SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 28 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 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
NEXT STEP FOR SARL ICASA MOU
UPCOMING CONTESTS
EASTERN CAPE HAMMIES ADVENTURE
Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items

*** Current cooperation between the SARL and ICASA has far outstripped the original MOU between the two organisations and was brought up-to-date last year. However due to the restructuring of ICASA and various delays in amending the ICASA delegation of authority, the signing of the MOU was delayed. While the new MOU was agreed between the SARL and the ICASA licensing structure it had to go through a new review process including various departments. This process is now at the point where the MOU is on the agenda of the next ICASA Operations Committee. After approval it will then be submitted to the ICASA Council for final approval and signature.
In a parallel process the SARL recommendation for a 5 MHz allocation presented to ICASA earlier this year, has now received approval from the frequency spectrum department and a document is in preparation for submission to the Operating Committee. The SARL proposal seeks the continued use of 5290 kHz for the WSPR propagation experiment and a secondary allocation of 100 kHz range which includes the WRC agreed range of 5351.5 - 5366.5 kHz and that the power allowed be 26 dBW. The SARL proposed 5350 - 5450 kHz which was the IARU proposal to WRC15. At WRC15 South Africa and members countries of the African Telecommunications Union supported the proposal. The Russian block opposed it. A compromise was reached to allocate 5351.5 - 5366.5 kHz. However many countries, including the Netherlands went ahead and gave their radio amateurs access to the proposed 100 kHz.
The South African process is very involved and may well have to include a public consultation process.
*** The Eastern Cape Hammies club, with the help of PEARS members, set up a station at the Donkin Reserve in Port Elizabeth for the International Lighthouse weekend.
Sunday 21 August saw the local hams coming out of the woodwork to see the Hammies in action at the Donkin Reserve (lighthouse reference ZA0023) A number of contacts were made - including some DX stations and a total of 9 lighthouses.
A firm favourite among the kids was "Uncle Al's kombi". Those who know Al Akers ZS2U may have seen pictures of the radio kombi. Al has kitted out his Kombi as a camper and has radios and antennas all over the place. For the first few hours, the Hammies operated Al's radio inside the kombi. Later on as the bands changed they moved outside to Andrew Gray's 20m station. Andre ZS2ZA was also there with his 2m station chatting up a storm.
From the Hammies, ZS2ZU, a big thank you to Al Akers ZS2U, Andrew Gray ZS2G, and Andre Potgieter ZS2ZA for helping us put something together!
While Hammies manned the Donkin Reserve on Sunday, this was not the only action for the weekend! Other PEARS members, notably Bill Hodges ZS2ABZ (who manned the Cape Recife lighthouse on Saturday), Andre Potgieter ZS2ZA, and Theunis Potgieter ZS2EC were also very involved with the Lighthouse weekend. A large number of PEARS members were also involved with the second of the Trans Baviaans mountain bike weekends.
Pictures of the event, the Hammies, and Al's radio-mobile are available on the Pears Facebook page.

** The SARL HF CW Contest is on the air this afternoon 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 the 4 September 2016, by e-mail to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za.

** The closing date for logs for the SARL HF Digital Contest is midnight tonight 28 August. To date only four logs have been received. Send your log to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za
** In September, you can participate in the SARL National Field Day on the weekend of the 10 and 11 September, the SARL VHF/UHF Contest and the All Africa All Mode Contest on the weekend of the 17 and 18 September. Find the rules for these three contests in the 2016 Blue Book.
*** The September 2016 issue of Radio ZS will be available for download from the League’s website on Tuesday 30 August 2016. In this issue you can read about the YOTA 2016 Sumner camp in Austria. Brian, G0GSF, tells you more about the NVIS antenna and Kevin, ZS6KMD, has a mini oscilloscope project for you. Pythagoras helped Dennis, ZS4BS, build a Delta Loop antenna and Lee, ZS5LEE, has compiled a comprehensive chart in colour of EME firsts made by ZS amateurs. This and more in the September issue.

You are tuned to a news bulletin of the South African Radio league read by . . . (Name and callsign please)

*** The SARL received an application for a listener’s licence from Nico Obermeyer, ZSL1167. Any objections against Nico's application must reach the League secretary on or before Wednesday the 31st of August 2016. Send your objections via email to secretary@sarl.org.za
There are total of 1494 members who renewed their membership with the SARL which includes the May RAE candidates. Have you renewed your membership yet? If not now is a good time to do so. By the end of August you will be removed as member of the SARL if you failed to renew your membership. There are 39 affiliated clubs.

*** PEARS kept the ham flag flying by once again providing emergency and logistical communications to the Trans Baviaans Mountain Bike race. The event which takes place over two consecutive weekends covers some of the best 4x4 country in the Eastern Cape. The terrain is certainly not radio friendly, but that is part of the attraction!
A few strategically placed temporary repeaters and some cross-banding and we had comms through the entire kloof!

PEARS members were responsible not only for providing emergency communication, but also in relaying team numbers and other logistical information to the race organisers. Tony Allen ZR2TX once again took the bull by the horns and ran the main operations centre, coordinating all the medics, lead/sweep vehicles, and the various checkpoints.
A new item this year was the testing of the APRS system for sending team numbers. Various solutions were deployed and tested at Check points 2, 3, and 4. Team numbers were captured on laptops and mobile devices over locally deployed wireless networks and then sent by radio to the digipeater network deployed for this purpose. The system still needs some fine tuning, but is definitely a solution worth perfecting. A full debriefing on the system - and other issues from the event - will be handled at a special meeting to be held at 18:00 on 20 September - just before the next club meeting.
Many photos of the event have been uploaded to the PEARS facebook page. Logon to www.facebook.com and search for Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society. While you are there you can like the page too and stay up to date with what PEARS is up to!

** Provisional Results of the SARL YL Sprint. The Contest committee received eight logs and one check log for the SARL YL Sprint. Six ladies and three men submitted logs.
1st Colette Rundle, ZS2CR, 190 points
2nd Heather Holland, ZS5YH, 124 points
3rd Judy Pretorius, ZS6JDY, 108 points

** Provisional Results of the SARL HF Phone Contest. The Contest Committee received 15 logs for the SARL HF Phone Contest.
1st Jan Botha, ZS4JAN, 200 points
2nd Barry Nugent, ZS2NF, 128 points
3rd Theo Bresler, ZS6TVB, 120 points

The full results appear in HF Happenings 718, which is available on the League’s web site.



*** The West Rand Amateur radio Club is hosting its next flea market at 12:00 on Saturday 03 September 2016 at their clubhouse in Kroton Street, Weltevredenpark, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. For more information contact Geoff ZS6C 082 546 5546.

PROPAGATION REPORT
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 around 11.
The 15 to 20 metre bands will provide lots of DX fun.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

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.
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 17 660 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