Experimental Homebrew Equipment Does Not Require Type Approval

Experimental home brew equipment developed and built by South African radio amateurs for their own use in terms of the conditions of their license will not require type approval, ICASA agreed at the quarterly SARL/ICASA liaison meeting held on Thursday last week.

The exemption of the type approval process is ongoing and will only be finalised in ICASA's 2018/2019 financial year which starts on 1 April 2018.

The approval and publication of the band plan was again discussed. The SARL expressed its dissatisfaction and asked that the amateur radio frequency table be unlocked form the overall band plan as it is now being unnecessarily delayed due to ongoing disagreements between the Department of Telecommunication and Postal Service and ICASA over other issues in the National Frequency Plan. ICASA responded by confirming that they are doing everything possible to expedite the matter and indicated that they and DTPS would meet soon to finalise the plan. The final approval lies with the DTPS Minster Dr Cwele.

The proposal that CRASA, the body of SADC regulators, accept the CEPT guest licensing arrangement will be discussed at the CRASA AGM scheduled for early April 2018. ICASA said they will support the proposal. Radio amateurs in SADC countries could assist by talking to their regulators and explain the benefits of the CEPT agreement.

New BT broadband service to transmit across VHF

BT's Openreach plans to use the polluting technology G.fast, that transmits across the VHF spectrum as well as HF, to deliver new broadband services

Two new broadband services are being offered providing 152 Mbps and 314 Mbps. BT has chosen to deliver these by G.fast over legacy copper wires rather than adopting the modern approach of Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) which causes no RF pollution issues.

BT Openreach currently uses VDSL-2 which transmits across the HF spectrum up to 17.660 MHz and has caused considerable interference to radio amateurs. G.fast will dramatically increase the RF spectrum affected by transmitting all the way up to 106 MHz.

Media Report - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42703466

2015 - G.fast broadband across HF and VHF - http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2015/november/g_fast_broadband.htm

Math Behind SSB Explained

Al Williams,  WD5GNR has published an article describing how voice is transmitted over radio waves

AM, or amplitude modulation, was the earliest way of sending voice over radio waves. That makes sense because it is easy to modulate a signal and easy to demodulate it, as well. A carbon microphone is sufficient to crudely modulate an AM signal and diode — even a piece of natural crystal — will suffice to demodulate it.

Outside of broadcast radio, most AM users migrated to single sideband or SSB. On an AM receiver that sounds like Donald Duck, but with a little work, it will sound almost as good as AM, and in many cases better.

Media Article - https://hackaday.com/2018/01/01/why-is-donald-duck-on-the-radio-math-behind-single-sideband-explained/