SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE
SARL NEWS SUNDAY NOVEMBER 12 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

The SARL regrets to announce the passing away of Henry Boshoff ZR6HLB on Wednesday 1 November 2000 after suffering a heart attack. To his family and friends we offer our sincere condolences.

Here are the headlines of today's news:

SARL TO VOTE FOR PROPOSAL TO LIFT AGM VENUE RESTRICTION

PEARS NATIONAL VHF/UHF CONTEST

PHASE 3D GETS FIRM LAUNCH DATE

2 m BANDPLAN: PROPOSED RESTRUCTURING

INDABA TO DISCUSS 2 METRE BANDPLAN

NOMINATIONS FOR RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS

REMEMBRANCE DAY SERVICE

NEW COMMITTEES

PROPAGATION REPORT

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

SARL TO VOTE FOR PROPOSAL TO LIFT AGM VENUE RESTRICTION

SARL members will receive a postal ballot form with their Radio ZS which is currently being mailed. The Council of the South African Radio League is asking members to vote for the reversal of an AGM decision that ruled that annual general meetings must always be held in Gauteng. While the decision
may have served the SARL well at the time, it is no longer in the interest
of Amateur Radio's future development in South Africa.

The Council motion proposes that members and affiliated clubs be asked
annually to submit proposals to host an AGM. The host will be responsible
for all expenses associated with an AGM except travel cost for Council.
With the current national representation on Council this will not represent
any increase in cost to the SARL.

Members are asked to follow the instructions on the ballot paper and to
return it as soon as possible to the address supplied. The final return
date is 15 December 2000.

PEARS NATIONAL VHF/UHF CONTEST

The Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society will again run its popular national VHF/UHF contest in January next year. It will run for 48 hours from 18:00
SAST on Friday 19 January to 18:00 on Sunday 21 January 2001. Four bands
may be used: 50, 144, 432 and 1296 MHz. More information in later
bulletins.

PHASE 3D GETS FIRM LAUNCH DATE

AMSAT NEWS SERVICE says it's been informed by "various sources" that the
Ariane 507 carrying Phase 3D and other satellite payloads aloft will head
into space Wednesday, November 15, at 01:07 UTC from the European Spaceport
in Kourou, French, Guiana.

More in later bulletins.

2 m BANDPLAN: PROPOSED RESTRUCTURING

Clubs are reminded to study and discuss the restructuring proposal drafted
and distributed by the SARL Band-Planner, John, ZS5JF, and to submit their comments to John by the end of this month. His e-mail address is: johnf@futurenet.co.za.

INDABA TO DISCUSS 2 METRE BANDPLAN

Some say it is a good plan, other think it is not. Whatever you think,
please share your ideas during the SARL Indaba on the air. It will be held tonight, Sunday 12 November starting at 20:00 CAT. Clubs that have not yet booked an interactive telephone link have until 11:00 CAT today to do so.
Send a fax to 012 991 5652 giving details of the telephone to be linked and
the frequencies on which the club station will be interactive.


NOMINATIONS FOR SIEMENS RADIO AMATEUR OF THE YEAR AWARDS INVITED

Remember the closing date for nominations for the Siemens Radio Amateur of
the Year Awards is November 18. The awards will be presented on November
30. Nominations may be submitted by Clubs or individual radio amateurs.
Forms are available by sending a request to ARISAS@intekom.co.za of by fax
to 012 991 5651.

REMEMBRANCE DAY SERVICE

Today, Sunday, November 12, the annual remembrance day service in honour of those who gave their lives during two world wars will be broadcast at 10:45
on the RSG broadcasting service. The service will be conducted by Rev
Lendus de Villiers, ZS6LLV.

Clubs are requested to relay the service on their repeaters and radio
amateurs are requested to otherwise maintain radio silence during these 15 minutes.

PEARS NATIONAL VHF/UHF CONTEST

The Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society will again run its popular national VHF/UHF contest in January next year. It will run for 48 hours from 18:00
SAST on Friday 19 January to 18:00 on Sunday 21 January 2001. Four bands
may be used: 50, 144, 432 and 1296 MHz. More detail in later bulletins.

SARL VHF CONTEST RESULTS

Here are the provisional results for the September leg of the SARL VHF
Contest. It also appears on the SARL webpage.

MULTI-OPERATOR FIELD STATION

1st ZS6PTA 4086 points
2nd ZS6WR 1933,5 points
3rd ZS6TDK 1741,5 points
4th ZS6ERB 1662 points


FIXED STATION - ALL MODE

1st ZR6ZL 1342 points
2nd ZS6EGB 851 points
3rd ZR6JRN 818 points
4th ZR6RDU 518 points
5th ZS6HS 357 points
6th ZS4NS 201 points
7th ZS1SUN 139 points

FIXED STATION - FM ONLY

1st ZS6XT 373 points
2nd ZS6BPA 339 points

The number of logs were slightly up on the March contest but some
contestants lost valuable points due to sloppy logs containing mistakes in
the information. One station narrowly missed being excluded under General
Rule 8 due to mistakes.

The results will become final in 14 days unless a contester lodges a
complaint, which must be in writing to the contest committee.

NEW COMMITTEES

At the AGM of Suid Kaap Amateurradioklub held on 28 October 2000 the
following members were elected:

Chairman: Johan Bekker ZS1 AAC
2. Vice Chairman: Dawid Petzer ZR1 DJP
3. Secretary and treasurer: Johan Terblanche ZS1
4. Additional members: Joe Rosenblatt ZS1 JOE
Willem van Zyl ZS1 ON
Hennie Smit ZS1 HBC

The new Committee elected for the OTL Radio Club at the AGM held on the =
4th of November is as follows:

CHAIRMAN ZS6VDW ROELIE VAN DER WESTHUIZEN VICE-CHAIRMAN ZS6CJS BOET SMITH
SECRETARY/TREASURER ZR6AYG RINA VAN DER WESTHUIZEN
P.R.O. ZR6AWL TONY LEE
NEWS BULLETINS ZS6QN ALF CURLINGZ
ZR6HLP HENNIE VAN DER MERWE
INSTRUCTOR ZS6GUN MARTIN BLAKE
TECHNICAL ZS6WW NIC CRONJE
ZS6DEB DION DE BEER
TECHNICAL SUPPORTIVE ZR6ASG ALBERT SCHOEMAN
INSTRUCTOR ZS6HB HELGI BRAITHWAITE
ADDITIONAL MEMBER ZR6HA HENRI STEYL

PROPAGATION REPORT

Ean Retief, ZS1PR, reports as follows:

In the small hours of Thursday morning a very large Solar Flare occurred.

With the Solar Flare was a Coronal Mass Ejection. The ejected material left the Sun at a speed of over 2000 km per second, or in other words, at more
than 7 million km per hour.

Within minutes the largest amount of protons to date in the current 11-year solar cycle reached the Earth. On several spacecraft the instruments was
badly affected and had to be shut down. HF communication was disrupted but
six metre operators made some good contacts on Thursday afternoon.

Only 31 hours after leaving the Sun the ejected material reached the Earth. This translates into an average speed of nearly 5 million km per hour for
the journey. On reaching the Earth the speed was still in excess of 3
million km per hour.

Fortunately the Earth's magnetic field only received a glancing blow and the effects was not too bad. HF communication was very poor on Friday, improved considerably yesterday but noise levels on the lower bands was still high at night.

Today and tomorrow the Earth's magnetic field should still be unsettled to active due to a Coronal hole on the sun that will keep affecting the
magnetic field.

By Tuesday things should return to normal.


DIARY OF COMING EVENTS

The West Rand Amateur Radio club will hold a boot sale on 25 November at the clubhouse in Kroton Ave, Weltevreden Park, Roodepoort. The gates will open
at 09:00. Plenty to drink and eat will be available. For details contact
Bill van Zyl, ZS6REV at 011 726-6807 (office) and 011 &26-6892 (home).

Midlands Amateur Radio Club is pleased to announce a grand
Fleamarket/Bootsale which will take place at our new Clubhouse at the Natal Carbineers, Greer Street, Pietermaritzburg, on Saturday 25th November,
starting at 11:00. Talk in on the 750 repeater. No auction - just stacks
of goodies at bargain prices. No charge for tables, but donations to the
Club by salesmen welcomed. SARL President Hans Potgieter will attend - why
not come and meet him? And see the reps from Kenwood, Icom, and Antronic. COME....and enjoy yourselves.

The Alberton Amateur Radio Club's Year end function and prize giving will be
on the 2nd of December 2000 from 12:00 at the Alberton Dam, Bloutulp Street, Alberton. It will be a bring and braai and everyone is welcome. For more
info Phone Michiel, ZS6MDK, at 083 212 5711.

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. A transmission on 145,400 MHz can be heard again.

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)