RSSL NEWS July 2001
NOTICE OF MONTHLY GENERAL MEETING JULY 25TH 2001
Please be informed that the monthly General Meeting for July 2001 will be held on 25th July 2001 at German Cultural Institute, Gregory’s road, Colombo 7 at 0530 PM.
AGENDA.
1. Call to order.
2. Announcement:
3. Adoption of the minutes of the previous meeting.
Hony. Secretary.
The Radio Society of Sri Lanka.
AUGUST MEETING Wednesday 29th Aug. 2001
5.30 PM. The Usual Venue
MONTHLY MEETINGS
Please note that unless otherwise notified, monthly General Meetings will continue to be held at the German Cultural Centre on the last Wednesday of the month at 0530.pm. Please also monitor the RSSL net regularly on 145.625 MHz at 0900 p.m. for RSSL announcements.
Editor’s Note"
My apologies for not sending out a newsletter last month. Due to a very heavy family commitment I am really pressed for time till the end of August. Therefore, the newsletter is rather hurriedly got up. There is a great deal of news and info for you in this edition which I hope will make up for last month as well. Thanks for your patience. 4S7VK
IN TOWN- Old timer 4S7RN/VE3ILG Abdul is in town till late August. Catch him on 697343 or 737202. Enjoy your stay Abdul.
SPECIAL EVENT STATION
RSSL LIGHT HOUSE DX-SPEDITION TO DONDRA LIGHT HOUSE 18/19TH AUGUST. COME JOIN US. HAMS/SWLS CONTACT DHAMMIKA FOR ALL DETAILS. OR ATTEND THE MEETING ON THE 25TH. Tel: 730386. Off: 508403
OBITUARY :- It is with a deep sense of loss that we inform the membership of the passing away of OM Wimal 4S5WD. Wimal was an active member of the RSSL for many long years and finally got his ticket after his retirement from the judiciary. A genial figure with an eternal smile on his face rarely missed an AGM. His booming voice and light-hearted banter will be deeply missed. On behalf of the RSSL we extend our deepest sympathies to his family.
QSL BURO
The in coming qsl manager is Uthpola Vithana 4S6UV, No 381 Himbutanne, Mulleriyawa. Tel 578541. Out going qsl manager is P. Jayasuriya 4S7DP (Padme) 1091/65 St. Thomas Estate Saman Uyana, Talangama South. Members can get in touch with them regarding their QSL. Tnx. OMs for your services to the RSSL.
CW-MORSE CODE CLASSES
"CW Classes for the beginners by 4S7KG Kule"
Date:- 22-7-2001 Sunday from 9.00 am to 11.00 am
Place:- 4S7AA Asgar's Qth. No 116/11 Thimbirigasyaya Rd, Colombo-5.
Each person should forward a C60 blank cassette to 4S7AA or 4S7KG on or before 21/7/01.
4s7kg's address:- 121 Koswatta Rd, Nawla, Rajagiriya.
We thank Asgar and Kule for taking the initiative to conduct classes for our members. I am sorry that this notice will not get you members before the 22nd, but this is not a one day only project. Those interested pl. contact KG or AA.
YASME FOUNDATION & THE COLVINS.
Since the passing away of Lloyd Colvin (W6KG) in 1993 and his wife
Iris Colvin (W6QL) in 1998, the YASME Foundation, which was ably
supported by this Husband & Wife DX-Peditioners of repute, now
plans to write a book on their world-wide activities.
The Foundation seeks the assistance of Radio Hams the world over to relate incidents/stories of their travels, in the past. There are a number of Hams in Sri Lanka who had the good fortune of meeting the Colvins on their travels in Sri Lanka. If you have any worthwhile stories to relate, about them, do please contact JIM CAIN - K1TN at <yasmebook@ mybizz.net>. Paddy-4S7PB (CQ.July 2001/88)
SHACK CLEARANCE – 4S7DA
I am in the process of clearing out the shack of components that were collected for various projects, but find that I have no time or energy to carry them out. Could you please put in the following info in the news letter.
VHF Modules -BGY 36 20 Watt output -12-14 Volt operation .as used by 4S7MM. List price over 9000/- each parting for Rs. 2000/- each. 4 modules available. Good for increasing your Handheld power.
Qty 02 - 4CX350A Eimac ceramic tubes. Brand new Boxed. What offers? Good for building 1 KW linear amplifiers.( Used bases available- free.)
Icom 2E handheld-with rubber ducky antennas. Good working order- with home made speaker mic + power supply plus 7/8 Lambda vertical antenna (Diamond)- presently used as a base station. Nearest offer to 12K.
Will have other items as well, but will have to wait as I am in the process of clearing shack out.
Contact Denver -4S7DA Tel- 811495
Dxcc announces new 17-metre award
The DXCC is pleased to announce the addition of the 17 metre Single Band DXCC award. Applications for this award are being accepted now. The 17 metre DXCC certificates will be dated but not numbered. For more info pl. contact DXCC at dxcc@arrl.org. 4S7EA via QST Feb/March 2001.
From My Log – 4S7EA
April was a good month with solar flux numbers going up to 300 or more. The high activity continues. I enjoyed working 28, 24, and 21 MHz very much. Kept off 14 MHz because the other 4S7s give a lot of activity from 4S7 on this band to the international community. I also enjoyed working 10 MHz-30-metres CW both to east and west. If you have this facility on your transceiver, try this band (10100-10150 cw only) Just a simple dipole would do. Good luck and enjoy DXing while keeping the 4S7 flag flying.
AS IT HAPPENED ADAM’S-PEAK REPORT - 4S6TP
It all started when a request was made by the YZA (Young Zoological Association) to help them clean up the Adams peak pathway from the RSSL (Radio Society of Sri Lanka). Out of the people who volunteered to go for this expedition, three of us that is Kusal 4S7KE Dhimuthu 4S7DZ and myself (Thusitha 4S6TP) confirmed that we will be going for this and we met at the Nugegoda Bo tree junction, where we were introduced to the YZA gang which comprised of approximately 60 odd young guys and girls. We started off at around 10.00p.m. and reached the base of the Adams peak at around 3.30 a.m. Early morning we were joined by another group from the Peradeniya Campus, which comprised of another 60 odd girls and boys.
We started off by leaving Kusal at the base point as the base location of communication and started our way up cleaning the pathway, getting rid of all plastic, polythene and all non-Bio degradable items into gunnysacks. We did this by dividing ourselves into 9 groups, I was in the middle group and Dhimuthu was in the group which was supposed to go all the way to the topmost place to clean up.
While looking at it from an outsiders point of view I thought it was quite well organised where all food and lodging were provided. The day ended at around 6.30.p.m. at the top where all of us met again and had hot tea and a lot of fellowship. The following morning, which seemed like a nice morning to start work we started the climb down after a nice hot cup of coffee. We did have a few injuries while coming down but all were looked after by way of communication, up, down and across to get the necessary medical equipment. But all in all we all had a swell time and enjoyed it through out. Not forgetting the impact we made to the environment (to the betterment).
Then all of us head home on the 8th afternoon to reach either home or the Nugegoda Bo- tree by around 10.15 p.m.
To sum it all up the highlighting points were,
73s 4S6TP signing off for now.
SATELLITE INFORMATION de 4S7AVR NOEL
All Information is obtained from the newsletter of Daniel(Dan) James editor of Amsat.org news.
Amsat Phase3D--- AO-40.
Amsat Phase3D was in the construction stage for over 10 years. State of the art design at the beginning of Phase3D construction matured and new developments and designs have appeared.
Phase3D was named AO-40 (Osacar 40)
Phase 3D was launched on November 16th 2000 into an almost perfect geosynchronous transfer orbit by Airianspace launch vehicle.(AR-507) from Kaurou, French Guinna.
Within a few hours after launch excellent telemetry was received world-wide on the 2meters beacon.
(4S7AVR received perfect telemetry using computer software hooked onto the 2meter FM rig)
The original plan was to use the 70 CM beacon, but for reasons unknown the 70cm signal was not heard.
Before AO-40 could be used for general Amateur Radio it was necessary to carry out orbital changes. In order to do this the 400N motor was fired for three minutes to make the changes in orbit.
At the end of the three minutes the motor did not shut down due to a malfunction, as a result the Satellite was placed on a Higher Apogee orbit than was planned.
On 11th December 2000 while cycling the helium valve a sudden loss of signal from AO-40 occurred. Initial thoughts were that the spacecraft was dead and that recovery was remote, and that it was in pieces after a possible explosion. However after NORAD 's help it was determined that the satellite was in one piece. This was confirmed by the RADAR images.
After several anxious days and no signals heard from AO-40 a recovery strategy was planned out.
On 25th December 2000 ZL1AOX (Command Station) transmitted a "L" band reset command. After the second attempt by Ian ZL1AOX the S-2 beacon was heard on 2401.305 MHz. It was the best Xmas
present for all AO-40 lovers.
At The Moment the Transponders are turned off.
Recovery is still in progress. And although it is confirmed that the 2meter and 70cm receivers are working on the high gain antennas, it will be some time in the future that we will know if the AO-40 will be available to Amateur Radio Use.
Oscar 10. AO10.
Oscar 10 is still in operation after several years. The 70cm uplink and 2m downlink are functioning.
4S7AVR has made several DX contacts recently ( Amsat News Dan James)
International Space Station (ISS)
-------------------------------------------
Voice Contacts with ISS are possible on 2meter FM
Region 2/3 uplink 144.490 MHz FM
World-wide Downlink 145.800 MHZ FM
Callsign: NA1SS Astronout SUSAN HELMS is active
Any Ham requiring the times of ISS when the footprint is over 4S7 may check with 4S7AVR for the following day, after checking into the 2meter net.
73 Noel 4S7- AVR
SPECIAL EVENT STATION
From the 25 July 2001 until 5 August 2002, 9 special event stations will be operating from the Manchester area of England. The special event will mark the 12-month count down to the start of the 17th Commonwealth games. There is an award set up for this event and an Internet gateway is being provided so that the VHF operators can work the award also. HF modes of operation will be CW, PSK31, SSTV, AMTOR, RTTY and PHONE, A list of all stations and further details are available from www.geocities.com/gbgames2002 We will look forward to hearing from 4S7.
Kev G0TOG
PUBLISHER'S NOTICE
Views and opinions contained in articles and other material published herein are of their respective authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Publisher.
The Publisher has taken all reasonable care in the preparation of this journal to ensure that all advice and data contained herein are safe and reliable. The Publisher does not guarantee it or accept legal responsibility in any way for it including in respect of any damage or injury that may be caused; nor does the Publisher accept responsibility in any way for the failure to obtain specified components.