SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 17 DECEMBER 2017
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ...................................................... [your name, call sign and QTH]
The South African Radio League broadcasts a news bulletin each Sunday in Afrikaans as well as English, at 08:15 and 08:30 Central African Time respectively, on HF as well as on various VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. The bulletin is relayed via Echolink by ZS6JPL. A podcast is available on the League website.
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:
SURVEY OF DEVICES THAT CAUSE INTERFERENCE
OCTOBER RAE DOCUMENTS
and
LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD TO ADD SUPPORT FOR CQ WAZ AWARD
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
SURVEY OF DEVICES THAT CAUSE INTERFERENCE
Radio Amateurs are invited to make contributions to a survey of devices in your house and radio room that may cause increases in the noise level in the RF spectrum.
During the International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) [pronounced as cispher to rhyme with whisper] plenary meeting in Hangzhou, China, the IARU raised a question on whether the increasing number of electronic devices in households is properly reflected during the process of setting limits for single products. The Steering committee discussed the issue and concluded that the number of devices used in a certain environment is not reflected in the standards and that the number of devices in use may in some cases be very difficult to estimate.
The Steering committee further concluded that this issue is not trivial, more research is necessary before any concept of adjusting limits to consider multiple interference sources can be included in the limit setting process. CISPR members are asked to provide any information that can be used to determine the impact on radio reception by the increasing number of electronic devices being used.
What the SARL would like you to do is - look around the house and list all the devices that you consider are devices that could be the source of interference on the radio spectrum. The following is a list of possible problem sources: mobile phone chargers, LED lights, power saving lights, electronic fluorescent lights, battery chargers, electric toothbrushes, power banks, solar panels and switch mode power supplies. Do the same for devices in your radio room.
Send the information to artoday@sarl.org.za before 31 December 2017. You can make a difference.
OCTOBER RAE DOCUMENTS
The RAE documents for the successful candidates of the October 2017 RAE have been posted to the various examination centres around the country. From there the documents will be made available to the candidates, so please contact your exam centre.
NARC CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY
You are reminded that the National Amateur Radio Centre closed on Friday 15 December 2017 for the Festive Season. The NARC will open for business on Monday 8 January 2018. For any urgent enquiries in this period, please contact secretary@sarl.org.za.
LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD TO ADD SUPPORT FOR CQ WAZ AWARD
Participants in CQ magazine's Worked All Zones (WAZ) award programme will soon be able to use the Logbook of The World (LoTW) system of ARRL to apply for the WAZ award and its endorsements, the ARRL and CQ announced on 14 December.
Amateur Radio operators will be able to use LoTW logs to generate lists of confirmed contacts to be submitted for WAZ credit. Standard LoTW credit fees and separate CQ award fees will apply. Implementation, documentation, and internal testing of the link between LoTW and WAZ is complete. The ARRL and CQ are now assembling a team of external beta testers to assure that the link is ready for widespread use. A separate announcement will be made when LoTW's support for CQ WAZ is available to everyone.
LoTW has supported the CQ WPX Award program since 2012. The Worked All Zones is the second-oldest active Amateur Radio award programme, behind the International Amateur Radio Union's Worked All Continents (WAC) award.
You are listening to a news bulletin broadcast by the South African Radio League.
LOOK OUT FOR 50 MHz SSSP DX AROUND THE SUMMER SOLSTICE
The summer solstice in the southern hemisphere occurs on Thursday 21 December 2017. Watch out for Short-path Summer Solstice Propagation (SSSP) DX on 50 MHz several days before as well as a week or so after the peak of the summer solstice for possible DX openings. New Zealand has already worked South American stations during this period. South Africans should look for SSSP openings in the morning to Australia and New Zealand and in the afternoon for Brazilian stations. Who will be the first ZS to make a SSSP contact?
NOW IS THE TIME FOR SPORADIC-E OPENINGS ON 50 MHz
Recently the first Sporadic E contact during this season was made from Rio de Janeiro over 2 000 km to the northern part of Brazil. Keep an eye on distant 50 MHz beacons and remember about skip distance. Sporadic-E openings produce very strong signals and contacts can be made even on low power and these Sporadic E openings usually peak in January.
UNIQUE CONTACT WITH ZS9YOTA VIA ALLSTAR 46765 + AREDN MESH NODE ON 12 DECEMBER 2017
Johan Terblanche, ZS1I, was surprised to hear ZS9YOTA/mobile calling on the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) AllStar Node running on a Raspberry Pi on 12 December. Johan quickly connected to the AllStar Node via his iPhone using Zoiper (VOIP application) and contact was established with Chane Greeff, ZS4CG, 15 years old from Sasolburg, a passenger in her dad, Riaans car while Johan was sitting in his living room. She was using Echolink on a mobile phone with crisp clear audio. They had a great QSO and Johan explained to her that their conversation was going out simultaneously on the AREDN AllStar 46765 Node, Echolink 108551 Node and on the AREDN Mossel Bay Mesh Network (ZS1I-4 Node via 5,8 Ghz). All modern technology with the young and not so young radio amateur in mind. Chane explained that the December YOTA Month Event is aimed at young people who are interested in or want to find out more about Amateur Radio on the air. Johan was highly impressed with the operating procedures of this young lady and commended her in this regard. A great new modern contact with modern technology!!
Finally, Johan would like to invite all youngsters and also not so young operators to support Youngsters on the Air (ZS9YOTA) during December. Feel free to use the following nodes if you so wish - Echolink Node 108551 ZS1I-L; AllStar Node 46765 ZS1I-L and/or AREDN Node zs1i-4.local.mesh:8080/ (ZS1I-4 (Only accessible on 5,8 GHz)) More information on https://mosselbaymesh.co.za/
THE 2018 SARL DIARY OF EVENTS
The 2018 SARL Diary of Events will be available in PDF format for download from Tuesday 19 December 2017 from www.sarl.org.za/public/SARLDiaryOfEvents.asp. Editors of Club Newsletters who would like a copy of the document in MS Word, can contact Dennis, ZS4BS at secretary@sarl.org.za
JANUARY MRK CLUB MEETING
At the January meeting of the Magalies Radio Club on 20 January 2018, the guest speaker will be Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, who will give a brief overview of the IARU Region 1 role in amateur radio.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to stay 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:
26 December closing date for articles for the January Radio ZS
31 December closing date for your input to the survey of devices that cause interference, send it to artoday@sarl.org.za. Also the end of 2017 CQ DX Marathon and YOTA month
1 January start of the ARRL International Grid Chase and the 2018 CQ DX Marathon
8 January NARC opens for business
20 January SDR Workshop at the NARC
19 to 21 January the PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest
27 January the Summer QRP Contest
30 January closing date for proposals and synopses for AMSAT SA Symposium papers
31 January closing date for nominations for Council and SARL Awards and for AGM motions
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item
Radio Amateurs are invited to make contributions to a survey of devices in your house and radio room that may cause increases in the noise level in the RF spectrum. What the SARL would like you to do is - look around the house and list all the devices that you consider are devices that could be the source of interference on the radio spectrum. Send the information to artoday@sarl.org.za before 31 December 2017. You can make a difference.
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 Emile Venter, ZS6V, edited by
and read by
................
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
