SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 29 MARCH 2015

Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ………………………………………… [your name, call sign and QTH]

You can tune into the South African Radio League news bulletin 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 our country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the League web site.

This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za. You will find this bulletin and previous bulletins in text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the web page. While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

In the news today

SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE AGM NOTICE

NEW REGULATIONS DUE OUT SOON

LICENSE FEES DUE ON 31 MARCH

and

80 METRE QSO PARTY AND RADAR CHALLENGE IN THIS WEEK

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

** The Annual General Meeting notice and financial documents have been posted on the members section of the League website. The documents are in PDF format.

The AGM will be held as part of the South African Radio League National Convention to be held from 17 to 19 April 2015 in Bloemfontein. Make your reservations now. Details and the reservation forms are available on www.sarl.org.za. It is an event not to be missed.

** The new regulations due out soon. The revised frequency spectrum regulations were expected to have been published on Friday but due to some last minute corrections publication was delayed. It is now expected early this week. Visit www.sarl.org.za regularly for the latest information.

** Amateur license fees due on 31 March. The fees for amateur radio licenses are due before 31 March 2015. If you have not paid yet, do so now. Always use the license number and your call sign as reference. If you paid your license at a Post Office you may find a small amount still due on the invoice. ICASA states that this should be ignored as it was an issue between the Post Office and ICASA and would be corrected automatically.

** The South African Radio League 5 MHz activity weekend started yesterday and will continue until tonight. You can still catch the last slot starting at 18:00 Central African Time. This is an SSB activity on 5 260 KHz and is only open to SARL members. Full details are available from www.sarl.org.za

** This is a reminder that the last day for log submissions for the South African Radio League VHF/UHF contest is midnight on Sunday 5 April 2015. To date only five logs have been received.

By Saturday 28 March, the contest committee had received 117 logs for the All Africa DX Contest; this includes 10 logs from South African stations. These stats just go to show the difference in meaning of contesting between local and DX stations - DX stations submit their logs. The last day for submitting your log is midnight on Tuesday 31 March 2015.

** World Amateur Radio Day, 18 April 2015. Every 18th of April, radio amateurs worldwide take to the airwaves in celebration of World Amateur Radio Day. It was on that day in 1925 that the International Amateur Radio Union was formed in Paris.

Since its founding, the IARU has worked tirelessly to defend and expand the frequency allocations for Amateur Radio. Thanks to the support of enlightened administrations in every part of the globe, radio amateurs are now able to experiment and communicate in frequency bands strategically located throughout the radio spectrum. From the 25 countries that formed the IARU in 1925, the IARU has grown to include over 160 member-societies in the three regions. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has recognised the IARU as representing the interests of Amateur Radio.

World Amateur Radio Day is the day when IARU Member-Societies can show our capabilities to the public and enjoy global friendship with other Amateurs worldwide. 18 April is the day for all of Amateur Radio to celebrate and tell the world about the science we can help teach, the community service we can provide and the fun we have. We hope you will join in the fun and education that is World Amateur Radio Day!

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

** The IARU Emergency Telecommunications Guide is available online. At the 2014 IARU Administrative Council meeting, the Council approved the IARU Emergency Telecommunications Guide and the Guide is now available on the IARU web site. This emergency telecommunications guide was developed to provide the IARU member-societies with materials suitable for training their members to participate in emergency events. It is also designed to provide guidance to the individual amateur radio operator who has little or no experience in handling emergency communications but desires to enhance his ability to participate in such events or to simply have a better understanding of the process.

IARU member-societies are encouraged to distribute this guide among their membership and, if necessary, to provide a translation into a language used within their own country. This guide can also be used in conjunction with other training materials by leaders within the emergency communication community to train radio operators in the basic theory and practice of handling emergency communications traffic.

The IARU Emergency Telecommunications Guide can be found at www.iaru.org/emergency-telecommunications-guide.html

The IARU International Secretariat would be interested in hearing any feedback, comments or suggestions regarding the Guide. Send your comments to the Hamnet National Director.

Application for membership of the South African Radio League has been received from Luc Lefever, ON4NL, and Werner Verschuur, ZR6WEN.

Any objections against the acceptance of the applications must reach the League Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin. The membership of the South African Radio League currently stands at 1 633 members and 38 affiliated clubs

** The aim of the South African Radio League Autumn 80 m QSO Party is to create an interest in and activity on the 80 m band. It is a phone only contest, which will be on the air from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC on Thursday 2 April 2015. Only frequencies in the segment 3 603 to 3 650 and 3 700 to 3 800 kHz may be used.

The exchange is your call sign, a RS report and your name. You earn 10 points for every contact with a South African station and 15 points for every contact with a station outside South Africa. Log sheets must be submitted by midnight on Thursday 9 April 2015 to zs5lp@vodamail.co.za.

** The RaDAR “Challenge” is a unique event aimed at promoting the use of Rapidly Deployable Amateur Radio stations. This challenge is for all licensed radio amateurs and not limited to South Africa. The RaDAR Challenge will be on the air from 00:00 to 23:59 UTC on Saturday 4 April - 24 hours will give equal opportunity to the international community of RaDAR operators. RaDAR operators can define their own operating time schedule or remain active for the full 24 hours.

All amateur bands are allowed including cross band contacts via amateur radio satellites. Modes – CW, SSB, AM, FM or any legal digital mode. QSOs via terrestrial repeaters will NOT be allowed. The WARC bands can be used considering this is a RaDAR Challenge and not a contest as such. The exchange is your call sign, your name, a RS or RST report, your QTH and grid locator.

Get all the details in the 2015 Blue Book at www.zs4bfn.co.za/RaDAR.asp

** In the propagation report, Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at low to moderate levels. Local geomagnetic conditions are at unsettled levels, affecting HF communications. Sunspot AR2305 has a "beta-gamma-delta" magnetic field that harbours enough energy for X-class solar flares.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 90.

During the late afternoons, 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 for the diary of events

Today – the last session of the 5 MHz Activity weekend starting at 18:00 Central African Time and the CQ WPX SSB Contest ends at midnight UTC, listen out for ZS6MRK
31 March – the closing date for All Africa DX Contest logs
2 April – the South African Radio League Autumn 80 m QSO Party
4 April – the Autumn RaDAR Challenge
5 April – the closing date for South African Radio League VHF/UHF logs
9 April – the closing date for registration for the May RAE and the closing date for 80 m QSO Party logs
11 April – the South African Radio League Autumn QRP Contest
11 April – Open day for the 2015 Stars of Sandstone, listen out for ZS4AFV
17 to 19 April – the South African Radio League National Convention in Bloemfontein
18 April - World Amateur Radio Day

To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.

** The Annual General Meeting notice and financial documents have been posted on the members section of the League website. The documents are in PDF format.

The AGM will be held as part of the South African Radio League National Convention to be held from 17 - 19 April 2015 in Bloemfontein. Make your reservations now. Details and the reservation form are available on www.sarl.org.za. It is an event not to be missed.

** 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 magazine programme ‘Amateur Radio Today’ at 10:00 Central African Time. The programme 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 by Dick, 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; send these by e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za. Sentech sponsors the radio transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.

You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR, and read by ……………..…………………

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

73's and thank you for listening

/EX