SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2016

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 the country. Echolink listeners can connect to ZS0JPL for a relay. A podcast is available from the League’s web site.

This audio bulletin can be downloaded from the League’s 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 this bulletin with news of a silent key

The key of the world's longest-reigning monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, HS1A, of Thailand went silent on Thursday 13 October 2016 aged 88 in a hospital in Bangkok. He ascended to the throne on 9 June 1946.

PAUSE

In the news today,

RADIO AMATEUR EXAMINATION ON THURSDAY EVENING

AMSAT SA TO HOLD SDR WORKSHOP AT NARC

and

METEOR SCATTER COMMUNICATION

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

** The members of the South African Radio League would like to wish our Jewish members a very happy new year. The Jewish New Year was celebrated on Wednesday 12 October.

** We are now into the last stretch of the October 2016 radio amateur examination process. The October 2016 radio amateur examination will be written on Thursday evening 20 October. On behalf of the South African Radio League Council and the RAE Team, we would like to wish all students the best with the examination. May you all have a very successful examination and qualify to enter into this wonderful hobby.

** AMSAT SA is holding a half-day SDR workshop in cooperation with the South African Radio League at the National Amateur Radio Centre on 26 November 2016. The workshop will include videos and presentations on Software Defined Radio and a practical demonstration. AMSAT SA started a conversation with radio amateurs interested in SDR and soon realised that there is a wider interest in this developing technology in Amateur Radio.

The cost of attending is a contribution to the Kletskous development fund with a minimum of R20 to cover refreshment. For more details and to book your place, visit www.amsatsa.org.za or follow the link from the League’s home page.

** Radio amateurs are reminded to provide feedback to the League’s Regulatory Working Group about ICASA’s discussion document on Equipment Type Approval Exemption. Please send your input to sarlregwg@sarl.org.za by 31 October 2016.

** The closing date for articles for the November 2016 issue of Radio ZS is Tuesday 25 October 2016. To date the Editor has received three Afrikaans articles and an article about the Heard Island DXpedition. He has been promised an article about Jamboree on the Air and maybe CQ Hou Koers.

In August 2016, many South African Lighthouses were activated for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend – what about an article and some photographs of your activation. The editor recalls a DXpedition to Dassen Island sometime ago; that would also be a nice article. Send your articles to radiozs@sarl.org.za

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

** The League’s database cut-off process was carried out on Monday 10 October 2016. If you have not renewed your subscription by Monday, you are no longer a member of the League and will have to apply for membership of the SARL.

** There are 88 meteor showers present throughout the year, of which about ten are major showers and the rest minor showers. The stronger meteor showers can provide VHF contacts up to 2 500 km on 50 MHz or 70 MHz SSB or digital. The Orionids meteor shower will peak on Thursday night 20 October until early morning on Friday 21 October 2016 when about 20 meteor trails will be visible per hour. A meteor burst that provides about 30 seconds of communication on 50 MHz will yield only 3 seconds on 144 MHz and about a second on 432 MHz, but digital communication is still possible on these bands.

On rare occasions, a meteor burst could last up to three minutes on 50 MHz. The Orionids meteor shower will be followed by peak periods of the Leonids on 17 November, the Geminids on 14 December 2016 and the Quadrantids on 4 January 2017. The visual rate for the Leonids will be around 20 trails per hour, whereas the Geminids will peak at 120 per hour followed by the Quadrantids at 100 per hour.

** Work has started on the 2017 SARL Blue Book or Contest Manual. Clubs and individuals hosting the various League and Club contests are requested to go through the rules and provide the League’s Contest Manager with any changes that are required for the 2017 Blue Book. Please send your updates and comments or even suggestions for new contests to contest@sarl.org.za by 31 October 2016.

** Provisional results of the second leg of the SARL VHF/UHF contest held on 17 and 18 September have been released.

Overall
1st Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ – 116 589 points
2nd Christo Greyling, ZR6AUI/4 – 93 479 points
3rd Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ – 82 891 points

Base station Unlimited - Analogue and Digital
1st Rickus de Lange, ZS4A - 46 094 points
2nd Dick Coates, ZS6BUN - 38 175 points
3rd Harry Holtzhausen, ZR6AMC - 2 411 points

Base station Limited A - Analogue only
1st Carl Minne, ZS6CBQ - 116 589 points
2nd Jaco Cronje, ZR6CMG - 17 756 points
3rd Koos Greyvenstein, ZS6KSG - 1 349 points

Base station Limited 4 Hour
1st Stephen van Jaarsveldt, ZS6SVJ – 3 216 points

Base station Limited A - Digital only
1st Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ – 82 891 points
2nd Andre Botes, ZS2ACP – 21 819 points
3rd Lee Hanegraaf, ZS5LEE – 12 362 points

Field station:
Christo Greyling, ZR6AUI/4 - 93 479 points

Congratulations to the winners

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low to moderate levels. No major solar flaring is expected. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around 23. The 15 to 20 m bands will provide lots of DX fun. There is a chance of 10 m openings on north-south sunlit paths. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Now for the diary of events

20 October - RAE Examination
25 October – closing date for articles for the November Radio ZS
29 - 30 October - CQ WW DX SSB Contest
31 October – your feedback to sarlregwg@sarl.org.za about Equipment Type Approval Exemption
31 October – feedback about the 2017 Blue Book to contest@sarl.org.za
5 November - RaDAR Challenge
6 November – PEARS HF Contest
26 November – AMSAT SA SDR Workshop

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

** We are now into the last stretch of the October 2016 radio amateur examination process. The October 2016 radio amateur examination will be written on Thursday evening 20 October. On behalf of the South African Radio League Council and the RAE Team, we would like to wish all students the best with the examination. May you all have a very successful examination and qualify to enter into this wonderful hobby.

** 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 ……………………………………………..

73 and 88, thank you for listening

/EX