• SA Radio League News Bulletin for Sunday 7 January 2001

    From Richard Peer@5:7106/22 to SA radio League on Sat Jan 6 15:12:00 2001
    SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
    SARL NEWS SUNDAY JANUARY 7 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:

    SARL COUNCIL INVITES PROPOSALS FOR AGM VENUE

    NOMINATIONS FOR COUNCIL

    MOTIONS FOR THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

    NOMINATIONS FOR AWARDS CALLED FOR

    ENTRIES FOR THE TINUS LANGE AWARDS INVITED

    IARUMS COORDINATOR APPOINTED

    HLITA TO BE HELD ON 13 AND 14 JANUARY 2001

    MFSK FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM

    NEW SIX METER REPEATER ON THE AIR

    PROPAGATION FORECAST

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

    SARL COUNCIL INVITES PROPOSALS FOR AGM VENUE

    It is important that interested clubs outside Gauteng submit proposals
    before January 15 by Email to: sarl@intekom.co.za for hosting the 2001 SARL
    AGM on Saturday April 28.

    Council at its meeting on 20 January will consider all the proposals and
    inform the club whose proposal is accepted on the same day.

    NOMINATIONS FOR COUNCIL

    Nominations from SARL members to fill 5 vacancies on Council are being
    awaited till January 31.

    Full requirements were published in previous bulletins. If it is required, request Sarlnews to forward it by e-mail to you.

    MOTIONS FOR THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

    Motions for submission and consideration at the SARL Annual General Meeting
    on April 28 are invited from members till January 31.

    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.

    NOMINATIONS FOR SARL AWARDS

    Nominations are still being awaited till February 20 from clubs or
    individuals for the nine annual awards by the SARL.

    ENTRIES FOR THE TINUS LANGE AWARDS INVITED

    Entries are also awaited till February 15 for the two Tinus Lange 7066 Technical awards.

    For the complete requirements for these as well as the SARL awards visit the SARL Webpage or look in the bulletin of 17 December or request Sarlnews to e-mail an extract from that bulletin to you.

    IARUMS COORDINATOR APPOINTED

    Henry Kruger ZS6GH has been appointed by the Council of the South African
    Radio League as the National IARU Monitoring System co- ordinator for South Africa. His main task will be to collate reports and initiate action
    against stations operating illegally in the Amateur bands. To fulfil his
    task successfully he will require the support of radio amateurs and
    short-wave listeners countrywide. Reports with as much details as possible
    of non- amateur stations operating in the amateur bands should be sent to
    Henry by email or fax. Urgent reports may be telephoned to 082 822 3586 (repeat) The fax number is 011 425 5639 and the Email address: eipro@global.co.za.

    One of the first focus areas is to collate reports about an intruder on 7090 believed to be located in Taipei or Taiwan . The station operates between 14:00 and 18:00 UTC. Please listen for the station and feed any information gained from the broadcast to Henry. He is particularly interested in the ID and any address or location details. Call him with information on 082 822 3586.

    HLITA TO BE HELD ON 13 AND 14 JANUARY 2001

    HLITA is the acronym for Hunting Lions in the Air, an international contest that combines action between amateur radio operators and Lions clubs on a world-wide basis.

    The contest is run in January of each year on the weekend closest to the Birthday of Melvin Jones, the founder of Lionism who was born at Ft.
    Thomas, Arizona USA on January 13, 1879. The 2001 event is the 30th annual event and will take place on the weekend January 13 =96 14th.

    The contest period will be 48 hours and will run from midnight UTC Friday/Saturday to midnight UTC Sunday/Monday. The contest is open to all appropriately licensed radio amateurs.

    There are 2 classes:

    Class 1 contestants are radio amateurs having no Lion affiliation.

    Class 2 contestants are radio amateurs operating on behalf of a Lion,
    Lioness or Leo Club. A radio amateur in Class 2 does not have to be a
    member of the Lions Club for which he/she is operating. Stations in Class 2 must sign "Lion" and be reflected in log sheets as /L.

    Full details are available on the SARL web. Visit www.sarl.org.za.

    MFSK FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM

    One of the latest developments in Amateur Radio is super RTTY , more technically described as MFSK, Multi-tone Frequency Shift Keyed mode. The
    mode consists of 16 tones, sent one at a time at 15,25 baud and spaced
    15,625 Hertz apart. Each tone represents four binary data bits. The transmission is only 316 Hertz wide and can easily be accommodated on a HF transceiver with a CW filter. Listen to Amateur Radio Mirror International today to find out more about this new mode. Program details follow near the end of this transmission.

    NEW SIX METER REPEATER ON THE AIR

    A long awaited ideal became a reality during the past week with the commissioning of a six meter speech repeater by the Magalies Radio Amateur
    Club on the Magaliesberg. It is most probably at present the only six meter
    on the air in the RSA. The team effort of all who contributed to the
    project is praiseworthy. Congratulations and well done!

    The frequencies are 51,150/52,750 MHz and reports to the club will be appreciated.

    The following three news items have been extracted from the Australian
    QNEWS:

    BIRTHPLACE OF HP SOLD.

    The small, one-car garage near Stanford University where David Hewlett and William Packard launched their electronics company in 1938 has been sold to
    the Hewlett-Packard Company for $1.7 million. Hewlett-Packard, which now employs 86 000 people, purchased the 3,6-by-5,5 m garage last August. The
    site is designated as a California state historical landmark.

    NEW USA RTTY STATION ON AIR

    WA9XHN is a unique broadcast facility located in Auburn, Washington and is authorised by the FCC with the purpose of determining whether or not there
    is any interest among the general public in receiving information via RTTY.

    WA9XHN has been established to serve shortwave listeners and radio amateurs, it's non-commercial and privately funded.

    WA9XHN transmits on two frequencies, alternating between 6,994 MHz and
    13,972 MHz at 60 words-per-minute using 170 Hz FSK.

    The transmission times vary but a weekly schedule for the station can be
    found at http://www.rtty.com.

    PROPAGATION CONDITIONS

    Ean Retief, ZS1PR, reports as follows:

    The month of December 2000 was noted for the lack of geomagnetic activity.

    The last major geomagnetic storm conditions were at the end of November.

    In December the earth's magnetic field only reached unsettled conditions on five days. The rest of the time it was quiet.

    From the 24th of December to the 2nd of January the field was exceptionally quiet. Propagation to North America was good.

    Since the 3rd of January the geomagnetic field had been unsettled, mainly
    due to two coronal holes open on the sun. This has accelerated the solar
    wind to over 400 km/second.

    It was expected that the solar flux would reach it's low point on Friday the 5th, but now it seems that the low point will only occur next weekend. The good news is that the value is not expected to fall much below the 160
    value. Thus we will not have very low solar flux values this month. This should be good news for DXers.

    The background x-ray value is fairly high at the moment, so a couple of medium-class solar flares can be expected today, tomorrow and Tuesday.

    In the coming week the 20 metre band should give good propagation into the Pacific region in the mornings, while the 40 metre band should be open early
    in the morning for inland contacts.

    CLUB ACTIVITIES

    The Alberton Amateur Radio Club will kick of the New Year early with a boot sale on Saturday January 27 at 09:00. A foxhunt will follow at 11:00 and
    they are challenged by the Sandton Club, ZS6STN, the East Rand Club, ZS6ERB, and the West Rand Club, ZS6WR. More challengers are welcome. The day=92s activities will be concluded with a bring-and-braai around 13:00.

    The whole family is welcome, and there is a park for the children to play.

    The venue for this will be at the Alberton Dam, Bloutulp Street, Alberton
    where secure parking is available

    For more information, you can contact Michiel (pronounced "Magiel"), ZS6MDK, can be contacted at 083-212-5711.

    EVENTS AND DATES TO REMEMBER

    Submission of proposals for AGM venue by 15 January;

    Re-opening of SARL Head Office 17 January;

    Nominations for Councillors 31 January;

    Motions for AGM 31 January;

    Tinus Lange awards 15 February;

    SARL awards 20 February.

    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 George, ZS6NE, 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)