SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 3 JUNE 2018

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 via 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 two silent keys.

It is with deep regret that we must announce that the key of Reg Barnes, ZS6AHB went silent on 21 May 2018. Reg from Hurbarn Electronics was an agent for Heathkit and Bird Electronic Equipment. He leaves a daughter Lynn. Our deepest sympathy goes out to the family and friends at this sad time.

It is with deep regret that we must announce that the key of Andre De Jong, ZS5AKQ from Kwambonambi, went silent on 30 May 2018. Condolences to his family and friends from the Zululand Amateur Radio Club

PAUSE

In the news, today:

CURRENT REGULATIONS REMAIN IN FORCE

IARU REGION 1 VHF MANAGER WARNS OF THE DANGER OF VHF/UHF/MICROWAVE SPECTRUM GRABS

and

HIGH-ALTITUDE BALLOON LAUNCH ON 9 JUNE

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

CURRENT REGULATIONS REMAIN IN FORCE

The publication of the National Radio Frequency band plan has created some confusion and a lot of speculation. Here are the facts:

The current regulations remain in force. The frequencies and conditions as published in addendum I of the 2015 Radio Frequency Spectrum Regulations remain in force. View a list of amateur radio frequencies at www.amateurradio.org.za/Annexure%20I.pdf

ICASA has started a process to amend the regulations and bring them in line with the National Frequency Band Plan. A draft will be published in the Government Gazette in due course for comment. Although ICASA Councillor, Peter Zimri, told the SARL that ICASA is fast tracking the new regulations, it will likely be some months before the draft is gazetted for comment. The SARL will monitor the situation.

As far as 5 MHz is concerned, the allocation is not in the current addendum I. However, ICASA agreed that all licensed radio amateurs ZR, ZS and ZU may use the frequencies provided they operate with the maximum power of 15 Watts eirp. The SARL has made representation to ICASA to consider a limit of 20 dBW or 100 watts. This process will mostly likely only be considered after the draft regulations are published for comment.

There is currently no band plan. Before a band plan for South Africa is considered research should be undertaken what other countries that have 100 kHz of the 5 MHz have agreed on. In some countries, additional spot frequencies outside the WRC allocation have been allocated to the amateur service. These should also be considered as they could present some DX opportunities.

If you have views on a band plan, please send them to secretary@sarl.org.za so that an informed recommendation can be made to Council and ultimately voted on electronically. A list of the 60 Metre Allocations World-wide can be found on the front page of the League web site where this article is posted or from the League Secretary.

IARU REGION 1 VHF MANAGER WARNS OF THE DANGER OF VHF/UHF/MICROWAVE SPECTRUM GRABS

The chairman of the International Amateur Radio Union Region 1 (IARU Region 1) VHF/UHF and Microwave Committee, Jacques Verleijen, ON4AVJ, has highlighted extant threats to the Amateur Radio spectrum above 30 MHz. In an editorial that heads the latest edition of the IARU Region 1 VHF-UHF-µW Newsletter, issued on 29 May, Verleijen invited all IARU Member Societies to consider ways to "promote, defend, and use our frequencies." The VHF Newsletter can be downloaded from the League web site, click on News on the left-hand side and then SARL Newsletter.

"They are wanted by others, both government and commercial users," ON4AVJ wrote. "So, this is a wake-up call to be aware that if we are not using those bands, we will lose them." If that happens, he continued, it would not be the fault of IARU Region 1, but of the amateur community that "often has more commitment to HF" than to VHF and higher bands. Conceding that the HF bands "are the easiest to use," ON4AVJ said Member Societies should think outside the box to come up with ideas to improve VHF, UHF, and microwave activity.

ON4AVJ said the vast amount of Amateur Radio spectrum from 50 MHz through to 5 GHz makes it an attractive target for commercial and governmental interests. He noted that 50 MHz is the focus of a key World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) agenda item, specifically, to harmonize the 6-metre allocation across all three ITU Regions. "It would be unfortunate to see a repeat of the WRC-15 result for 5 MHz, where high hopes and years of hard work actually resulted in a few kilohertz at 15 W EIRP maximum," ON4AVJ continued. A repeat of that situation on 6 metres could mean a "far more devastating" loss of existing spectrum and future opportunities for digital innovation.

The 2,3 GHz and 3,4 GHz bands are highly sought after for commercial wireless, ON4AVJ said, pointing out that the UK recently auctioned large segments of 2,3 and 3,4 GHz spectrum once available to Amateur Radio, "threatening significant activities from narrowband/Earth-Moon-Earth to digital amateur TV (DATV)."

Two WRC-19 agenda items affect 5 GHz, focusing on Wi-Fi and so-called "intelligent transport." Amateur Radio, as a secondary service, faces another difficult challenge in this part of the spectrum and has "little influence over its direction," ON4AVJ contended. In IARU Region 1, the primary concern is the expansion of Wi-Fi into 5,725 - 5,850 MHz. "Our preoccupation with traditional or narrowband modes does not justify the amount of spectrum," he said, noting that "some activity levels are quite low" outside of contests. "Ideally, we need genuine open innovation and to show amateurs leading in the 21st century," ON4AVJ said. "Pressures on amateur bands are nothing new, but we know that the spectrum pressures above are not helped by poor engagement, relationships, or lack of a united approach" in some member-societies, with respect to their administrations.

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

HIGH-ALTITUDE BALLOON LAUNCH ON 9 JUNE

Tom, ZSL5341 reports that Binaryspace is doing another High-Altitude Balloon Launch from about 07:00 CAT on 9 June from the Leeukop Farm Airfield in Deneysville in the Free State. Everybody is invited to join us for the day to launch and chase the balloon. We are estimating a 3-hour mission from launch to recovery. The Sasolburg Amateur Radio Club (ZS4SRK) will join us with the tracking and recovery of the payload. Flexible Use of Airspace has been approved and depending on weather or technical difficulties, the launch and/or the payload contents can change at any time.

We have some new equipment to test on Mission - Binary 03. A SSTV Camera Transmitter (400 - 500 mW) will take a photo and transmit it every 5 minutes. The call sign is ZR6MUG and will transmit on 144.500 FM, Martin 1 Mode and you will need MMSSTV to decode. A Telemetry Transmitter (400 - 500 mW) will transmit telemetry data every 30 seconds under the call sign ZR6TG on 144.600 FM and you can use FLdigi to decode. And an APRS Transmitter (300 mW) will transmit position and altitude every minute on 144.800 MHz under the call ZR6TG-11. We will also have a Go-pro camera and a Science Lab (Raspberry pi based with lots of sensors) in the payload. The payload is estimated to be around 900 g and we are using a 1 000 g white balloon.

There are several prizes and awards available. The first person to recover the payload will get a prize and footage of the payload coming down will receive a prize. Special awards will be given to everyone who captures the SSTV images and RTTY telemetry. Please e-mail the decoded information, time of transmission (bonus if you can provide a recorded sound clip), your location and the equipment used to tvdbon@gmail.com.

UPDATE YOUR AMATEUR RADIO LIBRARY AND SUPPORT YOTA 2018

By purchasing a book from the SA Amateur Radio Development Trust online bookstore, you will support YOTA 2018 when 80 young radio amateurs from 34 countries converge on South Africa in August this year. The Trust is working on raising enough funds to supply every participant in YOTA 2018 with an SDR dongle to be used for some of the projects they will carry out during their week in South Africa. By ordering a book in the next two weeks you can take off 10% of the published SARL member price of the book. Visit www.amateurradio.org.za for a complete list of available books and an order form.

ZS3 SPRINT RESULTS

The ZS3 Sprint was well supported on 20 May 2018. We received 27 logs of which 3 were used as control logs. The Northern Cape Amateur Radio Club thanks everybody who participated and submitted their logs. The results are as follows for the hour on the air:

1st Woody Collet, ZS3WL 114 points.
2nd Volker Otto, ZS3Y 93 points.
3rd Michelle van der Merwe, ZS3TO 61 points.

RESULTS OF THE AWA VALVE QSO PARTY

The May 2018 Valve QSO Party certainly drew a lot of participants, even with the so called "poor" band conditions. On Saturday 5 May there were 20 stations on the AM session, which was a really great turn out and on Sunday 6 May there were 58 stations on SSB and all the divisions were represented. Five 5 logs were received for the AM section and seven logs for the SSB section.

AM
1st Thanie Gibson, ZS4AZ 40 points
2nd Helge Braithwaite, ZS6HB 38 points
3rd Johan van Zijl, ZS4DZ and Barrie Nugent, ZS2NF 6 points each

SSB
1st Thanie Gibson, ZS4AZ 120 points
2nd Frank Martins, ZS1MF 46 points
3rd Barrie Nugent, ZS2NF 28 points

Congratulations to all for an outstanding effort.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to be at low levels. Currently there is a single sunspot visible that can be the source of M-class solar flares.
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 may provide lots of DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:

10 June – Hammies Sprint
16 June – Youth Day and East Rand Flea Market
17 June – Father’s Day, World QRP Day and Closing date for Hammies Logs
21 – 25 June - SARL Top Band QSO Party

To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:

The current regulations remain in force. The frequencies and conditions as published in addendum I of the 2015 Radio Frequency Spectrum Regulations remain in force. View a list of amateur radio frequencies at www.amateurradio.org.za/Annexure%20I.pdf

If you have views on a 5 MHz band plan, please send them to secretary@sarl.org.za so that an informed recommendation can be made to Council and ultimately voted on electronically. A list of the 60 Metre Allocations World-wide can be found on the front page of the League web site where this article is posted or from the League Secretary.

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 3 230 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 by Emile Venter, ZS6V, edited by Dennis Green, ZS4BS and read by ……………………................

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

Sorry if you got the SARL Communication twice.

/EX