1. First ever Moon-Bounce QSO between Netherlands and South Africa on the 24 Ghz Band
"On Sunday 14-06-2026 the first ever 24 GHz EME contact was made with the African continent. John ZS6JON and Hans PE1CKK made a two way contact via the moon. This QSO had a long preparation, John contacted Hans a year ago to find out if Hans had some parts to build a 24GHz setup. Parts are very hard to find in South Africa. Hans had a better solution and shipped his second station to SA together with a small beacon to check the installed setup. After a lot of mail and chatting between the two radio amateurs, John had the system up and running last Sunday. Right at the first TX cycle he had a decode and they achieved the contact (QSO). The setup will stay for some time in SA to allow John to make more contacts via skeds. Working equipment: 1.8m offset dish, wavelab transverter, RW1127 twt 25W and DU3T lna. "
Congratulations to John and Hans on the first ever QSO between South Africa and the Netherlands on 24 Ghz band.
2. Earthquakes in Venezuela prompt request for clear emergency frequency
All radio amateurs are being asked to keep 7.135 MHz in the 40-metre band clear for emergency communications in the wake of back-to-back earthquakes that struck Venezuela on Wednesday 24 June. The two quakes, measured by the US Geological Survey at magnitude 7,2 and 7,5 respectively, occurred just one minute apart and caused extensive damage across the South American country, including the capital city of Caracas. As of Thursday morning, government officials were reporting at least 164 deaths, nearly 1 000 injuries and hundreds of people missing. These tolls are expected to rise as rescue/recovery operations continue. More information in the SARL Hamnet report during Amateur Radio Today at 10:00 CAT.
3. SARL Newbie QSO Party Saturday, July 4⋅11:00am – 4:00pm
All the new radio amateurs from the May RAE are invited to participate in the first leg of the SARL Newbie QSO Party from 11:00 to 16:00 UTC on Saturday 4 July. It is a phone only contest on 40 and 20 metres. The exchange is a RS report, your four-character grid square e.g. JF95 and a phonetic letter indicating how long you have been licenced. The QSO scoring also depends on how long you have been licenced. Submit your log sheet by 21:59 UTC on Saturday 18 July to zr3vdk@outlook.com and zr3pa@outlook.com.
More information: 2026 SARL Contest Manual (Pages 60 - 61 PDF)
4. 40m ZS1I WSPR Beacon show an increase in activity in and around South Africa
Great to see so much activity on the 40m WSPR Beacon section of the band. Quite a few new stations were observed this past week.
5. Solar Cycle 25 Expectations in 2026 and beyond - by Carl K9LA
Carl K9LA recently gave a presentation to the Madison DX club about what propagation conditions would be like in 2026. We are on the way down the peak of the sunspot cycle but there will still be plenty of openings for a while yet. See video for more information.
