ICASA awards long-term 5MHz license to SARL

In 2013, the South African Radio League obtained a license from ICASA to do propagation search on 5250kHz and 5260kHz to support the World Radio Conference (WRC15) agenda item 1.4 which will consider a possible new allocation to the amateur service on a secondary basis within the band 5250 - 5450 kHz.

To support the agenda item propagation conditions, frequency sharing studies on the impact to other services currently allocated in the band and in the adjacent bands will need to be carried out.

Last year the SARL submitted a proposal to the Council of ICASA for the sponsorship of long term license. The Council granted the license to the SARL last week. The SARL received the official license this week which is valid to 31 October 2015.

The Council of the SARL expressed its appreciation for the support from ICASA.

In association with the Kempton Park Amateur Radio Technical Society (KARTS) some early result of the WSPR experiment have been released.

More information - http://www.sarl.org.za

SARL 5MHz Activity Weekend

The dates of the 5MHz weekend have been finalised as 17-18 May 2014, held on the two days from 13:00 to 20:00 local time (11:00 - 18:00 UTC).

This is a SARL (South African Radio League) only event as radio amateurs have to register with the SARL to be allowed to operate on the two frequencies.

Some attractive book prizes and a free 2014/2015 SARL membership will be awarded in a lucky draw of all participants who send in logs.

Participation requires reception reports on the KART 5250 kHz beacon which will support WSPR, PSK31 and CW modes.

The Propresearch web page features a tutorial on how to get started on WSPR and links to other interesting articles, including an article which appeared on the Engineer IT website and will feature in the May edition.

AM Broadcasters and Radio Hams have common interest

Radio amateurs and AM broadcasters have some common ground in cleaning up 'a worsening RF noise environment in the AM broadcast band,' according to recent comments filed with the FCC by the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) on the issue of revitalizing AM broadcasting.

ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, who is also general counsel for the SBE, drafted the remarks.

“There are numerous complaints from Amateur Radio operators of severe interference from power line noise annually,” said the SBE comments, filed earlier this year. “Power line radiation in the HF and MF Amateur allocations will in most cases directly translate to preclusive noise in the AM broadcast band. The Commission has relied completely on the good faith efforts of electric utilities to resolve these.”

Read the full ARRL story - http://www.arrl.org/news/am-broadcasters-hams-have-common-interest-in-cleaning-up-noise-sources

Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) comments - http://www.sbe.org/sections/documents/CommentsFINALAMImprovementDocket13-249.pdf