SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2014
Good morning and welcome! You are tuned to a news broadcast of the South African Radio League read by ……………………………………………………………. (Name, call sign and QTH).
You can tune to the South African Radio League news broadcast on Sunday mornings at 08:15 central African time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 central African time in English on HF and on many VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the South African Radio League web site.
This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the South African Radio League website at www.sarl.org.za. You can find this bulletin and previous bulletins in text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the webpage. While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
In the news today
DECEMBER IS YOUTH ON THE AIR MONTH
ANTENNA DEFENCE PROJECT PROGRESS MADE BUT SLOW
and
SELECT THE ARTICLES YOU WANT TO READ IN RADIO ZS
Our leading story this morning
** During the entire month of December, stations in several countries will be on the air seeking contacts using "YOTA" as their call sign suffix. Youth on the Air (YOTA) is growing fast and every week more youngsters are asking to participate. By making YOTA popular, we can all help to get youngsters active in amateur radio. YOTA stations will be trying to make many contacts, so take this opportunity to connect young amateurs in their teens and 20s with their peers on the air
The South African Radio League has been granted a special call sign, ZS9YOTA, to be used by young amateurs during YOTA month from 1 to 31 December 2014. It will be the first worldwide YOTA event.
If you are 25 years old or younger, you are invited to apply to use the special call sign either as an individual or as a club station operated by young people. Send your request to Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, at zs6ql@mweb.co.za.
Slots will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Allocated slots will be shown on www.hamradio.org.za where you will find lot of other interesting information about YOTA 2014. When returning your ZS9YOTA log, include a photograph of yourself operating your station, it may be used on the special QSL card.
** Antenna Defence Project Progress Made But Slow. When the South African Radio League launched the initiative to have antenna regulations changed to facilitate the erection of antenna and antenna support structures, the South African Radio League Council indicated that it would be a long drawn out process requiring consultation with various experts on the building and other regulations that make it difficult to put up an antenna structure. The national elections and the subsequent changes to cabinet appointments has not made the process any easier and introduced more delays as new ministers are setting up their departmental structures.
The South African Radio League is now at the point where enough information is available to start making approaches to various cabinet members for support and create with them an understanding of the value of amateur radio on both a technical and a community support level. This will culminate with an approach to the Minister of Cooperative Development and Traditional Affairs who has the responsibility for the implementation of the Disaster Management Act and could address the special planning issues that are currently making it difficult for antenna and antenna structures to be erected in residential areas.
The South African Radio League Council is appreciative of the huge support it received from radio amateurs making it possible to finance the consultation with law and regulation experts.
** Select the articles you want to read in Radio ZS. South African Radio League members can now select the articles in the September/October edition of Radio ZS online without having to download the complete edition. Read what interests you most. Download the file if you like to store the article on your computer for future reference. The articles are in PDF format. Visit www.sarl.org.za and click on the "members only" button on the top right hand of the home page. You will have to put in your pin number to open the page. Comments about this new service is welcome. Send your comments to artoday@sarl.org.za
You are listening to a bulletin of the South African Radio League
** The 5 MHz Newsletter Autumn 2014 issue. The latest edition of The 5 MHz Newsletter is now available for free download from http://tinyurl.com/jvjrtn6. The Autumn 2014 edition (No 12), features a number of stories, including Dominica on 5 MHz, several items on WRC15, South African beacon changes and NVIS observations, Ofcom's UK Amateur Licence Consultation, is it getting noisier on 5 MHz?, new webSDRs covering the band and GB2RS on 5 MHz.
** My DX Summit launched yesterday. The new-fangled My DX Summit (MDXS) was opened to the public yesterday at 10:00 UTC. MDXS introduces a fresh line-up of features with a handy propagation tool as a real revelation. Predicted propagation is based on your personal location and by clicking a DX spot, you will see the current conditions and a 24-hour window covering all bands from your station, short and long path, to a distant DX location.
This recent face-lift makes several new functions readily available, assuring a pleasant user experience. Mobile users are also extensively supported which makes MDXS the first-ever mobile-ready DX Cluster. MY DX SUMMIT will automatically replace the current DX Summit at http://www.dxsummit.fi/
** Deep Space probes on 70 cm. Two Japanese amateur radio satellites, will be heading into deep space this month. The satellites will hitch a ride with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency asteroid mission, which is scheduled to launch on 29 November. One satellite will have an F1D digital store-and-forward transponder, a
CW beacon on 437,505 MHz and WSJT telemetry on 437,385 MHz. The second
satellite will have a CW beacon at 437,325 MHz.
** The West Rand Amateur Radio Club is hosting its next flea market at 12:00 on Saturday 29 November 2014 at their clubhouse in Kroton Street, Weltevreden Park, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome to attend. For more information, contact Noel, ZR6DX, at 082 490 9934.
** Log sheets for the SARL National field Day and the SARL VHF/UHF Contest are due by Monday 24 November. For the Field Day, send your logs to zs4bfn@gmail.com and for the VHF/UHF Contest send your logs to contest@sarl.org.za
** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity will at low to moderate levels. Sunspot 2209 harbours enough energy for M- or X-class solar flares. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 120.
The 20 to 10 m bands will provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
** And now the diary of events
24 November – closing date for Field Day and VHF/UHF logs
29 and 30 November – the CQ WW DX CW Contest
1 to 31 December – Youth on the Air with ZS9YOTA
1 December – closing date for updating the South African Radio League unmanned devices database
6 December – the South African Radio League digital contest
13 and 14 December - ARRL 10 meter contest
15 December – input to the South African Radio League on the national integrated ICT policy discussion document
To end this bulletin, a quick recap of the leading story:
The South African Radio League has been granted a special call sign, ZS9YOTA, to be used by young amateurs during YOTA month from 1 to 31 December 2014. It will be the first worldwide YOTA event.
If you are 25 years old or younger, you are invited to apply to use the special call sign either as an individual or as a club station operated by young people. Send your request to Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, at zs6ql@mweb.co.za.
** You are invited to submit news items of interest to the South African Radio League by following the news inbox link on the South African Radio League webpage. News items for inclusion in the bulletin, should reach the news team no later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.
You may join us every Sunday morning for the weekly amateur radio magazine program Amateur Radio Today at 10:00 Central African Time. The programme may 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 by Dick, ZS6RO. A rebroadcast may be heard on Monday evenings at 18:30 Central African Time on 4 895 kHz AM. We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; send it in an e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za. Sentech sponsors the radio transmissions on the non-amateur frequency bands.
You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Carina Green and read by ……………………………………………….
Thank you for listening, and from the entire news team, best wishes for the week ahead, 73’s.
/EX
