SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 26 June 2016

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

You may tune in to the South African Radio League news bulletin on Sunday mornings, at 08:15 Local Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Local Time in English, on HF as well as on many VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. Echolink listeners may connect to ZS0JPL for a relay.

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


IN THE NEWS TODAY

SARL MUST SERIOUSLY CONSIDER THEIR STRATEGY TOWARDS ICASA TYPE APROVAL

AMSAT SA ACCELERATING ITS DEVELOPMENT OF KLETSKOUS

SKA NEWS

AND WORLD WIDE FLORA AND FAUNA IN AMATEUR RADIO

*** The SARL must seriously consider how it will present its case when ICASA is holding its public hearings on type approval and under what conditions equipment will be exempted from the current requirements. The issue was also discussed at the SABS Technical Committee. The purpose of this Committee is to ensure proper usage of the Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Spectrum through use of regulations.

In Government Gazette no 36785 dated 26 August 2013, ICASA published the "Type Approval Regulations". While the regulations make provision for exemption, the process required to get equipment exempted from the regulation was not developed. At a meeting of TC80 held on Friday it became clear that ICASA is giving serious attention to this. The new Council of the SARL which will take office on 30 July needs to urgently develop a strategy and supporting documentation to be presented at the public hearing.


*** AMSAT SA is accelerating the development of its Kletskous transponder by introducing a parallel development process. Two RF experts have recent joined the team, they are Leon Lessing ZS6LMG and Francois Visser ZS1CED.

At its recent strategy meeting the association discussed its long term plans which includes the development of a Software Defined Radio transponder and other digital payloads. Radio Amateurs who have an interest in being part of discussions on these projects are invited to send their contact details including their Skype address to saamsat@intekom.com.za. For more information on SDR visit the AMSAT SA website at www.amsatsa.org.za and down the SDR presentation delivered by Deon Coetzee ZR1DE at the recently held space symposium. Join the conversation!

*** World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio. The WWFF programme wants to draw attention to the importance of protecting nature, flora and fauna. In this spirit, amateur radio operators set up, operate their radio stations from designated nature parks and protected nature areas - generating attention for these areas whilst giving the amateur radio community an interesting activity to contact. WWFF is an international and non-commercial program run by the coordinators of a large number of national Flora and Fauna programmes.

Dennis, ZS4BS, and Sid, ZS5AYC, have been in contact with the WWFF Council to register the ZSFF Programme. At present there are 30 South African nature areas registered with WWFF, which includes the 19 Parks managed by the National Parks Board. The many other nature parks and protected nature areas in South Africa will be added to the ZSFF directory and documentation will be made available later about the ZSFF programme.

** The July issue of Radio ZS will be available for download from the League's website from Tuesday 28 June 2016. In this issue, Nico, ZS6QL, says working with young people is a golden opportunity and Richard, ZS6KRE, the Troop Scouter of the Sandringham Scouts tells about their amateur radio club. Dave, ZS2DH, tells of Hammie activity in the Eastern Cape and we have a report from the Dayton Hamvention about their Youth Programme.

It has been a busy year for ZS6ZU, the Hammies ARC, this according to Noel, ZR6DX, and did you know that AMSAT SA has a youth outreach? Then Andre, V51B, tells us about his Quad antenna. In the Arduino column, Kevin, ZS6KMD, shows you his Single Band Super VFO and in the YL Beam, Heather, ZS6YE/5 gives us the history of the South African Women's Radio Club - maybe it is time to reactivate the SAWRC! All this and more in the July issue of Radio ZS.

*** Thomas Abbott ZS6XTA (ZS1TE) informed us that the SKA-1 Mid Array isn't the only radio telescope on the site. The radio quiet zone is intended as a national resource, to allow other experiments to be run there too. The legislated frequency is not based solely on the SKA-1 Mid Array requirements, and anyway predates them by some years. Thomas says that he is sure that many of you have been to Sutherland, and seen the optical telescopes mushrooming on the plateau. They come there from all over the world, to enjoy the dark skies and good weather, but telescopes like company. They share the communications infrastructure, maintenance people and astronomers that are available there.

There are currently four main radio telescopes sharing the site. KAT-7 (1 - 2 GHz), MeerKat (0,5 - 5 GHz), HERA (120 - 190 MHz) and C-BASS (5 - 6 GHz), with SKA-1 Mid Array prototypes starting soon. HERA is an interesting low-cost single-purpose radio telescope. It is built with wire mesh reflectors and copper pipe dipoles. It started as a smaller cheaper radio telescope called PAPER, which has been observing for some years.

*** Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from the following persons:
Klaus Knopf ZS1QO
Any objections to the acceptance of the applications must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin.
To date 409 members of the SARL have renewed their membership and 12 affiliated clubs have renewed their affiliation.


*** The Centurion Radio Amateur Club is celebrating it's 41st Anniversary on the 30th July 2016.
To commemorate the event the club station ZS6CEN will be operated by members on the amateur radio bands during the month of July 2016.
All contacts with the station will receive a certificate (via email).
A sample certificate and more information is available on the Facebook page: "Centurion Amateur Radio Club"

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. There is currently no sunspots visible. This is a sure sign that solar Minimum is on its way.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 18.

The 20 to 15 m bands and will provide lots DX fun.

Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Let us look forward to what we can expect over the next few weeks

Today 26 and tommorow 27 June - the SARL Top Band QSO Party
3 July 2016 – ZS5 Sprint
9 & 10 July -IARU HF Championships
10 July – Youth Net
16 July – Winter QRP Sprint
16 to 23 July IARU Region 1 YOTA Summer Camp
24 July ZS2 Sprint
25 July – Closing date for the August Radio ZS Articles
30 & 31 July - RSGB IOTA Contest
30 July - the Special General Meeting at the National Amateur Radio Centre

And that brings us to the end of this bulletin

** 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 Dawie Conradie, ZR6DHC, edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by ..............

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

/EX