SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY DECEMBER 17 2000

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

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

Here are the headlines of today's news:

NOMINATIONS FOR COUNCIL

MOTIONS FOR THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

NOMINATIONS FOR AWARDS CALLED FOR

ENTRIES FOR THE TINUS LANGE AWARDS INVITED

AO-40 TELEMETRY TRANSMISSIONS STOPPED

80 m QSO PARTY RESULTS ANNOUNCED

PROPAGATION FORECAST

You are listening to ZS6SRL. The news follows in detail.

NOMINATIONS FOR COUNCIL

There are currently 5 vacancies on Council and nominations are invited from members of the SARL to fill these vacancies. Should more than 5 nominations
be received a ballot will be held.

Each nomination must contain the following:

1. Full names, callsign and address of nominee.
2. An amateur radio related CV of not more than 200 words.
3. A signed declaration by the nominee that he/she will accept nomination
and serve on the Council of the SARL if elected.
4. Each nomination must be signed by a proposer and seconder.
5. Only fully paid-up members of the SARL may be nominated, propose and
second a nomination.

The nominations must reach the National Amateur Radio Centre by no later than 31 January 2001.

MOTIONS FOR THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Motions for submission and consideration at the Annual General Meeting of the SARL which is to take place on the 28 April 2001 are invited from members.

Each motion must contain the following:

1. A concise description of the motion.
2. A motivation in support of the motion.
3. Each motion must have a proposer and a seconder.

The motions must reach the National Amateur Radio Centre by no later than 31 January 2001.

THE SARL CALLS FOR NOMINATIONS FOR AWARDS.

The South African Radio League, the national society for Amateur Radio in
South Africa is calling for nominations for various awards to be presented at the Annual General Meeting Dinner on 28 April 2001. Nominations are invited for the following awards. The closing date is 20 February 2001.

Arthur Hemsley 2 metre Trophy
Awarded by Council to a Radio Amateur for his/her individual achievements
with transmissions in the 2 metre amateur band. This award is made for extraordinary performance on EME or modes such as tropospheric propagation.
It is not for the longest distance worked but rather for persistence in achieving something special on 2 metres.

Barney Joel Trophy
Awarded by Council to any member of the SARL for the best performance during the year whilst working HF mobile. This award could be made for performance
by an individual in rally or other public event communication etc.

Icom Excellence Award
This award is bestowed annually by Council on the amateur who through his/her activity in the Amateur Service has brought international recognition to
South Africa by either the achievement of a VHF/UHF long distance record
which is internationally recognised by the IARU, or by service to the
Republic of South Africa or the SARL in the field of scientific research
using the amateur spectrum, or in promoting the amateur service
internationally or as Council may determine from time to time.

Joseph White Plaque
Awarded by Council to any member of the SARL for exceptional achievements in the 432 MHz band during the past year. This is not awarded for the longest distance worked, but for all round achievements.

Bert Buckley Six metre Trophy
Awarded by Council to any radio amateur for his/her individual achievements with transmissions in the six metre amateur band. This award is not for the longest distance worked but for outstanding work or activity on six metres.

Radio ZS Two Metre Floating Trophy
Awarded by Council to the amateur who achieved the longest distance on the 2 metre amateur band during the year.

Gary Immelman Radio Amateur Heritage Award Floating Trophy
Awarded by Council for the best historic article of an event that occurred
more than 5 years previously or an interesting personality that has played an important part in the development of Amateur Radio in years gone by.

Radio ZS Shield
Awarded by the Editor of Radio ZS to a SARL affiliated Club or member who
best supported Radio ZS during the year.

JJ Pienaar Trophy
Awarded by the Editor of Radio ZS for the best article published in Radio ZS during the past year.

To reward achievements is important for continued future development says
SARL President, Hans Potgieter. " I encourage all Radio Clubs to seriously look at the achievements amongst radio amateurs in their area and to submit detailed nominations timeously.

The closing date for nominations is 20 February 2001. Nominations should be addressed to The Secretary, SARL Annual Awards, PO BOX 1721 STRUBENSVALLEI 1735.

ENTRIES FOR THE TINUS LANGE AWARDS INVITED

Entries are now invited for the SARL Tinus Lange 7066 Technical Excellence Awards.

The awards were introduced by and are financed from a special fund set up by the family of the late Tinus Lange in recognition of his contribution to Amateur Radio.

There is a junior and senior category. The junior category has an age limit
of 25 while the senior category is open to all. The objective of the award
is to encourage technical excellence in design and construction of Amateur Radio equipment and accessories including the design and/or construction of projects such as a pre-amp, a SWR bridge, patching unit, automatic ID-er, practical antenna ideas, mast, portable gear, power supplies, software for
use in the shack etc.

The submission must include the following:

1) the actual item ( if size and mass allows it) or photographs (particular
in the case of antennas/mast etc)
2) a complete write-up in article form with illustrations/pictures ready for publication in Radio ZS
3) All written material must be submitted in word or RTF format on a stiffy
and two hard copies.

In both the junior and senior category the award will be a certificate and R350.

All entries will be displayed (where practical, otherwise photographs) at the AGM and the award will be presented at the annual awards function arranged at the time of the AGM. The date for 2001 is 28 April. The closing date for
the 2000/2001 award is 15 February 2001. The submission must be addressed to the SARL Tinus Lange Award, P O Box 1721 Strubensvallei 1735

AO-40 TELEMETRY TRANSMISSIONS STOPPED

Early Wednesday, December 13th, telemetry transmissions from AO-40 stopped while work on the 400 N propulsion system was in progress. An investigation
by the AO-40 development team has begun. They are now waiting for certain on-board software events to occur on Saturday afternoon, December 16th.
These are programmed to start a spacecraft emergency routine called 'command-assist' which attempts to re-establish communications. This offers the best chance of recovering evidence of the incident which made the
telemetry transmissions stop.

AMSAT will furnish updates when more information becomes available.

80 m QSO PARTY RESULTS ANNOUNCED

The results of the recent 80 m QSO party, which was organised by the Dsurban Amateur Radio Club, have been announced.

Despite the appalling conditions and very heavy qrn, there was fairly good participation.

Of those heard, and worked, eleven stations submitted logs. This was a
slight improvement on the previous party.

We wish to thank those dedicated HAMS who perservered despite the conditions.

Points scored are as follows:

1. ZS5VER 295 points. A very good effort from a first time contest entrant! 2. ZS2ACG 235
3. ZS1WC 205
4. ZS5TUB 175
5. ZS6P 145
6. ZS5LP 140
7. ZS5LZ 130
8. ZS5KS 130
9. ZS5WI 100
10. ZS1PK 90
11. ZS5AES 75

Once again thanks those who participated, from the DARC contest committee.

SEASON GREETINGS

The President and Council of the SARL wishes all Jewish listeners happy Chanucah, during the feast of lights on December 22.

PROPAGATION CONDITIONS

Ean Retief, ZS1PR, reports as follows:

In general propagation was fairly good during the past week.

The solar flux bottomed out last Saturday at a value of 135 and started to
rise slowly. As expected the value increased rapidly from Thursday and it should reach 190 by today.

From last Sunday onwards the geomagnetic field was mostly quiet to unsettled.

A strange situation manifested itself late Thursday afternoon when signals on 20 and 40 metres were very poor. No rime or reason can be found for this.
From reports received later it would seem that the effect was limited mainly
to the Western and Southern Cape.

The prognosis for the coming week is good. The Solar Flux should stay in the 190 to 200 range and it is expected that the geomagnetic field should be at quiet to unsettled levels.

Some of the sunspot regions on the visible disc are quite complex, so the possibility of a major solar flare or two in the coming week does exist.

Signals on the direct north-south path between the Southern and Northern hemispheres should be quite good. In the mornings propagation on 20 and 17 metres should also be fairly good to the Pacific region.

DIARY OF COMING EVENTS

There is this week nothing under this heading; we await next year.

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. Relays on various 2M repeaters can also be heard.

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, especially clubs, to this bulletin and all
stations who so reliably relay these bulletins. This bulletin was compiled
by George, ZS6NE, and read by ZS.... in.......

You have been listening to ZS6SRL.

This transmission now ends and we wish you a pleasant week.

/ex
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Internet feed from ZS6NE moved by Richard de ZR6CK

Regards,
Richard.

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