SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS SUNDAY 15JANUARY 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.

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 SUBMITS FURTHER DOCUMENTATION ABOUT TYPE APPROVAL

SDR WORKSHOP ON 18 FEBRUARY

RAE BURSARIES

AND

THE PEARS NATIONAL VHF/UHF CONTEST THIS COMING WEEKEND

** The SARL submitted further documentation about Type Approval to
ICASA in response to the discussions at the public hearing which took
place last month. The SARL has maintained its position that equipment
built by an amateur in pursuit of his or her hobby should be exempted
from any type approval requirements. As far as commercial equipment is
concerned, the SARL proposed that equipment that conforms to the ETSI
standards for equipment used by radio amateurs and already approved by
the EU or the FCC be exempted from any further type approval in South
Africa.

** AMSAT SA is holding a half-day SDR workshop in association with the
SARL at the NARC on 18 February 2017. This is a hands-on workshop where
participants will install a VHF/UHF RTL dongle and program it to become
a VHF/UHF receiver covering 24 MHz - 1.7 GHz. The workshop will be
presented by Anton Janovsky ZR6AIC and Cor Rademeyer ZS6CR. Register
before 11 February 2017. Details and registration form on
www.amsatsa.org.za. Book early to avoid disappointment.

** The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust offers two
bursaries of R1,000 each for the May radio amateur examination. The
Tony Reumerman bursary programme awards 4 bursaries annually for
students who are under 26 years old and are planning to write the class
A examination. Two bursaries are available for the May exam and two for
the October exam. For details and an application form, go to
www.amateurradio.org.za

** The PEARS National VHF & UHF Contest takes place this coming weekend
from 18:00 CAT on Friday 20 January until 14:00 CAT on Sunday 22
January 2017. We have been informed that amateurs from all six
divisions will be active during the contest, which includes Division 3
on the West Coast for the first time, as well as Namibian stations.
Field stations as well as Rovers, which is a very popular category in
the USA, operating from high sites will keep the bands alive during the
day via Tropo Enhancement and possibly Sporadic-E propagation. Tropo
Ducting could be at its best in the early mornings and at night
especially on 144 MHz making very long distances possible. Please make
an effort to participate in the contest, help to advance amateur radio
and make it more exciting for everybody. Good luck with the contest!

** Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected
to be at low levels. A new sunspot has appeared, breaking a string of
consecutive spotless days. 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 17.

The 15 to 30m 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:

14 - 15 January - Hunting Lions in the Air 20 - 22 January - PEARS
National VHF/UHF Contest 28 January - Summer QRP Sprint 4 February -
East Rand Branch Amateur Radio Club Flea Market 5 February - AWA CW
Activity 11 - 12 February - SARL National Field Day 18 February - SARL
Youth Sprint 18 February - SDR Workshop

** To conclude our bulletin a quick overview of our main news item: The
SARL submitted further documentation about Type Approval to ICASA in
response to the discussions at the public hearing which took place last
month. The SARL has maintained its position that equipment built by an
amateur in pursuit of his or her hobby should be exempted from any type
approval requirements.

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

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