SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 01 JANUARY 2012
You are listening to ZS6SRL, the official radio station of the South African Radio League, the national body for amateur radio in South Africa, with a news bulletin every Sunday at 08:15 CAT in Afrikaans and at 08:30 CAT in English. To listen to a web stream, visit www.sarl.org.za, click on 'Amateur Radio Today' and follow the links for details. PLEASE NOTE: for audio via Echolink, connect to ZS0JPL-R.
You can download this bulletin and previous ones from www.sarl.org.za and also subscribe to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
Your newsreader this morning is (name), (call sign), on 145,725 and 7,066 MHz from Pretoria, with relays on 7,066 and 3,695 MHz SSB.
In this first SARL NEWS for 2012:
CHANGES AT ICASA
ADVANCED AUSTRALIAN LICENSE HOLDERS MAY GET MORE POWER
ARRL KIDS DAY ON JANUARY 8
JOIN THE SARL THIS WEEK AND RECEIVE A COMMEMORATIVE MOUSE PAD
You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and other important and interesting items.
On this first day of 2012 we wish you a happy and prosperous New Year. May all your wishes come true and your new year resolutions include more time on the air.
CHANGES AT ICASA
The ICASA General Manager Engineering and Technology has resigned and left ICASA on 31 December 2011. Dumisa Ngwenya chaired the ICASA - SARL Liaison Committee. There is no indication of who will be acting in this position until a new person is appointed. A new appointment is long process as the post has to be advertised.
In anticipation of his resignation the SARL lodged, in mid December, an Appeal to the Chief Executive Officer of ICASA, Themba Dlamini, to investigate the long delay in the publication of the corrections to the regulations which became effective on 1 April 2011. To date the SARL has not received a response other than that the legal department are reviewing the corrections. The SARL requested the CEO to separate the Amateur regulations from the rest of the corrections as they seem to be delaying the process. The SARL has also requested a meeting with the CEO.
ADVANCED AUSTRALIAN LICENSE HOLDERS MAY GET MORE POWER
After ongoing representations by the Wireless Institute of Australia it seems if Advanced licensees will be allowed transmit power limits comparable to other countries.
The ACMA has advised the WIA that it intends to accede to the WIA's request that Advanced licensees may apply for a variation of their licence to permit higher power from a fixed location on a trial basis from 1 March 2012. The ACMA has stressed to the WIA that it remains concerned about the risk of interference from the use of higher power. At the end of 12 months the position will be reviewed by the ACMA.
The ACMA has adopted this approach to enable any particular difficulties to be identified and satisfactory solutions found to, in the words of the ACMA, `enable the trial to progress to appropriate ongoing arrangements from early 2013.'
Michael Owen, VK3KI, WIA President, said "The higher power limits will only be permitted on the amateur High Frequency bands where the amateur service holds a primary status for those allocations". The Wireless Institute of Australia has however requested that the band 7 100 to 7 200 kHz be also included. In October 2005 Australia introduced an advanced grade syllabus following a more advanced syllabus of study. Australia has three license grades, a Foundation, a Standard license and an Advanced license.
ARRL KIDS DAY ON JANUARY 8
The first of two Kids Day operating events for 2012 takes place on Sunday January 8th. Kids Day is a twice yearly on-the-air happening to encourage young people, licensed or not, to learn about our wonderful world of amateur radio and the fun it has to offer.
Kids Day is not a contest. Rather, it is a way to tell young people worldwide about the magic and mystery of two way hobby radio communications. To accomplish this, amateur radio stations are being asked to devote this short time window to promote both terrestrial and satellite operations to youngsters by providing a place to make contacts with other Kids Day stations around the world.
More information about Kids Day is on-line at www.arrl.org/kids-day.
JOIN THE SARL THIS WEEK AND RECEIVE A COMMEMORATIVE MOUSE PAD
If you are not yet a member of the SARL, is it not time that you did join? The first twenty new members who join in January 2012 will receive a commemorative mouse pad. The pad has the IARU 2011 IARU Conference logo printed on it and is a collector's piece. To join visit www.sarl.org.za or call Mariska on 011 675 2393. The office reopens on Tuesday 3 January.
NEW TIME FOR AMATEUR RADIO TODAY'S MONDAY TRANSMISSION.
From tomorrow, January 2, the retransmission of Amateur Radio TODAY will change to 17:30 - 18:30 UTC which is 19:30 - 20:30 CAT. The transmission will remain in the 60 metre band on a frequency of 4 895 kHz. The transmitter power will be 100 kW feeding an omni-directional antenna. Reception reports are invited and can be emailed to artoday@sarl.org.za. All reports received of the January 2 transmission by 5 January will be participating in a lucky draw for the ARRL RFI handbook 2.You can also fax your report to 012 991 5651.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low to moderate levels. Sunspot 1389 produced some moderate M-class flares on Thursday and Friday. During 2009 there were 260 spotless days, 51 in 2010 and only 2 spotless days during 2011.
For the people doing their own frequency predictions the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 95.
All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of DX fun with the higher bands typically opening first and the lower bands opening later during the day. 6 m is also active with TEP openings from time-to-time.
Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.
DIARY OF EVENTS
8 January – ARRL Kids Day events, information on www.arrl.org/kids-day.
15 January - Last day for submission of summaries of proposed papers for the Radio Technology in Action Symposiums 2012 to artoday@sarl.org.za.
31 January - Last day for submission of nominations for Council members and also for submission of motions for the 2012 SARL AGM.
31 January - Closing date for submitting papers for SA AMSAT Space Symposium.
Remember also to submit nominations for SARL awards which will be presented at the gala dinner which will take place over the weekend of the 2012 SARL AGM. Send nominations to secretary@sarl.org.za.
SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners. Submit news items - if possible - in both English and Afrikaans to www.sarl.org.za/newsinbox.asp, not later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.
The SARL also invites you to listen to Amateur Radio Today every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria area, with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 760 kHz. There is also a podcast by ZS6RO. For a web-stream and Echolink by ZS6FCS, visit www.sarl.org.za, click on 'Amateur Radio TODAY', go down the green column and click on 'LISTEN ON THE WEB'. A repeat transmission can be heard on Mondays at 17:30 UTC on 4 895 kHz. Sentech sponsors the ARMI transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.
You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League, compiled by George, Z6SNE.
Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
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