SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 18 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 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
page. While you are there, you may sign up to receive future bulletins
by e-mail.

It is with regret that we start this bulletin with news of two silent
keys:

It is with deep regret that we must announce that he key of Thomé
Theron, ZS2TF, of Middelburg went silent on Monday 12 September.

And it is also with deep regret that we announce that the key of Theuns
Barnard, ZS6TJB, went silent on Wednesday 14 September.

We extend our sincere condolences to the family and friends of these
two gentlemen

(PAUSE)

IN THE NEWS TODAY

YOTA 2016

NEWS FROM COUNCIL

CLUB NEWS

Please stay tuned for more on these and other interesting news items

** Dennis Green ZS4BS reports that during the month of December,
several youngsters will activate call signs with YOTA as the suffix.
This is according to the IARU Region 1 webpage.

The idea of this is to show the amateur radio hobby to youth and to
encourage youngsters to be active within the hobby! Consider giving a
demonstration at a school or local club, gather together with your
friends, grab a pizza and make some QSOs or enjoy a great pile-up. Let
us show this great hobby to the world!

Feel free to make a QSO with the youngsters, they are happy to get some
attention and exchange information. Licensed and unlicensed youth will
be making QSOs, be aware this could be their first radio contact ever,
so give them a chance to experience a possible new hobby without
getting impatient - we all remember our first contact.

Like previous years, there will be a special award available for
persons who worked several YOTA stations. Read the full story with
rules and registration information at http://tinyurl.com/yota2016

**** SARL President Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, says that one of the
initiatives that Council started with is a regular Newsflash to members
to keep them informed and to provide feedback on council work and
proceedings.

As discussed and promised during the recent SGM the Treasurer's
report-back to member's features in this week's news flash that was
e-mailed to members. The Newsflash may also be found on the SARL
website.

**** Mike Bosch, ZS2FM, sent us this interesting bit. The theme for the
South African Radio League this year is "A Gateway to Science". Nico
van Rensburg, ZS6QL, the new president of the SARL, said he believes
that this theme should remain the overarching theme for the next few
years, and direct the activity of the South African Radio League in
taking Amateur Radio forward to 2020 and beyond.

This is a far-reaching decision and could also mean that Amateur Radio
should advance and try and keep up with modern radio developments.
Amateur Radio comprises many facets that will appeal to many
enthusiasts as well as the younger generation. We have to keep up with
modern developments in radio science such as the new Software Defined
Radio (SDR) systems that will become the future radio technology.
Fortunately there are already many kits available for the younger
generation to experiment with.

The greatest science project to be constructed in the 21st Century is
the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which is shared between Australia and
South Africa. The Low Array covering 50 - 350 MHz will be constructed
in the Outback of Australia, while the Mid Array will be built in our
own radio backyard - the Karoo, covering 350 MHz to 14 GHz and
comprising thousands of dishes. It will be the most sensitive radio
telescope in the world that could penetrate to the edge of the
observable Universe. Just imagine the numerous and unknown discoveries
it could make. Then as usual some aspects of this professional radio
technology could filter through to amateur radio science and advance it
further.

**** The committee members of the Pretoria Amateur Radio Club who was
elected at the Annual General meeting on 27 August allocated the
following portfolios during their first committee meeting:

Graham Reid ZS6GJR - Chairman and Web coordinator. Johan de Bruyn
ZS6JHB - Vice Chairman, Rallies, Social and Repeater. Louis de Wet
ZS6SK - Secretary, Watts & RAE. Andre van Tonder ZS6BRC - Treasurer.
Louis de Wet ZS6SK - Secretary, Watts and RAE. Etienne Naude ZS6EFN -
Public Relations, Bulletin Co-ordinate and RAE. Pieter Fourie ZS6CN -
Clubhouse Manager. Whitey Joubert ZS6JJJ - Social.

Co-opted members: Pierre ZS6PJH and Jaco Cronje ZR6CMG - Contests.
Almero du Pisane ZS6LDP - Fleamarket. Tjerk Lammers ZS6P - Historian,
Archives and Awards. Tony Crowder ZS6CRO - Auditing.

Congratulations to the newly elected committee and our thanks to Johan
ZS6JHB for this information.

** Dennis Green, ZS4BS, secretary elect of the Bloemfontein Amateur
Radio Club reports that at the Annual General Meeting of the
Bloemfontein ARC held on Saturday 10 September, the following members
were elected to service on the committee for 2016/2017.

Chairman: Andre van Rensburg, ZS4APA. Vice Chairman: Hennie Greyling,
ZS4HG. Treasurer: Neil Nathan, ZS4NN. Secretary: Dennis Green, ZS4BS.
Members: Michael Roodt, ZS4BHF, and Brendon Muller, ZS4BM.

**** The Kempton Park Amateur Radio Technical society hereby extend a
personal invitation to all Amateurs and their families to join us on
Saturday the 24th September 2016 for our yearly flea market at 46
Rooibos street, Kempton Park.

This is the usual venue at Impala Voortrekkers, behind the Impala
Primary School.

Exhibitors arrive 10:00 and the gates open 11:00 for our guests.

Hamburgers, boerewors rolls, coffee, tea and cold drinks will be on
sale.

For those who want to clean out their shacks and sell their surplus
goodies, tables and exhibition space will be available at no cost.

To book your space contact: Hannes Scheepers, ZS6EMS, at 071-676-3600 -
Hannes also sent us the information of this event.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to
remain at low levels. No major solar flaring is expected.

If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected
effective sunspot number for the week will be around 10.

The 15 to 20 meter bands will provide lots of DX fun.

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

Some upcoming events:

18 September - All Africa DX Contest. 18 September - SARL VHF/UHF
Contest. 24 September - KARTS Flea Market. 24 - 25 September - CQ WW
RTTY Contest. 1 October - Spring QRP Sprint. 6 October - SARL 80m QSO
Party. 8 - 9 October - AWA Valve QSO Party. 9 October - SARL Youth Net.
20 October - RAE Examination.

** Dennis Green ZS4BS reports that during the month of December,
several youngsters will activate call signs with YOTA as the suffix.
This is according to the IARU Region-1 webpage.

Feel free to make a QSO with the youngsters, they are happy to get some
attention and exchange information. Licensed and unlicensed youth will
be making QSOs, be aware this could be their first radio contact ever,
so give them a chance to experience a possible new hobby without
getting impatient; we all remember our first contact.

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 program 'Amateur Radio Today' at 10:00 Central African
Time. The program 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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