• SA Radio League News Bulletin for Sunday 3 December 2000

    From Richard Peer@5:7106/22 to SA Radio League on Sat Dec 2 15:41:00 2000
    SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE SARL NEWS SUNDAY DECEMBER 3 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:

    THREE AMATEURS WERE RECOGNISED LAST WEEK FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND PROMOTION OF
    THE AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE.

    ICASA COUNCILLOR AFFIRMS THEIR SUPPORT FOR AMATEUR RADIO

    LAST INTECNET FOR 2000 TONIGHT

    INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN TROPO PROPAGATION RESEARCH

    SPECIAL STATION COMMEMORATES BEGINNING OF RADIO TRANSMISSINS FROM GERMANY 80 YEARS AGO

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

    THREE AMATEURS WERE RECOGNISED LAST WEEK FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND PROMOTION OF
    THE AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE.

    At the awards ceremony held at the National Amateur Radio centre this week three Radio Amateurs were recognised for their contribution to the Amateur Service in South Africa.

    The Siemens Radio Amateur of the Year Award for 2000 was awarded jointly to Chris Gryffenberg, ZS6COG, and Peter Hers, ZS6PHD. The Board of Trustees of the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust, after a long and intense discussion agreed that both amateurs had made a major contribution. Chris Gryffenberg received the award for his dedication in training and developing young amateurs while Peter Hers received the award for his creation and continuous development of the SARL Website: www.sarl.org.za. The two recipients each received a certificate and a cheque for R1000.

    The Young Radio Amateur of the Year award was bestowed on Peter Black,
    ZR5DWC, for his involvement with events to attract young people to Amateur Radio and the promotion of new technologies such as APRS. In addition to a certificate and a cheque for R1000, Tony Reumerman, ZS6AOG, of ECS presented Peter with the ARRL Satellite Handbook as well as the Space Handbook.

    The awards were handed over by Rolf Spaeth of Siemens. He said that his company was proud to be associated with the awards programme because Amateur Radio makes such an important contribution to the development of interest in communication and electronics. He encouraged the Trust and the SARL to intensify their effort to take Amateur Radio to the Schools.

    ICASA COUNCILLOR AFFIRMS THEIR SUPPORT FOR AMATEUR RADIO

    Speaking at last week's Radio Amateur of the year awards function ICASA Councillors Yasmin Carrim and Neil Smuts affirmed the regulatory body's
    support for Amateur Radio. Yasmin Carrim said that she is very impressed
    with organisations such as the SARL that are so committed to take skills and enthusiasm for communication to the youth of South Africa. On the question
    of the new regulations and the introduction of a 5 word per minute Morse
    code HF licence and a learner=92s licence, the two Councillors confirmed
    that ICASA had approved the document in October. ICASA is awaiting the signature of the Minister before the new regulations can be promulgated.
    Neil Smuts said the ICASA would expedite the matter with the Department of Communication with the aim to publish the new regulations in late December
    or early January.

    LAST INTECNET FOR 2000 TONIGHT

    The last Interactive Technical net for this year will be held tonight at
    20:00. The programme will differ from previous ones and will be in the form
    of an open debate on the question of mentorship. How can Radio Amateurs support their local schools and mentor teachers to take Amateur Radio into
    the classroom. This question was intensely discussed at last week's Amateur Radio and Industry workshop. The Telkom Intecnet 2000 will start with a
    brief review of the workshop and follow on to get your inputs.

    Clubs wishing to link into the net should send their details to arisas@intekom.co.za before noon today. You may also fax the information to 012 991 5651. Please supply the telephone number to be linked and details
    of the frequencies on which you will be active.

    INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN TROPO PROPAGATION RESEARCH

    Mike Bosch, ZS2FM, informed Sarlnews that Western Australian amateurs have suggested that we in the RSA listen for their VK6RBU beacon on 144,560 MHz located in Perth. This beacon radiates a 100 W ERP FSK horizontally
    polarised signal to South Africa. It has already been heard over a distance
    of 6 000 km. They feel that the best time for Tropo propagation over the Indian ocean would be at night between about 20:00 and 01:00 UTC during the peak months of December, January and February.

    VK6 amateurs have requested that we also transmit beacon signals to
    Australia. Therefore, the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society is
    redirecting the beam of their ZS2VHF beacon on 144,415 MHz to Perth as from
    now till February 2001.

    More Trans-Indian ocean tests will be conducted from Port Elizabeth by transmitting high power CW signals on 144,250 MHz to Perth at night between 20:00 and 22:00 UTC during January and February 2001.

    This also a good time for those amateurs on the west coast of South Africa
    to look out for 144 MHz signals from Argentina and Brazil and try and set up skeds with them.

    SPECIAL STATION COMMEMORATES BEGINNING OF RADIO TRANSMISSINS FROM GERMANY 80 YEARS AGO

    The first radio broadcast in Germany took place on the 22nd of December
    1920. An instrumental concert was the first official radio programme transmitted to the public and it came from a station at Koenigs Wusterhausen [pron: "Kurnigs Vooster-howzen"], about 15 kilometres south-east of Berlin. From the 1st to 23rd of December the amateur radio club station DL0KWH will
    be active from the site of the old radio station, using the special DOK "80 Radio". This DOK is valid for the DLD Award issued by the German national society, DARC. The Radio Club Koenigs Wusterhausen has issued an award
    called "Sender Koenigs Wusterhausen" [pron: "Zender" . . . ] since 1997
    and DL0KWH is also valid for this award. Contacts will be confirmed by a
    QSL card showing the area of the old radio station. For further details
    DL0KWH has a web site and more information plus photographs of the old
    Koenigs Wusterhausen transmission site can be found on page 42 of the
    January 2000 RadCom.

    SPECIALS FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON

    The SARL bookshop has several special offers for the festive season. Act quickly before the SARL Office closes for the December recess. All orders received before 10 December will be mailed before the holiday season starts.

    The following special offers are available:

    Radio Auroras (RSGB) R 25
    Space Radio Handbook R 60
    ARRL Satellite Handbook R200
    ARRL Satellite Anthology R 95
    Understanding Basic Electronics R 50
    W1FB'S Design Notebook R 50
    W1FB's QRP Notebook R 50
    Your VHF Companion R 50

    For details the special offers and the full range of books as well as the
    the cost of packaging and postage call the SARL Bookshop Monday to Friday
    09:00 - 13:00 on 011 675-2393 or visit the SARL website: www.sarl.org.za

    SPECIAL EVENTS DATES

    Wally Sime, ZS6WAL, HQ administrator, requests that clubs forward to him special events dates for 2001 for inclusion in the calendar. Dates like CQ Houkoers, Jota, Lions International etc are important.

    SARL HEAD OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED FOR MORE THAN FOUR WEEKS

    The SARL Head Office will close on the 13 th December and reopen again on January 17 next year. There is thus about a week and a half remaining to finish off any urgent matters with Head Office.

    POSTAL BALLOT ON PROPOSAL THAT LEAGUE AGM MAY BE HELD IN OTHER PROVINCES

    Remember to vote early on the above matter and mail your vote so that the scrutineers may receive your vote before December 15. Please note the
    mailing address for your vote is: SARL Postal Ballot, P O Box 2105,
    Dennesig, 7601.

    NEW COMMITTEE FOR THE RUSTENBURG AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

    At the AGM of the Rustenburg Amateur Radio Club on Saturday October 14, the following committee was elected for the ensuing year:

    Chairman Henry Rood ZR6IIX
    Vice Chairman Frans Keulder ZS6BXL
    Treasurer Hans Potgieter ZS6ALJ
    Secretary Erik Charslund ZS6AWS
    Member Jasper Malan ZR6TT

    Thanks to the outgoing committee and strength for the new committee for the work ahead.

    PROPAGATION REPORT

    Ean Retief, ZS1PR, reports as follows:

    Last Sunday a M8-class solar flare occurred and that was followed by two X-class flares on Monday. Tuesday evening just before 19:00 SAST another X-classed followed.

    The heavy blows from these occurrences were quite enough to upset the
    earth's magnetic field. The field was at minor storm levels for most of the week.

    This affected propagation quite badly and many reports were received of poor
    or no propagation on normally stable routes.

    Things look a good deal better for the coming week. The solar flux should decline steadily from the current values near 180 to about 145 by next
    weekend.

    Tomorrow you may find that routes over or near the Polar regions and also
    long East-West routes may be somewhat disappointing. On the other hand
    shorter routes to the north may be better than normal.

    On Wednesday and Thursday the earth's magnetic field may again be active, causing higher than normal noise on the lower bands during the night and
    also disrupting propagation on 160 metres.

    DIARY OF COMING EVENTS

    The Midlands Amateur Radio Club will be operating a special event station, ZS100ABW, today and the 9 th December, to recognise the foreign involvement
    in the Anglo Boer South African War. You can QSL direct to MARC, PO Box 100220, Scottsville, 3209 or via the Bureau. ZS100ABW will be on the air
    from 10h00 SAST on 40 metres.

    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
    --------------------------------------------------
    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)