SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY APRIL 8 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:

COSMONAUTICS DAY COMMEMORATED ON APRIL 12

WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY BROADCAST

SARL AGM DETAILS

THE PEARS 2 METRE BEACON HEARD IN DIVISION 3

HAMNET NEWS

PROPAGATION REPORT

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

COSMONAUTICS DAY COMMEMORATED ON APRIL 12

Cosmonautics Day will be commemorated on Thursday April 12 by making contacts with the amateur crew of ISS.

The following frequencies have been announced for ARISS general QSO's: Voice and packet downlink: 145,80 (worldwide); Voice uplink: 144,49 for Regions 2
and 3 (the Americas and the Pacific); Voice uplink: 145,20 for Region 1 (Europe, Central Asia and Africa); Packet uplink: 145,99 (worldwide). The
ISS Amateur Radio packet system is still not operational, but Marchant said ARISS has been working with the crew and hopes it will be up and running by then.

WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY BROADCAST

Remember the special programme to be broadcast by Amateur Radio Mirror International on April 18 to celebrate World Amateur Radio Day. The
50-minute broadcast will be dedicated to the theme for 2001: Providing
Disaster Communications: Amateur Radio in the 21st century.

The programme is sponsored by Sentech, the common carrier for broadcast
signals in South Africa and Telkom. The programme will be broadcast at 18:00-18:55 UTC to Southern Africa on 3215 kHz (90 metre band) with a 100 kW transmitter.

QSL and reception reports should be mailed to P O Box 90438, Garsfontein,
0042 and include a SASE or 2 IRC's if a reply QSL card is required.

SARL AGM DETAILS

The MULTISOURCE-ICOM-SARL AGM takes place over the weekend 27/28 April 2001
in Oakdale, Bellville.

A route map is also available on the website for visitors from afar. A help service will further be available on 145,750.

Ned Kekana, the Chairman of the Telecommunications Portfolio Committee in Parliament will address the Annual Dinner. The Portfolio Committee advises Parliament on telecommunications issues and legislation. All political
parties are represented on the committee.

The SARL Multisource-Icom Convention 2001 opens with a welcoming braai at
19:00 on the Friday evening, April 27. While bookings are essential
convention goers may bring their own meat or purchase a braai pack at R25 per person.

The Saturday April 28 program is as follows:
07:30 Registration;
09:00 AGM commences;

13:00 Lunch served on a pre-ordered basis at R20 per person while fast foods will also be available. Refreshments will be available from the club bar at club prices.

14:00 - 15:30 The VHF/UHF workshop presented by John Fielding ZS5JF. Discussions will include the VHF Bandplan, CTCSS and 12,5 kHz channel
spacing.

In parallel the SARL Mentorship Programme will be presented by Hans van de Groenendaal ZS6AKV. This programme is aimed at helping amateurs to mentor school teachers to take Amateur Radio into the classroom through the ARISAS programme.

After a tea break at 15:45 Dennis Green ZS4BS will moderate an HF workshop
with discussions on 10MHz day/night operation and 300 kHz, 40 metreband. In parallel Hans Potgieter ZS6ALJ will present a workshop on Antenna, Tower and interference Legislation.

Booking for the dinner Saturday night is essential. The cost is R50 per person.Please book early by mailing your cheque or Postal order, made out to BARK, to P O Box 2105 DENNESIG 7601. Direct payments can be made into the
ABSA Account No: 420 720 955, Branch code: 33 43 12. Please fax your deposit slip and form to 021-948 0186. This number will also be active during the Easter weekend. A booking form can be found on the SARL web. Full details have also been mailed to all members.

SARL Members who can not attend the AGM are requested to nominate a proxy by sending an Email or fax to the SARL at the National Amateur Radio Centre stating for example ô I appoint the SARL President to represent me at the
AGM. Members may appoint any other member who is attending the AGM as their proxy.

The Email address is sarl@intekom.co.za and the fax number 011 675 2793.

PROGRAMME FOR WIVES AT SARL AGM

The organising committee for the SARL AGM have been informed that some
members from afar will be accompanied by their wives and that these ladies
will not be attending the meetings on the Saturday.

The committee is prepared to plan a "ladies programme" if the visiting ladies would like us to do so. Please ask your wife and let the committee know.

The committees' contingency planning involves making transport available for
up to twelve spouses at this stage, with one or two of the local ladies
acting as guides.

They want to know if the visiting wives would like them to arrange a
programme or not. If they like the idea, they want to know whether the
ladies would like: a) to visit to Table Mountain by Cableway or; b) to visit the winelands or; c) to visit the world famous Waterfront and it's aquarium.

Please communicate with Bud ZS1B by fax to 021-712-1464 or to Rassie ZS1YT
per E-Mail to QRM@intekom.co.za before 18 April.

If no replies are received, it will be assumed that the visitors would prefer to make their own arrangements.

THE PEARS 2 METRE BEACON HEARD IN DIVISION 3

Mike Bosch ZS2FM reports as follows:

The PEARS ZS2VHF beacon was copied in Strydenburg by Krappie ZR3CDK on
Tuesday morning at 07:00 SAST. He heard the beacon signal for about ten minutes with QSB over a distance of 600 km.

Krappie has already logged Johan ZS2JA in De Aar and regularly works Flippie ZS4PV in Bloemfontein.

From Williston PEARS heard that Eric ZS3ES erected a 19 element Yagi for 144 MHz and will soon be ready for skeds.

The ZS2VHF beacon transmits on 144,415 MHz FSK and key down about 1 kHz.

HAMNET NEWS

Francois Botha - ZS 6BUU reports af follows:

The cut-off date for those who wish to remain members of Hamnet is 30 April 2001. Thereafter, the database will be scrutenised and those who did not respond, will be deleted from the list. Current ID cards will no longer be valid after a date still to be announced but thereafter, a new card,
currently being formulated, will be issued to all members. The e-mail
address for those who wish to respond is francois@overflow.co.za or if you
wish to respond by fax to is 011 475-5946. This is a 24 hour number.

The Easter weekend is upon us, and to complicate matters, this year April/May offers 2 long weekends - the latter falling over the weekend of 27 April to 1 May. To crown it all, there are also the school holidays inbetween. We
again ask all Hamnet members to please monitor our emergency frequencies, especially in the 40 metre band on 7,070 MHz and to act on emergency calls.

The Hamnet restructuring committee will have a meeting shortly to request
names to be put forward for a new national coordinator, but more about this later.

MAY 2001 RAE

The closing date for registration for the May RAE is April 10, registration
fee R135, and for late registration April 17 with registration fee R235. No registration will be accepted after the 17th. Any registration received
after that date by the SARL Head Office will be held over till the next examination.

Registration forms are available on the SARL web site www.sarl.org.za or by
fax from 011-6752393. Candidates are reminded to indicate three possible
call signs on the form.

MAY 2001 RAE: ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT TO REGISTER

The closing date for registration for the May RAE is Tuesday April 10. A registration fee of R135 is payable. Registration forms are available on the SARL web site www.sarl.org.za or by fax from 011-675 2393. Candidates who complete the form must please ensure that their postal address appears on the form. Examination numbers will be mailed on April 23 to the candidates.

The examination takes place on Thursday May 10 at 19:00.

RESULTS FOR SARL HF FIELD DAY CONTEST ON 11 TO 12 MARCH 2000

The results, as received from Bud Voortman, ZS1B, of the SARL HF field day contest which took place on March 11/12 2000 are as follows:

SINGLE OPERATOR: No entries;

MULTI-OPERATOR: (Only four entries were received)

1st. ZS2PE/P (Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society) 1758 points.
2nd. ZS1CT/P (Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre)...... 724 points.
3rd. ZS6ERB/P (East Rand Radio Club)............... 694 points.
4th. ZS1PK/P (ZS1PK & ZS1KWA)...................... 378 points.

Portable stations that participated but did not submit logs included the following: ZS2RL, ZS4BFN, ZS5DBN,ZS5DJ, ZS5HAM, ZS5NK, ZS5VE, ZS5XRL, ZS5ZT, ZS6BGQ, ZS6EGB, and ZS6YOT.

ZS1B apologises for the late finalisation of the results.

PROPAGATION REPORT

Ean Retief, ZS1PR, reports as follows:

SUNDAY 8th APRIL 2001 - PROPAGATION REPORT

The past week was again notable for the large solar flares and active geomagnetic conditions.

As a result of the big flares of last week the earth's magnetic field became very stormy on Saturday 31 March. Reports with A indices of 90 to 168 were sent in by magnetic observatories.

Late on Monday 2nd April the biggest solar flare in 25 years occurred. This flare was larger than the one of March 1989 that caused major damage to power networks. Fortunately most energy from Monday night's flare was fortunately directed away from the earth, avoiding major problems.

The series of solar flares and the fast solar wind that was heavily loaded
with protons and other particles caused the propagation to remain poor until Wednesday.

From Thursday morning there was a noticeable improvement in propagation and
it is expected that conditions will improve markedly by this afternoon.

The coming week should be fairly good as it is expected that the solar flux will remain reasonably high while the earth's magnetic field should be quiet
to unsettled.

ACTIVITIES TO TAKE PART IN

SARL HAMNET 40m simulated emergency contest this afternoon from 14:00 till 16:00.

The SARL AGM on 27 and 28 April 2001 in Belville.

A BACAR flight will take place on May 19 with a mode J transponder, telemetry and recovery beacons and an APRS transmitter on board. The uplink will be on 70 cm and the downlink on 2 m.

The SARL News Service invites Clubs and individuals to contribute information regarding Amateur Radio to sarlnuus@mweb.co.za with a copy to gth@freemail.absa.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 are sponsored by Sentech, the common carrier for broadcasting signals in South Africa and
Telkom who provides the transmission lines. Relays on various 2m repeaters
can also be heard. This transmission is repeated Mondays at 20:00 on 3215
kHz.

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.

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 ZSàààà.

You have been listening to ZS6SRL.

This bulletin now ends and Sarlnews wish you a pleasant week.

Goodbye to 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)