Subj : SA Radio League News Bulletin for Sunday 3 December 2000
To : SA Radio League
From : Richard Peer
Date : Sat Dec 02 2000 03:41 pm
SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE SARL NEWS SUNDAY DECEMBER 3 2000
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
[email protected] to e-mail it to you in either text or
MSWord 6.0 format.
Here are the headlines of today's news:
THREE AMATEURS WERE RECOGNISED LAST WEEK FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND PROMOTION OF
THE AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE.
ICASA COUNCILLOR AFFIRMS THEIR SUPPORT FOR AMATEUR RADIO
LAST INTECNET FOR 2000 TONIGHT
INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN TROPO PROPAGATION RESEARCH
SPECIAL STATION COMMEMORATES BEGINNING OF RADIO TRANSMISSINS FROM GERMANY 80
YEARS AGO
You are listening to ZS6SRL. The news follows in detail.
THREE AMATEURS WERE RECOGNISED LAST WEEK FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND PROMOTION OF
THE AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE.
At the awards ceremony held at the National Amateur Radio centre this week
three Radio Amateurs were recognised for their contribution to the Amateur
Service in South Africa.
The Siemens Radio Amateur of the Year Award for 2000 was awarded jointly to
Chris Gryffenberg, ZS6COG, and Peter Hers, ZS6PHD. The Board of Trustees of
the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust, after a long and intense
discussion agreed that both amateurs had made a major contribution. Chris
Gryffenberg received the award for his dedication in training and developing
young amateurs while Peter Hers received the award for his creation and
continuous development of the SARL Website: www.sarl.org.za. The two
recipients each received a certificate and a cheque for R1000.
The Young Radio Amateur of the Year award was bestowed on Peter Black,
ZR5DWC, for his involvement with events to attract young people to Amateur
Radio and the promotion of new technologies such as APRS. In addition to a
certificate and a cheque for R1000, Tony Reumerman, ZS6AOG, of ECS presented
Peter with the ARRL Satellite Handbook as well as the Space Handbook.
The awards were handed over by Rolf Spaeth of Siemens. He said that his
company was proud to be associated with the awards programme because Amateur
Radio makes such an important contribution to the development of interest in
communication and electronics. He encouraged the Trust and the SARL to
intensify their effort to take Amateur Radio to the Schools.
ICASA COUNCILLOR AFFIRMS THEIR SUPPORT FOR AMATEUR RADIO
Speaking at last week's Radio Amateur of the year awards function ICASA
Councillors Yasmin Carrim and Neil Smuts affirmed the regulatory body's
support for Amateur Radio. Yasmin Carrim said that she is very impressed
with organisations such as the SARL that are so committed to take skills and
enthusiasm for communication to the youth of South Africa. On the question
of the new regulations and the introduction of a 5 word per minute Morse
code HF licence and a learner=92s licence, the two Councillors confirmed
that ICASA had approved the document in October. ICASA is awaiting the
signature of the Minister before the new regulations can be promulgated.
Neil Smuts said the ICASA would expedite the matter with the Department of
Communication with the aim to publish the new regulations in late December
or early January.
LAST INTECNET FOR 2000 TONIGHT
The last Interactive Technical net for this year will be held tonight at
20:00. The programme will differ from previous ones and will be in the form
of an open debate on the question of mentorship. How can Radio Amateurs
support their local schools and mentor teachers to take Amateur Radio into
the classroom. This question was intensely discussed at last week's Amateur
Radio and Industry workshop. The Telkom Intecnet 2000 will start with a
brief review of the workshop and follow on to get your inputs.
Clubs wishing to link into the net should send their details to
[email protected] before noon today. You may also fax the information to
012 991 5651. Please supply the telephone number to be linked and details
of the frequencies on which you will be active.
INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN TROPO PROPAGATION RESEARCH
Mike Bosch, ZS2FM, informed Sarlnews that Western Australian amateurs have
suggested that we in the RSA listen for their VK6RBU beacon on 144,560 MHz
located in Perth. This beacon radiates a 100 W ERP FSK horizontally
polarised signal to South Africa. It has already been heard over a distance
of 6 000 km. They feel that the best time for Tropo propagation over the
Indian ocean would be at night between about 20:00 and 01:00 UTC during the
peak months of December, January and February.
VK6 amateurs have requested that we also transmit beacon signals to
Australia. Therefore, the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society is
redirecting the beam of their ZS2VHF beacon on 144,415 MHz to Perth as from
now till February 2001.
More Trans-Indian ocean tests will be conducted from Port Elizabeth by
transmitting high power CW signals on 144,250 MHz to Perth at night between
20:00 and 22:00 UTC during January and February 2001.
This also a good time for those amateurs on the west coast of South Africa
to look out for 144 MHz signals from Argentina and Brazil and try and set up
skeds with them.
SPECIAL STATION COMMEMORATES BEGINNING OF RADIO TRANSMISSINS FROM GERMANY 80
YEARS AGO
The first radio broadcast in Germany took place on the 22nd of December
1920. An instrumental concert was the first official radio programme
transmitted to the public and it came from a station at Koenigs Wusterhausen
[pron: "Kurnigs Vooster-howzen"], about 15 kilometres south-east of Berlin.
From the 1st to 23rd of December the amateur radio club station DL0KWH will
be active from the site of the old radio station, using the special DOK "80
Radio". This DOK is valid for the DLD Award issued by the German national
society, DARC. The Radio Club Koenigs Wusterhausen has issued an award
called "Sender Koenigs Wusterhausen" [pron: "Zender" . . . ] since 1997
and DL0KWH is also valid for this award. Contacts will be confirmed by a
QSL card showing the area of the old radio station. For further details
DL0KWH has a web site and more information plus photographs of the old
Koenigs Wusterhausen transmission site can be found on page 42 of the
January 2000 RadCom.
SPECIALS FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON
The SARL bookshop has several special offers for the festive season. Act
quickly before the SARL Office closes for the December recess. All orders
received before 10 December will be mailed before the holiday season starts.
The following special offers are available:
Radio Auroras (RSGB) R 25
Space Radio Handbook R 60
ARRL Satellite Handbook R200
ARRL Satellite Anthology R 95
Understanding Basic Electronics R 50
W1FB'S Design Notebook R 50
W1FB's QRP Notebook R 50
Your VHF Companion R 50
For details the special offers and the full range of books as well as the
the cost of packaging and postage call the SARL Bookshop Monday to Friday
09:00 - 13:00 on 011 675-2393 or visit the SARL website: www.sarl.org.za
SPECIAL EVENTS DATES
Wally Sime, ZS6WAL, HQ administrator, requests that clubs forward to him
special events dates for 2001 for inclusion in the calendar. Dates like CQ
Houkoers, Jota, Lions International etc are important.
SARL HEAD OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED FOR MORE THAN FOUR WEEKS
The SARL Head Office will close on the 13 th December and reopen again on
January 17 next year. There is thus about a week and a half remaining to
finish off any urgent matters with Head Office.
POSTAL BALLOT ON PROPOSAL THAT LEAGUE AGM MAY BE HELD IN OTHER PROVINCES
Remember to vote early on the above matter and mail your vote so that the
scrutineers may receive your vote before December 15. Please note the
mailing address for your vote is: SARL Postal Ballot, P O Box 2105,
Dennesig, 7601.
NEW COMMITTEE FOR THE RUSTENBURG AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
At the AGM of the Rustenburg Amateur Radio Club on Saturday October 14, the
following committee was elected for the ensuing year:
Chairman Henry Rood ZR6IIX
Vice Chairman Frans Keulder ZS6BXL
Treasurer Hans Potgieter ZS6ALJ
Secretary Erik Charslund ZS6AWS
Member Jasper Malan ZR6TT
Thanks to the outgoing committee and strength for the new committee for the
work ahead.
PROPAGATION REPORT
Ean Retief, ZS1PR, reports as follows:
Last Sunday a M8-class solar flare occurred and that was followed by two
X-class flares on Monday. Tuesday evening just before 19:00 SAST another
X-classed followed.
The heavy blows from these occurrences were quite enough to upset the
earth's magnetic field. The field was at minor storm levels for most of the
week.
This affected propagation quite badly and many reports were received of poor
or no propagation on normally stable routes.
Things look a good deal better for the coming week. The solar flux should
decline steadily from the current values near 180 to about 145 by next
weekend.
Tomorrow you may find that routes over or near the Polar regions and also
long East-West routes may be somewhat disappointing. On the other hand
shorter routes to the north may be better than normal.
On Wednesday and Thursday the earth's magnetic field may again be active,
causing higher than normal noise on the lower bands during the night and
also disrupting propagation on 160 metres.
DIARY OF COMING EVENTS
The Midlands Amateur Radio Club will be operating a special event station,
ZS100ABW, today and the 9 th December, to recognise the foreign involvement
in the Anglo Boer South African War. You can QSL direct to MARC, PO Box
100220, Scottsville, 3209 or via the Bureau. ZS100ABW will be on the air
from 10h00 SAST on 40 metres.
The SARL News Service invites Clubs and individuals to contribute
information regarding Amateur Radio to
[email protected] with a copy to
[email protected]. 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
[email protected]. 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)
