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
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
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 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 about Equipment Type Approval
Exemption 31 October - feedback about the 2017 Blue Book to
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 . 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
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