SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 19 MARCH 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 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. A
podcast is available from the League's web site.

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.

We start the bulletin this morning with news of a silent key.

It is with regret that we announce the passing of Norman Templeman,
ZS6NAT, last week Friday. He has been suffering from MS for quite some
time. Norman was involved with Hamnet and assisted in the 4x4 Toyota
rallies with communications. He leaves his wife Loulene and three
children. The League offers its sincere condolences to Norman's family
and friends.

PAUSE

In the news today:

SARL ESTABLISHES A FINANCIAL WORK GROUP

SARL RISING NOISE FLOOR WORKSHOP

And

PEARS AND HAMNET EASTERN CAPE IN ACTION AGAIN

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

** The work entailed in unravelling and properly reporting on the
League finances from the past few years has proven to be a much bigger
task than at first anticipated. The Council has therefore appointed a
Financial Work Group comprising former treasurer Cliff Smyth, ZS6BOX,
with Corrie de Beer, ZS6CDB, and Eric Krebser, ZS6ZP, all of whom have
many years professional financial experience. The work has two
important tasks. The first is to retrospectively look at previous
financial years and establish a sound basis for the 2016 financial
report. The second is to provide advice and guidance on the management
of the League finances going forward. It is our belief that the Work
Group will provide League members with the confidence that their
subscriptions are being properly utilised to their benefit.

** Recently, following a concern raised by the South African Radio
League at the SABS TC73 meeting, it was agreed that the question of the
increasing level of the RF noise floor should be included in the
Strategic Business Plan of the technical committee and added to the
work schedule of Working Group 6.

Noise in this context denotes unwanted radio frequency (RF) energy from
man-made sources. Like many spectrum users, Radio Amateurs have
reported that the noise floor in the radio spectrum is rising as the
number of devices in use that emit radio energy grows. However, in
search for concrete evidence of an increased noise floor, it appears
that only limited quantitative data to support this presumption is
available.

The League is convening a Saturday morning workshop on 22 April to
develop a coordinated programme and form a study group with the
objective of establishing a monitoring system to assemble more
information while also considering mitigation methods to deal with
manmade noise affecting amateur radio frequencies.

This will be an open meeting and everyone who has an interest in the
subject is invited to attend. The workshop will be held at the National
Amateur Radio Centre.

If you have a special interest, expertise or experience in this field,
please share this at the workshop. For more details, please e-mail
with your contact details.

** The Hall of Fame preserves the memory of individuals who have made
significant contributions to amateur radio in South Africa. The first
group of members was inducted during 2016. Another group of up to ten
will be inducted at the South African Radio League Awards Dinner in
May. From next year, a maximum of only two new members will be inducted
annually.

Essays outlining the contributions of the 21 nominees can be found on
the Hall of Fame page, accessible through a link on the League web
front page. Halfway through the voting period, about 340 votes had been
received from League members.

Reading the nominations is well worth your while, as the nominees have
shaped our hobby. They include historical stalwarts like Dixon Bennett
and Koos and Annie van der Merwe, as well as modern-day contributors to
our hobby.

Less than two weeks remain. Vote today!

You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.

** Last weekend saw the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society and Hamnet
Eastern Cape in action again. This time providing radio communications
to the organizers of the Addo Elephant Trail Run - an event that
included a 44 km, a 76 km and a gruelling 100-mile (160 km) route. The
routes made their way through the remote and most picturesque parts of
the park. Runners had to deal with everything from river crossings to
steep inclines and windy mountaintops, running through the night and
the heat of the day.

Radio amateurs provided communications between the Park Rangers,
medics, checkpoint personnel and the race organizers. A network
consisting of two full repeaters and a number of cross band radios was
set up to cover the harsh terrain. Radio amateurs and other volunteers
went into the reserve on Friday and camped until the finish on Sunday.
This led to a number of happy campers - literally!

Yesterday, Saturday 18 March saw the radio amateurs out doing what they
do best at the motor rally, which was part of the Baakens Valley Motor
Show.

PEARS will also be assisting at the Ironman event on 2 April.

** There are two equinoxes every year - in March and September - when
the Sun shines directly on the equator and the length of night and day
are nearly equal. In South Africa, the Autumnal Equinox occurs this
year on 20 March 2017 at 12:28 CAT.

This would have been the time, at the peak of the Solar Cycle, when the
MUF would have risen up to 50 MHz (6 metres) or higher and making F2 DX
operation possible worldwide. Likewise, the 160 metre band would open
up an hour or two before sunrise until about half an hour after sunrise
for DX operation to Europe and the USA, etc. The DX similarity between
the 6 metre VHF band and the 160 meter MF band is quite startling. So
try 160 metre DX an hour or so before sunrise.

** Beacon News. The past week was very quiet on the HF beacon front and
no really long distance spots were reported. Six stations are active
and reporting regularly. Last week Derek Middleton, ZS6DM, was just
getting his WSPR beacon on the air for a few hours before blowing the
final output transistor. Peter Saul, ZS1OA, in the Cape is currently
WSPRing on 40 and 20 m and will be adding 15 m traps to his antenna as
we go into the winter. Please send all your beacon spotting reports to
Leon Uys, ZR6LU, on 082 573 5580 to be included in the next bulletin.

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected
to be at very low levels. For the past eleven days, there were no
sunspots visible. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the
expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around one. The
15 to 30 m 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:

25 - 26 March - CQ WPX SSB Contest 27 March - closing date for Radio ZS
articles 31 March - closing date for SARL Hall of Fame voting 1 April -
RaDAR Challenge 6 April - SARL 80 m QSO Party 8 April - Autumn QRP
Sprint 15 April - closing date for May RAE registration 18 April -
World Amateur Radio Day 22 April -SDR Workshop in the Cape and SARL
Noise Floor Workshop at the NARC

** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item

The work entailed in unravelling and properly reporting on the League
finances from the past few years has proven to be a much bigger task
than at first anticipated. The Council has therefore appointed a
Financial Work Group comprising former treasurer Cliff Smyth, ZS6BOX,
with Corrie de Beer, ZS6CDB, and Eric Krebser, ZS6ZP, all of whom have
many years professional financial experience.

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 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,
edited by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, 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