Colin and Elmien.

PAUSE

In the news, today:

A NEW HAMMIES CLUB FORMED

SARL DIGITAL CONTEST NEXT SUNDAY

and

MICROWAVE UPDATE 2018

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

A NEW HAMMIES CLUB FORMED

There is a new Hammies Club in central South Africa. Congratulations to
the ZS4ZU Hammies Club which has been formed by the Welkom Radio Club,
ZS4WRC. Jacques Louw, ZS4WW, is the convenor of ZS4ZU. SARL News wishes
Jacques and the Welkom team all the best.

SARL DIGITAL CONTEST NEXT SUNDAY

The aim of the SARL Digital contest on Sunday 25 February is to
establish as many contacts as possible between radio amateurs in
Southern Africa using the FT8 / RTTY modes. The contest is open to all
radio amateurs in Southern Africa and runs from 14:00 UTC to 17:00 UTC
with activity between 3 580 to 3 600 kHz, 7 040 to 7 060 kHz and 14 070
to 14 099 kHz.

A station may be contacted twice on each band once on RTTY, once on
FT8. The exchange is a RSQ report and the first 4 digits of your grid
square e.g. KG30. Contacts with stations in Areas 1 to 7 are worth 3
points. Contacts with stations in the rest of the world are worth 1
point. Area 1 to 6 equals ZS1 to ZS6, Area 7 is Swaziland, Lesotho,
Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola, St Helena Island, Tristan da Cunha
Island, SANAE base, Reunion Island, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mayotte and
the Comoros.

Logs in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format with a summary sheet and
labelled "my call sign Digital Contest," must be sent by e-mail to
by Monday 5 March 2018.

THE ARRL ANNOUNCES A MOBILE DXCC OPERATING AWARD

This week, ARRL announced a Mobile DXCC Operating Award
www.arrl.org/mobile-DXCC, available to radio amateurs who have
contacted at least 100 DXCC entities from a working vehicle, with
antennas and power source capable of operating while in motion. The
ARRL Radiosport Manager Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, advised those pursuing the
award to put safety first. "Distracted driving is a serious concern, so
we hope all mobile operators exercise care when operating from a moving
vehicle," he said.

The full, official details are on the Mobile DXCC Operating Award page.
The Mobile DXCC is a one-time award and is non-endorsable. Contacts
made any time in the past do count toward the award. QSLs are required,
but you do not need to submit them. Mobile stations may use any power
that is legal in the entity from which they are operating. This award
specifically excludes contacts made by aeronautical or maritime mobile
stations. You do not have to be an ARRL member to qualify for this
award.

Because this award is like the QRP DXCC Operating Award
www.arrl.org/QRP-DXCC, the ARRL has redesigned the QRP DXCC Certificate
so that the two awards complement one another. Operators who hold the
QRP DXCC award may apply for the new-style certificate with the
original date of issue printed on the certificate, but you do not have
to re-submit QSL cards or a log. All certificates are $16 (about R186).

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

MICROWAVE UPDATE 2018

An e-mail arrived from Joe Burke, WA8OGS, asking us to help promote the
above event. It will be hosted by the Midwest VHF/UHF Society and
scheduled for 11 - 14 October 2018 at the Holiday Inn Dayton/Fairborn
I-675. This is an international conference dedicated to microwave
equipment design, construction and operation. Microwave Update is an
ARRL technical conference, and ARRL publishes the conference
proceedings. Some of the activities include Seminar Presentations,
Antenna Gain Measurements, Door Prizes, Test and Measurement Lab, Flea
Market, Banquet, Vendor Demo/Sales Area, Tour: Carillon Historical
Park, Tour: Voice of America Museum, Tour: US Airforce Museum. Save the
date, and make plans to attend, and help spread the word to others who
might be interested.

IN THE 1920S AMATEURS WERE LICENCED ONLY AS RADIO EXPERIMENTERS

In the 1920s amateurs were licensed only as radio experimenters, even
in South Africa by the PMG. This was the time that amateur radio made
its greatest contribution to radio science with the discovery of DX
operation on shortwaves. In 1927 the ITU (then known as the
International Radiotelegraph Union) at its Conference in Washington,
allocated special bands to the five recognized services; Broadcasting,
Maritime Mobile, Fixed, Mobile and Amateur. The radio amateurs were
rewarded with six bands for their pioneering work on shortwaves.

As time passed, so a new breed of radio amateur started to change the
face of amateur radio to that of a hobby where innovation and
experimentation was no longer that important. In modern times,
shortwave broadcasting and other commercial services started to desert
the shortwave bands for greener pastures on satellites in the microwave
spectrum where signals were more reliable and constant. Amateur Radio
now has to play a catch-up game if they wish to survive the 21st
Century, bearing in mind that the modern generation is very computer
literate and SDR would appeal to them, and they only need a type of
amateur radio that is more attractive to them. Amateur Radio must make
the necessary changes to meet future demands and become part of the new
radio world again. Fortunately, there are many dedicated amateurs in
the USA and Germany who are doing some brilliant work on the amateur
Microwave bands.

"ON MY WAVELENGTH"

Listen to "Op my golflengte" every Wednesday evening broadcast on
Pretoria FM between 22:30 and 23:00 CAT during Martin Jansen's
late-night program. The first programme in the series will already be
broadcast on 7 March 2018. The aim of the programme is to introduce the
world of the Radio Amateur and the amateur radio service to the
listeners. The programme content will consist of news, views, reviews
and interviews of everything pertaining to amateur radio. Tune in on
104.2 FM, DSTV channel 887 or listen on the internet at
www.pretoriafm.co.za to "Op my golflengte" every Wednesday evening.

WEST RAND AMATEUR RADIO CLUB FLEA MARKET

The West Rand Amateur Radio Club is hosting its next flea market at
12:00 CAT on Saturday 24 February 2018 at their clubhouse in Kroton
street, Weltevreden Park, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. Bring your
surplus and support the vendors on the day. For more information,
contact Phillip, ZS6PVT, on 083 267 3835.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to
remain at low levels. Sunspot AR2699 is in a state of decay with no
threat of major flaring. 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 m bands will provide lots of DX fun. Please
visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:

18 February - the ARRL DX CW Competition 22 February - closing date for
the March Radio ZS 24 February - the West Rand ARC Flea Market 25
February - the SARL Digital Competition 3 March - the SDR Workshop in
Durban and the Cape Town ARC Bumper Flea Market 3 and 4 March - the
ARRL DX SSB Contest 4 March - the SARL Hamnet 40 m Contest 10 - 11
March - the SARL VHF/UHF Analogue Contest and the 82nd RSGB
Commonwealth Contest

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

There is a new Hammies Club in central South Africa. Congratulations to
the ZS4ZU Hammies Club which has been formed by the Welkom Radio Club,
ZS4WRC. Jacques Louw, ZS4WW, is the convenor of ZS4ZU. SARL News wishes
Jacques and the Welkom team all the best.

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 Emile Venter, ZS6V,
edited by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, and read by ........................

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

/EX

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