SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 15JANUARY 2017
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.
IN THE NEWS TODAY:
SARL SUBMITS FURTHER DOCUMENTATION ABOUT TYPE APPROVAL
SDR WORKSHOP ON 18 FEBRUARY
RAE BURSARIES
AND
THE PEARS NATIONAL VHF/UHF CONTEST THIS COMING WEEKEND
** The SARL submitted further documentation about Type Approval to ICASA in response to the discussions at the public hearing which took place last month. The SARL has maintained its position that equipment built by an amateur in pursuit of his or her hobby should be exempted from any type approval requirements. As far as commercial equipment is concerned, the SARL proposed that equipment that conforms to the ETSI standards for equipment used by radio amateurs and already approved by the EU or the FCC be exempted from any further type approval in South Africa.
** AMSAT SA is holding a half-day SDR workshop in association with the SARL at the NARC on 18 February 2017. This is a hands-on workshop where participants will install a VHF/UHF RTL dongle and program it to become a VHF/UHF receiver covering 24 MHz - 1.7 GHz. The workshop will be presented by Anton Janovsky ZR6AIC and Cor Rademeyer ZS6CR. Register before 11 February 2017. Details and registration form on www.amsatsa.org.za. Book early to avoid disappointment.
** The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust offers two bursaries of R1,000 each for the May radio amateur examination. The Tony Reumerman bursary programme awards 4 bursaries annually for students who are under 26 years old and are planning to write the class A examination. Two bursaries are available for the May exam and two for the October exam. For details and an application form, go to www.amateurradio.org.za
** The PEARS National VHF & UHF Contest takes place this coming weekend from 18:00 CAT on Friday 20 January until 14:00 CAT on Sunday 22 January 2017. We have been informed that amateurs from all six divisions will be active during the contest, which includes Division 3 on the West Coast for the first time, as well as Namibian stations. Field stations as well as Rovers, which is a very popular category in the USA, operating from high sites will keep the bands alive during the day via Tropo Enhancement and possibly Sporadic-E propagation. Tropo Ducting could be at its best in the early mornings and at night especially on 144 MHz making very long distances possible. Please make an effort to participate in the contest, help to advance amateur radio and make it more exciting for everybody. Good luck with the contest!
** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. A new sunspot has appeared, breaking a string of consecutive spotless days. No major solar flaring is expected.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 17.
The 15 to 30m bands will provide lots of DX fun.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
** Lets look at some upcoming events:
14 - 15 January Hunting Lions in the Air
20 - 22 January PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest
28 January Summer QRP Sprint
4 February East Rand Branch Amateur Radio Club Flea Market
5 February AWA CW Activity
11 12 February SARL National Field Day
18 February SARL Youth Sprint
18 February SDR Workshop
** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item: The SARL submitted further documentation about Type Approval to ICASA in response to the discussions at the public hearing which took place last month. The SARL has maintained its position that equipment built by an amateur in pursuit of his or her hobby should be exempted from any type approval requirements.
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 pod cast 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 Emile Venter, ZS6V, and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
