SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY JUNE 3 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:

INTECNET 2001 ON MAY 24 A WINNER

SARL FORMS A PROTECTION FOR AMATEUR RADIO COMMITTEE

HAM RADIO RENAISSANCE

YARIA MAKES A RETURN

ZIMBABWE AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY NEWS

PROPAGATION REPORT

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

INTECNET 2001 ON MAY 24 A WINNER

"INTECNET 2001 discussing Internet repeater linking was another winner", one
of the control stations, Henry Chamberlain ZS1AAZ said when he reported on
the number of reports received and comments made during call-ins. Ian Able,
an enthusiastic proponent of linking repeaters via the Internet covered the subject well. After the programme on Sunday evening 700 visitors were
recorded having visited Ian's website which is 500 more than the average for
a Sunday.

Some 200 stations reported in with Pretoria a record 61.

The next Intecnet 2001 will be held on Sunday 24 June at 20:00 with a discussion on ITU regulation S25 and the quest for a unified world-wide spectrum allocation in the 40 metre band.

The date for July is 29 July when Paul Shuch joins the talkshow to discuss Extra Terrestrial Intelligence.

SARL FORMS A PROTECTION FOR AMATEUR RADIO COMMITTEE

The Council of the SARL has formed a "Protection for Amateur Radio Committee" It will known by the acronym PARC. PARC combines the work of the SPRC and several other initiatives aimed at protecting Amateur Radio at all levels. A special fund has been established to cover the expenses incurred by the committee in carrying out its tasks.

Hans Van de Groenendaal ZS6AKV heads PARC with at least one representative
from each province. Amongst the tasks of PARC is to gain more public acceptance and awareness of Amateur Radio as a national resource. The first priorities are to make a presentation to the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee for Communication and to meet with the Minister of Environmental affairs to discuss relief from environmental scooping for antenna towers and structures. " It is important to have representatives from each province on PARC as Environmental Management is a provincial competency in Government" ZS6AKV said. I will be in touch will all clubs during the week to discuss
the appointment of regional representatives to the committee. Donations to
the special fund may be sent to the SARL PARC Fund, P O BOX 1721, Strubensvallei 1735. Contributions may also be included with payment of the annual subscription account. These accounts will be mailed shortly.

ZS6AKV OPERATED ON

Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV, is at home after undergoing a succesful operation to his right shoulder. He still experiences a lot of pain.
Despite that he typed the previous two news items with his left hand and that is highly appreciated. We wish him a speedy and complete recovery.

HAM RADIO RENAISSANCE

A private investigation has been launched by Mike Bosch ZS2FM into the disappointing level of membership of the South African Radio League. His driving motive is to help amateur radio to flourish in South Africa and thus preserve the hobby for our future generations. Mike therefore appeals to all radio amateurs, especially non members of the League, to drop him a line stating their bona fide reasons for not supporting the SARL.

Any practical suggestions that they have to offer as to how the
dissatisfaction can be eradicated will be greatly appreciated.

Please write to Mike Bosch at PO Box 1614 Port Elizabeth 6000. Kindly
include your name and a contact telephone number in case he needs more information. Mike gives the assurance that your identity will not be
divulged to anyone unless you include specific authority for him to do so.

The President of the SARL, Hans Potgieter ZS6ALJ, has given his personal blessing to this research project and looks forward to hearing the outcome - without the identities of the correspondents - in due course.

This is your opportunity to play an important role in helping amateur radio
to thrive once again in South Africa and strengthen the League to every amateur's benefit. Grasp it with both hands and write to Mike today.

Clubs are asked to kindly repeat this request in their own bulletins and newsletters.

YARIA MAKES A RETURN

YARIA, the once popular Youth for Amateur Radio in Africa programme, will return to the airwaves. This follows the agreement between the SARL and
ICASA that registered club stations may introduce amateur radio to newcomers
by arranging special events during which non-licensed persons may operate an amateur radio station using a club callsign under the supervision of a
licensed amateur.

The SARL petitioned ICASA for relaxation of the rules as we believe that this is the most effective way to let newcomers experience amateur radio, SARL president Hans Potgieter said. This new arrangement will offer clubs the opportunity to introduce practical operating experience sessions during the teaching for the Radio Amateur Examination.

Clubs are urged to register their club callsigns for this purpose with the
SARL as soon as possible. A registration form will soon be available on the SARL web at www.sarl.org.za. Each event must be registered with the SARL. A guideline document will also soon be available on the SARL web.

ZIMBABWE AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY NEWS

The following news item was received from Fred Wilkinson Z21KJ/R:

The Zimbabwe Amateur Radio Society held its AGM last Sunday the 27th May and and the following were elected to office:

President Dudley Kaye-Eddie Z22JE
Vice President Fred Wilkinson Z21KJ/R
Secretary Molly Henderson Z21JE
Treasurer Eric Christer Z21FO
Member Kenyon Stamps Z21LE/R
Member Andrew Lobb Z21LH/R
IARUMS Co-Ordinator George Main-Baillie Z24S
QSL Manager Maarten Stakesby-Lewis Z21GY
Mashonaland Branch Chairman Des Sharp Z21GH

Kenyon and Andrew are to be congratulated as they are two of our younger members having taken their licences in the last two years through the Prince Edward School Amateur Radio Club; the rewards to our efforts to get younger blood into our hobby.

Among issues discussed was the huge increase in our fees which the new Regulatory Authority is proposing on radio licences. They have also based
them in US$ which coupled with our inflation at this time could very well reduce ham activity down to one or two Z2 call signs as many of the local operators will find the fees beyond their means. The new council has been tasked to make this the main subject to be addressed during the coming
months.

This increase in fees will also have a dramatic negative effect on our
efforts to encourage younger members to join our ranks and increase ham radio activity in this part of the world. To this end our planned changes to the exam and licence conditions will have to be put on hold until we have a solution to the costs.

The SARL wishes strength to the ZARS with their efforts and trusts that a satisfactory solution will soon be found.

QRP CONTEST

QNEWS reports that the CW Operators QRP Club in Australia is conducting the annual QRP DAY CONTEST on Saturday 9th June from 07:00 UTC to 12:00 UTC on
all H.F. Bands (Except WARC). Open to all CW Operators and if you are operating QRP, 5 Watts or less to the antenna, you are welcome to submit a
log. Further info re the contest can be obtained from Ron VK4EV. (Ron VK4EV
@ VK4WIE.#BNE.QLD.AUS.OC for the CW Ops. QRP Club)

PROPAGATION REPORT

Ean Retief, ZS1PR reports as follows:

While last week's report was still going out the solar flux declined rapidly and then continued declining slowly during the week.

This had the effect that the bands were fairly "flat" during the past week.
The 20 metre band closed between ZS1 and ZS2 in the late afternoon.

The DX signals was not very strong either. Fortunately the geomagnetic field was fairly quiet, with the result that the noise levels were low and even fairly weak signals quite readable.

It is now expected that the solar flux will decline to under the 130 level
and only start to rise very slowly from Wednesday.

Only one large solar sunspot region having a fair flare potential is visible
at the moment, so chances of major disruptive solar flares are very low.

It can be expected that especially from Tuesday to Thursday the geomagnetic field will be very quiet, so good propagation on 40 and 80 metres with low noise should be possible. Do keep in mind that the 40-metre band may close early for distances below 500 km, but on the other hand DX should start to appear around 20:30.

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. It will be highly appreciated if it is done in Afrikaans as well as English and send it as early in the week as 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. This transmission is repeated Mondays at 20:00 on 3215 kHz. Several relays on 2 m and 70 cm also take place in your area.

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 P O 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..........from.........................

You have been listening to ZS6SRL.

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

Goodbye to all.

/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)