SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 6 DECEMBER 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 in to 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
ZS9YOTA AND YOUNGSTERS ON THE AIR
WRC-15 CONCLUDES IN GENEVA
and
THE ARRL 10 METRE CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND
Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items.
** The ZS9YOTA call sign is now active and South African youngsters are participating in the annual IARU Region 1 December Youngsters On The Air event. Thirty-eight YOTA call signs will be active across IARU Region 1 from schools, scout groups, clubs or just used by young radio amateurs under the age of 26 years. The main aim is to get youngsters on the air and to make contact with youngsters all over the world and promoting amateur radio amongst the youth. From Africa there are four countries participating, Botswana with A2YOTA, Tunisia with 3V8YOTA, Ceuta with EG9YOTA and South Africa.
This is an excellent opportunity for clubs to run a demonstration at a local school or to gather together with amateur friends at the local club and display this great hobby to our South African youth! Currently only two clubs taking part, namely the Sasolburg Radio Club, ZS4SRK, and the Kempton Park Amateur Radio Technical Society, ZS6KTS. The ZS6ZU Hammies, including the Sandringham Scout Group, the ZS5ZU Hammies and the Polokwane Scouts, ZR6PS, will also participate in this fun 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 Koos, ZR6KF at koosfick096@gmail.com or alternatively to Nico, ZS6QL, at zs6ql@mweb.co.za. All radio amateurs are welcome to enjoy a QSO with the youngsters, but be aware that some of them are new to the radio hobby, while others are more experienced. Please visit the SARL website for more details pertaining to this activity.
** World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) concluded its deliberations on 27 November in Geneva, as heads of delegations signed the Final Acts revising the Radio Regulations - the international treaty governing the use of radio frequency spectrum and satellite orbits. Some 3 300 participants, representing 162 out of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) 193 member states, attended the 4-week conference. Another 500 or so participants, representing 130 other entities, including industry, also attended as observers. Festus Daudu of Nigeria chaired WRC-15.
"A great deal has been achieved in the last 4 weeks and the results will have a major impact on the future of the telecommunication sector in general and radio communications in particular," ITU Radiocommunication Bureau (ITU-R) Director Franηois Rancy said in a closing news release. WRC-15 addressed more than 40 topics related to frequency allocation and sharing.
The conference reached consensus on a new worldwide secondary Amateur Radio allocation at 5 351.5 to 5 366.5 kHz, with a power limit of 15 W effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP). Some Region 2 countries will be permitted up to 25 W EIRP. With this action - and despite conditions that are more restrictive than had been hoped at the start of the Conference - the Amateur Service has obtained its first new global HF allocation since 1979.
The 15 kHz band at 60 meters "will maintain stable communications over various distances, especially for use when providing communications in disaster situations and for relief operations," an ITU news release said. The new band will not become available for use until the regulatory authorities address the WRC-15 Final Acts.
Threats by the mobile telephone/broadband industry near 10 GHz and 24 GHz have been averted for the time being, but are expected to be raised again at WRC-19 and/or WRC-23. The 144 and 420 MHz bands were excluded from the WRC-19 agenda item addressing short-duration (3 years) small satellites.
Agenda Item 1.12, addressing the Earth Exploration Satellite Service (10 GHz EESS), was approved at plenary with footnotes relevant to certain Middle East countries. The EESS allocation was tailored to avoid the Amateur-Satellite segment and poses no threat to terrestrial amateur radio use of the band.
The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) team at WRC-15 also focused its efforts on tweaking the agenda for WRC-19. Agenda Item 1.1 will consider 50 to 54 MHz harmonization in Region 1. A proposed agenda item to align the 160 metre allocation in Region 1 with the rest of the world did not make the cut.
Thanks to the ITU and the RSGB for this news item
** Two division 6 beacons are now beaming south for Sporadic-E. Willem Badenhorst, ZS6WAB, at Polokwane has informed us that two of his VHF beacons are now running and pointing south for the Sporadic-E season. They are 50,028 MHz CW with 50 Watts into a horizontal 5 element Yagi, and 70,025 MHz CW with 40 Watts into a 6 element horizontal Yagi. These two beacons will provide early warnings of a Sporadic-E opening when an Es cloud appears in the East and drifts slowly westward across the country.
VHF amateurs in the North can also monitor two VHF beacons in the south, they are ZS2X on 50,007 MHz FSK near Port Elizabeth, and ZS1SIX on 50,080 MHz FSK in Cape Town. Sporadic-E openings are unpredictable and could occur anytime between 08:30 to 11:00 CAT in the mornings or occasionally also during the afternoons. DX openings to our northern neighbours have often been recorded around midday.
** The theme for the January 2016 issue of Radio ZS is field stations and mobile operation. Get your articles in by Saturday 26 December 2015 and please send them to radiozs@sarl.org.za. The February 2016 issue looks at VHF, UHF and above, while in March 2016 the focus is on emergency communications.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
** The National Amateur Radio Centre will be closed from 18 December for the Christmas holidays and the office will re-open on 5 January 2016.
** Application for membership of the South African Radio League has been received from Etienne Francois Saayman, ZSL-1145. Any objections to the acceptance of the application must reach the League Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin. Etienne will be writing the May 2016 RAE.
Membership of the League currently stands at 1 592 members and 41 affiliated clubs
** The project to create a radio amateur terminology dictionary in Afrikaans signifies the ability of Afrikaans to adapt with the modern times especially when one takes into account the significant growth of new terminologies to cater for the growth of new technologies almost on a daily basis. This innovative project allows participation from the wider amateur community. The idea behind the dictionary is to ensure that Afrikaans as a language keeps up with the use of new ideas and terminology, and to broaden the Afrikaans language.
Language specialists will also accredit the radio amateur dictionary and the plan to introduce the dictionary to other institutions is on the table. We hope to make this a national project but as we very well know, anything South Africans attempt becomes international pretty soon, as in the case with Mr Jan Pieper from Netherland who is also participating. We hope to get more involvement from the rest of the world soon.
Our world is rapidly growing in technology and any language that fails to grow with the times is sure to fall behind as a preferred means of communication. This drives us to create new words, phrases and terminologies fitting the Radio Amateur community. Now is the time to get involved and see what your contribution could achieve if we stand together and create the world's first amateur radio dictionary for technical terminology in Afrikaans
There are regular discussion groups on the subject on the 145,725 MHz Pretoria Amateur Radio Clubs repeater on a Thursday evening at 19:00. The last scheduled net will be on 11 December 2015. Any radio amateur is more than welcome to join in the fun and put forward his comments and suggestions. The group would like to invite you to join the discussion via the repeater network or IRLP/EchoLink (ZS0JPL) every Thursday evening at 19:00.
Furthermore, we will soon be launching a website where the broader community can join in and leave their comments, but more about this at a later stage. If you have any suggestions or would like to take part, please write to Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN, at e-mail address etienne@afrigrid.com.
** The ARRL 10 Metre Contest will be on the air over the weekend of 12 and 13 December. The contest involves CW, phone or mixed contacts on 80 to 10 metres. The exchange is a RS or RST report and a serial number. Stations in the USA, Canada and Mexico will send their state or provincial abbreviation. Get all the information at www.arrl.org/10-meter
** In the propagation report, Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. None of the visible sunspots poses a threat for serious flaring. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 24.
The 20 to 15 m bands will provide lots of DX fun, especially around sunrise and sunset. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Now for the diary of events
12 and 13 December the ARRL 10 metre contest
18 December the NARC closes for the Christmas holidays
26 December closing date for articles for the January 2016 Radio ZS
31 December destroy your copy of the 2015 Blue Book
1 January download a copy of the 2016 Blue Book
5 January the NARC opens for business
To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.
The ZS9YOTA call sign is now active and South African youngsters are participating in the annual IARU Region 1 December Youngsters On The Air event. Thirty-eight YOTA call signs will be active across IARU Region 1 from schools, scout groups, clubs or just used by young radio amateurs under the age of 26 years.
** 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 from Dick Stratford, ZS6RO. A rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 18:30 Central African Time on 3 230 kHz AM.
We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; please 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
