SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY 20 MAY 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:
RAE RESULTS OUT IN RECORD TIME
2 METRE BANDPLAN MEETING 26 MAY AT NARC
INTECNET TO FOCUS ON INTERNET LINKING OF REPEATERS
ARISAS SHOWS THAT LEARNERS ARE INTERESTED
PROPAGATION REPORT
You are listening to ZS6SRL. The news follows in detail.
RAE RESULTS OUT IN RECORD TIME
The SARL RAE Examiner, Rassie ZS1YT, informed SARLNEWS that the results of
the May RAE have been avaialble on the SARL website since Thursday May 17. Caididates will receive their official results during the coming week by
snail mail.
From a total of 144 entries, 125 candidates wrote the examination. 117 Candidates passed which represents a pass figure of 93%. The candidate who attained the highest marks, is WPS Swart from Heilbron with 98%.
The youngest candidate who passed the examination is 13 year old Lyle Laaks ZR2LL from Port Elizabeth.
Candidates can obtain their call signs, allocated to every candidate by
ICASA, on the SARL website. Candidates' official amateur radio operators certificate and amateur radio licence for 2001 will soon be processed by
ICASA and mailed.
The examiner of the RAE Rassie ZS1YT wishes to thank all the invigilators and persons involved at the examination for their co-operation to once again
ensure that the results be avaiable in record time.
2 METRE BANDPLAN MEETING 26 MAY AT NARC
Following the publication of the 2 metre band plan proposals by John Fielding ZS5JF last year, a table showing proposed changes to some 2m repeater frequencies has been published. The table can be viewed on the SARL web site at
http://www.sarl.org.za/
A meeting with John Fielding to discuss the band plan and proposed new frequencies will be held next Saturday at the National Amateur Radio Centre. All clubs that operate a 2 metre repeater in or near Gauteng are urged to
send one or two representatives to this important meeting. Even if your particular repeater frequency has not been altered, you and your club members may be affected by the proposed changes. This meeting will be an ideal opportunity to clarify the changes and discuss how they are to be
implemented.
The meeting will take place on SATURDAY 26TH MAY 2001 at 14:00 at the
NATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO CENTRE at Sender Technology Park, Octave Street, Honeydew, Johannesburg.
INTECNET TO FOCUS ON INTERNET LINKING OF REPEATERS
As reported last week the next SARL Intecnet 2001 will be held on Sunday 27
May 2001 at 20:00 CAT. The subject for discussion will be Internet repeater linking which represents an important element in the future of Amateur Radio.
With a hand-held transceiver it will be possible to connect to any repeater
in the world by punching in 4 digits. Ian Able G3ZHI will take listeners through the process, discuss ideas and provide references to web sites where the necessary software can be found. This will be followed by an interactive Q&A session.
The Intecnet talkshow will be broadcast on 3215 kHz and will be interactive
on repeaters in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Pietermaritzburg, Durban and the Highway areas, on the Eastern Cape Repeater network and in Cape Town.
Clubs wishing to book an interactive link should send an Email to
armi@intekom.co.za or a fax to 012 991 5651 with their contact details before Friday 25 May 2001.
ARISAS SHOWS THAT LEARNERS ARE INTERESTED
Last Thursday's link-up of several schools to celebrate World Telecommunications Day showed that learners are interested in communication
and that Amateur Radio could provide the vehicle as wells as play an
important role in increasing technology literacy at school level.
"The event was an interesting learning experience and clearly highlighted the need for a mentorship programme to bring radio amateurs and learners closer together", Hans Potgieter, President of the SARL said.
The SARL is pursuing the mentorship programme and expects to be able to announce the first mentorship seminar in the next few weeks.
"Amateur Radio can fulfill two important tasks. First of all it can assist teachers in classroom work to develop communication skills and to teach learners to express themselves clearly and to overcome fears of speaking in public", Hans van de Groenendaal told teachers attending a Teacher- Amateur Radio Colloquium at the NARC yesterday. "A simple parrot repeater and 2
metre hand-held will provide a wonderful tool to achieve this. Secondly teaching the new learners license will greatly improve technology literacy of our young people"' he said.
The SARL is planning to run a number of YARIA (Youth in Amateur Radio in Africa) events in the next few months to create more awareness of the ARISAS programme and to bring hands-on experience of Amateur Radio to the younger generation.
Andre Coetzee ZS6GCA, informed SARLNEWS that 13 learners and 1 teacher from
the New Hope School for cerebal handicapped children visited him in his
shack. They found the visit very interesting and asked many questions about the hobby.
The SARL extends it thanks to the Amateurs who made Thursday's event possible and successful.
MORSE CODE INTEREST GROUP
Tubby Waldeck, ZS5TUB has planned the following event for their Morse Code Interest Group of Durban. This event will take place on Saturday 11 August 2001 to honour our South African radio pioneers. The event will take place from 12:00 to 4.00 pm (12.00 - 16.00). The mode will be CW only.
Frequencies will be 7.012 MHz in the 40 metre band, 14.050 MHz in the 20
metre band and 21.130 MHz in the 15 metre band.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Ean Retief, ZS1PR reports as follows:
The Solar Flux did not rise nearly as much as was expected at last weekend.
Five M-Class Solar Flares occurred during the week.
Two occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning and the third early Tuesday morning.
Midday on Wednesday the next one occurred and the fifth one just before 19:00 SAST on Thursday. This one affected the entire South Atlantic region. A considerable amount of fading was noted between Cape Town and Namibia.
Sunspot group 9393 reappeared making it's third passage over the visible disc of the Sun. It is expected that this group will help to increase the value
of the Solar Flux. It is hoped that the Flux will reach the 180 value by Friday.
This group is still quite complex. The background x-ray values has already risen and a flare or two can be expected. This afternoon and tomorrow is the most likely time for a major Geoeffective flare
It is expected that the Earth's magnetic field will range from quiet to unsettled from Tuesday until the coming weekend and that propagation will be fairly good.
CLUB ACTIVITIES
As promised previously, the websites of a few clubs are shwon below. Do
visit them because there are very interesting items to read. SARLNEWS
requests that other clubs also submit their website addresses.
ALBERTON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
www.hometown.aol.com/zs6tdk
CENTURION AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
http://www.geocities.com/zs6cen/
CAPE TOWN AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
www.qsl.net/zs1ct.
PRETORIA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
http://zs6pta.iwarp.com
DATES TO REMEMBER
Intecnet 2001 will be presented on Sunday 27 May at 20:00 SAST. You are invited to participate.
The closing date for registration for the next RAE is September 25 2001. The registration fee is R135-00. No late entries will be accepted.
The SARL News Service invites Clubs and individuals to contribute information regarding Amateur Radio to
sarlnuus@mweb.co.za with a copy to
gth@freemail.absa.co.za. Please submit in Afrikaans and English wherever possible and send it as early in the week as 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 are sponsored by Sentech, the common carrier for broadcasting signals
in South Africa and Telkom who provides the transmission lines. This transmission 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.
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 ..........
You have been listening to ZS6SRL.
This bulletin now ends and Sarlnews wish you a pleasant week.
Goodbye to all.
/ex
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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)