SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2015

Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ………………………………………… [your name, call sign and QTH]

You can tune in to the South African Radio League news bulletin on Sunday mornings at 08:15 Central African Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Central African Time in English on HF and on many VHF and UHF repeaters around our country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the League web site.

This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za. You will find this bulletin and previous bulletins in text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the web page. While you are there, you can sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

We start the bulletin this morning with news of a silent key.

It is with deep regret that we must announce the passing of an active League member, Jurgens Cloete, ZS3AC, of Warrenton on Tuesday 10 November 2015 following a short illness.

We extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

PAUSE

In the news today

FRAGILE AGREEMENT FOR 5 MHZ AMATEUR ALLOCATION CLEARS FIRST HURDLES AT WRC-15

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER RADIO ZS IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

and

THE LEONIDS METEOR SHOWER TUESDAY 17 AND WEDNESDAY 18 NOVEMBER

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

** At the World Radio communication Conference 2015 or WRC-15, in Geneva, consensus continues to shape up around a new 15 kHz-wide global secondary 60 metre Amateur Radio allocation at 5 351.5 to 5 366.5 kHz. On 12 November, Conference Working Group 4B agreed to the global secondary allocation, with power limits designed to protect primary services from harmful interference. Sub Working Group (SWG) 4B1, chaired by Dale Hughes, VK1DSH, had presented its output document with two options, the other being no change - a position many administrations favoured going into the conference. The current compromise making the allocation possible still must clear two more levels at the conference. This will not happen until next week and the issue is not final until it does.

ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, who attended the conference briefly on behalf of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), congratulated the IARU team and the national delegates who advocated for the Amateur Service. "Assuming that the fragile agreement continues to hold, this will be the first entirely new HF allocation since 1979," he said. "While we would have preferred more, anyone who understands what our proponents were up against will appreciate what they have accomplished."

In other WRC-15 developments, a possible agenda item for the next WRC, for an amateur allocation at 50 MHz in Region 1 cleared its first hurdle (Region 1, excluding South Africa, has access to 50 to 52 MHz). A proposed agenda item to align the 160-metre allocation in Region 1 with the rest of the world was not likely to be accepted, however.

** ICASA has extended the South African Radio League licence for 5 260 and 5 290 kHz until 13 December pending a decision by the ICASA Council on the League’s request to extend the two licences for another three years. The League filed the request several months ago as it is expected that the WRC process to give radio amateurs a permanent allocation in the 5 MHz band is likely to take some time. The proposal is currently being discussed at the WRC-15 meeting in Geneva. The original South African Radio League licence expired on 31 October 2015.

Watch out for details on another 5 MHz activity weekend on 28 and 29 November.

** The 56-page November/December issue of Radio ZS, with the theme, antennas and feed lines, can be downloaded from the League web site. Vincent, ZS6BTY, gives us all the information about NVIS antennas for 5 MHz, while Hannes, ZS6BZP, tells us in Afrikaans about a magnetic loop antenna. Kevin, ZS6KMD, provides more about feed lines, a 20/40 m multiband dipole, an optical SWR indicator, a 0 to 50 MHz frequency counter and the I6IBE Smartphone interface. Roger, ZS6RJ, takes us through building a broadband version of a six band hexagonal beam.

Read what the Sasolburg ARC is doing for young people and learn more about building a 4:1 balun, a sloper for 160 metres and a two-element duo band beam. Mike, ZS2FM, asks the question, “Is amateur radio only a hobby and nothing else?” All this and more in the November/December issue.

** The theme for the January 2016 issue of Radio ZS is field stations and mobile operation. Get your articles in by Saturday 26 December 2015 and please send them to radiozs@sarl.org.za. The February 2016 issue looks at VHF, UHF and above, while in March 2016 the focus is on emergency communications.

** The Leonids is an annual meteor shower that occurs this year on 17 and 18 November with a maximum visual rate of up to 15 trails per hour from midnight to early morning. The Leonids produces a major peak every 33 years, the last was recorded on 17 November 1998. It was a historic event as the meteor radio bursts on VHF in the early morning hours were continuous for several hours. The first-ever meteor scatter contact on 144 MHz in South Africa was established by Paul, ZS6PJS, (now ZS6NK) at Pietersburg and Mike, ZS2FM, in Port Elizabeth at S9 plus on SSB. Bert, ZS6HS, and Peter, ZS6PT, also hooked up with Port Elizabeth on 144 MHz. Two hours later Paul, ZS6PJS, worked Shawn, ZR1EV, in Cape Town for a new 144 MHz MS record. Meanwhile many VHF amateurs were having a field day on 50 MHz SSB making numerous S9 plus contacts on meteor scatter. The Leonids meteor stream originates from the parent Comet Temple-Tuttle and during its last major peak it recorded over a thousand trails per hour.

** Calling all Hamnet members. This is a friendly reminder that our purpose in belonging to Hamnet is to be of service to our fellow South Africans. To that end, those of us not going to be travelling over the holiday season ought to prepare ourselves to be monitoring the emergency frequencies on 40 and 80 metres as often as possible, to be able to respond should a call for help come through. Remember, our reply may be the reply that saves somebody's life.

If you are travelling on holiday, why not take your HF radio and a portable antenna with you, and be the eyes and ears of the place where you will be staying during the holidays. You never know when your help might be needed.

In addition, if you are not already a member of Hamnet, consider joining the emergency communications wing of the South African Radio League, to be properly trained and capable of transmitting and receiving emergency traffic over the air. Contact the League office for the name of the Regional Director of Hamnet in your province.

** The sixth Youngsters on the Air summer camp will take place from 16 to 23 July 2016 in Wagrain, south of Salzburg (OE2) in Austria. The Austrian society, OeVSV, is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2016 and will host the YOTA camp as part of the celebrations. Seventy-five youngsters, between the ages of 15 and 25, will be invited to travel to the Austrian Alps to enjoy a programme with many new elements compared to previous years.

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

** The Amateur Radio in Action frequency counter kit is now available by mail order or collection from the National Amateur Radio Centre. There are two mail order options, via Postnet or the Post Office small parcel service with tracking number.

The frequency counter exhibits several interesting features, like a maximum working frequency above 40 MHz, a 10 Hz resolution, low current consumption (15 mA), and is easy to build. It is the ideal weekend project. The design is simple, given that most of the functions are implemented by the microprocessor which is supplied pre-programmed. For those who want to use the basic unit above the normal HF frequencies, space for a pre-scalar IC circuit is on the PCB layout and in the schematic layout. This IC, which is not included in the basic kit, can be ordered at an additional cost. This kit is ideal to meet the requirements of the amateur radio regulations which require that every amateur has a reliable method of measuring the transmit frequency.

The kit is available to League members at a substantial discount. For details and an order form, visit the ARiA page at www.sarl.org.za.

** Application for membership of the South African Radio League has been received from Gary Edward Attrill. Any objections to the acceptance of the application must reach the League Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin.

Membership of the League currently stands at 1 586 members and 41 affiliated clubs

** We have received excellent feedback from interested radio amateurs following a call to compile an Afrikaans amateur radio dictionary. The team consists of eight members, Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN; Jan Pieper, PE1PMO; Pine Pienaar, ZS6GST; Cobus Rabe, ZS1DJR; Louis de Wet, ZS6SK; Ryan Gibson, ZS6GGR; Johan du Bryn, ZS6JHB, and Fritz Sutherland, ZS6SF. Jan, PE1PMO, from Breezand, in the Netherland wrote, (translated from Dutch) “If I can from the Netherlands make a contribution, a Dutch dictionary, I will do so with pleasure.”

The proposed working structure and guidelines to make the project a success was completed in a meeting held on Wednesday evening. The final working document will be sent to the team members during the coming week for their input and finalisation after which the project will start in all earnest. The workgroup will be divided into three groups to allow for bigger and wider participation from amateurs and other interested parties. Group A, a 4-member committee, will be responsible for the project overall. Group B will consist of the wider radio amateur community with input to the word lists and external parties such as linguists. Group C is responsible for all the editing work together with the committee who will be responsible for the layout and structure of the dictionary. Contact Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN at etienne@afrigrid.com for more information.

** The Overberg Amateur Radio Club will be holding their end of the year function at Stanford on Saturday 21 November. This will be at the QTH of John, ZS1DI, and Judy, ZS1JEG. We will start with a short meeting to greet everyone and bring all up to date. After the meeting we will start with the normal bring and braai and there will be a table with salads and snacks for all to enjoy. While that is going on, the guys will be hunting foxes and the AWA will be bragging with their old boat anchors. Bring your surplus equipment for a boot sale, you might be surprised at who buys what. This is a fun weekend, so bring the family and enjoy it with us. Contact Andre, ZS1AZ, at 072 729 1680 or Sam, ZS1OR, at 028 316 1470 for further details.

**The West Rand Amateur Radio Club is hosting its next flea market at 12:00 on Saturday 28 November 2015 at their clubhouse in Kroton Street, Weltevreden Park, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. For more information, contact Johan, ZS6JVV, on 082 558 5811.

** In the propagation report, Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low to moderate levels. All visible sunspots are stable with a very low probability of solar flares. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 51.

The 20 to 10 m bands will provide lots of DX fun, especially during the late afternoons and in the evenings. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

And now for the diary of events

17 and 18 November - the Leonids meteor shower
21 November – the Overberg ARC end of the year function
28 November – the West Rand ARC flea market at 12:00
28 and 29 November – the CQ WW DX CW Contest and SARL 5 MHz Activity weekend
26 December – closing date for articles for the January 2016 Radio ZS

To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.

At the World Radio communication Conference 2015 or WRC-15, in Geneva, consensus continues to shape up around a new 15 kHz-wide global secondary 60 metre Amateur Radio allocation at 5 351.5 to 5 366.5 kHz.

** 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; 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, edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR, and read by ……………..…………………

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

73's and thank you for listening

/EX