SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 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.

In the news today,

OCTOBER RAE REGISTRATION CLOSING DATE IS THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER

SARL NATIONAL FIELD DAY NEXT WEEKEND

and

GREAT OPENING ON 144 MHz TO REUNION ISLAND

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

** It is important for all prospective RAE students to note that
registrations for the October RAE close on Thursday 15 September 2016.
No late registrations will be accepted. The examination will be written
on Thursday 20 October 2016.

ICASA has informed the SARL that the May RAE licences have been posted
to all candidates that passed the examination. So please check your
post boxes. If you have not received your licence by 20 September 2016,
please notify the RAE manager at or Vonnie at
.

** The second leg of the SARL National Field Day will be on the air
from 10:00 UTC on Saturday 10 September to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 11
September 2016. Participants may use phone, CW and digital modes on the
HF amateur bands, excluding 60, 30, 17 and 12 metres. Phone, CW and
digital modes on a band are considered as separate bands and a station
may be worked only once per band per mode under this rule.

You and/or your club can participate as Class A - field station, multi
operator; Class B - field station, multi operator, QRP; Class C - field
station, single operator; Class D - field station, single operator,
QRP; Class E - ultra light portable or Class F - a general station.
There is a six-hour section available, applicable to Class A, B, C, D,
E and F if you cannot operate the whole period. Only one call sign per
station is permitted.

The exchange is the number of transmitters, Field Day operating class
and your provincial abbreviation, the RS(T) report is optional. Scores
are based on the total number of QSO points times the power multiplier
times the number of provinces worked times the class multiplier. Log
sheets, in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format and labelled "my call sign
NFD," must be sent by e-mail to by Sunday 18
September 2016. Get the complete set of rules in the 2016 Blue Book or
the September 2016 issue of Radio ZS.

** Free and unbureaucratic short-term cross-border amateur radio
operation is set to be expanded to more countries outside Europe:
Non-CEPT countries can now join the framework of the CEPT licence and
the CEPT Novice licence in a much-simplified process thanks to an
initiative of IARU Region 1 to change the relevant recommendations. At
the same time, the syllabus for the Harmonized Amateur Radio
Examination Certificate (HAREC) has been amended to include questions
on the Radio Amateur Code of Conduct and on operating practices. The
changes were approved by the Working Group - Frequency Management
(WGFM) of CEPT and are now in force.

** John, ZS2AH, at East London heard the FR5DN beacon in the late
afternoon on Monday 29 August on 144,418 MHz JT65b first period. Later
that evening around 19:00 CAT, Hugo, ZS5HV, worked Phil, FR5DN, on
JT65b, SSB and FM. Not bad for someone who only came on the air a year
ago! Lee, ZS5LEE, joined him on digital with a recorded signal strength
up to -17 dB. They copied the beacon signal throughout the night and it
peaked at 03:00 CAT.

At 05:40 CAT, Andre, ZS2ACP, at Port Elizabeth hooked up with Phil,
FR5DN, on JT65b and ten minutes later both Hugo and Lee worked Phil
again on SSB with 5/7 reports both ways. John, ZS2AH, said that he
could still hear the beacon at 09:00 CAT but he, Peter, ZS2ABF, and
Hennie, ZS2HC, who are all three from East London, had to wait until
Tuesday evening before they could work Phil on SSB. Peter could copy
Phil at S9+ and then worked him on FM too, while John's 25 Watts only
registered S5 in Reunion Island. Hennie made his first-ever DX contact
on VHF. Congratulations to you all.

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

** The closing date for your SARL HF CW Contest logs is midnight
tonight and they must be sent to .

** The TEP Season opens from September until November. The
Trans-Equatorial Propagation season starts in September and lasts until
November 2016. TEP produces very strong DX signals on 50 MHz (6 metres)
SSB from Divisions 3, 4, 5 and 6 to Europe up to a distance of 9 800
km.

DX contacts are also possible on 70 MHz (4 metres) and 144 MHz (2
metres), whereas the one and only contact on 432 MHz (70 cm) was
recorded in 1979 by Gerhardt Schlorf, ZS3B, in Luderitz with I4EAT over
a distance of 7 784 km. For more info on propagation, download the
colour chart that covers the VHF, UHF and SHF spectrum printed on the
front cover of the September/October 2013 edition of Radio ZS.

** Provisional Results of the SARL HF Digital Contest. The Contest
Committee received six logs for the SARL HF Digital Contest held on
Sunday 21 August 2016. Participants should remember that this is two
contests in one - RTTY and PSK, so check your scoring.

1st Mitchell Mynhardt, ZS6YH, 124 points 2nd Jan Botha, ZS4JAN, 102
points 3rd Theunis Potgieter, ZS2EC, and Paul Greeff, ZS6IO, 54 points
5th Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ, 34 points 6th Dennis Green, ZS4BS, 20 points

** The Contest Committee did not receive any objection to the results
of the SARL HF Phone Contest or the SARL YL Sprint as printed in HF
Happenings 718. These results are now deemed to be final.

** The SARL VHF/UHF Contest will be on the air from 10:00 UTC on
Saturday 17 September to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 18 September 2016 with
phone, CW and digital modes on 50 MHz and higher. The All Africa All
Mode DX Contest will be on the air from 12:00 UTC on Saturday 17
September to 12:00 UTC on Sunday 18 September 2016 with phone, CW and
RTTY on 160 to 10 metres. The rules for both these contests can be
found in the 2016 Blue Book and the September 2016 issue of Radio ZS.

** The editor of Radio ZS receives magazines and newsletters from the
Netherlands by e-mail. League members interested in reading these Dutch
newsletters can contact Dennis, ZS4BS, on to be
placed on the mailing list.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected
to be at low to moderate levels. New sunspot AR2585 is large but does
not pose a threat for solar flares at this stage. If you want to do
your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number
for the week will be around 30. The 15 to 20 m bands will provide lots
of DX fun with some 10 m openings also possible on sunlit paths. Please
visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Now for the diary of events

Today - the closing date for SARL HF CW logs 10 and 11 September - SARL
National Field Day 11 September - SARL Youth Net 15 September - closing
date for October RAE registration 17 and 18 September - the SARL
VHF/UHF contest and the All Africa All Mode DX Contest 18 September -
closing date for National Field Day logs 24 and 15 September - the CQ
WW RTTY Contest

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

It is important for all prospective RAE students to note that
registrations for the October RAE close on Thursday 15 September 2016.
No late registrations will be accepted. The examination will be written
on Thursday 20 October 2016.

The second leg of the SARL National Field Day will be on the air from
10:00 UTC on Saturday 10 September to 10:00 UTC on Sunday 11 September
2016

** 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 17 660 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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