SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY 4 JUNE 2000

This is Amateur Radio Station ZS6SRL transmitting Amateur Radio News , a service from the South African Radio League 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.

SILENT KEY

It is with deep regret that the Garden Route Radio Club announces the death
of one of our members Owen Diederich, ZS1QRP who passed away in George on
May 27, aged 63 years.

Prior to his retirement from the SABC he was well known in Gauteng as an
QRP enthusiast and home-brewer of his own station.

Condolence to his family and friends from Council.

PAUSE.

HERE ARE THE NEWS HEADLINES

PHASE 3D INTEGRATION LAB ADJUSTS ITS MISSION

AUSTRALIAN AX CALLSIGNS

NASA PLANNING A RETURN TO THE MOON

SARL TOP MANAGEMENT VISITS WESTERN CAPE

SUNSAT DIGITAL SERVICE

FBRECC NEW COMMITTEE AND ACTIVITIES

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

PHASE 3D INTEGRATION LAB ADJUSTS ITS MISSION:

AMSAT Phase 3D Integration Laboratory Manager Lou McFadin, W5DID, says now
that Phase 3D is at the launch site in French Guiana, the Lab's mission
will change somewhat. "We have cleared out much of the laboratory and
taken down our clean room," McFadin said, adding that much of the support equipment for Phase 3D has been put into temporary storage. McFadin
explained that the Lab still has Phase 3D work to do, however. Ground
support equipment that AMSAT borrows from individual hams still needs to be shipped to French Guiana to support the launch site integration and
testing. Other equipment will remain in place until Phase 3D is safely in orbit and everything has been verified. The Lab also will have a role in preparing some of the ham radio hardware that will be flying to the International Space Station in August

AX CALLSIGNS

ALL Australian radio amateurs may use the optional "AX" callsign prefix to commemorate the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic Games between June 15 and the
2nd of November 2000 inclusive. VK amateurs have been requested to have AX
QSL cards available when working with an AX call. The Wireless Institute
of Australia has designed a generic AX card for the purpose.

NASA PLANNING A RETURN TO THE MOON

Soft landing a spacecraft on the moon for the first time in more than 30
years and the return of lunar rocks to Earth is on the drawing board at
NASA, but not until toward the end of the decade. Space Report by Roy Neal K6DUE says JPL is making plans for the Great Basin Lunar Sample Return
Mission, replete with a lunar lander, rover and ascent vehicle to rocket
lunar samples down to Earth.

SARL TOP MANAGEMENT VISITS WESTERN CAPE

On Friday 16 June the SARL president, Hans Potgieter, ZS6ALJ and
vice-president Syd Tyler, ZS6AYC will pay a visit the Western Cape
amateurs. The meeting will take place at 10:00 in the Stellenbosch
Voortrekker hall. All amateurs in and around the western Cape are
requested to diarise this date. Remember 16 June is also celebrated
asYouth day and is an ideal opportunity to bring children along.

After the meeting a fleamarket will be held and the braai fires will be
lit.

On 17 June the Southern Cape amateurs will be visited but more detail will appear in next week's bulletin.

For more detail about the meeting at Stellenbosch contact Rassie Erasmus
ZS1YT at 021-4603640 or 083-4142606 and by e-mail at rassie@ctech.ac.za or packet at ZS1YT@ZS0STB.

Please advertise these meetings widely locally and please also contact and invite all non-SARL members.

SUNSAT DIGITAL SERVICE

AMSAT-SA reported that the SunSat satellite, also known by its OSCAR number
as SO-35, has now started transmitting digital signals. "Sunsat will now
also offer digital services," confirmed Johann, ZR1CBC, of the SunSat
command team.

ZR1CBC also said that when SO-35 orbits permit the acquisition of high-resolution digital images, the image data will be broadcast using an unconnected AX.25 data format. Satellite operators can then collect the
data in KISS format.

In addition to images, periodic announcements, bulletins, status
information and calibrated telemetry will also be transmitted as
unconnected AX.25 packets by the satellite.

Digipeating of unconnected AX.25 packets will also allow relaying low
Bandwidth data, such as APRS information.

The digital transmissions started May 19th in conjunction with the Dayton Hamvention. During the next few weeks the SO-35 digital schedule is to be extended into a continuous service, except for when the FM voice repeater
is active.

For South Africa, week-day/night passes will be used by the Sunsat control station. On weekends, the voice repeater will operate as at present.
Typically one pass per day will be used for control purposes. On remaining weekend passes, digital services will be active.

More information is available from the SunSat web page at: http://sunsat.ee.sun.ac.za/index.html

FBRECC NEW COMMITTEE AND ACTIVITIES

At the AGM of the False Bay Radio, Electronics and Computer Club held on
the 15th April 2000, the following committee was elected for the ensuing
club year:
Chairman: ZR1HG Grahame Robertson. Also Computer Manager and SYSOP at ZS0FIK
Packet Radio BBS.
Vice Chairman: ZS1RON Ron Marlow.
Secretary: ZS1JN Owen Penberthy.
Treasurer: ZS1QG Bob Swier.
PRO: ZS1K Ronnie Gilmour.
Editor: ZS1MP Buddy McCallum, assisted by ZS1RON.
Clubhouse: ZS1MP Buddy McCallum, assisted by ZR1JGN Gert Nieuwoudt.
Technical: ZS1EK Bill Dewey. Also Projects Manager.

ZS1FRC, the club station will resume a monthly bulletin on 145.700MHz, a
Cape Town repeater, starting on Monday 1st May 2000 at 20:00 SAST and will
be relayed on 3.650MHz SSB.

The new committee will endeavour to improve club meeting attendance by conducting a series of visits to those club members who have not attended meetings regularly, in an attempt to find reasons why attendance has
dwindled and to motivate members towards a new interest in club activities.
The committee will also embark on an incentive scheme in order to attract members to meetings at the clubhouse and, again repeats its invitation to members of the other clubs in Cape Town to visit our clubhouse from time to time and to take advantage of the large stock of electronics components
that are stored at the clubhouse and are available for a small donation.

The clubhouse is open on Saturday mornings from 10:00 and, also on the
second and third Wednesday evenings of each month. The first Wednesday
evening is devoted to computer instruction and discussion, run by ZR1HG
Grahame Robertson and, the committee meets in the clubhouse on every last Wednesday evening of the month.

Council wishes the FBRECC every success with its commendable efforts and
urges amateurs in the vicinity to support the club.

CONTEST ON ALL BANDS

Rember to contact Dennis, ZS4BS, via e-mail zs4bs@netactive.co.za or send
snail mail to P O Box 12104, Brandhof, 9324 and let him have your comments
and suggestions regarding the proposed all band contest that was mentioned
in last week's bulletin.

SWL MULTI-MODE CONTEST 2000

Remember the Short Wave Listener's contest for single operators which is
taking place now and lasts till 24:00 UTC on the 30th June 2000.

The contest is for CW, SSB, RTTY, SSTV modes in the 10 to 160 meter bands inclusive of the WARC bands.

Logs must be sent before 30 August 2000 to:

NOGENT MARC
F-11734
60 RUE Foch
57390 AUDUN-LE-TICHE
FRANCE

If you wish to receive a copy of the results, please provide one US$ or one
IRC and a self-addressed envelope.

PROPAGATION FORECAST

The following information was kindly provided by Ean Retief: The past week
was characterised by a still declining solar flux and the earth's magnetic field that was unsettled nearly the entire week. The latter was due to
coronal holes on the sun that was in a very effective position. All this resulted in fairly mediocre propagation conditions over the past week.

The coming week looks much more favourable. The solar flux reached it's
low point on Thursday 31 May and started to rise. This rise should be
fairly constant and the 200 mark should be reached by Tuesday or Wednesday. After that the rise should be fairly rapid and a value of 250 should be
reached by next Sunday.

The higher bands, namely 15, 12 and 10 should improve quite a lot, with ten metres starting to propagate fairly early in the morning.

It is expected that the earth's magnetic field will be quiet in the
beginning of the week and that the 40 metre band should give good DX propagation conditions after 22:00 SAST.


DIARY OF COMING EVENTS

Remember the High Way annual "Monster Bootsale at Monteseel" will take
place on 24th of June at the QTH of ZS5JF. All are welcome. The gates
will be open from 11:00 and the sale will commence at 12:00. Anyone
needing directions to the venue can call ZS5JF at 031-7834092 or by e-mail
at johnf@futurenet.co.za for directions.

The winter bootsale of the West Rand Amateur Radio Club takes place on 1st
July 2000 at the club house in Kroton Road, Weltevredenpark. The gates
open at 9 am. Vendors are required to pay for stands, therefore prior
booking is essential. Contact Bill van Zyl for more details at: 011
726-6806 (w) and 011 726-6892 (H)

The SARL news service invites radio clubs to supply information for
inclusion in the Diary of Events as well as other items of interest to
radio amateurs. Email information to sarlnuus@mweb.co.za. at least two
weeks before the event. Please submit it in both Afrikaans and English wherever possible.

The South African Radio League provides this news bulletin as a service to Radio Amateurs and interested listeners on the African Continent. News in
this bulletin was supplied by the SARL news service, amateur radio clubs in South Africa the ARRL and the RSGB.

Also join us on Sundays at 12:00 for the President's Net on 7082 kHz. This bulletin was compiled by George, ZS6NE and read by.........

A reminder that the interesting program Amateur Radio Mirror International
is on the air on Sundays at 10:00 SAST on 9750 and 21560 kHz and is
repeated on Mondays at 20:00 SAST on 3215 kHz. These transmissions are sponsored by Sentech, the common carrier for broadcasting signals in South Africa and Telkom who provides the transmission lines. The following VHF frequencies are also used: 145,375 for the Northern Free State and Vaal triangle areas 145,400 for the greater Johannesburg area, 439,100 MHz for
the Johannesburg and Pretoria area 145,650 MHz for the greater Durban area
and if conditions permit in Pretoria on 145,750 MHz.

The address for Amateur Radio Mirror International is armi@intekom.co.za. Include your contact telephone number to allow the producers of the
programme to call you for a possible interview. Send written reports to P
O Box 1842, Hillcrest 3650 and include a self addressed stamped envelope so that you may receive a QSL card.

Thanks to all who gathered news items and have made contributions to this bulletin. We thank all stations who so reliably relay the bulletins. We
wish you a pleasant week. ZS6SRL now closes down with ZS6... at the microphone and.......

Goodbye 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)