SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 01 JANUARY 2012

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 this first SARL NEWS for 2012:

CHANGES AT ICASA

ADVANCED AUSTRALIAN LICENSE HOLDERS MAY GET MORE POWER

ARRL KIDS DAY ON JANUARY 8

JOIN THE SARL THIS WEEK AND RECEIVE A COMMEMORATIVE MOUSE PAD

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

On this first day of 2012 we wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.
May all your wishes come true and your new year resolutions include
more time on the air.

CHANGES AT ICASA

The ICASA General Manager Engineering and Technology has resigned and
left ICASA on 31 December 2011. Dumisa Ngwenya chaired the ICASA - SARL
Liaison Committee. There is no indication of who will be acting in this
position until a new person is appointed. A new appointment is long
process as the post has to be advertised.

In anticipation of his resignation the SARL lodged, in mid December, an
Appeal to the Chief Executive Officer of ICASA, Themba Dlamini, to
investigate the long delay in the publication of the corrections to the
regulations which became effective on 1 April 2011. To date the SARL
has not received a response other than that the legal department are
reviewing the corrections. The SARL requested the CEO to separate the
Amateur regulations from the rest of the corrections as they seem to be
delaying the process. The SARL has also requested a meeting with the
CEO.

ADVANCED AUSTRALIAN LICENSE HOLDERS MAY GET MORE POWER

After ongoing representations by the Wireless Institute of Australia it
seems if Advanced licensees will be allowed transmit power limits
comparable to other countries.

The ACMA has advised the WIA that it intends to accede to the WIA's
request that Advanced licensees may apply for a variation of their
licence to permit higher power from a fixed location on a trial basis
from 1 March 2012. The ACMA has stressed to the WIA that it remains
concerned about the risk of interference from the use of higher power.
At the end of 12 months the position will be reviewed by the ACMA.

The ACMA has adopted this approach to enable any particular
difficulties to be identified and satisfactory solutions found to, in
the words of the ACMA, `enable the trial to progress to appropriate
ongoing arrangements from early 2013.'

Michael Owen, VK3KI, WIA President, said "The higher power limits will
only be permitted on the amateur High Frequency bands where the amateur
service holds a primary status for those allocations". The Wireless
Institute of Australia has however requested that the band 7 100 to 7
200 kHz be also included. In October 2005 Australia introduced an
advanced grade syllabus following a more advanced syllabus of study.
Australia has three license grades, a Foundation, a Standard license
and an Advanced license.

ARRL KIDS DAY ON JANUARY 8

The first of two Kids Day operating events for 2012 takes place on
Sunday January 8th. Kids Day is a twice yearly on-the-air happening to
encourage young people, licensed or not, to learn about our wonderful
world of amateur radio and the fun it has to offer.

Kids Day is not a contest. Rather, it is a way to tell young people
worldwide about the magic and mystery of two way hobby radio
communications. To accomplish this, amateur radio stations are being
asked to devote this short time window to promote both terrestrial and
satellite operations to youngsters by providing a place to make
contacts with other Kids Day stations around the world.

More information about Kids Day is on-line at www.arrl.org/kids-day.

JOIN THE SARL THIS WEEK AND RECEIVE A COMMEMORATIVE MOUSE PAD

If you are not yet a member of the SARL, is it not time that you did
join? The first twenty new members who join in January 2012 will
receive a commemorative mouse pad. The pad has the IARU 2011 IARU
Conference logo printed on it and is a collector's piece. To join visit
www.sarl.org.za or call Mariska on 011 675 2393. The office reopens on
Tuesday 3 January.

NEW TIME FOR AMATEUR RADIO TODAY'S MONDAY TRANSMISSION.

From tomorrow, January 2, the retransmission of Amateur Radio TODAY
will change to 17:30 - 18:30 UTC which is 19:30 - 20:30 CAT. The
transmission will remain in the 60 metre band on a frequency of 4 895
kHz. The transmitter power will be 100 kW feeding an omni-directional
antenna. Reception reports are invited and can be emailed to
. All reports received of the January 2 transmission
by 5 January will be participating in a lucky draw for the ARRL RFI
handbook 2.You can also fax your report to 012 991 5651.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP reports that the solar activity is expected to
be at low to moderate levels. Sunspot 1389 produced some moderate
M-class flares on Thursday and Friday. During 2009 there were 260
spotless days, 51 in 2010 and only 2 spotless days during 2011.

For the people doing their own frequency predictions the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 95.

All the bands from 20 to 10 m will provide lots of DX fun with the
higher bands typically opening first and the lower bands opening later
during the day. 6 m is also active with TEP openings from time-to-time.

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

DIARY OF EVENTS

8 January - ARRL Kids Day events, information on www.arrl.org/kids-day.
15 January - Last day for submission of summaries of proposed papers
for the Radio Technology in Action Symposiums 2012 to
. 31 January - Last day for submission of
nominations for Council members and also for submission of motions for
the 2012 SARL AGM. 31 January - Closing date for submitting papers for
SA AMSAT Space Symposium. Remember also to submit nominations for SARL
awards which will be presented at the gala dinner which will take place
over the weekend of the 2012 SARL AGM. Send nominations to
.

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 17 760 kHz. There is also a podcast by ZS6RO. For a
web-stream and Echolink by ZS6FCS, visit www.sarl.org.za, click on
'Amateur Radio TODAY', go down the green column and click on 'LISTEN ON
THE WEB'. A repeat transmission can be heard on Mondays at 17:30 UTC on
4 895 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 George, Z6SNE.

Thank you for listening, 73. /EX

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