SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 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 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 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.
In the news today
EUROPE SUPPORT 5 MHZ ALLOCATION
RADIO ZS ARTICLES
LOGSHEETS FOR NATIONAL FIELD DAY
ARiA COMES TO CAPE TOWN
RAE NEWS; and
GREAT EXPECTATIONS ON VHF DURING THE COMING MONTHS
Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items.
** An European Common Proposal (ECP) for an allocation of 100 kHz at 5350-5450 kHz has been accepted. This was a hard fought success with 7 abstentions (Austria, Belgium, UK, Hungary, Ireland, Montenegro, Poland) and 5 against (Azerbaijan, Germany, Romania, Russian Federation and France). It is now up to the African block to support the agenda item at WRC which starts in Geneva, Switzerland on 2 November.
The meeting also agreed to table two proposals for WRC19 : Global harmonisation at 1.8 MHz and Global harmonisation at 50-54 MHz ( Russia, Switzerland and Lichtenstein against, Norway agrees to 50-52 MHz).
**Any material for the October 2015 issue of Radio ZS must reach the editor by midnight on 20 September. Send your contribution to radiozs@sarl.org.za. The column for radio clubs is still empty.
** Log sheets for the SARL National Field Day held on 12 and 13 September must be submitted by midnight on 20 September to zs4bfn@gmail.com in ADIF or Cabrillo format or as a MS Excel spreadsheet.
**The SARL Amateur Radio in Action symposium, or ARiA for short, will be presented in the Cape Town area on 10 October 2015. The symposium will be held at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Belleville campus. The programme offers interesting presentations and demonstrations including how to construct a frequency meter, how to install a radio in your car and building an Inverted V for Near Vertical Incidence Sky wave and other propagation phenomena.
Booking for the event opens today. Visit www.sarl.org.za where you will also find the full programme.
**Only a couple of weeks left before the radio amateur exam, we are now in the final stretch towards the examination of the RAE on 15 October 2015.
Examination numbers have been published on the SARL website. Candidates can obtain their examination numbers there.
A number of 102 students registered. Of the 102 students 87 complied with the registration process by close of business on 3 September 2015 and will be eligible to write the examination.
Of the 87 there are two class B students.
The SARL Council wishes them all of the best with their preparation.
**We are now entering the warmer months of Spring followed by the hot Summer months, and this is the prime period for good propagation on VHF. September and October months have provided us with excellent Tropo Ducting conditions across the Indian Ocean to Reunion Island on 144 and 432 MHz, SSB and Digital. This is also the TEP DX season on 50 MHz that extends through to November. The Sporadic-E season in the Southern Hemisphere covers December and January months when countrywide contacts are possible during unexpected Es openings on 50 and 144 MHz. DX openings on Es could extend to Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia or even further North. Around the Summer solstice in December 50 MHz DX openings could occur on SSSP, so keep an eye on VK, ZL and PY. There are also four major meteor showers coming up: Orionids in October, Leonids in November, Geminids in December and the Quadrantids in January making SSB and FM analogue modes possible. This is also a wonderful time to make frequent 400 km QSO's on Tropo Enhancement, or countrywide contacts via Tropo Ducting after sunrise on 50 MHz or at night on 144 MHz. Watch the VHF beacons for openings.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League
**SARL Youth coordinator, Koos Fick, ZR6KF would like to meet his peers in the Cape and invites all young radio amateurs to join him for cake and cool drink on Friday 9 October at the Oakdale Amateur Radio club at 17:00. He will share his experience of his recent attendance at an IARU sponsored youth event in Italy, talk about on the air activity and share information about YOTA, the on the air youth event for the month of December 2015. To assist with catering please send an sms to 083 269 9939
** A copy of the 2014 ARRL Handbook is the prize in a lucky draw for the three SARL HF Contests held in August. Sgt Elmarie Brand of the School of Armour was asked to draw the winning call sign.
The winner of this special ARRL Handbook is Geoff Levey, ZS6C. Congratulations Geoff.
** In this weeks propagation report Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at moderate levels. Sunspot AR2415 has a "beta-gamma" magnetic field that harbours enough energy for M-class solar flares.
If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 44.
The 20 to 15 m bands will provide lots of DX fun, especially during the late afternoons and in the evenings. 10 m may also hold a surprise or two.
Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
**A group of radio amateurs from the Western Cape and Northen Cape will be setting-up their radio equipment in the Gamka Valley, also known as The Hel. A special station with call sign ZS9HEL will be on the air from Thursday evening 24 September till Sunday morning 27 September. The aim is to obtain enough contacts for the WAZS and TOP Band certificates. The following bands and frequencies will be monitored 160, 80, 40, 20 on 1890 kHz, 3740 kHz, 7150 kHz and 14180 kHz. If possible 10125kHz on 30m and 5290 on 60m will also be monitored. QSL will be via the Bureau but preferably via SA-QSL and e-QSL should be used. DX will also be worked. Please make contact with the team in the Gamka Valley. For more information visit the web site www.diehel.com
**Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from the following persons:
. ZS5LEE: Lee HenkHanegraaf
. ZS2DAD: Dean Warren Rossouw
Any objections to the acceptance of the applications must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday after the bulletin.
Membership of the SARL currently stands at 1476 plus 38 affiliated clubs
And now for the diary of events
20 Sep VHF/UHF Contest
26 27 Sep CQ WW RTTY Contest
3 Oct Spring QRP Contest
10 11 Oct AWA valve contest
24 Oct YOTA CQ HouKoers
To end this bulletin, a recap of our main news item this morning.
** An European Common Proposal (ECP) for an allocation of 100 kHz at 5350-5450 kHz has been accepted. This was a hard fought success with 7 abstentions (Austria, Belgium, UK, Hungary, Ireland, Montenegro, Poland) and 5 against (Azerbaijan, Germany, Romania, Russian Federation and France). It is now up to the African block to support the agenda item at WRC which starts in Geneva, Switzerland on 2 November.
**The SARL Amateur Radio in Action symposium, or ARiA for short, will be presented in the Cape Town area on 10 October 2015. The symposium will be held at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Belleville campus.
**SARL Youth coordinator, Koos Fick, ZR6KF would like to meet his peers in the Cape and invites all young radio amateurs to join him for cake and cool drink on Friday 9 October at the Oakdale Amateur Radio club at 17:00.
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 Etienne Naude, ZS6EFN, edited by Brian Utterson, ZS6AE and read by Rory Norton, ZS6BL.
From the entire news team, best wishes for the week ahead.
73 and thank you for listening
/EX
