SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 26 June 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 may tune in to the South African Radio League news bulletin on
Sunday mornings, at 08:15 Local Time in Afrikaans and at 08:30 Local
Time in English, on HF as well as on many VHF and UHF repeaters around
the country. Echolink listeners may connect to ZS0JPL for a relay.

This audio bulletin may be downloaded from the League website at
www.sarl.org.za where you will find this as well as previous bulletins
in text format under the news link on the left-hand side of the web
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IN THE NEWS TODAY

SARL MUST SERIOUSLY CONSIDER THEIR STRATEGY TOWARDS ICASA TYPE APROVAL

AMSAT SA ACCELERATING ITS DEVELOPMENT OF KLETSKOUS

SKA NEWS

AND WORLD WIDE FLORA AND FAUNA IN AMATEUR RADIO

*** The SARL must seriously consider how it will present its case when
ICASA is holding its public hearings on type approval and under what
conditions equipment will be exempted from the current requirements.
The issue was also discussed at the SABS Technical Committee. The
purpose of this Committee is to ensure proper usage of the Radio
Frequency Electromagnetic Spectrum through use of regulations.

In Government Gazette no 36785 dated 26 August 2013, ICASA published
the "Type Approval Regulations". While the regulations make provision
for exemption, the process required to get equipment exempted from the
regulation was not developed. At a meeting of TC80 held on Friday it
became clear that ICASA is giving serious attention to this. The new
Council of the SARL which will take office on 30 July needs to urgently
develop a strategy and supporting documentation to be presented at the
public hearing.

*** AMSAT SA is accelerating the development of its Kletskous
transponder by introducing a parallel development process. Two RF
experts have recent joined the team, they are Leon Lessing ZS6LMG and
Francois Visser ZS1CED.

At its recent strategy meeting the association discussed its long term
plans which includes the development of a Software Defined Radio
transponder and other digital payloads. Radio Amateurs who have an
interest in being part of discussions on these projects are invited to
send their contact details including their Skype address to
. For more information on SDR visit the AMSAT SA
website at www.amsatsa.org.za and down the SDR presentation delivered
by Deon Coetzee ZR1DE at the recently held space symposium. Join the
conversation!

*** World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio. The WWFF programme
wants to draw attention to the importance of protecting nature, flora
and fauna. In this spirit, amateur radio operators set up, operate
their radio stations from designated nature parks and protected nature
areas - generating attention for these areas whilst giving the amateur
radio community an interesting activity to contact. WWFF is an
international and non-commercial program run by the coordinators of a
large number of national Flora and Fauna programmes.

Dennis, ZS4BS, and Sid, ZS5AYC, have been in contact with the WWFF
Council to register the ZSFF Programme. At present there are 30 South
African nature areas registered with WWFF, which includes the 19 Parks
managed by the National Parks Board. The many other nature parks and
protected nature areas in South Africa will be added to the ZSFF
directory and documentation will be made available later about the ZSFF
programme.

** The July issue of Radio ZS will be available for download from the
League's website from Tuesday 28 June 2016. In this issue, Nico, ZS6QL,
says working with young people is a golden opportunity and Richard,
ZS6KRE, the Troop Scouter of the Sandringham Scouts tells about their
amateur radio club. Dave, ZS2DH, tells of Hammie activity in the
Eastern Cape and we have a report from the Dayton Hamvention about
their Youth Programme.

It has been a busy year for ZS6ZU, the Hammies ARC, this according to
Noel, ZR6DX, and did you know that AMSAT SA has a youth outreach? Then
Andre, V51B, tells us about his Quad antenna. In the Arduino column,
Kevin, ZS6KMD, shows you his Single Band Super VFO and in the YL Beam,
Heather, ZS6YE/5 gives us the history of the South African Women's
Radio Club - maybe it is time to reactivate the SAWRC! All this and
more in the July issue of Radio ZS.

*** Thomas Abbott ZS6XTA (ZS1TE) informed us that the SKA-1 Mid Array
isn't the only radio telescope on the site. The radio quiet zone is
intended as a national resource, to allow other experiments to be run
there too. The legislated frequency is not based solely on the SKA-1
Mid Array requirements, and anyway predates them by some years. Thomas
says that he is sure that many of you have been to Sutherland, and seen
the optical telescopes mushrooming on the plateau. They come there from
all over the world, to enjoy the dark skies and good weather, but
telescopes like company. They share the communications infrastructure,
maintenance people and astronomers that are available there.

There are currently four main radio telescopes sharing the site. KAT-7
(1 - 2 GHz), MeerKat (0,5 - 5 GHz), HERA (120 - 190 MHz) and C-BASS (5
- 6 GHz), with SKA-1 Mid Array prototypes starting soon. HERA is an
interesting low-cost single-purpose radio telescope. It is built with
wire mesh reflectors and copper pipe dipoles. It started as a smaller
cheaper radio telescope called PAPER, which has been observing for some
years.

*** Applications for membership of the SARL have been received from the
following persons: Klaus Knopf ZS1QO Any objections to the acceptance
of the applications must reach the Secretary before or on the Tuesday
after this bulletin. To date 409 members of the SARL have renewed their
membership and 12 affiliated clubs have renewed their affiliation.

*** The Centurion Radio Amateur Club is celebrating it's 41st
Anniversary on the 30th July 2016. To commemorate the event the club
station ZS6CEN will be operated by members on the amateur radio bands
during the month of July 2016. All contacts with the station will
receive a certificate (via email). A sample certificate and more
information is available on the Facebook page: "Centurion Amateur Radio
Club"

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to
remain at low levels. There is currently no sunspots visible. This is a
sure sign that solar Minimum is on its way.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 18.

The 20 to 15 m bands and will provide lots DX fun.

Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further
information.

Let us look forward to what we can expect over the next few weeks

Today 26 and tommorow 27 June - the SARL Top Band QSO Party 3 July 2016
- ZS5 Sprint 9 & 10 July -IARU HF Championships 10 July - Youth Net 16
July - Winter QRP Sprint 16 to 23 July IARU Region 1 YOTA Summer Camp
24 July ZS2 Sprint 25 July - Closing date for the August Radio ZS
Articles 30 & 31 July - RSGB IOTA Contest 30 July - the Special General
Meeting at the National Amateur Radio Centre

And that brings us to the end of this bulletin

** 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; please 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 Dawie Conradie,
ZR6DHC, edited by Dick Stratford, ZS6RO, and read by ..............

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

/EX

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