SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 31 JANUARY 2021 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 and in English at 08:15 and 08:30 Central African Time respectively on HF and various VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. The bulletin is relayed on Echolink by Johan, ZS6JPL. The audio and text bulletins can be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za. To join the bulletin mailing list, send an email to the SARL Secretary. We begin the bulletin this morning with the news of a silent key: It is with regret that we announce the passing of Chris Schoeman, formerly ZU6CS, on Thursday 27th January 2021. Chris forfeited his license with the changeover from ZU but kept close contact with East Rand Branch members. We extend our sincere condolences to his wife Joey, family and friends. Pause In the news today: SARL AWARDS AND TROPHIES DEADLINE TONIGHT AMATEUR RADIO LICENSE FEE INCREASE and VHF/UHF ONLINE WORKSHOP ON 20 FEBRUARY Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items. SARL AWARDS AND TROPHIES DEADLINE TONIGHT You have until midnight tonight, Sunday 31 January 2021 to submit your nom- ination for a SARL Award, your motion for the AGM and your nomination for individuals to serve on Council to [email protected]. No late entries will be accepted. On pages 17 to 19 of the January 2021 issue of Radio ZS, you will find infor- mation about the SARL Awards and Trophies to be handed over at the 2021 SARL Awards Dinner, as well as information about the nomination to serve on Council and how to submit a motion to the AGM. 1 AMATEUR RADIO LICENSE FEE INCREASE ICASA has informed the SARL that amateur radio Licenses will increase by 3.3%. The new fees are published on the SARL website. Please listen carefully to the following important information about amateur radio license renewal. ICASA has implemented a new system which requires all licensees to register on the new system as a user. Thereafter they should create their legal entity which will be approved by the Authority. To create a legal entity the user will require a copy of the ID document. If you have the new ID card both sides are required. A valid email address and personal details must be captured. Every licensee, who is not yet licensed on the new system, will have to submit a legacy license amendment application to transfer the license to the new sys- tem. The Authority will soon send out notices to licensees about the process andguidelineshowtoregisteronthesystemandhowtosubmitalegacylicense amendment. Licensees can also already pay the license fee via EFT and attach the proof of payment to the application when renewal is done on the system. Payment alone will not renew the license. A new license is only issued once the registration on the new system is com- pleted and the legacy license amendment has been submitted. The SARL will publish, on the SARL website, the detailed step by step instructions once they have been received from ICASA. Renewals for licences that were applied for and issued on the new online system will be done on the same system. The Authority will issue notices via email soon, where after the user must click on the renewal button in the Manage page to renew. The ICASA bank details are as follows: NEDBANKAccountnumber: 1462002927,BranchCode: 146245-Corporate Client Services - Pretoria and in the reference field type in your licence number and call sign. DO NOT pay the ICASA licence fee into the SARL bank account, all monies wrongfully paid into the SARL account will be refunded less the bank charges associated with these transactions. Visit www.sarl.org.za regularly for updates. VHF ONLINE WORKSHOP ON 20 FEBRUARY SARL and AMSATSAwill join forces on 20 February 2021 to presentan online VHF/UHFworkshopontheBlueJeansplatform. AttendanceattheVHFwork- shopwillbefreeforSARLandAMSATSAmembersandR50fornon-members. Formal registration is required. More details and the programme will be made available on the SARL and AMSATSA websites. The programme includes: Next Generation 2 Metre Beacons, Complexity of 2 Repeater Systems from a technical perspective, the design of the AMSAT SA dualbandYagianditsperformance,andVHF/UHFdonglesforSDRoperation. The workshop will run from 10:00 - 13:00 CAT followed by an open discussion on how amateur radio contributes to technology. CROWD FUNDING FOR SARL NEXT GENERATION BEACONS InadditiontoAMSATSA’sfinancialcontributiontotheSARLNextGeneration beaconfund,thegrouphasstartedacrowdfundingcampaignonitsPayfastplat- form. Contributionstothebeaconfundcanbemadefrom www.amsatsa.org.za by clicking one of the payment buttons to contribute R50, R250 or R1000 us- ing your credit card. Donors will be recognised on the SARL and AMSATSA websites as well as receiving a confirmation email. The first next generation beacon will be installed at Bethlehem replacing the analogue beacon and was fully funded by the SARL. The next two beacons for which funding is required will be installed in Cape Town and the northern Karoo. Your contribution will make it happen sooner. You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League. THE FEBRUARY 2021 RADIO ZS TheFebruaryRadioZSisavailablefordownloadfromtheLeaguewebsite,click on Publications and then Radio ZS Downloads. In this issue we look at the 60 metre or 5 MHz Band in South Africa and the Work All ZS 60 metre Award. There is also information about 60 metres world-wide and Andre, ZS2ACP has built a 60 m transverter for the FT-101. Emil, ZS1XB tells about the Loop on the Ground receiving antenna and also about vertical antenna coils. There are plans to build your own satellite antenna and in Focus on VHF and above, find out about the 2 metre beacon on St Helena Island. We look at East London’s two Lighthouses and in the Museum Piece we look at the TR9D ”Battle of Britain fighter” Radio. And more in this 72 page issue. CONTEST NEWS The following contests will take place during February. Saturday 6 February is the SARL VHF/UHF FM Activity Day and Sunday 7 February, is the AWA CW Activity Day. The weekend of 13 and 14 February is the CQ WPX RTTY and the PACC contests. The SARL National Field Day has been moved to March. 20 and 21 February is the ARRL DX CW contest and on 27 February, youcanparticipateinthefirstSARL9540mGridSquareSprint. Gettherules for local contests in the 2021 SARL Diary of Events and Contest Manual. Sixtyonelogs,reflecting821QSOs,werereceivedforthefirstSARLWednesday 80 m Club Sprint. Unfortunately, some contesters lost points for not following 3 theQSYruleforsprintsandsomedidnotevenreadtherules! Theresultshave been published in HF Happenings 934 Club results 1st the West Rand ARC (WRARC) - 1 069 points (24 logs) 2nd the Boland ARC (BARK) - 390 points (11 logs) 3rd the Bo-Karoo ARC (BKARK) - 324 points (5 logs) Individual results 1st Woody, ZS3WL - 100 points 2nd Hans, ZS6KR - 87 points 3rd Sybrand, ZS1SJ and Romeo, ZS6ARQ - 84 points PLEASE CONFIRM SARL ELECTRONIC QSL REQUESTS Membersandnon-membersarerequestedtoconfirmoutstandingelectronicQSL requests on the SARL web page. Many radio amateurs are working towards their Worked all ZS awards and need these confirmations. Non-members can also make use of this system, there is a PDF document explaining the process on http://www.sarl.org.za/SAQSL/Default.asp CLUB NEWS – CALLING ALL CLUBS Here is a challenge for you and your club. Phillip ZS6PVT and Danie plan to run a WRARC (ZS6WR) club station in the SARL FM VHF UHF contest on 6 February. This is the ideal opportunity to introduce new club members to contesting,promoteVHFUHFactivityandgettheyoungstersinvolved. Phillip would also like to challenge another club to rally members to partake and have an inter-club contest on the side-line. Your station could be run from home or a parked vehicle on a hill and vertical polarization is perfect as long as the contacts are made and logged. Please read page 50 and 51 of the 2021 SARL DiaryofEventsandContestManualforallthedetailandrules. Goodluckand see you in the log sheet. PROPAGATION REPORT Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. There are currently no sunspot regions visible and no solar flaring is expected. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effectivesunspotnumberfortheweekwillbearoundone. The15to30mbands will provide some DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information. Finally, a diary of some upcoming events: 31 Jan – Closing date for SARL AGM motions and Award Nominations 4 01 Feb – Registration for May RAE opens 06 Feb – SARL VHF/UHF Activity Day 07 Feb – AWA CW Activity Day 13 Feb – World Radio Day 13 to 14 Feb – CQ WPX RTTY and PACC contest 20 to 21 Feb – ARRL DX CW contest 20 Feb – VHF/UHF online Workshop To conclude our bulletin, a recap of our main news story: You have until midnight tonight, Sunday 31 January 2021 to submit your nom- ination for a SARL Award, your motion for the AGM and your nomination for individuals to serve on Council to [email protected]. No late entries will be accepted. This concludes our bulletin for this morning. We invite clubs and individuals to submit news items of interest to radio am- ateurs and shortwave listeners, in both English and Afrikaans, if possible, by following the News Inbox link on the South African Radio League web page. News items to include in the bulletin should reach the news team no later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date. YouarewelcometojoinuseverySundaymorningfortheweeklyradioprogram, Amateur Radio Today at 10:00 CAT. The program can be heard on VHF and UHF repeaters countrywide and on 7 082 kHz lower side-band. A rebroadcast by Andy, ZS6ADY, can be heard on Monday evenings at 19:30 CAT on 3 620 kHz. We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; please send these by email to [email protected]. You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Andy Cairns ZS6ADY, edited by Paul Johnson ZS1S and read by .............. From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead. 5