SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 06 April 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 may tune into 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 the country. Echolink listeners may 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.

IN THE NEWS TODAY
NEW RADIO REGULATIONS PUBLISHED
OPPERATIONAL NEWS FROM VARIOUS AMATEURS
WINTER FREQUENCIES FOR AMATEUR RADIO TODAY
SARL CONVENTION, BOOK NOW
The new radio regulations were published in the government gazette this week. In short Radio amateurs can now, with the exception of a few bands, increase output power to one kilowatt. The 160 meter band has been extended to 2 MHz and as bonus Class B licensees was awarded a power increase to 100watt as well.
Look out for more on these and other amendments in future bulletins.
** We have received news from two radio amateurs planning various special operations over the next couple of weeks:
Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ, at Rosh Pinah has informed us that he and Marcos Turbo, PY1MHZ, in Rio de Janeiro are planning scatter tests from the International Space Station (ISS) on 144 MHz. The distance of this scatter path is 5000 km and midway distance to ISS is 2500 km. He says his 2 kilowatt amplifiers have arrived, but his normal co-axial cable will have to be replaced with a thicker co-axial cable to handle the higher power. Pieter will conduct his initial tests with a 10 element Yagi until Pine ZS6OB has completed a new antenna system for him.

** We also received word from Andre, ZS1AZ, who will be operating a field station at Malagas from 8 April until 12 April using the ZS1OAR callsign. The 80, 40 and 20m bands will be used if all goes well. You are also welcome to visit Andre as camping facilities are available. Contact Andre at 028-5142018 or 072-7291680 for further details.
** The new shortwave season for Amateur Radio Today began on 29 March 2015 and will end on 24 October 2015. Until 24 October you may tune in to Amateur radio today on a Sunday morning on 7205 kHz broadcasting from Meyerton. This transmission is aimed at Southern Africa with an output power of 100 kW. Listeners in East and Central Africa may tune in to the 250 kW transmission on 17660 kHz also from Meyerton. On Monday evenings at 18:30 local time a rebroadcast, once again aimed at Southern Africa may be heard on 3230 kHz once again coming from Meyerton at 100kW.
Louis de Bruin ZS5LP in Durban also relays the Sunday morning program on 7082kHz Lower Side band.
Apart from these frequencies Amateur Radio Today may also be heard on various VHF and UHF frequencies across South Africa as many clubs and individuals relay the program on their local repeaters.
A podcast by Dick ZS6RO may be downloaded via a link on the SARL homepage.
** The SARL National convention and AGM is to take place in Bloemfontein on the third weekend in April. Detailed information is available on www.sarl.org.za

One of the functions of the AGM is to approve the budget for the next financial year and also to approve the new SARL membership fees. The meeting can only do this, if there is a quorum. A quorum requires 10% of members, in person or by proxy.

Please make an effort to attend this meeting, but if you cannot manage this please give your proxy to a member who will be attending. If you do not know any member who will attend, give you proxy to the chairman of the meeting (the President), to the Secretary or to any council member. Email or fax such proxies to the admin office admin at sarl.org.za

** An application for membership of the SARL has been received from Fuad Vally ZSL1140.
Any objections to the acceptance of the application must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday after this bulletin.
Membership of the SARL currently stands at 1634 plus 38 affiliated clubs.
There are 38 entries for the May RAE

During the week we noted several enquiries to the HAMNET 40 meter simulated contest results on the SARL forum.

Conditions on contest day were poor, especially in the Cape Province. Although there was a fair amount of activity, particularly in Division 6, only nine logs were received.

Results are as follows:
Single Operator Stationary Mobile
ZR6GC 560

Single Operator Portable
ZS5MB 500
ZS6WBT 468
ZS6BV 336
ZS2U 54
ZS2DH 48
The Multi-Operator Portable saw no entries

Single Operator Base Station
ZS4DZ 1176
ZS6APT 336
ZS90SARL 208


PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the expected solar activity will be at low levels. All of the earth facing sunspots are currently stable.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 70.

The 20 to 10 m bands will, especially during the late afternoons, provide lots of DX fun.

Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

In this weeks diary of events
5 April - the closing date for South African Radio League VHF/UHF logs
9 April - the closing date for registration for the May RAE and the closing date for 80 m QSO Party logs
11 April - the South African Radio League Autumn QRP Contest
11 April - Open day for the 2015 Stars of Sandstone, listen out for ZS4AFV
17 to 19 April - the South African Radio League National Convention in Bloemfontein
18 April - World Amateur Radio Day

To end this morning’s newscast a quick recap of our main story: The new radio regulations have been published and so far it seems that amateur radio has gained quite a bit from the new regulations. More news on the exact extent of the regulations will follow in SARL news shortly.

That brings us to the end of the SARL news for this week.

** 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 by Dick, 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; 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 Dawie Conradie, ZR6DHC, edited by Brian Utterson, ZS6AE, and read by ..............

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