SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 19 MARCH 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. A podcast is available from the League’s web site.

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 the bulletin this morning with news of a silent key.

It is with regret that we announce the passing of Norman Templeman, ZS6NAT, last week Friday. He has been suffering from MS for quite some time. Norman was involved with Hamnet and assisted in the 4x4 Toyota rallies with communications. He leaves his wife Loulene and three children. The League offers its sincere condolences to Norman’s family and friends.

PAUSE

In the news today:

SARL ESTABLISHES A FINANCIAL WORK GROUP

SARL RISING NOISE FLOOR WORKSHOP

And

PEARS AND HAMNET EASTERN CAPE IN ACTION AGAIN

Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items.

** The work entailed in unravelling and properly reporting on the League finances from the past few years has proven to be a much bigger task than at first anticipated. The Council has therefore appointed a Financial Work Group comprising former treasurer Cliff Smyth, ZS6BOX, with Corrie de Beer, ZS6CDB, and Eric Krebser, ZS6ZP, all of whom have many years professional financial experience. The work has two important tasks. The first is to retrospectively look at previous financial years and establish a sound basis for the 2016 financial report. The second is to provide advice and guidance on the management of the League finances going forward. It is our belief that the Work Group will provide League members with the confidence that their subscriptions are being properly utilised to their benefit.

** Recently, following a concern raised by the South African Radio League at the SABS TC73 meeting, it was agreed that the question of the increasing level of the RF noise floor should be included in the Strategic Business Plan of the technical committee and added to the work schedule of Working Group 6.

Noise in this context denotes unwanted radio frequency (RF) energy from man-made sources. Like many spectrum users, Radio Amateurs have reported that the noise floor in the radio spectrum is rising as the number of devices in use that emit radio energy grows. However, in search for concrete evidence of an increased noise floor, it appears that only limited quantitative data to support this presumption is available.

The League is convening a Saturday morning workshop on 22 April to develop a coordinated programme and form a study group with the objective of establishing a monitoring system to assemble more information while also considering mitigation methods to deal with manmade noise affecting amateur radio frequencies.

This will be an open meeting and everyone who has an interest in the subject is invited to attend. The workshop will be held at the National Amateur Radio Centre.

If you have a special interest, expertise or experience in this field, please share this at the workshop. For more details, please e-mail sarlregwg@sarl.org.za with your contact details.

** The Hall of Fame preserves the memory of individuals who have made significant contributions to amateur radio in South Africa. The first group of members was inducted during 2016. Another group of up to ten will be inducted at the South African Radio League Awards Dinner in May. From next year, a maximum of only two new members will be inducted annually.

Essays outlining the contributions of the 21 nominees can be found on the Hall of Fame page, accessible through a link on the League web front page. Halfway through the voting period, about 340 votes had been received from League members.

Reading the nominations is well worth your while, as the nominees have shaped our hobby. They include historical stalwarts like Dixon Bennett and Koos and Annie van der Merwe, as well as modern-day contributors to our hobby.

Less than two weeks remain. Vote today!

You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.

** Last weekend saw the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society and Hamnet Eastern Cape in action again. This time providing radio communications to the organizers of the Addo Elephant Trail Run - an event that included a 44 km, a 76 km and a gruelling 100-mile (160 km) route. The routes made their way through the remote and most picturesque parts of the park. Runners had to deal with everything from river crossings to steep inclines and windy mountaintops, running through the night and the heat of the day.

Radio amateurs provided communications between the Park Rangers, medics, checkpoint personnel and the race organizers. A network consisting of two full repeaters and a number of cross band radios was set up to cover the harsh terrain. Radio amateurs and other volunteers went into the reserve on Friday and camped until the finish on Sunday. This led to a number of happy campers - literally!

Yesterday, Saturday 18 March saw the radio amateurs out doing what they do best at the motor rally, which was part of the Baakens Valley Motor Show.

PEARS will also be assisting at the Ironman event on 2 April.

** There are two equinoxes every year - in March and September - when the Sun shines directly on the equator and the length of night and day are nearly equal. In South Africa, the Autumnal Equinox occurs this year on 20 March 2017 at 12:28 CAT.

This would have been the time, at the peak of the Solar Cycle, when the MUF would have risen up to 50 MHz (6 metres) or higher and making F2 DX operation possible worldwide. Likewise, the 160 metre band would open up an hour or two before sunrise until about half an hour after sunrise for DX operation to Europe and the USA, etc. The DX similarity between the 6 metre VHF band and the 160 meter MF band is quite startling. So try 160 metre DX an hour or so before sunrise.

** Beacon News. The past week was very quiet on the HF beacon front and no really long distance spots were reported. Six stations are active and reporting regularly. Last week Derek Middleton, ZS6DM, was just getting his WSPR beacon on the air for a few hours before blowing the final output transistor. Peter Saul, ZS1OA, in the Cape is currently WSPRing on 40 and 20 m and will be adding 15 m traps to his antenna as we go into the winter. Please send all your beacon spotting reports to Leon Uys, ZR6LU, on 082 573 5580 to be included in the next bulletin.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at very low levels. For the past eleven days, there were no sunspots visible. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around one. The 15 to 30 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:

25 - 26 March – CQ WPX SSB Contest
27 March – closing date for Radio ZS articles
31 March – closing date for SARL Hall of Fame voting
1 April – RaDAR Challenge
6 April – SARL 80 m QSO Party
8 April – Autumn QRP Sprint
15 April – closing date for May RAE registration
18 April - World Amateur Radio Day
22 April –SDR Workshop in the Cape and SARL Noise Floor Workshop at the NARC

** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item

The work entailed in unravelling and properly reporting on the League finances from the past few years has proven to be a much bigger task than at first anticipated. The Council has therefore appointed a Financial Work Group comprising former treasurer Cliff Smyth, ZS6BOX, with Corrie de Beer, ZS6CDB, and Eric Krebser, ZS6ZP, all of whom have many years professional financial experience.

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 Emile Venter, ZS6V, edited by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, and read by ..............

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

/EX