SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2000

This is Amateur Radio Station ZS6SRL transmitting Amateur Radio News , a service by 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.

Here are the headlines of today's news:

SARL ELECTRONIC CALLBOOK NOW AVAILABLE

NEXT RAE TAKES PLACE ON 9 NOVEMBER

HAMNET NEWS

LIGHT HOUSE WEEKEND REPORT

EXTRACT FROM IARU REGION 3 REPORT

ARISS HAM GEAR REACHES DESTINATION

SUNSAT OSCAR 35 NEWS

PROPAGATION REPORT


SARL ELECTRONIC CALLBOOK NOW AVAILABLE

The SARL Electronic Callbook is now available as a benefit to SARL members. Members may install this program and database on their own PC's to allow callsign lookups at any time. The callbook is being distributed to all
members with the current issue of Radio ZS and hopefully all members have received it by now. The callsigns ZS6ZA to ZS6ZY do not appear in the callbook, but is urgently attended to. It is also available for download in the member's-only section of the SARL web site at www.sarl.org.za. and the complete SARL database can then be loaded into your PC. - The program maintains two databases, the SARL Database and the Personal Database. This will allow you to add your own entries for hams anywhere in the world, and update existing entries for ZS hams.

Those members who do not have access to the Internet can ask another member
who does to download the update file and then copy it to their computer.
Also those who do not have a computer can request a printed copy from HQ.
The members version deliberately prevents it to be printed out as a mailing list.

The Council of the SARL wishes to thank Ray ZS5RAY, who spent many hours the past 6 months writing the program. Also thanks to Peter ZS6PHD, Colin
ZS6COL and John ZS5JF who assisted Ray.

Council also wishes to thank Multisource who donated the stiffies on which
the program has been loaded.

NEXT RAE TAKES PLACE ON 9 NOVEMBER

Registration forms for the November RAE examination can be offloaded from
the SARL website. After the form has been fully filled in post it to the
SARL at the NARC at P.O. Box 1721, Strubensvallei, 1735. A photostat of
the first page of your ID book must be included. In the case of minors, a photostat of the parental guardian's ID book is required. The cost to
register for the examination is R95-00. Payment can be made by creditcard: provide the SARL Administrator, Wally Sime, with name, creditcard number and expiry date, you may also attach these details to the registration form. Payment can also be made into the SARL bank account at Standard Bank,
Killarney Branch, account number 001682059 . The deposit slip, application form and ID copy must be faxed to the SARL at 011 675-2793. The closing
date for registration is 9 October and the examination will be conducted on
9 November 2000. Dont delay, act now and get everything done.

HAMNET NEWS - MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

The National HAMNET Director, Jan Schubart, ZS6ARV, said that the very least
we can do is to have a control station operational in every Province and to advise the emergency services (police, fire, ambulance, disaster management etc) and other bodies such as the Red Cross, St John Ambulance, Noodhulpliga etc., of this fact. We need to be proactive. The time has now come for
some feedback. Provincial Directors are required to now let me have some details on their forward planning. Where will the control stations be
located? What is the telephone number where such stations can be contacted? Who has been contacted at Disaster Management, the SAPS and Emergency
Medical Services? What are their telephone numbers? Have all the HAMNET members in each area been advised of the need to have them participate? Has
a rapid alert system been implemented to activate them is required? These answers are needed to set in motion the National Plan and to ensure that information reaches key national persons. Please let me have this data by
no later than 18 September 2000, using my e-mail or fax numbers.

LIGHT HOUSE WEEKEND REPORT

The following report was received from Ron ZS1RON on the Light House Weekend which took place on 18 and 19 August 2000. It indicates the activities of
RSA and Namibia. V59PP/L made the most contacts but is not included in the
RSA contacts.

The result is:

RSA: 1075 contacts with 30 countries.
Frequencies: 160 to 2 metres except 6 metres

Namibia: 780 contacts but number of countries unknown.
Frequencies: 160 to 10 metres.



EXTRACT FROM IARU REGION 3 REPORT

The IARU RIII 11th Conference held in Darwin, August 28-September 1, 2000, considered a wide range of issues and many of them were concerned with protecting and furthering the cause of amateur radio within the region, and globally.

Conference chairman, and WIA President, Peter Naish VK2BPN, commented on the positive approach taken throughout the week-long conference, when he said it clearly showed that IARU RIII spoke with a single voice.

However things were a little different with the "morse vote".

The Conference resolved to support lowering the amateur licence Morse code
test speed as a temporary measure, and the ultimate removal of Morse being
an ITU licence requirement.


ARISS HAM GEAR REACHES DESTINATION

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station initial station
equipment plus supplies that the ISS Expedition 1 crew will need later this year were delivered to the ISS this week. After entering the station
itself, astronauts and cosmonauts worked to unload the cargo--including the
ham gear--from the shuttle Atlantis and from a docked Russian Progress
rocket and to set the ISS up for its firstcrew. There are three hams on the shuttle Atlantis mission. No Amateur Radio operation will take place from
the ISS until the Expedition 1 crew arrives in early November, however, nor will there be any ham activity from the shuttle on this trip.

On September 11, US astronaut Ed Lu, KC5WKJ, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko completed a more than six-hour space walk. Lu and Malenchenko attached nine power, data and communication cables to the ISS's newest component, the Russian-built Zvezda service module, and to the Zarya control module. They also assembled a magnetometer boom on Zvezda's exterior.

SUNSAT OSCAR 35 NEWS

Sunsat will be in its Parrot Repeater Mode for voice passes during the UN
World Space Week from 4 to 10 October 2000. In this mode Sunsat
continuously cycles through a 10 second recording (single tone to indicate
the start) and playback (double tone) period. The up and downlinks will
both be 145.825 MHz. [21 September 2000]

SO-35 Voice Schedule

Please note that Sunsat now also operates in Mode J for voice passes: uplink 145.825 MHz, downlink 436.250 MHz. The voice repeater is active for 14
minutes at a time. Starting times are in UTC.

Southern Africa

23/09/2000 15:11 Mode J
24/09/2000 16:10 Mode J

27/09/2000 15:48 Mode J
30/09/2000 15:26 Mode J
01/10/2000 14:46 Mode J

PROPAGATION REPORT

Ean Retief ZS1PR reports that during the week the Solar Flux reached a considerably higher value than expected. A value of around 235 is expected
for today and it is now felt that the value will remain above 200 for the coming week. This unexpected higher value is mainly due to two large
sunspot regions.

The largest of the two regions is the biggest for the last nine years. This region is very complex and active, and combined with the second one plus a Coronal hole brought a mixture of good and bad during the past week.

Last weekend good six metre contacts was made, but during the week
long-range propagation was poor, especially on the 20 metre band.

Today and tomorrow the ten metre band should be good and there is a fair
chance that openings on six meters may even exceed those of last weekend.
From Wednesday the 40 metre band should be good in the late afternoon, while the DX should start to appear before sundown.

DIARY OF COMING EVENTS

The Secunda Amateur Radio Club will be running a special event station from
25 September to 6 October to celebrate Sasol Coal's 50 th birthday. A
special QSL card will be sent to all stations worked during this period.
The Callsign will be ZS50SAS indicating SASOL STEENKOOL. For more
information please contact Sid Tyler by e-mail srtyler@mweb.co.za or cell
082 461 3279.

The West rand Amateur Radio club will hold a bootsale on 30 September 2000
at the club house in Kroton Ave, Weltevredenark, Roodepoort. The gate will open at 09:00. Plenty to eat and drink will be available. For more details contact Bill van Zyl ZR6REV at 011 726-6807 (w) or 011 726-6892 (h).

The Voortrekkers are holding their annual CQ Hou Koers gathering on the air
on 14 October and request that radio amateurs who are willing to assist the commando in their town or city to contact one of the following persons

Louis Kruger ZR6ABC Cell: 082-336-2597
Willy Wilson ZR6CY Tel: (012) 343 7176
Gustav Snyman ZS6BWN Cell: 083 254 1150

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 Marten ZS6ZY, and read by ZS.... in ....... You have been listening to ZS6SRL. This transmission now ends and we wish you a pleasant week.

/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)