SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2000

This is Amateur Radio Station ZS6SRL transmitting Amateur Radio News=20 , a service by the South African Radio League for the interest of all=20 Radio Amateurs, Short-wave Listeners and Electronic Enthusiasts. For=20 a
complete list of broadcast times and frequencies please send a SASE=20 to Amateur Radio News, SARL, P O Box 1721, Strubensvallei 1735.

This bulletin is also available on the SARL's web pages hosted by=20 Intekom
at www.sarl.org.za, as well as the packet radio bulletin=20 board system.
You may also request sarlnuus@mweb.co.za to e-mail it=20 to you in either
text or MSWord 6.0 format.

SILENT KEY

Swannie Swanepoel ZS1WB passed away on Sunday 27 August. He lived in
Somerset West. He received his callsign ZS6AWC in 1957 but moved to the Western Cape 10 years ago. To his wife Martie and family we offer our
sincere condolences.

PAUSE.

Here are the headlines of today's news:


RAE COURSE FOR SCIENCE TEACHERS TO BE HELD DURING SEPTEMBER HOLIDAYS

PEARS ESTABLISH NEW WAD AWARD FOR VHF AND UHF BANDS

NEWS FROM KZN MIDLANDS AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

RAE CLASSES

MAGALIES AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

CQ HOU KOERS

PROPAGATION REPORT

You are listening to ZS6SRL, the news follows in detail.


RAE COURSE FOR SCIENCE TEACHERS TO BE HELD DURING SEPTEMBER HOLIDAYS

The SARL and South African Amateur Radio Development Trust are=20 joining forces to present a RAE Course for Science Teachers. The=20 course will be held at the National Amateur Radio Centre and includes=20 practical
on-the-air sessions with the aim of introducing good=20 operating practices
and familiarising teachers with the Hamradio=20 culture. The first two introductory sessions are on Saturday 16 and=20 23 September. The main body
of the course will be presented from 26=20 to 29 September. On the last afternoon the candidates will write the=20 RA examination.

Interested teachers are invited to send their address details to=20 arisas@intekom.co.za or fax the information to 011 675-2793. On=20 receipt
of the details, a course application form will be despatched.

NEW MEMBERS

The Council of the SARL extends a hearty welcome to the following new
members and trusts that your association with the SARL will be long and pleasant.

Charles Frost K5LBU
Michelle Basset ZR1MCB
Michael Botha ZSL042

PEARS ESTABLISH NEW AWARD FOR VHF AND UHF BANDS

A new challenging but achievable WORKED ALL DIVISIONS award on 144, 432 and 1296 MHz is being offered by the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society. The motivation behind this award is to encourage long-distance operation as well
as construction and/or improvement of equipment for the above mentioned VHF
and UHF bands.

The main requirement is to establish one terrestrial contact, either on CW,
FM or SSB with any amateur station in each of the six mainland divisions of South Africa, i.e. Division 1 to 6, on one of the above bands. It is back-dated to contacts made from 1 January 2000.

The recipient of the first award for each respective band will qualify for a prize in the form of a copy of the latest ARRL HANDBOOK. This prize offer
will be valid only for applications received by 31 December 2004. Six QSL cards confirming the contacts must be submitted with the application to
PEARS, P.O. Box 10402, LINTON GRANGE, 6015.

NEWS FROM THE KZN MIDLANDS

Charles Carr, (ZS5QR), the new Chairman of MARC has already dealt with a
number of events and decisions in a cool, calm and collected way since
taking over the reins from Bill Norval (ZS5KD), who held this position for a number of years with great efficiency and dedication.

On Saturday, 26th August 2000, the Capital Climb took place : a
well-supported and popular event in Pietermaritzburg. Nearly 4000 runners, young and old started the race at the City Hall, proceeded up to World's
View and finished at Voortrekker High School. As in the past, MARC was involved with communications during the event. Roger O'Neil, (ZS5EV), took
the lead and was assisted by 8 other amateurs. Peculiarities noticed during the race : two prams; two dogs and their owners; a blind person and a baby
in a backpack. Well-known Veteran Jones also completed the 15 km race.

Chairman Charles Carr (ZS5QR) is organising reflective "bibs" for volunteer hams officiating at events such as the Capital Climb, which will indicate "RADIO MARSHALL" and "Midlands Amateur Radio Club".

On the 25th November, 2000, the Club will hold a Fleamarket at the Clubhouse (Natal Carbineers). It will start at 11.00 hrs. Demonstrations will be presented by Kenwood, Icom and Antronics. Club members are encouraged to
bring along equipment for auctioning : there will be no charge for table
space, although donations will be appreciated. The event will include a
bring 'n braai session.

Finally, as we are already heading for September, the date for the annual Christmas Dinner has been set for the 9th December, and will take place at
the Crossways Inn, Hilton.


RADIO AMATEUR EXAMINATION CLASSES

Magalies Amateur Radio Club started with RAE classes on 26 August at the clubhouse on the corner of Breyer Ave and Mill Street in Waverley. Classes
are presented every Saturday at 14:00 and thus far 10 students have
registered and more are expected. Interested persons can call Jannie ZR6PHD
at tel. 333-5591 or Fritz ZS6AFS at tel. 997-1114.

The Vaaldriehoek Amateur Radio club will for the next 10 weeks offer classes every Wednesday evening from 18:30 to 20:30. It will be held at the QTH of Gerrie ZS6ISA, Rembrandt Street 30, Vanderbijl Park. All interested persons are welcome and can contact him at 016 958-9413 or 083 725-4990.

The Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre and Boland Amateur radio Club have joined forces to present RAE classes at 71 Signals Unit headquarters, Acacia Park Military Base in Goodwood. The introductory class starts Tuesday 12
September at 19:00 with Pierre ZR1PDT as course leader. At this meeting the following amateurs of the various clubs will address the students on a
variety of subjects about amateur radio. They are: Bud ZS1B from Cape Town, Rassie ZS1YT from Boland, Ron ZS1RON and Grahame ZR1HG from Valsbaai,
Maurice ZS1ACH and David ZS1DFR from Oakdale, ZS1WC from Overberg. Other speakers are: ZR1FR, ZS1AGH, ZR1PDT en ZS1AAZ. =20 Candidates interested in the course must contact Pierre Tromp, ZR1PDT at 083-229-7795 for more information.

MAGALIES RADIO AMATEUR CLUB ACTIVITIES

During an open day on 8 August at the John Vorster Technical High School in Rietfontein, Pretoria, the Magalies Amateur radio Club erected a station on
the school grounds. The station included the reception of weather satellite images, transmission and reception of SSTV images, packet radio, 2m FM and
also relaying between 2m and HF stations. The station was manned by 13
members of MRAK.=20

Great interest was shown by pupils and teachers of the local as well as visiting schools and details of all the interested parties were taken for follow up action. The result of this was that yesterday MRAK started with a course for the November RAE with ten pupils from this group. This again confirms that it is rewarding to promote amateur radio under the youth at
such events.

Our heartiest thanks to all participating amateurs at and away from the
school during the open day, your efforts were not in vain.

CQ HOU KOERS 2000

Here is a perfect opportunity to introduce the youth to our hobby and
possibly reduce the average age of radio amateurs.

The Voortrekkers are holding their annual CQ Hou Koers gathering on the air
on 14 October and request that radio amateurs who are willing to assist the commando in their town or city to contact one of the following persons

Louis Kruger ZR6ABC e-pos: lk3@isis.co.za 671 Orthoclase Street
Elarduspark 0181,=20
Cell: 082-336-2597
Willy Wilson ZR6CY 122 Verdoorn Street Sunnyside 0002
Tel: (012) 343 7176
Gustav Snyman ZS6BWN e-pos: gsnyman@lantic.net PO Box 53
Wapadrand 0050
Cell: 083 254 1150

There is a web page at http://www.voortrekkers.org.za/cqhoukoers where information wil become available.

Inquiries on packet radio can be directed to ZS6CQH@ZS0HBT.GAU.ZAF.ZA.

Radio amateurs will then at a later stage be contacted by the commandos in their respective areas with a request to assist with the event.

SUNSAT SCHEDULE

The passes for SUNSAT, SO35, for Southern Africa, all in Mode J and times in UTC, are as follows:

02/09 16:01
03/09 15:21
04/09 16:20
05/09 15:40
06/09 15:01
07/09 15:59
08/09 15:19
09/09 16:18

PROPAGATION REPORT

The past week has been characterised by a very quiet sun. Only one
relatively small solar flare occurred on Friday evening at 20:19 SAST. The Solar Flux rose as forecast and reached a figure of 165 on Thursday.

From that point onwards it slumped back a bit. It now seems that it will
only get back to 165 by tomorrow and is then expected to rise slowly and
reach 185 by Friday. Then it should decline again.

If this indeed happens it will be the second consecutive month that the
Solar Flux does not reach the 200 mark at it's high point. It is a bit of a disappointment because it did reach this value for all the preceding months
of the year.

It is expected that the Geomagnetic Field will be quiet to unsettled levels until Thursday morning. Propagation should be reasonably good. On the 10 meter band the signals would not be very strong, but with the expected quiet Geomagnetic conditions CW and other data modes should be very good on this band.

By Thursday afternoon the Geomagnetic Field should become active as a result
of two well placed Coronal holes. By Friday it should reach minor storm conditions at times.

By Saturday everything should be back to normal again.


DIARY OF COMING EVENTS

The Alberton Amateur Radio Club will be holding its AGM at 15:00=20 (fifteen hours) on the 9 th September at the club house in the Alberton Civic Centre. Please make an effort to attend. Tea and cake will be served. A committee meeting will also be held on the 7 th September, ie the Thursday preceding
the AGM at 19:00 (nineteen hours) at the club house.

The Bloemfontein Amateur Radio Club will be holding its AGM at 14:00 for
14:30 on Saturday 9 September 2000 at the Clubhouse at the Bloemspruit Air Force Base. Following the AGM a bring-and-braai will be held.

Magalies Amateur Radio Club will hold its AGM on 16 September at 14:00 at
the club house situated on the corner of Breyer Ave and Mill Street in Waverley. As usual after the meeting a pleasant gathering will take place
and tasty refreshments will be available. For road directions call on
145,750 MHz.

The Pretoria Radio Amateur Club will be holding a flea market and boot sale
on 23 September starting 8 am. The venue is near the Clubhouse on the South Campus of the University of Pretoria. This will again be a memorable day as usual and please reserve the morning of the 23rd for a great get-together
and bargain hunt. Contact Hans ZS6KR at 012 333 2612 for details and to reserve tables.

The Rustenburg Amateur radio Club will provide communications to the LOST CITY/CANSA bicycle rally on Saturday 2 Oktober 2000. Two different routes
will be covered which will leave Sun-City in a south easterly direction then
in a western direction. Communication will be provided vie the Rustenburg repeater on 145,325 MHz and on 7050 kHz in the 40 metre band.

The SARL News Service invites Clubs and individuals to contribute
information regarding Amateur Radio to sarlnuus@mweb.co.za with a copy to gth@mweb.co.za. Please submit in Afrikaans and English wherever possible.

Also join us in the following activities:
The President's Net on Sundays 12:00 on 7082 kHz Amateur Radio Mirror International Sundays at 10:00 on 9750 and 21560 kHz which is repeated
Mondays at 20:00 on 3215 kHz.
Correspondence for Amateur Radio Mirror International is via armi@intekom.co.za. Include your telephone number to allow the producers to call you for a possible interview. Send written reports to PO Box 90438 Garsfontein 0042 and include a self-addressed envelope and sufficient
postage so that you may receive a QSL card.

These transmissions are sponsored by Sentech, the common carrier for broadcasting signals in South Africa and Telkom who provides the
transmission lines. Various local repeater frequencies on 2 metres and 70
cm are also used in your area.

We thank all contributors to this bulletin and all stations who so reliably relay these bulletins. This bulletin was compiled by Marten ZS6ZY, and read
by ZS.... in ....... You have been listening to ZS6SRL. This transmission now ends and we wish you a pleasant week. --------------------------------------------------
Internet feed from ZS6ZY moved by Richard de ZR6CK

Regards,
Richard.

--- Msged/Q 1.60
* Origin: QTHR KG44DG, Novell User Group, Pretoria, RSA (5:7106/22)