SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 21 AUGUST 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 our 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.

We start this bulletin with news of a silent key.

It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Pieter Scholtz ZS6LC. Pieter was one of the founding members of Tak Noord Transvaal (TNT), now Magalies Radio Amateur Klub (MRK). Pieter was an honorary member of both MRK and the SARL. Pieter passed away just short of his 91st birthday. Our sincere condolences to his wife Louise, his son Frikkie and daughters Anita and René.

PAUSE

IN THE NEWS TODAY:

SARL DELEGATION MEETS WITH SENTECH REPRESENTATIVES

SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE HF DIGITAL CONTEST THIS AFTERNOON

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO WORK DX ON HF VERSUS VHF AND ABOVE?

RADIO AMATEUR EXAMINATION NEWS

PRETORIA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB FLEA MARKET AND 86th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

HF PROPAGATION REPORT

and

UPCOMING EVENTS

** During last week a delegation from Council met with representatives of Sentech regarding the future hosting of amateur radio repeaters currently on their high sites. The SARL received a notice of cancellation of the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the opportunity to negotiate a new electronic Communications Facilities Master Agreement.
Sentech introduced a facilities leasing policy with a financial budget to meet, which makes it difficult to provide services free of charge. To date, repeaters were hosted on Sentech sites free of charge since the original Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in 1996.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss mutual cooperation and in particular the way forward regarding the continued use of Sentech sites for amateur radio repeaters. Both the Sentech and SARL delegates were satisfied with the discussions and a follow up meeting will take place once the action items agreed upon have been addressed including the necessary feedback received.

** The SARL HF Digital Contest is on the air this afternoon from 13:00 to 16:30 UTC with RTTY and PSK31 on 3 580 to 3 600 kHz, 7 040 to 7 060 kHz and 14 070 to 14 099 kHz. The exchange is a RST report and a consecutive serial number starting at 001. Digital contacts count 2 points. Get all the rules in the 2016 Blue Book. Submit your log in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format and labelled "your call sign HF Digital" by 28 August 2016 by e-mail to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za.

** The SARL HF CW Contest is on the air next Sunday afternoon, 28 August from 13:00 to 16:30 UTC with activity on 14 000 to 14 060 kHz, 7 000 to 7 040 kHz and 3 510 to 3 560 kHz. The exchange is a RST report and a consecutive serial number starting at 001. CW contacts count 2 points. Get all the rules in the 2016 Blue Book. Submit your log in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format and labelled "your call sign HF CW" by 4 September 2016 by e-mail to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za.

** In September, you can participate in the SARL National Field Day on the weekend of 10 and 11 September, the SARL VHF/UHF Contest and the All Africa All Mode Contest on the weekend of 17 and 18 September. Find the rules for these three contests in the 2016 Blue Book.

** F2 propagation on HF is seasonal and varies during the day. When the solar activity is high, DX contacts are very easy to make, even with low power and a piece of wire thrown into a tree. But when the MUF drops, then it really becomes a difficult task for smaller stations. EME, on the other hand, has been the most challenging mode in earlier days that required sophisticated equipment and antenna arrays on VHF, UHF and SHF, which is only possible when both stations can see the Moon. Digital communications have made it a lot easier with lower power and single Yagis. The EME challenge now lies in the mid-microwave spectrum. Long distance terrestrial DX operation on VHF, excluding F2 and TEP propagation, is currently the most difficult to achieve. The best distance recorded so far on 144 MHz and 432 MHz via Tropo Ducting is 4158 km over the Pacific Ocean. The challenges on VHF and above are there for the more serious amateurs to take up, break existing records and advance amateur radio.

** The ICASA strike is over. We were informed by ICASA that, due to the back-log, they hope to issue licences in September 2016. They could not confirm exactly how long it will still take. We will continuously monitor the situation. For any information on this, please contact the RAE manager at rae@sarl.org.za or Vonnie at admin@sarl.ork.za.

** No new applications for membership of the South African Radio League have been received.

The League now has 1225 confirmed members for the next term. If you have not yet renewed your membership, please do so now. At the end of August you will cease to be a member if you have not renewed. Thirty-five clubs have already renewed their affiliation.

** The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club's next flea market will be held on Saturday 27 August at the premises of the Pretoria Old Motor Club in Davey Street Silverton Pretoria. Start time is 08:00. The usual Boerewors rolls, coffee and cold drinks will be available. To book a table, please contact Almero du Pisani, ZS6LDP, on 083 938 8955 or send an e-mail to almero@up.ac.za. Don't miss out on this enjoyable event.

The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club wil be hosting their 86th AGM on Saturday 27 August at the premises of the Pretoria Old Motor Club in Davey Street, Silverton, Pretoria. The starting time is 11:30 and will be followed by a bring & braai afterwards. Salads and braai fire will be provided. Hans van de Groenendaal ZS6AKV will be the guest speaker and visitors are most welcome.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. The visible sunspots do not pose a threat for solar flares.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be less than 5.

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

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

** Let’s look at some upcoming events:

21 August – SARL HF Digital Contest
27 August – PARC Flea Market
27 August – PARC AGM
28 August – SARL HF CW Contest
3 September – Westrand Flea Market
10 September – Sandton ARC AGM
10 September – KARTS Flea Market

** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item: During last week a delegation from Council met with representatives of Sentech regarding the future hosting of amateur radio repeaters currently on their high sites.


** 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.
If you would like to become involved witht eh SARL newsteam please contact Dawie ZR6DHC on email zr6dhc@zs6rtb.co.za

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; 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 and edited by Emile Venter,ZS6V,and read by ...................

73 and thank you for listening

/EX