SARL NEWS - SUNDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2010

You are listening to ZS6SRL, the official radio station of the South
African Radio League, the national body for amateur radio in South
Africa, with a news bulletin every Sunday at 08:15 CAT in Afrikaans and
at 08:30 CAT in English. To listen to a web stream, visit
www.sarl.org.za, click on 'ARMI' and follow the links for details.
PLEASE NOTE: for audio via Echolink, connect to ZS0JPL-R.

You can download this bulletin and previous ones from www.sarl.org.za
and also subscribe to receive future bulletins by e-mail.

Your newsreader this morning is (name), (call sign), on 145,725 and
7,066 MHz from Pretoria, with relays on 7,066 and 3,695 MHz SSB.

In the news today:

NEW LICENCE FEE STRUCTURE TABLED IN GOVERNMENT GAZETTE

SARLNEWS HAS VACANCIES

SARL MEMBERSHIP TOUCHES 1 200

You are listening to ZS6SRL. Stay tuned for more details on these and
other important and interesting news items.

NEW LICENCE FEE STRUCTURE TABLED IN GOVERNMENT GAZETTE

On Friday 27 August ICASA published the new licence fee structure in
the Government Gazette no 33 495. The minimum fee for any radio licence
is R120. The new fee structure will become effective on 1 April 2011,
at the start of ICASA's financial year. All licenses in the amateur
service will cost R120 per annum from that date.

On 29 April 2009, the SARL submitted a memorandum to ICASA objecting to
the proposed increases and argued that it would not be in the interest
of retired persons and the youth. However, ICASA declined the SARL
proposals for lower fees. Putting the new fee in perspective, it is
well within the average inflation figure of the past 25 years,
amounting to less than 8% per annum increase.

From 1 April the following licenses will increase to R120 per annum: .
ZU, ZR and ZS licenses . Beacon licence . Change of call sign request .
Special event licence . Listener licence . Repeater station including
radio link . Digipeater/bulletin board . Experimental station for
weather satellite reception and retransmission.

There is a discount for advance payments as follows: If the licence is
paid 2 years in advance it will cost R240; 3 years R329; 4 years R419
and 5 years R500.

SARLNEWS HAS VACANCIES

SARL News has vacancies for bulletin compilers, editors and
translators. The successful candidates must have enthusiasm and
language ability in English or Afrikaans or both. The reward is the
satisfaction of seeing the bulletin in print and being read on the air.
SARL News is produced by teams working with George Honiball. Currently
each team works every second month. News is collated on Friday
afternoons and Saturday mornings, then edited and translated and
finally checked by George before being distributed on the internet on
Saturday evenings. If you would like to get some experience in editing,
call George on 012 664 4155. Your assistance will be appreciated.

SARL MEMBERSHIP TOUCHES 1 200

August 31 was the cutoff date for paying the SARL 2010/2011 membership
fee. The number of paid-up members was touching the 1 200 mark, and
will by now have been exceeded. If you have not paid your SARL
subscription you have another 7 days' grace to do so before losing all
benefits.

Please don't let this happen and pay those few rand in the next day or
so. If you lost the invoice or the reminder that was sent a few days
ago, call Mariska on 011 765 2393 on Monday morning.

RTA TO BE OPENED BY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF NRF

Dr Robin Drennan, Executive Director of the National Research
Foundation, will deliver the opening address at the SARL Radio
Technology in Action 2010 on Saturday 18 September at the National
Amateur Radio Centre. He will also inaugurate the real-time space
weather display that is being installed in collaboration with the
Hermanus Magnetic Observatory. The hardware has been donated by Acer
South Africa.

The full programme can be downloaded from www.sarl.org.za. Click on RTA
and follow the links. If you would like a copy in your mailbox, send an
email to with RTA in the subject line.

VK2DGR RELEASES ROYALTY-FREE DIGITAL VOICE CODEC

An exciting development is taking place in the world of amateur radio
digital audio. David Rowe, VK5DGR, announced the release of Version 0.1
alpha of Codec2, which is a fully function 2 550 bits per second codec
for amateur radio digital voice.

Codec2 is an open-source low bit rate speech codec released under the
GNU Lesser General Public License designed for communications quality
speech use. Applications include low bandwidth HF and VHF digital
radio. Its supporters say that Codec2 fills a gap in open source, free
speech voice codecs operating below the 5 000 bps rate. When you listen
to some sample audio in both male and female voices, you have to
believe that Rowe has succeeded. You can hear it on Amateur Radio
Mirror International later this morning.

Those who support Codec2 claim that the lack of a copyright-free codec
has impeded the development of amateur radio digital voice
communications on both the HF and VHF bands. They hope that Codec2 will
eventually be incorporated into DV software such as WinDRM and FDMDV
which has so far relied on a non-open source codec.

DID YOU MISS THE ISAT PRESENTATION?

If you missed the ISAT presentation by John Williscroft, ZS6EF, you can
listen to it on www.amsatsa.org.za. The presentation describes an
imaginary CubeSat and was devised by John to stimulate the discussion
which ensued on last Sunday's SAT Network. You can still submit your
ideas of what should be considered for inclusion in the payload on the
planned satellite. Send your comments to .

RADIO ZS IN THE MAIL

As always, the latest edition of Radio ZS contains plenty to read. You
will enjoy reading about adding AM to the FT-102 by André Botes,
ZS2ACP, and building a foot switch for contest operation, by Kevin
McDonald, ZS6KMD. If you sported a flag on your car during the World
Cup, there is an interesting recycling project titled Recycling the
World Cup by John Williscroft, ZS6EF. Take a trip to Friedrichshafen
with Dennis Green, read about amateur radio and the World Cup, about
satellites and to QSL or not to QSL. The July/August edition is on its
way to you. If you are not a member and want to see what you are
missing, send an email to with RadioZS in the subject
line and we will mail you a complimentary trial copy. A warning to
members: if you have not renewed by 10 September, you will lose access
to the member pages and the online version of Radio ZS.

INVITATION TO ATTEND HABEX 2010 SECOND TEST LAUNCH

On 24 July 2010, Sci Bono in co-operation with radio amateurs
unsuccessfully tested the High Altitude Balloon Experiment Payload,
also known as HABEX. The payload was lost through electronic failure
and we had to return to the workbench to fix all the problems.

Radio amateur clubs and individuals are invited to attend the second
attempt at success by the hopeful team.

Details are as follows:

Venue: Klerksdorp Airport FAKD Time : 07:00-13:00 CAT Date: 25
September 2010.

Details of the payload will be posted on the SARL forum and you are
invited to share in the fun.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is still at low
levels. A rash of small sunspots is breaking out across the sun's
northern hemisphere. Unfortunately they all appear to be fairly
inactive. The effective sunspot number is expected to be less than 10
for the coming week.

20 m will provide the best opportunities for DX followed by 40 m. With
the change of season 15 m is also starting to show signs of life.
Conditions to India will be good from late afternoon until after
sunset. During sunset it will be good towards Europe. Contacts with the
USA are still challenging. Contacts with Australia and New Zealand are
possible at sunrise on 20 m and on 40 m after sunset. Weak 15 m
openings to Brazil and South America are possible during the
afternoons.

For the CW and digital enthusiasts, 30 m may be very rewarding with
openings to many parts of the world.

Locally 40 m is the workhorse for contacts around the country with 30 m
also very useful for contacts over the longer distances. 80 m will be
best during the early mornings and late afternoons and over the shorter
distances.

80 m is the frequency of choice during the evenings.

Please visit www.spaceweather.co.za for further information.

DIARY OF EVENTS

10 September - Last day to pay SARL membership fees; 18 September - RTA
symposium at the NARC; 25 September - Launch of HABEX at Klerksdorp.

SARL News invites clubs and individuals to submit news items of
interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners. Submit news items -
if possible - in both English and Afrikaans to
www.sarl.org.za/newsinbox.asp, not later than the Thursday preceding
the bulletin date.

The SARL also invites you to listen to Amateur Radio Mirror
International every Sunday morning at 10:00 CAT on 145,750 MHz in the
Pretoria area, with relays on 7 082, 7 205 and 17 560 kHz. There is
also a podcast by ZS6RO.For a web-stream and Echolink by ZS6FCS, visit
www.sarl.org.za, click on 'ARMI' and follow the links. A repeat
transmission can be heard on Mondays at 22:05 CAT on 3 215 kHz. Sentech
sponsors the ARMI transmissions on the non-amateur frequencies.

You have listened to a bulletin of the South African Radio League,
compiled by Gustav, ZS6BWN, and edited by Hester van der Walt.

Thank you for listening, 73.

/EX