SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 01 JANUARY 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
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.

Regrettably we start this week's bulletin with a silent key

It is with great sadness that we learned that one of our finest
gentlemen radio amateurs, OWEN PENBERTHY ZS1JN, joined the ranks of the
Silent Keys on 29th December 2016. It is a double sadness as it was to
be his 80th Birthday on 30th December 2016.

Owen took on the task as Secretary of the False Bay Amateur Radio Club
& as a committee member for many years. He was popular & a tower of
strength in his club & will be sadly missed. He was also a CTARC
committee member & served on SARL Council in the 1970's.

Our deepest sympathy is conveyed to his XYL MARIE & FAMILY.

PAUSE

NEW YEARS WISHES

The news team takes this opportunity to wish all a very blessed,
prosperous and RF filled 2017.

IN THE NEWS TODAY

AMATEUR LICENSES

FIRST SPORADIC E ON 50

TRANS ATLANTIC TESTS TO RESUME

** Is your ICASA licence current?

As previously announced ICASA is in the process of implementing a plan
to cancel a very significant number of Amateur licences.

The SARL has obtained a list of these planned cancellations. 72 of the
people on this list are current members of the SARL. As a service to
those people Collin de Villiers, ZS6COL, has taken the time to email
those concerned.

As a further service to all non-members, if you do a call-sign lookup
on the SARL web call-book - you will be shown as lapsed. Note that this
does not apply to SARL members as they were sent an email.

If you are shown as lapsed - you should check the latest copy of your
licence. If you do not have a copy of your licence - you need to ask
ICASA to let you have a copy. They can e-mail that to you.

If you do have a licence, check when it expires. This is clearly shown
on the licence. If you have a licence and it is still current and you
are shown as lapsed - this indicates a problem somewhere in the system.
In that event please scan your licence and email it to
and we will investigate.

If you need to contact ICASA the suggestion is to do this by email to
Dewald Kuhrau using the email address of .

This service is being provided by the SARL in good faith and based on
data provided by ICASA. Any errors arising from data errors will be
corrected on submission of a copy of a valid licence to the SARL.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FLAGGED CALLSIGNS ONLY INCLUDE LICENCES THAT
EXPIRED MORE THAN A YEAR AGO. THERE ARE OTHER LICENCES THAT ARE IN
ARREARS FOR THE CURRENT YEAR THAT HAVE NOT BEEN FLAGGED. SO EVEN IF YOU
HAVE NOT RECEIVED AN E-MAIL OR IF YOU ARE NOT SHOWN AS LAPSED - YOU
SHOULD CHECK YOUR LICENCE STATUS, AS ICASA IS LIKELY TO INCLUDE THOSE
LICENCES IN THEIR CANCELLATION PROGRAM.

*** Mike Kellett, ZS1TAF, reported that he heard ZS6JON/b and ZS6TWB/b
on Sporadic-E just after 12:00 CAT for approximately 30 minutes on
Monday 26 December 2016. He sent out a WhatsApp VHF alert and called CQ
on 50,200 MHz SSB, but there were no takers. He says if we snooze we
lose!

There are currently five beacons that could indicate Sporadic-E
openings in the RSA. They are in the South: ZS1SIX - 50,080 MHz FSK at
Cape Town and ZS2X - 50,007 MHz FSK near Port Elizabeth. In the North
there are ZS6JON - 50,050 MHz CW at Krugersdorp, and ZS6TWB - 50,044
MHz CW in Polokwane, as well as a DX beacon V51PJ - 50,300 MHz CW at
Rosh Pinah, Namibia.

*** Undaunted, Pieter Jacobs,V51PJ, in Namibia and Marcos Turbo,
PY1MHZ, from Brazil will continue with their Transatlantic tests on 144
MHz starting early in January 2017. Recently they almost made it when
their digital signals were recorded across the Atlantic Ocean. But
unfortunately the QRA64 software used could not identify the call signs
so the ARRL had to declare the contact null and void. On 16 December
2016 Marcos heard several meteor pings from The V51PJ CW beacon on
144,429 MHz.

For the new tests in January Marcos decided to change his antenna to a
26 element LFA Yagi design for better handling in strong winds. It will
also provide a low take-off angle from his QTH at the sea. This time
they will be conducting their Transatlantic tests on 144,300 MHz using
JT65b digital mode instead.

PROPAGATION REPORT

WE ARE AWAITING THE LATEST PROPAGATION REPORT

DIARY OF EVENTS

1 January, today, - Start of 2017 CQ Marathon 14 - 15 January - Hunting
Lions in the Air 20 - 22 January - PEARS National VHF/UHF Contest 28
January - Summer QRP Sprint

We end today's bulletin with a brief summary of our main item. ICASA is
in the process of implementing plans to cancel a significant number of
amateur radio call signs. Please check the SARL webpage for more
information. SARL members who are on the ICASA cancelation list should
by now have received an email from Collin de Villiers ZS6COL.

And that brings us to the end of this first SARL bulletin for 2017.

** 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 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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