SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 31 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. These broadcasts are 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:
IARU ADDRESSES NEW RADIO SPECTRUM POLLUTION THREAT
WE ARE NOW ENTERING THE PEAK OF OUR SPORADIC-E SEASON
and
THE JANUARY 2018 ISSUE OF RADIO ZS
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
NEW YEARS GREETINGS
The President and Council of the South African Radio League wish you and your family a happy new year filled with good health, success and amateur radio.
IARU ADDRESSES NEW RADIO SPECTRUM POLLUTION THREAT
The Administrative Council (AC) of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) held its annual in-person meeting on 15 and 16 September 2017 in Landshut, Germany, immediately prior to the IARU Region 1 Conference. The AC is responsible for the policy and management of the IARU and consists of the three IARU international officers and two representatives from each of the three IARU regional organizations.
The AC reviewed its priorities and positions about the agenda items for the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
High Power Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) for electric vehicles is seen as having a significant potential for interference to radio communications. Addressing this threat requires an increased commitment of resources by potentially affected radio communication services, including amateur radio.
Read the full IARU post on the front page of the SARL web site.
CHANGES TO AMATEUR RADIO TODAY AND AMATEURRADIO IN AKSIE
In SARL News of 24 December, mention was made of the changes to the programmes, Amateur Radio Today and Amateurradio in Aksie from early in January 2018. But for the team to make these changes, we need volunteers from our Clubs and Members. More local content is required for both programmes and here we are thinking of VHF/UHF News, what is happening on the digital side of the hobby, interesting Club projects, SOTA and WWFF activities, etc. If you want to contribute then contact Hans, ZS6AKV, on hans@intekom.co.za for AR Today and Dawie, ZR6DHC on zr6dhc@zs6rtb.co.za for Amateurradio in Aksie. Come on, you can make a difference.
WE ARE NOW ENTERING THE PEAK OF OUR SPORADIC-E SEASON
For those of you who have never experienced a strong Sporadic-E opening on 50 MHz, you are in for a very exciting surprise when it happens. Unfortunately Sporadic-E openings cannot be predicted and unless you monitor a distant beacon or FM broadcast station when it happens, you would not normally be aware of the Sporadic-E opening. The beacon that you wish to monitor must be outside the skip distance of about 600 km on 50 MHz or 900 km on 144 MHz. A Sporadic-E opening first appears as a weak fluttery signal and in minutes it increases in strength and the flutter changes to slow QSB. The Sporadic-E signal could often peak well over S9 plus for a half an hour or so, before rapid QSB starts again and it finally disappears.
Sporadic-E is normally a north/south event in South Africa, but Cape Town and Port Elizabeth have worked each other on 50 MHz Es when both were beaming north. In the past many Sporadic-E stations have been worked many times from Division 1 to Divisions 5 and 6 or from Division 2 to Division 6 and Namibia on both 50 MHz SSB and FM mostly in the mornings. But the most memorable Sporadic-E opening occurred on a Saturday afternoon in January on 50 MHz between Port Elizabeth, Windhoek and as far north as Tsumeb. This Sporadic-E opening lasted almost three hours with S9 plus signals and almost no QSB.
ZS6DN ran two beacons from Irene, one on 50 MHz and the other on 144 MHz. On a few occasions these two beacons were copied via Sporadic-E propagation in Port Elizabeth and signals could be compared with each other. The 50 MHz beacon signal was always the strongest, lasted the longest and with less QSB. There are still a few Sub-Saharan Band 3 television stations on the air with FM sound channels around 53,750 MHz and could often be heard around midday during the Sporadic-E season. Sporadic-E is an ionospheric propagation and is not polarized.
You are listening to a news Bulletin of the South African Radio League. Have you told someone about amateur radio recently?
THE JANUARY 2018 RADIO ZS
The January issue of Radio ZS will be available for download from Monday 31 December 2017. This issue contains several articles received for the Radio ZS Antenna Competition, the rest of the articles will be published in the February Radio ZS. Mike, ZS2FM, keeps us up to date with his regular VHF/UHF News and has also provided part 5 of his history of amateur radio between the two world wars. In the Museum Piece we travel to Gibraltar to find out about a SOE station in use during World War 2. Henry, ZS1AAZ, gives us information about switches and there is more information about the 2018 SARL National Convention.
Which article do you think was the best article during 2017? Send your suggestions to radiozs@sarl.org.za
SARL NEWS TEAM
Dennis, ZS4BS, the SARL News Team coordinator would like to thank all members of the News Team for their hard work during 2017, ensuring that there is a news bulletin each Sunday. Please continue with your good work during 2018!
2018 DIARY OF EVENTS AND BLUE BOOK
The 2018 Diary of Events and Blue Book are both available for download from the Leagues website. As has been mentioned in previous bulletins, changes have been made to various contests and it is important that you have the latest information. The Diary of Events will be updated on a regular basis and you will be informed via SARL News.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at 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 may provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
31 December the end of the YOTA Month
1 January New Years Day and the start of the ARRL International Grid Chase and the 2018 CQ Marathon
6 January the Pretoria ARC Flea Market
8 January the NARC opens for business
13 and 14 Hunting Lions in the Air
20 January the SDR Workshop at the NARC
19 to 21 January the PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest
26 January closing date for articles for the February Radio ZS
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
High Power Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) for electric vehicles is seen as having a significant potential for interference to radio communications. Addressing this threat requires an increased commitment of resources by potentially affected radio communication services, including amateur radio. Read the full IARU post on the front page of the SARL web site.
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 Dennis Green, ZS4BS/6, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by
................
From the news team, happy new year and best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
