SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 29 MAY 2011

You are listening to ZS6SRL, the official radio station of the South
African Radio League, the national body for amateur radio in South
Africa, with a news bulletin every Sunday at 08:15 CAT in Afrikaans and
at 08:30 CAT in English. To listen to a web stream, visit
www.sarl.org.za, click on 'Amateur Radio Today' and follow the links
for details. PLEASE NOTE: for audio via Echolink, connect to ZS0JPL-R.

You can download this bulletin and previous ones from www.sarl.org.za
and also subscribe to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

Your newsreader this morning is (name), (call sign), on 145,725 and
7,066 MHz from Pretoria, with relays on 7,066 and 3,695 MHz SSB.

In the news today:

CALLING YOUNG RADIO AMATEURS

RTA VENUE CHANGE

DOC DIRECTOR GENERAL APPOINTED

You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and
other important and interesting news items.

CALLING YOUNG RADIO AMATEURS

The SARL is planning various events to celebrate Youth Day on 16 June
including a discussion with young radio amateurs still at school about
how they became involved in amateur radio and how it has benefited
them. The discussion will be by teleconference and be held on Tuesday
31 May 2011 at 19:30. To be considered to be included send an email
with your details such as age and school attending as well as your
landline number to by tonight (Sunday). Youth in
Amateur Radio will be transmitted on 16 June at 09:30 and will also be
available for download.

The youth day sprint will follow from 10:00 - 12:00 CAT. Details of the
competition can be found in the SARL Contest manual on www.sarl.org.za.
There are some awesome prizes to be won including:

Two ARRL Antenna Books to be awarded to Radio Amateurs who host the
most non-licensed youth in their shacks or special event stations.
There are two categories: radio amateurs who are 18 years of age and
younger and 19 years and older.

An ARRL Antenna book awarded to the Radio Amateur who sends in the best
hi-resolution photograph of a leaner operating his or her station.

All logs submitted by radio amateurs 18 years and younger will go into
the draw for one of the following: 3 Remote microphone kits, a
Lightning Predictor kit, 5 SARL Student memberships and 3 Basic ARRL
Antenna books.

Another exciting event planned is around SumbandilaSat. That will
happen at just before 08:00.

More details will be available from www.sarl.org.za early next week.
Get the youth involved on 16 June!

RTA VENUE CHANGE

The SARL Radio Technology in Action symposium will be held at a
different lecture hall at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
than previously advertised. The new venue is in the Old Mutual Centre
Lecture Room 003. The date is Saturday 4 June 2011 with registration
starting at 08:15 and the conference at 09:00.

A map and driving instructions, as well as the full programme, are
available on www.sarl.org.za, select RTA. Andrew Leitch, the Dean of
Science, will open the event with a keynote address.

DOC DIRECTOR GENERAL APPOINTED

The Minister of Communications Roy Padayachie has appointed Maboko
Rosey Sekese as Director General of the Department of Communications
with effect from 1 June 2011 for a period of five years. Rosey Sekese
obtained an Electrical Engineering Degree in Telecommunications from
the University of Cape Town in 1994 and completed a Master's in
Business Administration at the North-West University, Potchefstroom
Business School. In 2007 she completed the Senior Executive Development
Programme at Pretoria University.

Rosey Sekese has worked in the Department of Communications in the
position of Deputy Director General ICT Infrastructure Development. One
of her key highlights was the delivery of the FIFA 2010 WORLD CUP
Information Communications Technology guarantees where she was the
champion of the project, providing strategic leadership, and programme
management.

She also has previous technical engineering background having worked
for Denel as a Group Manager for Information Technology and as a Senior
Engineer at Telkom.

REPORT ON SARL/ICASA LIAISON MEETING

The SARL and ICASA met last Thursday for their scheduled quarterly
meeting. A number of issues were discussed. As far as corrections to
the regulations are concerned, the committee and ICASA's legal
department are still considering various aspects of SARL's complaints
and expect to finalise the process in the next few weeks when
corrections will be gazetted.

On the question of ZS and ZR callsigns, ICASA confirmed that ZR
licences are now full class A and have the same privileges as ZS
licensees. There is no requirement to change the callsign. If however a
ZR licensee wishes to change his or her callsign to a ZS, a fee of R127
will be charged, which is R100 for the change of callsign and R27 for
the new license.

The SARL petition for an allocation of a 150 kHz segment in the 5 MHz
band was discussed. ICASA will review the current occupation of the
band and consider the publication of a request for input by the public
in the Government Gazette.

The question of licences for Radio Amateurs visiting South Africa from
SADC countries was discussed and ICASA agreed to expedite the request
and make a proposal to CRASA (Communications Regulators' Association of
Southern Africa) for early adoption.

ICASA will inform the CEPT organisation of the changes in the South
African license structure so that the full CEPT licensing agreement can
be implemented.

The Question of a longstanding interference complaint by a Cape Town
Radio Amateur was also on the Agenda. ICASA's Engineering Division will
hold an internal meeting with the regional structure to bring finality
to the case.

The next meeting will be held towards the end of July 2011.

SARLNEWS NEED EDITOR

Here is your opportunity to get experience in writing and editing news
bulletins. Talk to George Honiball, SARL News Editor in chief, on 012
664 4155 or send email to .

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is at low
levels. New sunspot 1 223 continues to grow in the southern hemisphere.
Another new sunspot is forming in the northern hemisphere as well. Up
to now there was only a single day in 2011 without sunspots compared to
51 days in 2010 and 260 days in 2009. For the people doing their own
frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the
week is about 15.

15 m will provide the best opportunities for DX followed by 20 and 30 m
and the WARC bands in between, of course.

Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.

DIARY OF EVENTS Today 29 May - young amateurs go to
and send your details if you wish to take part in the teleconference on
Young amateurs. 31 May - Youth day teleconference at 19:30. 4 June -
RTA in Port Elizabeth at NMMU in Old Mutual Lecture Room 003. 16 June -
transmission of Youth in Amateur Radio at 09:30 16 June - Youth Day
Sprint from 10:00 till 12:00 CAT 18 June - Programming in Windows
course in Gauteng. Book at www.sarl.org.za.

SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news items of
interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners. Submit news items -
if possible - in both English and Afrikaans to
www.sarl.org.za/newsinbox.asp, not later than the Thursday preceding
the bulletin date.

The SARL also invites you to listen to Amateur Radio Today every Sunday
morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the Pretoria area, with relays
on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 750 kHz. There is also a podcast by ZS6RO. For a
web-stream and Echolink by ZS6FCS, visit www.sarl.org.za, click on
'ARMI' and follow the links. A repeat transmission can be heard on
Mondays at 18:30 CAT on 3 230 kHz. Sentech sponsors the ARMI
transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.

You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League,
compiled by Gustav, ZS6BWN.

Thank you for listening, 73.
/EX
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