SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 2 DECEMBER 2018

Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South
African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and
QTH]

The South African Radio League broadcasts a news bulletin each Sunday
in Afrikaans as well as English at 08:15 and 08:30 Central African Time
respectively on HF as well as on various VHF and UHF repeaters around
the country. The bulletin is relayed on Echolink by ZS6JPL. A podcast
is available on the League website. Audio and text bulletins may be
downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za where you can
also sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

We begin the bulletin with news of three silent keys.

It is with deep regret that we announce that the keys of Harry
Lautenbach, ZS6LT, Fred Scheepers, ex-ZS1FCS and Dior Dreyer-Juselius,
ZS6DJD went silent in the past week.

Harry passed away on Saturday night 24 November 2018.

Fred passed away early on Sunday 25 November. He was involved in the
Oakdale Amateur Radio Club for a long time and also served as a SARL
Councillor. In 2011, he received the Jack Twine Award and in 2014, the
Willy Wilson award.

Dior passed away on Friday 30 November following complications after
surgery.

We extend our sincere condolences to the families and friends of these
three radio amateurs.

PAUSE

In the news, today:

THE YOTA 2018 DECEMBER ACTIVITY HAS STARTED

THE SARL AND ICASA MET TO DISCUSS REGULATORY ISSUES IMPACTING ON
AMATEUR RADIO

and

THE ARRL 10 METRE CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND

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

IARU REGION 1 - DECEMBER 2018 YOTA MONTH

December is YOTA Month when several youngsters from IARU Region 1
Member Countries will become active on the air with YOTA as suffix in
the call signs. From Saturday 1 December to Monday 31 December 2018,
young amateurs in their teens and early 20s will attempt to make many
contacts worldwide with each other during this international event.
This event is aimed at our young generation and is a golden opportunity
for clubs to get youngsters who are interested in or want to find out
more about Amateur Radio on the air.

It is not a formal contest, but a way to get our current young amateurs
on the air contacting hundreds of other youngsters around the world.
The SARL has registered a special call sign ZS9YOTA on the IARU Region
1 website as an educational call sign for use by clubs and individuals
during December. To reserve a slot to use the ZS9YOTA callsign on a
daily basis or for information please contact Noel, ZR6DX via e-mail at
or alternatively to Nico, ZS6QL at .
The schedule and applicable rules will be available on the SARL
website.

All radio amateurs are welcome to enjoy a QSO with the youngsters, be
aware that some of them are new to the radio hobby, while others are
more experienced. Looking forward to hearing our younger generation on
the air during December!

THE SARL AND ICASA MET TO DISCUSS REGULATORY ISSUES IMPACTING ON
AMATEUR RADIO

The ICASA/SARL Liaison committee met last week to discuss various
regulatory issues affecting Amateur Radio.

Revisiting the agreement that home built amateur radio equipment does
not require type approval, ICASA confirmed that all the regions have
been informed of this agreement. The entire process of type approval
affecting all equipment that utilises the radio frequency spectrum or
has an effect on it, is being reviewed, which is a two-year process.
"This will not affect homebrew amateur radio equipment for own use",
SARL president Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL said. "The SARL encourages
radio amateurs to keep developing their hobby through homebrew".

The problem of commercial VHF equipment, recently type approved,
resulting in unauthorised use of amateur frequencies was tabled. ICASA
acknowledged that they are aware of the issue. The SARL has now also
formally filed an official complaint.

Dealing with interference on amateur frequencies, ICASA has agreed to
supply the SARL with details of the Regional Managers who are dealing
with radio interference. The SARL will over the next few weeks develop
a guideline on how interference should be reported. This will be
available on the SARL web pages upon completion.

The new ICASA IT system, now going through its beta testing phase, will
become operational on 1 April 2019. The system will administratively
impact on applications to write the Radio Amateur Examination. ICASA is
setting up a workshop for the Liaison Committee and the SARL RAE
Manager to engage the new system so that timely new guidelines for
applicants can be developed.

The reception of weather satellite pictures and the licensing of
equipment has been a grey area. The ICASA ruling is that Radio Amateurs
wishing to set-up and own equipment to receive signals in 137 MHz band
must apply for a separate satellite receiving licence as it is not
covered under their amateur radio license. Non-licenced persons must in
addition also apply for a radio receiving license. The standard ICASA
frequency spectrum license application form should be used. It is
available for download from the SARL web.

ICASA confirmed that the current radio frequency spectrum regulations
are still in force. The SARL pointed out that there is a discrepancy on
the 1,8 MHZ frequency band between the current regulations and the
Frequency Spectrum Band plan which was approved by cabinet and gazetted
earlier this year. ICASA said they will look into this. They also
confirmed that the new regulations will first go through a public
consultation process. It was also confirmed that South African Radio
Amateurs have full access to the 5 MHz band namely 5 350 - 5 450 kHz
and the channel 5 290 kHz for propagation studies, and that this will
be incorporated in the new regulations.

On the topic of reciprocal licencing, ICASA confirmed that CRASA had
accepted the proposal to join the CEPT TR61-01 scheme which allows
licenced radio amateurs to operate in SADC countries for a period of up
to three months without the need to apply for a licence. This final
process to ensure that all SADC administrations have communicated this
through their structures may take some time. The SARL will monitor the
developments and advise radio amateurs of progress.

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

THE DECEMBER 2018 RADIO ZS

The December 2018 issue of Radio ZS is available for download from the
League website. In this issue you can read about the FM VHF contacts
between amateurs in ZS1 and ZS3 and an amateur on St Helena Island.
Henry, ZS1AAZ encourages you to explore Arduino and the next article
shows you how to use Arduino to build a Morse code gadget for children.

Deon, ZR1DE explains the intricacies of repeaters, while in the Museum
Piece you can read about Hedy Lamarr and Spread Spectrum communication.
There is also an index of the 2018 issues of Radio ZS.

TWO NEW SOTA ASSOCIATIONS

From 1 December 2018, Namibia with 2 719 summits and the Prince Edward
and Marion Islands with 2 summits have joined the SOTA programme.

2019 DRAFT SARL BLUE BOOK

The Contest Manual (Blue Book) has been uploaded to the League website.
The contest organisers, please check all the details and notify Geoff,
ZS6C at by 10 December 2018 of any comments or
changes.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

The League has received applications for membership from Colin
Schroder, ZR2CRS and Stewart da Costa Pereira, ZR6DCP. The Black Friday
membership offer was taken up by 31 radio amateurs. They are Alec
Hodgkinson, G3JLL/ZS6BMU; Walter Winkler-Pleimer, OE5WWM; David
Hartzenberg, ZS1BCE; John Ward, ZS1EQ; André Fransman, ZS1F; Pierre
Tromp, ZS1HF; Louise Tromp, ZS1ONI; Trevor Brinch, ZS1TR; Dave Higgs,
ZS2DH; Johan van Vuuren, ZS2JV; Michael Gooden, ZS2MG; Andrew Prideaux,
ZS2PA; Bryan King, ZS2SS; Charl Joubert, ZS3CG; Louis Veldkamp, ZR4DJL;
Gideon Jannasch, ZS4GJA; Christopher Williams, ZS5CGW; Justin Wright,
ZS5JW; Kimentha Nair, ZS5KIM; Conrad Scheepers, ZS6CSV; Gerry Pieterse,
ZS6GER; Gary Schoombie, ZS6HG; Goosen Thompson, ZS6HPG; Kevin Turner,
ZS6KAT; Anre Kehlert, ZS6KZA; Mervyn Schmidt, ZS6MES; Jimmy Struthers,
ZS6OX; Casper Badenhorst, ZS6RA; Rex Pattison, ZS6REX; Hendrik Rudman,
ZS6RHL and Selwyn Losinsky, ZS6SEL. Any objections to these membership
applications must

reach the League Secretary before the Wednesday following the bulletin.
Please send your objections to

THE 2018 ARRL 10 METRE CONTEST NEXT WEEKEND

The object is for Amateurs worldwide to exchange QSO information with
as many stations as possible on the 10 metre band using phone and CW.
The contest takes place from 00:00 UTC on Saturday 8 December and ends
at 23:59 UTC on Sunday 9 December 2018. The contest exchange for
stations in the USA, Canada and Mexico is a RS or RST report and their
state or province, for DX stations it is a RS or RST report and a
sequential serial number starting with 001. Maritime mobile stations
send a RS or RST report and the ITU Region (R1, R2 or R3). All logs
generated by computer must be in Cabrillo format and a hand-written
paper log is an acceptable submission. All entries must be uploaded to
http://contest-log-submission.arrl.org/ or postmarked by 23:59 UTC 16
December 2018. Get the full set of rules at www.arrl.org/10-meter and
read the rules before the contest!

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to
remain at low levels. Currently there are 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
may provide some DX fun. Please visit the website
spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.

Finally, a Diary of some upcoming events:

3 December - International Day for People with Disabilities. 8 and 9
December - the ARRL 10 metre contest. 10 December - comments on the
2019 Blu Book to . 12 December - all provincial
schools close. 15 December - Proposal for papers and presentations for
the February 2019 VHF/UHF Workshop to . 16 Dec - the
Day of Reconciliation. 17 Dec - Public Holiday. 25 Dec - Christmas Day.
26 Dec - Day of Goodwill.

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

December is YOTA Month when several youngsters from IARU Region 1
Member Countries will become active on the air with YOTA as suffix in
the call signs. From Saturday 1 December to Monday 31 December 2018,
young amateurs in their teens and early 20s will attempt to make many
contacts worldwide with each other during this international event.

To reserve a slot to use the ZS9YOTA callsign on a daily basis or for
information please contact Noel, ZR6DX via e-mail at
or alternatively to Nico, ZS6QL at . The schedule and
applicable rules will be available on the SARL website.

This concludes our bulletin for this morning.

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 program, 'Amateur Radio Today' at 10:00 Central African Time. The
program 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; 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 Dennis Green, ZS4BS,
edited by Dave Reece, ZS1DFR and read by ..............

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

/EX

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