SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 3 APRIL 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 the news with a silent key notification

It is with deep regret that the passing of Ken Harwood, ZS6BLI, known
as "Captain Bligh" to his friends, on Tuesday 29 March 2016. Ken was a
member of the South African Radio League and the Highveld Amateur Radio
Club for the past 53 years. In 1974, he was awarded the Jack Twine
Award.

We extend out sincere condolences to his wife, Unis, their three
children and his friends.

PAUSE

In the news today,

PAYMENT OF ICASA LICENSING FEES

THE APRIL RADIO ZS IS AVAILABLE

and

APRIL METEOR SHOWERS

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

** Radio amateurs are requested to please pay your ICASA license fees
directly into the ICASA bank account and not into the South African
Radio League bank account. It is not the League's responsibility to pay
your license fees to ICASA. All monies mistakenly paid into the
League's account, will be seen as a donation. Thank you very much for
your cooperation.

** The April 2006 issue of Radio ZS is available for download from the
League's web site. Two hundred and twelve members have already
downloaded a copy.

This 64-page issue contains a number of interesting projects that you
can build. Daan, ZS6CD, shows you how to get your 'Klaus' mast
singlehandedly into the air while John, KL7JR, shows you his OPAR or
one-person antenna raiser. Kevin, ZS6KMD, provides you with a 40 m DC
receiver to build and Wim, SP5DDJ, shows you how to build a 40 metre CW
QRP Transceiver

Cor, ZS6CR, and Hannes, ZS6BZP, show us how to build their multiband
magnetic loop antenna, this article is in Afrikaans. Hendrik, ZS2HC,
has a voltage booster/monitor for your ICOM IC-7000; Tomi Engdahl tells
about the Time Domain Reflectometer and how you can build one and Tim,
ZS6IM, tells about the Collins 618T-2 radio in his aircraft in
Mutterings From Afar. Eddie, ZS6BNE, has written a thought provoking
article entitled 'the future ham.' In addition, there is more to read,
get your copy today from the League web site.

** The Meteor Scatter (MS) season has started with the April meteor
showers and will continue until the beginning of January next year.
There are 88 annual meteor showers listed by astronomers of which the
majority are minor showers, while a major shower will appear at least
monthly from now until January. Meteoroids are debris from comets or
asteroids and when these small particles, which vary in size, burn up
in the upper atmosphere they leave visible meteor trails. These trails
can also reflect VHF radio waves from 50 to 432 MHz and produce very
strong radio bursts on 50 MHz and the radio bursts last a lot longer on
this magic band.

Normally meteor bursts are only audible for a few seconds, but could
increase up to several minutes during major showers. There are five
minor showers present during the month of April to provide excellent
contacts on the digital mode FSK441. A major shower, the Lyrids, will
appear between 16 to 25 April 2016 and peak in the early morning of 22
April with an hourly rate that may vary from 18 trails to several dozen
over different years and make possible SSB or FM communications which
could cover distances up to 2 500 km. Meteor Scatter has a skip
distance of 500 - 600 km on 50 MHz, but it increases on the higher VHF
bands. Take up the challenge and give it a go on 50 MHz!

** You can now download the weekly HF Happenings newsletter from the
League web site at www.sarl.org.za/hf_happenings.asp. Some VHF News is
also included in each issue under the heading VHF Happenings.

** Frequency changes for Amateur Radio Today. From today the AM
frequencies will be as follows - Sundays at 08:00 UTC on 7 205 and 17
660 KHz and Mondays at 16:30 UTC on 3 230 kHz. Reception reports are
invited and can be sent to or if you would like to
receive a QSL card send your QSL card to AR Today, PO Box 90438,
Garsfontein, 0042 including a DL size self-addressed and stamped
envelope.

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

** Registrations for the May 2016 Radio Amateur Examination closes on
14 April 2016. Candidates need to ensure that the following documents
are uploaded, if not done yet - a copy of your ID document and the
ICASA signature form. Payment needs to have been made before 14 April
2016.

The cost is - if you are over the age of 25 it is R475.00 and if you
are 25 years and younger the cost is R 375.00. Enquiries can be sent
via e-mail to .

** You can join the League for the remaining period of the financial
year for only R240 as a full member. If you are a pensioner and over 65
years of age the rate is R140. If you join now you will be a member
till 30 June 2016 when the SARL will invoice you for the next year's
membership. Full details are on www.sarl.org.za and select membership
in the left-hand column. For more information call Vonnie at the NARC
at 011 675 2393. Join the South African Radio League today, it is the
right thing to do if amateur radio is important to you.

** Application for membership of the South African Radio League has
been received from the following persons - Richard Whiteway, ZR6WR, and
Roger Mc Loughlin, ZS6RMC.

Any objections to the acceptance of these applications must reach the
League Secretary before or on the Tuesday following this bulletin. The
membership of the League currently stands at 1 648 members and 47
affiliated clubs

** The first leg of the SARL 80 m QSO Party will be held on Thursday
evening 7 April from 17:00 to 20:00 UTC It is a phone contest in the
segments 3 603 to 3 650 kHz and 3 700 to 3 800 kHz. The exchange is
your call sign, name and a RS report. You score 10 points for every
contact with a South African station and 15 points for every contact
with a station outside South Africa. Log sheets in MS Excel format
shall be submitted by 14 April 2016 by e-mail to

** The Autumn QRP Contest will be on the air from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC on
Saturday 9 April 2016 with CW and phone activity. The first hour is
limited to the 40 m band only, the remaining two hours the contesters
are free to use any HF (non-WARC) band as they see fit. The exchange is
a RS or RST report and your grid locator. Logs, in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS
Excel format and labelled "your call sign QRP Contest," must be sent by
e-mail to by 17 April 2016. Note: A photo(s) of the
station operating (JPG format) MUST accompany every log entry. Consult
the 2016 Blue Book for the rules of both contests.

** The theme for the May 2016 issue of Radio ZS is digital radio. Get
your article to the Editor by 25 April. It can be in Afrikaans or
English and one page or six pages. Send it to

** The Overberg Amateur Radio Club will be holding their AGM on 9 April
at the QTH of John, ZS1DI, at Stanford. The meeting will start at 10:30
and after that there will be the usual bring and braai and fox hunt.
There will also be a raffle, who knows what you might win. There will
be coals for all as well as snacks and salads. Visitors and children
are welcome to take part in the fun. We do know that this clashes with
another AGM but it is the only date that suited the majority of
members.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected
remain at very low levels. Earth-facing sunspot AR2526 has a stable
magnetic field that poses no threat for strong solar flares.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 13. The 20 to 10 m
bands and will provide lots DX fun. Please visit the website
spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Now for the diary of events

Today 3 April - closing date for SARL VHF contest logs 7 April - SARL
80 m QSO Party 9 April - SARL Autumn QRP Contest and the AGM of the
Overberg ARC 10 April - the SARL Youth Net at 15:00 UTC on 7 070 14
April - closing date for the May RAE registrations and SARL 80 m QSO
party logs 17 April - closing date for Autumn QRP contest logs 18 April
- World Amateur Radio Day 25 April - closing date for the May Radio ZS

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

Radio amateurs are requested to please pay your ICASA license fees
directly into the ICASA bank account and not into the South African
Radio League bank account. It is not the League's responsibility to pay
your license fees to ICASA. All monies mistakenly paid into the
League's account, will be seen as a donation. Thank you very much for
your cooperation.

** 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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