SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 20 JANUARY 2019
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 on 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.
We start the bulletin this morning with news of a silent key.
It is with deep regret that we announce that the key of Graham Griggs, ZS2ABK went silent on Thursday 17 January 2019 after a long battle with cancer. Graham was very involved with the Maritime Mobile Net for many years, until illness put a stop to his participation.
We extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends.
PAUSE
In the news, today:
HAVE YOU NOMINATED SOMEONE FOR A SARL AWARD OR TROPHY?
SOUTH AFRICA TO SUPPORT IARU POSITIONS ON WRC-19 AGENDA ITEMS AFFECTING AMATEUR RADIO
and
SECUNDA RADIO CLUB – FIELD STATION EVENT
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
HAVE YOU NOMINATED SOMEONE FOR A SARL AWARD OR TROPHY?
The closing date for nominations for SARL Awards and Trophies is midnight on Thursday 31 January. You are referred to pages 14, 15 and 16 of the December Radio ZS as well as the SARL Communication dated 31 December 2018 for a list of the SARL Awards and Trophies that will be handed out during the Awards Dinner. There are merit awards and there are operational awards – what happened on 6, 4 and 2 metres as well as 70 cm and higher during 2018, who was involved? Which was the best article publish in Radio ZS during 2018?
Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN has indicated that he will not stand for re-election to Council, there are five vacancies on Council for the new year. Nominations to fill these five vacancies are invited Are there matters that you would like to discuss at the AGM? Nominations for SARL Awards and Trophies, nominations for Council and motions for the AGM must be submitted to the SARL Secretary by midnight on Thursday 31 January 2019 using the e-mail secretary@sarl.org.za. Nomination templates and a template for motions can be found by following the link in the 2019 Day of the Radio item in the Member's Only section.
Do it now and do not wait until 31 January.
SOUTH AFRICA TO SUPPORT IARU POSITIONS ON WRC-19 AGENDA ITEMS AFFECTING AMATEUR RADIO
The two-day Industry WRC-19 Preparatory meeting held last week recommended that South Africa support the IARU position on agenda items that impact on Amateur Radio. The meeting considered the draft ITU Conference Preparatory Meeting report (CPM) and developed the South African position which will now be discussed at the SADC meeting and after that at the ATU meeting next month. The final CPM report will be discussed later this year before the CPM meeting which will be held prior to WRC in October. The final South African position will then be submitted to cabinet for approval. This will form the guidelines that the South African delegation will use in the WRC discussions.
Item 1.1 of the Agenda deals with 50 - 54 MHz. The SARL proposal to support the global allocation of 50 - 54 MHz which is draft CPM option A, was supported. For South Africa this means keeping the current allocation. There are all indications that this agenda item will get Africa wide support.
For agenda 1.13 the IARU proposed that 47.0 to 47.2 GHz be left as a primary amateur allocation. This small portion of the 47 GHz was left untouched although questions were asked what studies the amateur radio community has carried out and what use the spectrum is planned for.
The SARL closely followed discussions on agenda items 1.15, 1.16 and 10. Two agenda items of concern are those dealing with 2,3 and 5 GHz allocations and the encroachment of Wi-Fi systems. Amateur Radio has secondary allocations in those two bands.
The SARL participated in discussions on simplifying registration of satellites with an operational life of 3 years and shorter. South Africa played a major role in this agenda item and supports the initiative. The agenda item to find new allocations for University CubeSats also resulted in substantial discussions. While this agenda item is not supported by many countries, the meeting felt it is an important proposal and agreed to promote this at SADC and ATU level. Currently many countries allow these satellites to operate on amateur radio frequencies and see no need to find alternative frequency allocations. The SARL and AMSAT SA was represented by Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV
REGISTER NOW FOR 2019 AMSAT SA SPACE SYMPOSIUM
Book now for the 2019 AMSATSA Space Symposium. It will be held at the Accolade Conference Centre in Midrand just off the Ben Schoeman Highway. The rate will be R400 per person for AMSAT SA and SARL members and R600 for non-members. There is an early bird rate of R350 for AMSATSA and SARL Members if booked and paid for by 28 February 2019. Accommodation is also available at the hotel at R855 plus VAT. More details on www.amsatsa.org.za
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
SECUNDA RADIO CLUB – FIELD STATION EVENT
The Secunda Radio Club, ZS6SRC will be active on the air from 18 – 27 January 2019 at the Trichardtsfontein Dam Yacht Club, a few kilometres from Secunda in Mpumalanga (Grid KG43OH). A multi station operating on 80, 40, 20, 17, 15, 2 m and 70 cm including satellite activity will be operational during this period.
During the first week the youngsters from the ZS6ZU Hammies ARC will be joining the Secunda team to operate and experience the simulated DXpedition environment of the field station. The Secunda Club invites interested radio amateurs to join them in operating the station the during this period.
From an accommodation point of view, camping facilities for caravans and tents are available at the Dam with hot and cold-water showers and toilets available, camp sites have 220 V supply. Should you be interested please contact Gert Botha, ZS6GC on 082 771 0663 or via e-mail to gertb@cybersmart.co.za for more information pertaining to the event.
EARTH'S SHIFTING MAGNETIC POLES ARE AFFECTING YOUR PHONE
Earth's magnetic field is changing so quickly that researchers have been forced to update to the World Magnetic Model ahead of schedule. Developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British Geological Survey, the model is widely used for precision navigation of devices ranging from nuclear submarines to the common smartphone. Your own phone may be affected.
"The WMM is the standard magnetic model used for navigation by organizations such as NATO, the Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defence and also by smartphone operating systems such as Android and iOS," explains Will Brown of the British Geological Survey's Geomagnetism Team, which produces the model in collaboration with NOAA of the USA. "When you open your smartphone's map app, you may see an arrow pointing which way you're facing, and there's something quite clever going on underneath," he continues. "Your phone contains a magnetometer that is measuring the Earth's magnetic field. In order to make sense of this information, Android and iOS operating systems use the WMM to correct the measurements to true north."
Normally the World Magnetic Model is updated every 5 years. "Since late 2014, Earth's core field has varied in an unpredicted and currently unpredictable, manner [including a sudden change in declination called a 'geomagnetic jerk' in 2014/2015]," says Brown. "The aim of the WMM is to be globally accurate within 1 degree of declination, but we were going to exceed that limit in only 3 years." That's why, for the first time, they are issuing an update to the WMM before the usual 5 year mark in 2020.
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS
The SARL has received a membership application from the Johannesburg ARC, ZS6TJ. Any objections to this membership application must reach the League Secretary before the Wednesday following the bulletin. Please send your objections to secretary@sarl.org.za
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. Currently there are 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 some DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:
18 to 27 January – the Secunda ARC Field Station Event.
26 January – the Summer QRP Contest.
31 January – the closing date for Council nominations, motions for the 2019 AGM, and nominations for the SARL Awards and Trophies.
2 February – the SARL VHF/UHF QSO Party.
3 February – the AWA CW Activity Day.
9 February – the VHF/UHF Workshop at the NARC.
9 and 10 February – the SARL National Field Day.
28 February – end of early bird bookings for the Space Symposium and closing date for SARL Hall of Fame nominations.
To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
The closing date for nominations for SARL Awards and Trophies is midnight on Thursday 31 January. You are referred to pages 14, 15 and 16 of the December Radio ZS as well as the SARL Communication dated 31 December 2018 for a list of the SARL Awards and Trophies that will be handed out during the Awards Dinner. There are merit awards and there are operational awards – what happened on 6, 4 and 2 metres as well as 70 cm and higher during 2018, who was involved? Which was the best article publish in Radio ZS during 2018?
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 and edited by Dennis Green, ZS4BS and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
/EX
