SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2017

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.

We start this bulletin with the news that the doyen of EMC has become a
silent key

It is with sadness that we have received the news that Eric Winter,
ZS1EMC, passed away on 2 February 2017. Eric became ill a year ago
while attending the CISPR meeting in Italy and had to return to South
African where he was diagnosed with a life threatening disease. Eric
was South Africa's most celebrated Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)
expert. He represented the SABS at many international CISPR meetings.
He was a strong opponent to Power Line Communication and supported the
South African Radio League in its actions against it being introduced
in South Africa. Eric will be sadly missed. As a mark of the respect
and gratitude, the SABS TC73 meeting held in Pretoria this past week
observed a minute of silence. Our condolences are extended to his wife
and family.

PAUSE

In the news today,

SABS TC73 SUPPORTS THE SARL PROPOSAL TO STUDY INCREASE IN THE RF NOISE
FLOOR

SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

and

CLOSING DATE FOR SARL HALL OF FAME NOMINATIONS IS 28 FEBRUARY 2017

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

** The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) TC73 meeting, held this
past week in Pretoria, accepted the South African Radio League proposal
to study increases in the RF noise floor. Hans van de Groenendaal,
ZS6AKV, and Leon Lessing, ZS6LMG represented the League. The Strategic
Business Plan will be updated to include the League proposal and TC73
Workgroup 6 will be tasked to study the problem. The League is planning
a Saturday morning round table discussion at the National Amateur Radio
Centre. More details will follow soon.

** Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL, the President of the South African Radio
League has issued the following statement about the SARL Website
Development.

I wish to clarify the situation with regard to the League website.
There have been a number of comments and statements made recently with
regard to the League website. This statement serves to clarify the
situation.

The current South African Radio League website is fully functional and
serves the members as intended.

The Council is presently undertaking a review of the Information
Technology systems used by the League to serve its members and the
broader amateur radio community. Part of the review is to determine
ways in which the League website and services on the website can be
brought up to date and take advantage of the advances in the use of
social media.

Council has established a working group to prepare a Requirements
Specification setting out the South African Radio League IT
requirements going forward. Council will consult with the Members
before the specification is finalised and the go ahead given to begin
the technical work of developing an updated platform.

In the meantime, I am pleased to advise that the Webmaster has been
able to negotiate reduced hosting and service rates for the existing
infrastructure until a formal project plan with the appropriate costing
have been put in place.

** The South African Radio League Amateur Radio Hall of Fame honours
individuals who have made lasting contributions to Amateur Radio in
southern Africa and aims to preserve its history. In 2016, League
members elected nine inaugural members. It was decided to allow another
batch of up to ten members this year, after which a maximum of two
members will be inducted annually.

Nominations for this year close at the end of this month. The Hall of
Fame page is accessible from the League's home page. Over half a dozen
nominations have been received. Several stalwarts of Amateur Radio did
not make it in the initial round, in some cases because they had not
been nominated. Let us ensure that all the Deserving get included, so
that their contributions can be preserved for posterity.

With less than two weeks to the deadline, there is no time to waste. A
nomination template is available on the League web site. The
nominations already listed can be used as an example of what is
required.

** In an e-mail to the League President, Dawie Conradie, ZR6DHC, has
asked to be relieved as Coordinator for the SARL News Team. The Council
and the News team would like to thank Dawie for his hard work and
dedication to the weekly SARL News. Dawie will continue his work as
part of the Amateur Radio Today team.

Dennis, ZS4BS, will take over as the Coordinator for the SARL News
Team. We now have a vacancy as bulletin compiler on Team 3. The work
entails editing, compiling and translating the bulletin. If you are
interested in joining the team, contact Dennis at
.

** Following on a very successful symposium on Software Defined Radio
held in Gauteng towards the end of last year, a similar event will be
presented by AMSAT SA on Saturday 25 March 2017 at the Bellville Campus
of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

The programme includes topics relevant to amateur radio and will
provide some background on SDR. A practical approach of how to use
readily available dongles in conjunction with your PC to set up a
receiving system operational from the low MHz frequencies up to nearly
2 GHz will be described

To give attendees an insight into the development of such systems, some
of the software available to perform this task will be demonstrated.
Hardware availability suitable for the development of embedded systems
required for standalone transmitters and receivers will be introduced.
Looking at the rapid development of radio communication and the future
challenges within this field of technology, it is of importance for
young as well as established Radio Amateurs to keep abreast thereof.

** The South African Radio League Digital Contest will be run on Sunday
26 February from 13:00 to 16:00 UTC with activity on 80, 40 and 20
metres. The aim of the contest is to establish as many contacts as
possible between radio amateurs in Southern Africa using PSK31 and RTTY
modes. PSK31 is preferred at the lower end of the specified frequencies
and RTTY at the upper end. 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 2017 Blue Book for all the information.

You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
Did you show amateur radio to someone this week?

** Leon, ZR6LU, reports that conditions have been somewhat poor, but he
has seen a spot or two from the demonstration beacon in Cape Town,
operated by Peter, ZS1OA, to PI9ESA in the Netherlands on 20 metres.
Locally Graham, ZS6GL, and Angus, ZS6GOO, are bashing the poor SARL
receiver but rarely getting any further. Nic, ZR6AEZ, is picking up
some nice spots with his band-hopper on rare frequencies (DK6UG on
18,106097 MHz) but it is also not fireworks. So maybe we should start
putting up some receiver stations to help spot the overseas amateurs.
This brings me to the Message of the Day... I have V3.12 of the
firmware for the beacons available, which of course supports the
receiver as well as the new 5 W amplifier. I can upgrade your chips
anytime or if you are in a hurry, you can buy a blank chip and I will
swop you out quickly when we meet again.

** VHF activity is increasing around the country. In Cape Town, Mike,
ZS1TAF has been running a net on 144,300 MHz SSB every Thursday evening
for the past year or two. Recently the Coastal Radio Group operated a
successful field station ZS1CRG on the Piketberg for the first time
during the PEARS VHF/UHF contest and it was manned by Derrick, ZS1DUP,
Shaun, ZS1HE, Keverne, ZS1ABU, and Dieter, ZS1DWH. The West Coastal
Group, which included Charles, ZS1CF, and Tienie, ZS1HO, often work
Koos, ZS3JPY at Kleinzee and as far north as Andre, V51LZ at
Oranjemund. Andre, ZS3AG, at Kimberley has often heard traces of
signals from the group and has been heard by Pieter, V51PJ.

Pieter, V51PJ, has hooked up with stations as far afield as Andre,
ZS2ACP, and Andre, ZS2BK in Port Elizabeth, including Rickus, ZS4A,
Bernie, ZS4TX, Christian, ZR6AUI and Paul, ZS6NK, on digital or
analogue. Carl, ZS6CBQ, established a very successful net on 144,300
SSB some years ago on Saturday and Sunday mornings that covered
Divisions 4 and 6. He has now added a new net on 432,200 MHz SSB during
the same period. Hugo, ZS5HV, at Scottburgh, and Lee, ZS5LEE, in
Durban, have joined a Monday evening net run by Peter, ZS2ABF, in East
London with David, ZS5DJ, on 144,300 MHz SSB. It could later extend as
far south as Port Elizabeth. Now that we are at the minimum Solar Cycle
and DX on HF is declining, give VHF a try for a change, it is both a
challenge and fun. So make an effort, join these VHF groups and help to
advance VHF and amateur radio.

** Contest activity for March. On Sunday 5 March, the SARL Hamnet 40 m
Simulated Emergency Contest will take place. Over the weekend of 11 and
12 March, you can participate in the SARL VHF/UHF Contest and if you
enjoy CW, the RSGB Commonwealth Contest runs the same weekend. On the
weekend of 25 and 26 March, you can participate in the CQ WPX SSB
Contest.

** Did you enjoy the Field Day Weekend? The following log sheets have
arrived at - Centurion ARC, ZS6CEN; Sandringham Scout
Group ARC, ZS6SSG; Eddie, ZS6BNE; Jeugland Radio Club, ZR6JRC; Hugo,
ZS2HR; Highway ARC, ZS5HAM; Dennis, ZS4BS; Johann, ZS4DZ; Roy, ZS3RW;
Pieter, ZS6XT; Bruce, ZS5XT; Nic, ZR6AEZ ; Kurt, ZS5KL, Geoff, ZR6XZ/1;
Welkom Radio Club, ZS4WRC; Gerrit, ZS6DV; Stephan, ZS6SVJ, Eastern Cape
Hammies, ZS2ZU, and Sandton ARC, ZS6STN.

Where are the logs of ZS6WR, ZS6ERB, ZS5NAK, ZS5HAC, ZS4SRK, ZS6PTA and
others? The closing date is midnight CAT tonight, Sunday 19 February
2017. No late entries will be accepted.

** The closing date for your article for the March issue of Radio ZS is
Wednesday 22 February. Thank you to the East Rand Branch for the
article about their Field Day weekend. More such articles are welcome.
Send your article in English or Afrikaans to

** In which time zone are we? There is discussion about the use of
South African Standard Time or SAST, Central African Time or CAT or
local time in the weekly bulletin. South Africa is in the time zone of
UTC plus two, also referred to as Bravo time by the military, SAST, CAT
or Eastern Europe Time (EET).

Burundi, Botswana, Libya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo use
Central African Time. Egypt uses Eastern Europe Time and Lesotho,
Swaziland and South Africa uses South African Standard Time.
Nevertheless, it is all the same time zone! Therefore, if you use local
time, SAST, CAT or EET, you are correct!

** The West Rand Amateur Radio Club is hosting its next flea market on
Saturday 25 February 2017, starting at 12:00 at their clubhouse in
Kroton Street, Weltevreden Park, Roodepoort. Everybody is welcome.
Bring your surplus and support the vendor on the day. For more
information, contact Geoff, ZS6C, on mobile 082 546 5546.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected
to be at low levels. None of the active regions visible on the Sun
poses any threat for strong flares. If you want to do your own
frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the
week will be around seven. The 15 to 30 m bands will provide lots of DX
fun. Please visit the website https://spaceweather.sansa.org.za/ for
further information.

Now for the diary of events

22 February - closing date for Radio ZS articles 25 February - West
Rand ARC Flea Market 26 February - SARL Digital Contest 27 February -
National Milk Tart Day and the next day we will celebrate National
Heartburn Day 28 February - closing date for SARL Hall of Fame
nominations 5 March - SARL Hamnet 40 m Contest 11 and 12 March - the
SARL VHF/UHF Contest and the RSGB Commonwealth Contest 25 March - SDR
Workshop in Cape Town 25 and 26 March - the CQ WPX SSB Contest

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

The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) TC73 meeting, held this
past week in Pretoria, accepted the SARL proposal to study increases in
the RF noise floor. Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV, and Leon Lessing,
ZS6LMG represented the League. The Strategic Business Plan will be
updated to include the League proposal and TC73 Workgroup 6 will be
tasked to study the problem. The League is planning a Saturday morning
round table discussion at the National Amateur Radio Centre. More
details will follow soon.

** 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 podcast available from Dick Stratford, ZS6RO. A
rebroadcast can be heard on Monday evenings at 18:30 Central African
Time on 4 895 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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