SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY MARCH 11 2001

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:

BACAR TO FLY ON MAY 19, FIRST PROJECT BRIEFING ON MARCH 14

INTECNET TO DISCUSS PROPAGATION

AMATEUR RADIO AT HOME

RADIO ZS delayed

RADIO AMATEURS VISITING NEW ZEALAND

PROPAGATION REPORT

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

BACAR TO FLY ON MAY 19, FIRST PROJECT BRIEFING ON MARCH 14

BACAR will fly again on Saturday 19 May in celebration of the ITU world telecommunications day .The South African Radio League recently decided to re-introduce the BACAR project that was so popular a decade ago. BACAR is
the acronym for Balloon Carrying Amateur Radio, a project that involves the flight of a weather balloon with several radio transmitters and experiments.

A BACAR information and planning meeting will be held at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre on Wednesday 14 March at 18:00. All interested in BACAR are invited to attend. At the briefing various payloads will be discussed
and project teams established. In you are resident in Gauteng, this is an ideal opportunity to get hands-on.

The NARC is situated at Sender Technology Park, Radiokop, Roodepoort. For directions send an Email to sarl@intekom.co.za or telephone Wally Sime on 011 675-2393 weekdays between 09:00 and 13:00.

INTECNET TO DISCUSS PROPAGATION

The next Intecnet 2001 on Sunday 1 April at 20:00 will discuss radio propagation. A panel of local and international experts will be looking at
the current cycle. Have we reached mid point? How fast is the decline
likely to be and what is in store after that?

Clubs wishing to link interactively should email their details to armi@intekom.co.za. Please state the telephone number to be linked to the Telkom teleconference bridge and the frequencies on which the club will transmit interactively.

AMATEUR RADIO AT HOME

To celebrate International telecommunications day which is annually held on
May 17, the SARL is holding a major all day amateur radio event at the
National Amateur Centre in Gauteng on Saturday 19 May.

The programme which is currently being finalised will include an ARISAS event to prepare school teachers for a week long course to be held in July, a huge flea market, showing of the film Frequency and an introduction to the Amateur Radio Monitoring Programme. There will be on the air activity from the Icom Reno Faber memorial station, food stalls and a beer garden to ensure a fun
day for all. Undoubted the highlight of the day will be the launch of BACAR. Note the day on your calendar May 19 Amateur Radio at Home at the National Amateur Radio Centre.

RADIO ZS delayed

The new format Radio ZS has been delayed and will be printed and despatched
as soon as there is some clarity of when postal deliveries will normalise. Arrangements are being made to have the new Radio ZS available on the SARL
Web at www.sarl.org.za from next weekend. It will be in PDF format, a
software package that ensures a perfect download. A PDF reader is available
as shareware, details and links will also be included on the web.

RADIO AMATEURS VISITING NEW ZEALAND

An extract from Q-NEWS Australia reads as follows:

ZL is one of very few countries in the world where licensed amateurs visiting from overseas can immediately operate without the hassle of getting a ZL licence and without paying a licence fee!

A visiting amateur can walk down the airbridge from the arrival aircraft into the terminal building and start operating on 144 MHz and above with the callsign ZL / (homecall. This privilege didn't just happen. It was
suggested by NZART and obtained by them working closely with the New Zealand Administration.

UNITED STATES - AMATEUR RADIO MOUNTS QUICK QUAKE RESPONSE

Hams responded within minutes after an earthquake hit the Seattle area the morning of February 28.

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) teams in the quake zone were mobilised within minutes of the event. The Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) and the Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) also activated.

Amateur Radio operators also set up a temporary 2-meter net to assist the Red Cross with damage assessment. An unconfirmed report says one ham used an ATV link from a helicopter to the State EOC--where Gov Locke was on hand--to
survey the damage below.

All were "deeply impressed" by the speedy amateur response. (Q-NEWS)

PROPAGATION REPORT

Ean Retief, ZS1PR, reports as follows: The Solar Flux reached its low point last Saturday with a value of 130 and then started to rise. It peaked on Wednesday at a value of 177 and then started to decline rapidly.

It is now foreseen that the peak of the last week was very short-lived and
that the value in the coming week will mostly be around the 160 value.

The last three weeks has been characterised by a quiet Sun with few flares
and other outbursts. From 13 February to the 7th March no major Solar Flares was noted.

Things changed from Thursday to three M-class Solar Flares and a whole series of smaller C-class flares was noted.

One was a M-class that occurred at 13:18 SAST and it was accompanied by a "lopsided" Coronal Mass Ejection.

The general consensus are that the ejected material should strike a glancing blow to the Earth's magnetic field. This should occur in the 24 hour period between noon today and noon tomorrow.

No major effects are expected, but you can expect that once the ejected material has arrived, the noise levels on the lower bands will increase dramatically for the next two or three nights. The major effects should be around your local midnight.

From Thursday the 15th onwards the Earths magnetic Field should be quiet
again.

CLUB ACTIVITIES

MORSE PRACTICE BY VARIOUS CLUBS

Isaac Greeff, ZS2ZG, of PEARS club will start presenting morse classes over
the air from Monday 19 March 2001 in the 80 metre band on 3640 kHz. Two letters will be sent randomly at 12 wpm for the first period, then gradually adding more characters on subsequent nights. He will periodically read back
on lower sideband what he has just sent. The sessions will run from 18:30 to 19:15 Mondays to Thursdays. At the end of each session, Isaac will listen on the Eastern Cape 2 metre link for feedback from ZR operators. Unlicensed listeners and those out of range of the repeater system are asked to report
to him on (041) 371 2160 or e-mail him at zs2zg@ananzi.co.za to say how they are progressing.

Mannie de beer, ZS6AK, of Centurion Amateur radio Club presents morse classes Mondays to Thursdays from 19:00 - 19:30 SAST on 145,775 MHz. He presently sends 5 letter groups and also short sentences at 5 - 7 wpm. You are invited to participate in the morse classes.

He also presents RAE classes at his QTH on Saturdays from 14:00 - 17:00 SAST. Those interested to attend these classes can contact him at (012) 808-5221.

SLOW SCAN TV

A number of amateurs interested in Slow Scan TV are active on Friday evenings from 19:00 on the 145,750 MHz repeater. You are all invited to participate
and to send those beautiful and rare pictures over the air. Just call in and be one of the group. This is a very interesting facet of amateur radio.

The Pretoria Amateur Radio Club will be holding a fleamarket and boot sale on Saturday 31 March at 08:00. This will again be a grand occasion and all are welcome to visit us at the University grounds as usual. Reserve the 31st for
a nice get-together and bargain hunt. Contact Hans ZS6KR for more
information and table bookings at 012 333 2612.

The Coalfields Radio Club invites all Radio amateurs and clubs to participate in a food making contest and get-together day that will take place in Witbank on Saturday the 7th of April 2001 at 15:00 till late. Directions will be
given on repeater frequencies 145.375 and 438.875 MHz and on simplex
frequency 145.500 MHz or you can contact Richard, ZS6RGS on cell no. (082) 500-5621 or at home after 15:30 weekdays at (013) 692-6754. Come and enjoy this day with us.

DATES TO REMEMBER

A BACAR information and planning meeting will be held at the SARL National Amateur Radio Centre on Wednesday 14 March at 18:00. All interested in BACAR are invited to attend.

Centurion Amateur radio Club will hold its AGM on 24 March 2001 at 15:00 SAST at the club house on the corner of Duncan and Prospect Streets. Potjiekos
will be the special dish.

The next Intecnet 2001 on Sunday 1 April at 20:00 will discuss radio propagation. A panel of local and international experts will be looking at
the current cycle. Have we reached mid point? How fast is the decline
likely to be and what is in store after that?

The closing date for registration for the May RAE is April 10, registration
fee R135, and for late registration April 17 with registration fee R235.

The SARL AGM will be held in Cape Town over the weekend of 27-28 April 2001. More details will be announced later.

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, individuals, clubs and other organisations 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 bulletin now ends and Sarlnews wish you a pleasant week.

Goodbye to all.
/ex
--------------------------------------------------
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)