SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY JULY 30 2000

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

SILENTKEY

Council regrets to announce the sudden passing away of Van van der Watt,
ZS6LW, on Monday 17 July at the age of 77 years. He was a very keen DXer
and was wellknown on the DX bands as well as locally. We offer our sincere condolences to his wife, Tilly and family.

I apologise for the omission of the silentkey in the English bulletin last week.

Here are the headlines of today's news:

SARL PRESIDENT EXPRESSES HIS THANKS AND GIVE INFORMATION ON CELLPHONES

SARL HF PHONE AND CW CONTESTS

CAPE TOWN AMATEUR RADIO CENTRE ELECTS NEW COMMITTEE

ZS5AKV TO PRESENT REPORT AT IARU SATELLITE MEETING

WESTERN CAPE AMATEURS TO "FOX HUNT" PENGUINS

PROPAGATION REPORT

You are listening to ZS6SRL, the news follows in detail.

SARL PRESIDENT EXPRESSES HIS THANKS

The President of the SARL, Hans Potgieter, ZS6ALJ, wishes to thank all the clubs and amateurs who made a great effort to erect stations at the various theatres where the film FREQUENCY is being shown. He is confident that the promotion of amateur radio at the theatres will cause the public to take
note of the community service rendered by radio amateurs.

He also informed SARLNUUS that the legislation regarding Cellphone
operation is not applicable to radio amateurs. The memorandums submitted
to the minister by various commercial businesses and SARL were the decisive factors that two-way radio was not part of the legislation. =20

SARL HF PHONE AND CW CONTESTS

The League's two premier operating events are just around the corner.
According to the standing rules the Phone contest takes place on the first Sunday and the CW contest on the last Sunday of August. This year, the relevant dates are 6 August for Phone and 27 August for CW. The contest
runs from 15:00 to 18:00 SAST.=20

The contests provide an excellent opportunity to hone your operating skills
and to renew old acquaintances, and also an excellent excuse to make those station improvements you've been thinking about.

All radio amateurs in Southern Africa may participate. Here follows
everything you need to know. The 20, 40 and 80 metre bands are used.
Contact as many Southern African stations as you can, and exchange reports
and serial numbers with each of them. For example, your first contact on
phone is number 59 001. He might give you something like 57 002, depending
on how quickly he got off the mark.

You should also try to contact as many ZS call areas possible. There are
two additional areas which are defined in the rules i.e. our easterly and westerly neighbours.

In the past the ZS3 call area has been the most difficult to find. If
you're a ZS3, now is your chance to be in demand. Most participants will follow propagation conditions as sun moves. The activity starts on 20
metres and within half an hour or so, most of the participants will move to 40m. Towards the end of the contest, most of the activity will be on 80m.
You must try to catch as many stations and areas on each band as you can
before the other participants move down to the next band.

There can be only a handful of winners in the contest. However, the
contests provide a good opportunity for anyone, regardless of experience
and skill level to listen to the experts. You'll hear some slick operators
who log stations at a furious rate and you'll hear some operating practices that you will definitely not want to emulate. Learn from the courteous and efficient operators, and you'll see how your own operating style changes
for the better.

If you're chasing the Worked All ZS award, you'll find no better
opportunity to make rapid progress. Especially in the Phone contest, the leading operators come very close to meeting the full requirements in this contest.

A full set of rules appear on the League's webpage.

MARCH 2000 VHF CONTEST RESULTS: CORRECTION

The VHF Contest Coordinator, John ZS5JF, wishes to correct the wording in
last week's bulletin regarding the turning down of ZS6TDK log. It should
read: "ZS6TDK log was rejected due to exceeding the error percentage in
General Rule 11."

He offers his apology for the mistake which may have given the wrong impression.

Contestors entering contest should read and understand the General Rules
and the particular rules for each contest to save loosing points due to
silly mistakes.

CAPE TOWN AMATEUR RADIO CENTRE ELECTS NEW COMMITTEE

The following office bearers were elected at the Annual General Meeting
held on Monday, 24 July 2000:

Chairman: Bud Voortman, ZS1B
Secretary: Robert Page, ZS1AAN
Treasurer: Dudley Burrows, ZS1DB

Activity Convenors:

Editor, Ragchew: Bernie Crockford, ZS1BW
Sports Communications: Davy Smeda, ZR1FR
Emergency Communications, including Hamnet: Pierre Tromp, ZR1PDT
Public Relations Officer: Dave Reece, ZS1DFR

SUNSAT SCHEDULE

The orbital fligts of SUNSAT SO35 over Southern Africa are as follows:

30/07/2000 15:39
02/08/2000 16:56
05/08/2000 16:35
06/08/2000 15:55
09/08/2000 15:34
12/08/2000 16:52
13/08/2000 16:11

ZS5AKV TO PRESENT REPORT AT IARU SATELLITE MEETING

This weekend Hans van de Groenendaal will be presenting his annual
Satellite Advisers report at the IARU International Satellite Forum to be
held in conjunction with the AMSAT UK Satellite Colloquium at the
University of Surrey

He will also deliver a paper at the colloquium entitled " A new Educational Satellite for South Africa. This satellite will include an amateur radio payload. In an Intecnet to be held during August South African Amateurs
will be asked to put forward suggestions for the kind of payload they would like to be considered for inclusion in this new project.

WESTERN CAPE AMATEURS TO "FOX HUNT" PENGUINS

The Cape Town Amateur Radio Center received an urgent request from the Department of Environmental Affairs for assistance in locating the exact position of the three penguins, Peter, Percy and Pamela.

These three Penguins where part of a flock of 20 000 penguins, released
earlier this month in Algoa Bay after been rescued from a severe oil spill
in Table Bay. All three penguins have arrived back in Western Cape waters
but they want to ascertain the exact positions of these three penguins for scientific purposes.

These penguins carry a very low power UHF transmitter which transmits every
55 seconds on a frequency of 401.650 MHZ, to an orbiting satellite. The positions of the birds have been determined to areas on Robben Island and Dassen Island with an accuracy of about 100 meters on occasions and
sometimes even 300 meters.

The one bird on Dassen Island has been seen with binoculars. The other two penguins are on Robben Island but have not been seen.=20 Thanks, to the assistance of Bud ZS1B, Chris ZR1MM, Derek ZS1DUP, Peter ZR1FS, Tony ZR1AEB
and Louis ZS1LVH, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Bud ZS1B,
will be visiting both islands early this week. Armed with two UHF
receivers and specially built yagi antennas and down converters, the team
hope to ascertain the exact positions of these three penguins.

We hope to bring you more news on the success of this "fox hunt" in next
week's bulletin.

PROPAGATION REPORT

A mixture of good and bad propagation was noted during the last week. This
is typical of the solar conditions experienced at the moment. There is a continuous occurrence of big Solar Flares enhancing certain frequencies and distances and degrading others.

The Solar Flux has declined to lower than expected values and the current
value is under 160. It is expected to stay in the 150 to 165 range for the next few days. At the moment the Earth's magnetic field is at unsettled to active levels and this trend is expected to continue for most of the week.

In the coming week the return of the two Sunspot regions that caused the
major magnetic storm of two weeks ago are expected. At the moment it seems that they have lost much of their energy and major trouble are not
expected. The Solar Flux is expected to rise sharply at the end of the
week and you can look ahead to a value exceeding 200 by next weekend. The "long-path" over the Indian and Pacific oceans should be particularly good.

DIARY OF COMING EVENTS

The Sandton Amateur Radio Club will be holding their AGM at the NARC,
Radiokop on Saturday 5th August. The meeting begins at 14:30. All
welcome. Refreshments and snacks will be provided. Please RSVP to Rob
ZS6RAP at 011 708-1875 or 082 567-5649.

On August 19 the Secunda and Coalfields Amateur Radio Clubs invite all
Amateurs and there families in the Mpumalanga Province to join them for a informal meeting to discuss Amateur radio in the province, Hans Potgieter
the SARL President will open the meeting on Saturday at 11h00. The meeting will take place at the Witbank Technikon. A bring and braai will take
place after the meeting.=20 For more information contact Teresa at 013 692
6754 or Sid ZS6AYC at 082 461 3279 e-mail srtyler@mweb.co.za=20


The Alberton Amateur Radio Club will hold a fleamarket or bootsale on 26
August 2000 at 08:00 in front of the Civic Center, Ring Rd East Alberton. Please book tables in advance with Koos ZS6JPY 082 461 2819. Refreshments
will be available. For more information visit our webpage at www.hometown.aol.com/zs6tdk

The SARL news service invites radio clubs to supply information for
inclusion in the Diary of Events as well as other items of interest to
radio amateurs. Email information to sarlnuus@mweb.co.za with a copy to gth@mweb.co.za at least two weeks before the event. Please submit it in
both Afrikaans and English wherever possible.

The South African Radio League provides this news bulletin as a service to Radio Amateurs and interested listeners on the African Continent. News in
this bulletin was supplied by the SARL news service, individuals, and
amateur radio clubs in South Africa.=20

Also join us on Sundays at 12:00 for the President's Net on 7082 kHz. This bulletin was compiled by Marten, ZS6ZY and read by.........

A reminder that the interesting program Amateur Radio Mirror International
is on the air on Sundays at 10:00 SAST on 9750 and 21560 kHz and is
repeated on Mondays at 20:00 SAST on 3215 kHz. These transmissions are sponsored by Sentech, the common carrier for broadcasting signals in South Africa and Telkom who provides the transmission lines. The following VHF frequencies are also used: 145,375 for the Northern Free State and Vaal triangle areas, 145,650 MHz for the greater Durban area and if conditions permit in Pretoria on 145,750 MHz. The 145,400 and 439,100 MHz frequencies have temporarily been suspended for technical reasons. .

The address for Amateur Radio Mirror International is armi@intekom.co.za. Include your contact telephone number to allow the producers of the
programme to call you for a possible interview. Send written reports to P
O Box 90438, Garsfontein, 0042 and include a self addressed stamped
envelope, overseas stations two IRC's, so that you may receive a QSL card. Please note the new postal address.

Thanks to all who gathered news items and have made contributions to this bulletin. We thank all the stations who so reliably relay the bulletins.
We wish you a pleasant week. =20 ZS6SRL now closes down with ZS6... at
the microphone.

Goodbye 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)