SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY 02 SEPTEMBER 2007
You are listening to ZS6SRL the official Radio Station of the South African Radio League, the National Body for Amateur Radio in South Africa, with a news bulletin that is transmitted every Sunday at 08:15 CAT in Afrikaans and at 08:30 CAT in English. To listen to a web stream or Echolink by ZS6FCS visit www.sarl.org.za, click on ARMI and follow the links for details.
This, and previous bulletins, can be downloaded from the www.sarl.org.za. You can also read or download previous bulletins from there and subscribe to receive future bulletins by email.
Your news reader this morning is Hans, ZS6KR, on 145,725 and 7,066 MHz from Pretoria with relays on 3,695, 10,135, and 51,400 MHz as well as 438,825 and 1 297 MHz in the Pretoria area. (Other newsreaders please change to suit).
SILENT KEY
It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of ZS1HM, Mark Hammond, on 18th September 2007 at the age of 85 years after a heart attack.. Mark has been very generous to the CTARC and bequeathed much of his shack equipment to the club. Our condolences go to his partner of many years, Dorothy, and his son, Brandon, who lives in Australia.
(PAUSE)
In the news today:
PROPAGATION RESEARCH AND AWARD HUNTING, TWO SUBJECTS FOR AN ENJOYABLE SUNDAY EVENING
22 NEW RADIO AMATEURS JOIN THE RANKS
DRAFT PLT REGULATIONS UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
ICASA APPOINTS A NEW CEO
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more detail on these and other important and interesting news items.
PROPAGATION RESEARCH AND AWARD HUNTING, TWO SUBJECTS FOR AN ENJOYABLE SUNDAY EVENING
Join Graham Hartlett this evening at 19:00 on the SARL President’s net. Graham will discuss a major SARL propagation research project in which SARL members, with access to a receiver capable of receiving the 7 MHz amateur band, can participate.
Intecnet follows at 20:00 with Tjerk Lammers, ZS6P, as the guest speaker. Tjerk will discuss SARL awards and QSL-ing. He will be joined by award hunter Jan Botha, ZS4JAN, from Bloemfontein and DX-er Hans Kappetijn, ZS6KR, from Pretoria. Both are also keen contesters.
Clubs wishing to link their repeaters to the conference bridge should send an e-mail to armi@sarl.org.za before noon today giving details of repeater coverage and frequency and landline telephone number to be connected.
22 NEW RADIO AMATEURS JOIN THE RANKS
22 New Radio Amateurs joined the ranks this week after successfully passing the class B examination held 23 August at examination centres around the country. Unfortunately 2 of the 24 candidates did not make it this time. The highest marks were obtained by H J Coetzee who now holds the call sign ZU6H and H F Rolandi ZU5HR. Both achieved 97%.
The youngest candidate was J Ware, 13 years old, now holding the call sign ZU6SP. Congratulations and welcome to all the successful candidates. You are fortunate to have many years ahead of you in which to enjoy amateur radio.
The next ZU examination will be held at the same time on 18 October 2007. The closing date for registration is 20 September 2007.
The examiner, Graham Butler, thanks all who were involved in making the exams possible.
DRAFT PLT REGULATIONS UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
ICASA has asked the EMC workgroup of the STANSA TC73 and TC80 committees to come up with draft regulations for type approval of PLT equipment as an interim measure. These interim standards will eventually be replaced by internationally accepted standards. There is however much debate amongst members of the International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) about international standards with an agreement seemingly some time off. CISPR meets in Australia later this month.
The Work group has held meetings over the past two weeks and hopes to complete a draft to be tabled at the TC80 meeting later this month. Once agreed at TC80, the draft will be forwarded to ICASA for further consideration and once agreed by the ICASA Council, the draft regulations will be published in the government gazette for comment.
The SARL is represented at the Workgroup and has made its input. There is much ongoing debate and unhappiness about the SARL’s demands that all Amateur Radio HF frequencies be notched at the time of installation. In particular the vendors of PLT equipment would only like to notch when an interference complaint is received. The SARL's view is that Radio Amateurs are licensed to operate on HF and that their rights should be protected.
There are many other issues on the table that still need resolving. There is a further meeting next week. Read more about PLT on the member's section of the SARL web.
ICASA APPOINTS A NEW CEO
ICASA has appointed Karabo Motlana as its new Chief Executive Officer. “Karabo Motlana has the experience, knowledge and respect of the industry necessary to lead ICASA in the right direction”, ICASA Chairman Paris Mashile said.
Several other managerial posts had also been filled in the past few weeks and ICASA now has the right blend of engineers, lawyers, economists and public policy experts to get the job done. "We are now a team and a lot will be heard about the quantum difference we are going to make compared with the past. We are looking forward to a fruitful working relationship where we will be able to tackle some of the challenges facing us", Mashile said.
Motlana comes from Cell C where he was head of regulatory affairs and previously worked in Telkom's regulatory and government affairs department. He is joining ICASA as it tackles a massive workload, with a completely new licensing regime imposed on the telecoms sector, and a broadcasting sector undergoing a switch from analogue to digital technologies and new pay television players being licensed.
Motlana said he took the job because after 12 years of wrangling with ICASA from the other side, it was time to join up and see what he could do to help. "It's an ambitious agenda but one wants to find out what the issues are and whether they can be addressed through a rational process. We have a new legal framework and we are not operating in accordance with it. There is a whole raft of guidelines, directives and draft regulations and we need to take them seriously and apply them". He takes over from former CEO Jackie Manche, who resigned in December.
CONTEST NEWS
Results of previous competitions.
The Boland 40 metre competition.
21 logs were received. The final results are that Theunis, ZS2EC, came first with 97 points, Raoul, ZS1REC, occupies second position with 85 points and Jan, ZS4JAN, came third with 74 points.
Brad, ZS5BG, attained the highest score in Division 5 and Ruaan, ZS6RMS, attained the highest score in Division 6. No logs were received from Division 3. Die highest score from a neighbouring country is by Jack, V51KC, who is also in the overall fourth place. 21 logs were received.
The overall winner receives a 2007 ARRL Antenna Manual (21st edition) which was donated by Kobus, ZS1DC, a member of the Boland ARC. Certificates will soon be mailed.
SARL HF Phone contest.
24 log submissions were received for this contest, made up of 21 contest logs and 3 check logs and here are the provisional results:
Jan, ZS4JAN, takes first place with 201 points, closely followed by Andre, ZS2ACP, with 199 points and Gary, ZS5NK, in third place with 168 points. The best score on a single band was influenced by salt water. The 40 metre band provided the high scores with Andre, ZS2ACP, making 140 points, Theunis, ZS2EC, made 114 points, Barry, ZS2EZ, made 95 points and Allan, ZR1AAH, made 92 points. In the club competition, the Bloemfontein RAC takes first place with 428 points, followed by the Port Elizabeth ARS with 321 points and Pretoria ARC with 302 points. The complete results are available in HF Happenings 265.
Upcoming contests.
The Spring QRP Sprint will be run on Sunday 9 September from 14:00 to 16:00 CAT with phone, and CW activity on 40 metres.
The second leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Contest will be run in two sessions, the first from 18:00 CAT on Friday 21 September to 18:00 CAT on Saturday 22 September and from 18:01 CAT on Saturday to 12:00 CAT on Sunday 23 September. CW, FM, SSB and digital modes may be used on 6, 4 and 2 metres, 70 and 23 cm and higher allocations. Come and improve on your performance during the first leg.
The rules for both contests can be found in the 2007 SARL Contest Manual.
RAE COURSE
The Kempton Park Amateur Technical Society will be presenting a LADIES ONLY CLASS B (ZU) course on the 29th of September 2007. This class will be for one full day only.
Place: Kempton Park Amateur Radio Technical Society Club house at 58 Ysterhout Ave, Brichleigh, Kempton Park, Johannesburg.
Date: Saturday, 29 September 2007.
Time: 09:00 - 17:00.
SARL Exam fee: R300 Adults & R200 under 25's.
Course Fee: Free, if you bring your own manual.
Contact: Hannes, ZS6LW, to enroll for this course on 073 180 3506 or via email.
CLUB NEWS
Joint meeting by South Cape Radio Club and Garden Route Radio Club.
The South Cape Radio Club and Garden Route Radio Club invite their members and all other interested radio amateurs in their areas to a get together at Klein Brakrivier on Saturday 8 September. The purpose of the meeting is to strengthen the relationship between the two clubs with the possibility of merging into one club in order to better represent the amateurs in the area concerned. The proceedings start at 12:00 at the Riverside Caravan Resort in Klein Brakrivier..
The meeting wil be in the form of a “bring-en-braai”. For more information contact Chris, ZS1M, at 044 698 1154.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at very low levels. The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet in general while reaching minor storm levels on 2 and 3 September. The expected Effective Sun Spot number for the coming week will be less than 5.
20 m and 40 m will provide best opportunities for DX. There is a possibility of 20 m openings towards India from about 15:00 CAT. There may be weak 20 m openings towards Australia from about 08:00. From 16:00 there may be 20 m openings towards Europe and 40 m openings from 20:00. Contacts to the USA are going to be very challenging.
For the CW and digital enthusiasts it will also be worth monitoring 10 MHz.
Locally conditions on 40 m is going to be good during the day.
It is once again time to work towards your 80 m WAZS award in the evenings. Remember that this is only a prediction and that HF always has the capability to surprise you. You will never know what you are missing unless you switch your rig on, listen and also call CQ.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
2 September, still today – Midlands Amateur Radio Club operational at Underberg Farmers Association Annual Show;
2 September, this evening - President’s Net and Intecnet (postponed from 26 August);
3 September – Cut off date for submissions of logs for BARK Mobile Sprint;
8 September – Joint meeting of South Cape and Garden Route Radio Clubs at Klein Brakrivier;
9 September - The Spring QRP Sprint;
20 September – Closing date for registering for October RAE;
21 to 22 September - The second leg of the SARL VHF/UHF Contest;
29 September – Ladies Only ZU RAE course by Kempton Park RATS;
4 - 10 October - Special space programme;
5 October – Take your handheld to work day;
6 October - SA AMSAT Space Conference;
6 October East Rand Flea market and AGM;
18 October - Class A RAE.
SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news stories of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners. Submit news stories if possible in both English and Afrikaans to www.sarl.org.za/newsinbox.asp not later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.
The SARL also invites you to listen to the programme Amateur Radio Mirror International, on the air every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria area with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 590 kHz. For the web stream and echolink by ZS6FCS visit www.sarl.org.za, click on ARMI and follow the links. A repeat transmission can be heard Mondays at 21:00 CAT on 3 215 kHz. Sentech sponsors the ARMI transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.
Today's South African Radio League news bulletin was compiled by George, ZS6NE, and transmitted by (your name and call sign).
Thank you for listening. 73.
/EX
