SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 20 DECEMBER 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.

SILENT KEYS

It is with deep regret that we must inform you that the key of Mickey
Warr, ZS1WA, became silent on Sunday 13 November after being ill for
some time.

Our sincerest condolences to his wife and family

It is also with regret that we note the peaceful passing of John Tyrer,
ZS6JET, on Wednesday 16/11/2016. As a blind operator, Ham radio kept
John in touch with many. Although not radio active in recent years, we
will miss him.

Our sincere condolences to his wife Laura and the rest of the family.

PAUSE

IN THE NEWS TODAY

SDR WORKSHOP

CONTESTS FOR 2017

BEACONS COVERING SOUTH AFRICA

and

SARL WEBSITE UPGRADE

Stay tuned for more on these and other interesting stories.

**** On Saturday 26 November 2016 AMSAT SA in cooperation with the SARL
will be holding a workshop on Software Defined Radio. The morning
programme which starts at 9 am, will feature an introduction to SDR,
well supported by videos. There will be a few practical demonstrations
including a SDR repeater using a Raspberry Pi board by Anton Janovsky
ZR6AIC. Cor Rademeyer ZS6CR will talk about a SDR transponder concept
and there will be an update on the Kletskous project.

Registration opens at 9 am with the workshop running from 9.30 till
about 12:30. After the workshop you are invited to stay for an open
discussion on future SDR event planning.

To register for the SDR workshop point your browser to
www.amsatsa.org.za. The cost is R20 to cover light refreshments plus a
voluntary donation to the AMSAT SA Kletskous CubeSat project. You may
pay online or at the door, but please complete the registration form.

*** The SARL has been improving the security of the website, and one of
the changes has been to make passwords case-sensitive. In the past it
did not matter whether you typed your password in upper case or lower
case or any combination, but it is now necessary for your password
exactly to match the password stored for you - and most of these were
all in upper case.

Members can set or change a custom password at any time. A link to this
page now appears at the top of the left-hand column on the SARL home
page.

If you are still having difficulty with your access then the following
page should answer your questions:
www.sarl.org.za/ProblemsLoggingOn.asp

*** Geoff Levey, ZS6C, requests all the Clubs and Individuals who host
the various contests please to check that the details are correct for
their contest(s).

Especially check the contact details.

Please send an email to for any changes required.

The deadline for any change is the 25th November 2016. The manual can
be downloaded from www.sarl.org.za/public/contests/contestrules.asp

**** Pieter Jacobs, V51PJ, of Rosh Pinah blew the dust off his 50,300
MHz CW beacon and tested it with his instruments up to 90 Watts output.
He will operate this beacon with a 3 element horizontal Yagi pointing
to the centre of South Africa during the months of December and
January. A 20-Watt beacon on 70,005 MHz CW will also be in operation
with a 6 element horizontal Yagi. Watch out for Sporadic-E openings
from Namibia between 12:00 and 14:00 CAT or for DX further afield.
These two beacons will also be useful during the forthcoming PEARS
VHF/UHF contest.

Pieter is also running another beacon about 8 km from his QTH on a
frequency of 144,429 MHz CW with 20 Watts into a 6 element horizontal
Yagi beaming across the Atlantic at Brazil. He intends to move this
beacon at a later date to Luderitz or Swakopmund or perhaps Walvis Bay
to be close to the sea. This should be of great benefit to PY1MHZ at
Rio de Janeiro as well as ZD7VC at St. Helena Island, who will be
monitoring it. When Tropo-Ducting occurs across the Atlantic then
stations from as far south as Cape Town and as far north as Swakopmund,
including stations some distance inland, will be in a wonderful
position to work ZD7VC.

**** The SARL Amateur Radio Hall of Fame honours individuals who have
made lasting contributions to Amateur Radio in Southern Africa, and
aims to preserve its history.

SARL members elected nine inaugural members this year. It was decided
to allow another batch of up to ten members during 2017, after which a
maximum of two members will be inducted annually.

Nominations are now open. The Hall of Fame page is accessible from the
SARL Home Page. The nomination page already shows four nominations.

Several stalwarts of Amateur Radio did not make it in the initial
round, in some cases because they had not been nominated. Let's ensure
that all the deserving get included, so that their contributions can be
preserved for posterity.

Nominations close at the end of February 2017. A nomination template is
available on the Web site. The nominations already listed can be used
as a guideline for what is required.

*** The Westrand Amateur radio club is hosting its next flea market at
12:00 on Saturday 26 November 2016 at their clubhouse in Kroton street,
Weltevredenpark, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome. For more information
contact Geoff ZS6C at 082-546-5546.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to
remain 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 10.

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

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

Now for the diary of events:

26 November - West Rand Flea Market Also on 26 November 2016 the SDR
workshop 26 - 27 November - CQ WW DX CW Contest 3 - 4 December - UK/EI
DX SSB Contest 4 December - SARL Digital Contest 10 - 11 December -
ARRL 10m Contest 11 December - SARL Youth Net

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, in both English and
Afrikaans if possible, 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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