SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 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
our 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.

IN THE NEWS TODAY:

ICASA COUNCIL APPROVES MOU WITH SARL

FREQUENCY CHANGES FOR AMATEUR RADIO TODAY

CHANGE IN IARU SECRETARY

UPDATING OF CLUB INFORMATION ON THE SARL WEBSITE

VOORTREKKERS KEEP THE HAM BANDS ALIVE DURING CQ HOU KOERS 2016

SOLAR CYCLE 25 COULD BE ONE OF THE WEAKEST

HF PROPAGATION REPORT

and

UPCOMING EVENTS

** This week the Council of ICASA approved the memorandum of
understanding with the SARL. The memorandum replaces a very old MOU
which was outdated and had expired. The purpose of the MOU is to
establish the manner in which the Authority and the SARL will interact
with each other to enable them, inter alia: * to coordinate and
harmonise the issuing of amateur radio frequency spectrum licences in
South Africa; * to establish a framework to conduct the radio amateur
examination (RAE); and, * to coordinate activities with respect to
matters of common interest.

In terms of the MOU, the SARL will set up a formal National Repeater
and Beacon Managing Group in order to coordinate applications made for
repeater and beacon station licences. A Joint Working Committee
constituted by representatives of the Authority and the SARL, as
nominated by the parties respectively, shall be established pursuant to
this Agreement and shall function on an ongoing basis. Arrangements are
now being made by ICASA's legal department for the formal signing of
the MOU by SARL President and the Chairman of ICASA. The signed
document will be made available on the SARL web pages. Commenting on
the MOU, SARL President, Nico van Rensburg said that the signing of the
MOU will be an important milestone as it formalises the relationship
between ICASA and the SARL.

** On 30 October, which is the start of the new shortwave season,
Sentech will change some of the frequencies for Amateur Radio Today.
The Sunday transmission at 08:00 UTC will remain on 7205 kHz, while the
transmission for East and Central Africa will change to 17760 kHz. The
Monday transmission at 16:30 UTC will change to 4895 kHz.

** Rod Stafford, W6ROD, has retired as IARU Secretary after seven years
of service in that position. The IARU Constitution provides that the
member society serving as the International Secretariat, i.e. the ARRL,
shall designate the Secretary. The ARRL Board of Directors has
designated David Sumner, K1ZZ, to replace Rod Stafford as Secretary
effective 15 October 2016.

David Sumner has served in this capacity twice previously, from 1982 to
1989 and from 1999 to 2009, while employed by the ARRL to manage its
headquarters. Now retired from employment, he joins the other IARU
officers and Administrative Council members in serving as a volunteer.

IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, has appointed Rod Stafford as
Emergency Communications Special Advisor. In this capacity, he will
represent the interests of the IARU and the global amateur radio
community in the Development Sector of the ITU and will offer advice
and counsel on matters relating to emergency and disaster response
communications.

** This is an urgent call from the SARL secretary. The office of the
SARL is currently busy with an exercise of verifying Club information
as it appears on the SARL database, which is updated on the SARL
website. During this exercise, it was noticed that Club information is
outdated and or incomplete. In order to allow the SARL office to
perform its duties as best they can, they require that information the
office deals with should be correct, updated and complete. With this in
mind, the SARL Council hereby requests Club secretaries and club
chairmen to ensure that their Club information on the SARL website is
updated. Information is important, but the correct information is
necessary in order to ensure the SARL office operates effectively. This
is an urgent call to ensure that all relevant stake holders put an
effort in to update the necessary information on the SARL web site.
Your cooperation in this regard is highly appreciated.

** The SARL received membership applications from: ZSL1V Max George
Hounsell ZR1ALB Albert van der Waal ZSL1170 Andre Fryer - Listeners
license only

Any objections to these applications must reach the SARL secretary in
writing before Wednesday the 26th of October 2016. Written objections
can be send to

Currently, 1484 members renewed their SARL membership and 44 clubs
renewed their affiliation with the SARL.

** CQ Hou Koers is the Voortrekkers' national amateur radio
communications day for SA and Namibia. The purpose of the day is to
introduce modern young Voortrekkers to the advantages of our
interesting technological hobby.

The Voortrekker movement celebrates its 85th birthday in 2016 and the
call sign ZS85VT is used during special events.

The Voortrekkers thank every radio amateur who took the time to support
the enthusiastic young people. We also thank every Voortrekker group,
camp or activity that made time for amateur radio during their
programme for the day or weekend.

Twenty stations participated in CQ Hou Koers 2016 on 15 October. Will
you be taking part in CQ Hou Koers 2017 aNd offer your help to your
local Voortrekker group or radio club?

Visit www.voortrekkers.co.za to find out more about the Voortrekker
movement. Enquiries related to CQ Hou Koers may be sent to


** According to NASA's long range solar forecast Cycle 25, peaking
around 2022, could be one of the weakest in centuries. This could be
another Maunder Minimum, which will affect HF frequencies where the MUF
could drop down to the lower frequencies. Do not despair because now is
the time to start exploring the VHF bands on 50, 70 and 144 MHz, which
you'll find much more challenging than HF.

If you make the effort to build or acquire high gain horizontal Yagis
for these bands, improve your equipment, learn about VHF propagation,
then you could expect to make many long distance QSO's. For example:
Tropo Enhancement on 144 MHz could provide regular 400 km contacts,
while Tropo Ducting could extend the range to many thousands of
kilometres, especially across the sea. On 50 MHz a distance of 2500 km
could be achieved on Meteor Scatter on both analogue and digital. There
are many other modes possible on this Magic Band such as Sporadic-E,
but all you have to do is have the courage to experiment.

If you are interested in worldwide DX then try EME that is possible
almost daily and throughout the year, and not affected by ionospheric
conditions. Please note you are not going to achieve much on VHF with a
vertical antenna and QRP. VHF is very challenging indeed, but also much
more exciting and rewarding.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected
to be at very 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 5.

The 15 to 20m bands will provide lots of DX fun. There is a chance of
10m openings on north-south sunlit paths.

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

** Let's look at some upcoming events:

29 - 30 October - CQ WW DX SSB Contest 5 November - RaDAR Challeng 5
November - Pretoria Amateur Radio Club Flea Market 6 November - The
PEARS HF DX Contest 13 SARL Youth Net 19 November - Antique Wireless
Association AGM & Swopmeet 26 - 27 November - CQ WW DX CW Contest 26
November - West Rand Flea Market

** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
This week the Council of ICASA approved the memorandum of understanding
with the SARL. The memorandum replaces a very old MOU which was
outdated and had expired.

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 pod cast 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 Emile Venter, ZS6V,
and read by ..............

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

/EX

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