Subj : SA Radio League News Bulletin for Sunday 17 September 2000 To : SA Radio League From : Richard Peer Date : Sat Sep 16 2000 03:07 pm SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE SARL NEWS SUNDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 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 Midlands Amateur Radio Club regrets to announce the death of Dick Andrews (ZS5FB) who died unexpectedly on Sunday 10th September 2000. Dick was a member of long standing with the Club having served on the committee holding various offices such as Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary over the years. Dick joined the SARL in 1957 and also served on Council for a period of six years looking after the portfolio of Contest Manager. He is a Honorary life member of the SARL is one of only a few members who held all the SARL awards. OM Dick will be sorely missed by all. Our heartfelt condolences to Marie and family at this time. Here are the headlines of today's news: COMMUNICATION RECEIVED FROM INDEPENDENT COMMUNICATION AUTHORITY OF SOUTH AFRICA SARL ELECTRONIC CALLBOOK NOW AVAILABLE NEXT RAE TAKES PLACE ON 9 NOVEMBER NEW COMMITTEES VHF CONTEST LOGS QSL CARDS PROPAGATION REPORT In a communication received this week, ICASA has informed SARL HQ that a number of repeater licence applications have been mislaid in the system. It is possible that they may resurface in the near future, but in the event that this does not occur clubs are urged to re-submit copies of their applications as soon as possible to SARL HQ for processing. Proposed deadline is 24 September 2000. The councillor responsible for repeaters and bandplanning, John Fielding ZS5JF, promises to process the applications with as much speed as possible so they can be hand carried to ICASA for attention at the earliest opportunity. This mysterious disappearance of licence applications is the second time this has occurred at SATRA/ICASA this year. The SARL apologises to members for the frustration this has caused but the matter is entirely in the hands of the licensing authority. Clubs are urged to advise SARL HQ as soon as the licence is received so we can track the situation. The SARL President, Hans Potgieter ZS6ALJ, had urgent talks with ICASA in the past week to find out what the cause of the internal problem is and how the SARL can assist with the processing of applications in future. After talks with ICASA official's , the assurance was given that all applications will be dealt with in two week after it was received by ICASA. SARL ELECTRONIC CALLBOOK NOW AVAILABLE The SARL Electronic Callbook is now available as a benefit to SARL members. Members may install this program and database on their own PC's to allow callsign lookups at any time. The callbook is being distributed to all members with the current issue of Radio ZS which will be mailed this coming week. It is also available for download in the member's-only section of the SARL web site at www.sarl.org.za. The following are a few of the major improvements in this all-new electronic callbook: - The database can be updated at any time from the SARL web site. - The program maintains two databases, the SARL Database and the Personal Database. This will allow you to add your own entries for hams anywhere in the world, and update existing entries for ZS hams. - The new Browse / Search function is extremely powerful. This function searches for a given string on callsign, surname, name and town at one pass. As an example, if you know that a callsign contains 'HZ', you can search for all callsigns which contain those letters. The program then presents a list from which you can usually determine the required entry. The SARL Database is an extract from the SARL HQ data base. Information for SARL members is obtained from members as they advise the SARL, mainly updated each year when memberships are renewed. Information for non-members is the best available, but the SARL is not able to obtain licence information from ICASA so information may be missing or out of date. NEXT RAE TAKES PLACE ON 9 NOVEMBER Registration forms for the November RAE examination can be offloaded from the SARL website. After the form has been fully filled in post it to the SARL at the NARC at P.O. Box 1721, Strubensvallei, 1735. A photostat of the first page of your ID book must be included. In the case of minors, a photostat of the parental guardian's ID book is required. The cost to register for the examination is R95-00. Payment can be made by creditcard: provide the SARL Administrator, Wally Sime, with name, creditcard number and expiry date, you may also attach these details to the registration form. Payment can also be made into the SARL bank account at Standard Bank, Killarney Branch, account number 001682059 . The deposit slip, application form and ID copy must be faxed to the SARL at 011 675-2793. The closing date for registration is 9 October and the examination will be conducted on 9 November 2000. Dont delay, act now and get everything done. NEW COMMITTEES The Alberton Amateur Radio Club had their Annual General Meeting on the 9th of September 2000 and the following committee members were elected: Chairmain and Webmaster Michiel de Kock ZS6MDK Vice Chairman and Qsl Manager Koos van der Merwe ZS6JPY Secretary and News Bulletins Micheal Stewart ZS6MSD Treasurer Rowan Baumgarten ZS6BIB Technical, Repeaters and competitions Emil Bhome ZS6EGB, Gavin Werner ZR6GE and Malcolm de Beer ZR6MAL Social Hannes du Preez ZS6HLJ The Council of the SARL wishes to congratulate the committee members on their election and thanks them for their services to the SARL, their clubs and amateurs country wide. SUBMISSION OF LOGS FOR VHF CONTEST The SARL Councillor responsible for contests wishes to advise members intending to submit logs for this weekends VHF Contest that the correct address is as follows: The VHF Contest Committee PO Box 256 Inchanga 3670 Logs sent to any other address will most likely disappear into a black hole. Please do not FAX logs as the contest coordinator no longer has a fax number. Also please note that members should NOT send logs by registered mail. In the past some logs have been sent via registered mail and as the main post office is some distance from the PO Box this has meant that they have had to wait until the box holder was able to get to the main post office. Logs may also be sent by email to: johnf@futurenet.co.za in PLAIN TEXT format, or MSWord, please no fancy spreadsheets!!!!! (PLEASE NOTE THE CORRECT ADDRESS johnf and NOT john) It will speed up the adjudication of the logs by ensuring that ALL the relevant information is filled in on the official SARL summary sheet and that the logs are double checked for duplicate contacts, correct callsigns, times of each contact and total score claimed. Also don't forget to sign the declaration that you have operated within the terms of your licence and the contest rules. If submitted electronically your full name and callsign must be printed in this space and a return postal or email address included for any queries. If you are in any doubt about the validity of a contact, it is safer to claim zero points for that contact than risk loosing points of ten times the claimed score due to the error. Stations exceeding a total of 20% of the claimed score due to errors will be excluded under General Rule 11. In the March contest several entrants suffered deductions of points due to errors and one stations log was excluded under General Rule 11. Contestants should read the general and VHF contest rules carefully to alleviate problems with scoring. QSL CARDS The QSL Bureau informed SARLNUUS that in order to conform with the International Agreement the dimensions of QSL cards should be 140 x 90 mm. This agreement has been in operation for a number of years. The QSL bureau will not handle oversize cards as from the end of October 2000. PROPAGATION REPORT Ean Retief ZS1PR reports that the past week was noted for the expected declining Solar Flux that reached a low of 133 during the week. From 13:30 to 15:30 SAST on Tuesday a large Hyder-flare formed on the Sun. A Hyder-flare is a loop-type, where the flare curves back into the sun to form a loop. This flare caused a large steam of protons to be emitted from 16:00 SAST, a so called "proton event". Friday morning at 08:27 SAST things were helped along by an M1 flare. The major effects was felt from Friday when signals was weaker than usual. The prognosis for the coming week is fair. The Solar Flux that has been rising since Friday should reach 170 by today. The bad news however is that it is not expected to rise much above this value. There is a small sign however that it may possibly just rise higher. At the moment quiet to unsettled magnetic conditions are expected for the coming week, and thus mostly fairly good conditions. Keep in mind however that an energetic flare or two can quickly upset the apple cart. The 15 metre band should be one of the best, especially in the late afternoons. DIARY OF COMING EVENTS The Pretoria Radio Amateur Club will be holding a flea market and boot sale on 23 September starting 8 am. The venue is near the Clubhouse on the South Campus of the University of Pretoria. This will again be a memorable day as usual and please reserve the morning of the 23rd for a great get-together and bargain hunt. Contact Hans ZS6KR at 012 333 2612 for details and to reserve tables. The Secunda Amateur Radio Club will be running a special event station from 25 September to 6 October to celebrate Sasol Coal's 50 th birthday, A special QSL card will be sent to all stations worked during this period. The Callsign will be ZS50SAS indicating SASOL STEENKOOL. For more information please contact Sid Tyler by e-mail srtyler@mweb.co.za or cell 082 461 3279. The West rand Amateur Radio club will hold a bootsale on 30 September 2000 at the club house in Kroton Ave, Weltevredenark, Roodepoort. The gate will open at 09:00. Plenty to eat and drink will be available. For more details contact Bill van Zyl ZR6REV at 011 726-6807 (w) or 011 726-6892 (h). 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 Marten ZS6ZY, and read by ZS.... in ....... You have been listening to ZS6SRL. This transmission now ends and we wish you a pleasant week. /ex -------------------------------------------------- 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) .