SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 4 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
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:

SARL AND ICASA SIGN MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

SARL DIGITAL CONTEST

TREASURER REPORT AND BUDGET

HI-TECH AMATEUR RADIO AT NARC

AND

SARL FILES COMMENTS ON TYPE APPROVAL

** Tuesday 29 November 2016 was a historic day for the South African
Radio League. After many years of discussions with the Independent
Communications Authority, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed. The
MoU replaces a very old and outdated MoU. The delay in finalising the
MoU was mainly because of the restructuring of ICASA. The MoU
establishes the manner in which the Authority and the SARL will
interact with each other to enable them, inter alia: to co-ordinate 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 co-ordinate activities with respect to
matters of common interest. The MoU was signed by SARL President, Nico
van Rensburg ZS6QL and ICASA Councillor, Peter Zimri.

** The South African Radio League Digital Contest is on the air this
afternoon 13:00 to 16:00 UTC with RTTY and PSK31 activity on 80, 40 and
20 metres. PSK31 is preferred at the lower end of the specified
frequencies while RTTY is preferred at the upper end of the specified
frequencies. Please note that USB must be used at all times. The
exchange is a RST report and a sequential serial number starting at
001. See the 2016 Blue Book for all the information.

The Ten-Metre RTTY Contest started at 00:00 this morning and ends at
midnight UTC this evening. The exchange is a RST report and a
consecutive serial number starting with 001, while stations in the USA
and Canada will give a RST report and their state or province. Visit
www.rttycontesting.com/ for the rules.

** The honorary treasurer, Shane Bailey had targeted the end of
November 2016 for the release of the audited statements and budget for
the financial year. However, due to the extended nature of the
financial audit and subsequent findings with regard to possible fraud
and diverted funds, the Council decided to postpone the release of the
treasurer's report until January 2017 in order to allow the treasurer
to properly complete his work.

** Last Saturday it was hi-tech amateur radio at the National Amateur
Radio Centre when Cor Rademeyer ZS6CR and Anton Janovsky ZR6AIC
presented the Software Defined Radio Workshop. Known by its initials
SDR, it is a software way of creating a receiver and transmitter.
During the workshop which included two videos introducing the SDR
concept, the two speakers created a two metre to 70cm FM repeater using
a dongle and a Raspberry Pi. The workshop, presented by AMSAT SA in
cooperation with the SARL was attended by 37 radio amateurs and
electronic hobbyists. A follow up workshop is planned for 18 February
when Cor and Anton will take delegates through the steps of creating a
satellite receiver using the RTL dongle and software. The workshop
registration fee will include a dongle and memory stick with the
required software. Full details will become available on amsatsa.org.za
in the next few weeks. The various presentations and videos presented
last Saturday, including how to build a repeater with a Raspberry Pi
will be posted on www.amsatsa.org.za this weekend. You will also be
able to follow the links from www.sarl.org.za.

** The SARL responded to the ICASA request for representation on the
exemption from Type Approval requirements for communications equipment.
The SARL document was e-mailed to ICASA on 30 November, a few days
before the closing date as published in a recent Government Gazette.
The document is available from the SARL home page.

** The Short-path Summer Solstice Propagation (SSSP) on 50 MHz starts
in the Southern Hemisphere around 8 December and usually lasts until
about 12 January. This has been observed annually by both Australian
and New Zealand VHF amateurs who have often worked South America on 50
MHz SSSP. There is no reason why South African stations could not work
these stations in the mornings on SSSP too around our summer solstice,
or for that matter Argentina or Brazil in the late afternoons. A
Japanese radio amateur Han Higasa, JE1MBJ, discovered this mode many
years ago during the northern hemisphere summer solstice in June when
he first heard a European TV station and then worked a number of DX
stations from there on 50 MHz CW. Look for SSSP signals on the 50 MHz
DX channels.

** The 2017 hard cover edition of the ARRL handbook and a softcover
RSGB Communications Handbook are now available from the SA Amateur
Radio Development Trust online bookstore. For details visit
www.amateurradio.org.za.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected
to be at moderate 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 11.

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

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

** Let's look at some upcoming events:

3 - 4 December - UK/EI DX SSB Contest 4 December - SARL Digital Contest
10 - 11 December - ARRL 10m Contest 11 December - SARL Youth Net

** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item:
Tuesday 29 November 2016 was a historic day for the South African Radio
League. After many years of discussions with the Independent
Communications Authority, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed. The
MoU replaces a very old and outdated MoU.

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

======================= Message Ends =======================

To edit or remove your entry from this mailing list go to
www.sarl.org.za/members/admin/maildat.asp