SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 12 NOVEMBER 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 the country. Echolink listeners may connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the Leagues web site.
Audio and text bulletins may be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za where you can also sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
In the news, today:
DECEMBER IS YOTA MONTH
THE SDR WORKSHOP ON 18 NOVEMBER, BOOK NOW
and
144 MHZ BEACON ON ST HELENA ISLAND
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
SPECIAL QSL CARD FROM ZS40VDK
If you work the ZS40VDK station from the Vanderkloof Dam on Friday 17 November 2017, you will receive a special QSL card via the SARL QSL Bureau.
DECEMBER YOTA MONTH
It is once again time for the IARU Region 1 December YOTA event when several youngsters from Member Socities will become active with YOTA as suffix in the call sign. From Friday 1 December to Sunday 31 December 2017, the annual Youth on the Air (YOTA) event takes place and YOTA stations will attempt to make many contacts worldwide with each other. This is a golden opportunity to get young amateurs in their teens and early 20s with their counterparts on the air.
Remember that this is not a formal contest, but a way to get youngsters on the air and to let them realize that there are hundreds of other youngsters around the world that feel just the same as they do about the hobby. The main aim is to get our youngsters on the air and for them to make contact with youngsters all over the world.
This is an excellent opportunity for clubs to run a demonstration at a local school or to gather together with our amateur friends at the club and showcase this great hobby to our South African youth!
The SARL will register as an IARU Member Society participant and obtain the special callsign ZS9YOTA which will be registered as an educational callsign for use by clubs and individuals during December. Details pertaining to bookings for the special call sign will be made available during next week, in the news bulletin and on the SARL website.
For any additional information or possible questions please forward your e-mails to Koos, ZR6KF at koosfick096@gmail.com or alternatively to Nico, ZS6QL, at zs6ql@mweb.co.za They will provide you with much more information and will answer any questions.
THE SDR WORKSHOP 18 NOVEMBER, BOOK NOW
The SARL has again joined forces with AMSAT SA to present another workshop in the SDR series. It follows a very successful workshop held in Cape Town last weekend. It will be held at the NARC on Saturday 18 November 2017.
The agenda includes: Feedback on the HF RF Noise Floor monitoring project discussion at the IARU Region 1 Conference, the way forward in the SARL Noise floor monitoring project including electing a steering committee, practical demonstration on setting up a monitoring system on both a Raspberry Pi and a Laptop PC, tracking of satellites, receiving weather satellites using a dongle, downloading and processing of weather pictures and downloading and working with Fun Cube telemetry.
For booking details, software and dongles visit www.amsatsa.org.za. Bookings close at midnight on Wednesday 15 November.
COUNTDOWN TO WORLD RADIOCOMMUNICATION CONFERENCE 2019
Preparatory Meetings for the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) are busy until Friday 17 November. The current meetings are the fourth of a series of meetings which will continue until just before WRC-19, now scheduled to be held from 28 October to 22 November 2019. Preparatory Meetings are usually held at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) headquarters in Geneva and are usually of two-weeks duration.
Preparatory Meetings primarily prepare documents on the agenda items identified for the upcoming WRC. They are in turn preceded by meetings and the submission of documents from the participating administrations, for example, South Africa through its authorized government agency, the Department of Communications.
The principal Amateur Radio issue is an international authorization of the 50 to 54 MHz band in ITU Region-1 (Europe, Africa and the Middle East). ITU-R Working Party 5A is chaired by Dr Josι Costa, a Canadian. There are Amateur delegates in Geneva, this time representing their individual delegations and/or the IARU and they come from the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Norway, Brazil and Australia.
These meetings are also debating an expansion of the frequencies, powers and deployment of Radio Local Area Networks (RLANs) in the 5 GHz range. Also warranting close attention is an agenda item proposing frequencies for wireless power transfer, e.g., charging cell phones and - significantly - larger devices including vehicles. Frequencies under discussion lie in the range 19 to 300 kHz and - possibly - just below the 40 m Amateur band. Depending upon the frequencies planned and the technical characteristics there may be significant interference issues to users of the HF and VHF spectrum.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Amateur Radio League.
AFTER A VERY COLD WINTER, TROPO DUCTING IS BACK ON VHF
Recent reports received indicated that Tropo Ducting is back on 144 MHz with a vengeance. The reports came from Divisions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and covered a distance up to 600 km on 144,300 MHz SSB, which is the best band for long distance Ducting on land or across the sea. All that is required is a high gain horizontally polarized Yagi antenna to improve your reception and transmission even on low power.
While 144 MHz is the best band for Tropo Enhancement and Ducting, it is 50 MHz that excels in most other modes, such as Sporadic-E, Meteor Scatter etc., so watch the coming months for major meteor showers as well as strong Sporadic-E openings. We are also awaiting reports from Division 1 on the West Coast.
ZD7VC IS PREPARED TO RUN A 144 MHZ BEACON ON ST HELENA ISLAND
Bruce Salt, ZD7VC, is willing to operate a 144 MHz beacon on St Helena Island, which Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ, will supply to him. Pieter needs some extra donations in the form of a keyer, solar panels etc, and a donation towards airfreight costs. This will open a new VHF world across the Atlantic for the West Coast and even inland.
The first Airlink service from South Africa has just inaugurated the new airport built on top of a mountain. Please contact Pieter V51PJ for further information.
RADFXSAT (FOX-1B) LAUNCH DELAYED
The launch of the Delta II vehicle carrying RadFxSat (Fox-1B) and other payloads has been delayed, due to a faulty battery on the booster, United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced on 6 November. The launch now is scheduled for no earlier than Tuesday 14 November. RadFxSat is one of four CubeSats making up the NASA ELaNa XIV mission, riding as secondary payloads aboard the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)-1 mission, which will launch from Van den Berg Air Force Base in California.
RadFxSat is a partnership with Van der Bilt University's Institute for Space and Defence Electronics (ISDE) and hosts four payloads for the study of radiation effects on commercial off-the-shelf components. It will carry a Fox-1 style FM U/V repeater with an uplink on 435.250 MHz (67.0 Hz CTCSS) and a downlink on 145.960 MHz.
RADIO ZS
Until yesterday 11 November, 1 304 copies of the October Radio ZS were downloaded and 431 copies of the November Radio ZS. The earliest issue of Radio ZS you can download is dated July 1947.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at very low levels. There are currently 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.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
17 November work ZS40VDK for a special QSL card
18 November the SDR Workshop at the NARC; the Antique Wireless Association Museum Open Day, Flea market and AGM, also on 18 November, the Bo Karoo ARC AGM and ZS40VDK Bash
25 November the SARL Newbie Sprint and the West Rand Flea Market
25 and 26 November the CQ WW DX CW Contest
1 December the start of the YOTA month
3 December the SARL Digital Contest
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item
If you work the ZS40VDK station from the Vanderkloof Dam on Friday 17 November 2017, you will receive a special QSL card via the SARL QSL Bureau.
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
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 program, 'Amateur Radio Today' at 10:00 Central African Time. The program 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 4 895 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 Andy Cairns, ZS6ADY, edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by
................
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
