SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY OCTOBER 8 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.

SILENT KEY

We regret to announce the passing away on June 16 this year of Harry Booth, ZE6JP. Harry had many friends in the RSA. To his family and friends our sincere condolences.

PAUSE

Here are the headlines of today's news:

AUSTRALIA 3,4 GHz SPECTRUM GRAB

SARL WEB SITE POPULAR

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

PROPAGATION REPORT

The news follows in detail.

AUSTRALIA 3,4 GHz SPECTRUM GRAB

Some disturbing reading!!

Australian hams have lost a major portion of the 3,4 GHz band. This, as the nations government prepares to auction spectrum in the 3.4 GHz band.

Graham Kemp, VK4BB, of Q-News, Australia, has more:

August the 1st 2000 found the Amateur Radio License Information paper being amended to reflect changes to the Amateur License Condition Determination. Operating frequencies no longer available for Amateurs.

The Amateur LCD has been amended to delete frequency band 2302 - 2400 MHz
from the permitted frequency schedules for Amateurs. The amendment also deletes the frequency bands 3,425û3,4425 GHz and 3,475û3,4925 GHz from the permitted frequency schedules for Amateur Unrestricted, Amateur Limited and Amateur Intermediate stations in certain parts ofAustralia.

In addition, the frequency bands 3,4425û3,475 GHz 3,5425û3,575 GHz have been deleted from the permitted frequency schedules for Amateur Unrestricted, Amateur Limited and Amateur Intermediate stations in certain other parts of Australia. This spectrum loss means a revision of the Australian 9cm
bandplan.

The greatest impact of this spectrum loss has been on weak signal operation around 3456 MHz. In the revised band plan the weak signal segment has moved
to 3400 MHz, which is the same segment used in IARU Region 1.

The ATV and other wideband segments have also been shuffled to fit within
the new amateur allocation and make best use of the available spectrum. The new 9 cm band plan will be published in Callbook 2001.

As previously disclosed on Q NEWS the Federal Government announced its intention to sell spectrum rights in the 9 cm band to use it for Wireless
Local Loop networks. Households using this network would have a small
antenna mounted on the roof. A major use for the new WLL System would be to provide high speed internet services.

SARL WEB SITE POPULAR

The statistics released by the SARL Web master, Peter Hers, ZS6PHD, clearly indicate that the SARL web site is popular. During September there were requests for 7341 pages from 1935 visitors. By far the most popular request was for the callbook, 1395. SARL News received 292 requests, download for
the electronic callbook 216 requests and SARLnuus 159 requests.

410 members logged in during September while 84 people downloaded the
updated electronic callbook.

Visit the web site and see for yourself. There is a wealth of information
and useful stuff to download. The address: www.sarl.org.za.

To gain access to the member-only section of the site, keep your password handy. Passwords are supplied after membership renewals have been received. Just another good reason to be a member of the SARL.

EXAMPLE QUESTIONS FOR THE RAE ON THE SARL WEBSITE AVAILABLE

The SARL has placed a number of questions, which are similar to those asked
in the RAE, on the SARL Website and are available for students. These questions are not from the pool questions, which are used for the RAE.
Visit the SARL webpage at www.sarl.org.za. for more information.

SARL HF PHONE AND CW CONTEST RESULTS

The high-claimed scores for both contests are now available on the SARL web site.

MAGALIES RADIO AMATEUR CLUB: NEW COMMITTEE

At the Annual General Meeting of MRAK held on 16 September 2000 and
finalised at the Committee meeting of 3 October, the following committee members were elected:

Chairman: Dr. Jannie de Beer ZR6PHD
Vice chairman: Paul Ras ZR6NC
Secretary: Magda van Wyk ZS6MVW
Treasurer: Fritz Sutherland ZS6ASF
Digital Radio Communication: Pieter van Wyk ZS6PVW
Teenspanning editor: Pieter Scholtz ZS6LC
Technical coordinator: Marius Erasmus ZR6YY
Communication coordinator: Nico Venter ZR6DWT
Additional member: Adanus Seymore ZR6SDS

The Club wants to express its sincere gratitude to the previous committee
for their dedicated work and whishes the newly elected members all of best
for the new management year.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

SARL Subscriptions are now overdue. If you have not yet renewed your subscription please do so right away. The SARL need every Radio Amateur in South Africa as a member in order to be able to work in the interests of ALL radio Amateurs and the hobby in general. You owe it to yourself and to
Amateur Radio to be a member of the League. Send in your subs right away.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Ean Retief ZS1PR reports:

Less than an hour after the SARL news was transmitted last Sunday a M5-class solar flare occurred at 09:01 SAST. This had it's major effect on the 40
meter band.

Just as the band started to recover a M2-class flare occurred just after
16:00 SAST. The effects was felt as high as the 20 meter band with the long path signals from North America being considerably weaker than expected.

On Monday the 2nd another two M1 class solar flares occurred and propagation
on the higher bands, especially 10 meters was rather disappointing.

From Tuesday the Earth's magnetic field started to become active as the
heavier particles arrived from the sun. In the early hours of Wednesday morning the major impact took place. By 11:00 the field's activity reached minor storm levels and 24 hours later the activity was classed as a major geomagnetic storm. Things only subsided on Friday afternoon.

The solar flux had declined considerably and should be around 150 today. It should remain at this level until Tuesday and then start to rise again
reaching a value of around 180 by next weekend.

Ean Retief ZS1PR expects "up and down" conditions for the coming week as a result of the geomagnetic field that may range from quiet to active.

For the DX hunters the best place should be 15 metres. Look for central European stations in the late afternoon and around sunset for stations from western Europe and Britain.

Stations in the western Mediterranean should be audible till long after
sunset.

DIARY OF COMING EVENTS

The Radio Society of Swaziland will be holding a field day starting at 18.00 hrs SAST on Friday the 13 October and will be on the air until 12.00 SAST on Sunday 15 October. The station will be set up on the farm of Om Horace
Long, 3DA0AC, FARM KIRKHILL which is located twelve miles south west of Mbabane, the capital city of Swaziland. The site is on top of one of the mountains at an altitude of 1320 m ASL. The exact GPS co- ordinates of the station are as follows:- 26,042=B0 S and 03,674=B0 E.

The idea is to have a fun weekend , not a contest , and speak to as many
fellow amateurs across the globe as possible. We have obtained permission
from The Department Of Posts And Telecommunications Of Swaziland which
allows the class =93B=94 license holders to operate on the HF bands during
this period. This will give that segment of our amateurs exposure to
operation on the HF spectrum and allow them to gain much needed experience before sitting their main RAE examination.

The station will consist of two HF rigs and a 2 met. SSB radio and will be powered by solar panels with a generator as backup in the event of cloudy weather. There will be no permanent structures and all equipment will be transported to the site and erected site on the day. The site is only accessible in four wheel drive vehicles . We expect to have in the region
of seven amateurs operating the stations and will operate as long as
conditions allow.

The station callsign shall be 3DA0RS, 3 DELTA ALPHA ZERO ROMEO SIERRA, and frequencies between plus and minus 5 kHz of the following:

1,845, 3,685, 7,095, 14,255, 21,255, 28,755 MHz.

All those contacted will be sent a QSL card if requested.

We at the RSS hope that a good time will be had by all and will prepare a report via the RADIO ZS on the event for those interested readers.

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 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
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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)