RSSLNEWS May 2001
NOTICE OF MONTHLY GENERAL MEETING May 30th 2001
Please be informed that the monthly General Meeting for May 2001 will be held on 30th May 2001 at German Cultural Institute at Gregory’s road, Colombo 7 at 0530 PM.
AGENDA.
1. Call to order.
2. Announcement
The Radio Society of Sri Lanka
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
Editorial - Copyright Laws-A serious busuiness
No amount of emphasis is too much when we deal with the subject of copyright. Today the Internet places before us a massive amount of information. To host a personal web page costs you nothing and there are millions of them. However, the seriousness lies in not accessing the information at your fingertips, but in the reuse of such material. Before public reuse of the material and transmission to third parties it is of paramount importance to observe whether such information is covered by any form of copyright. Entire articles or parts thereof should never be reused without the prior written permission of the author. Brief references maybe made without permission, however, with proper credit and mention of sources. These are very basic rules that are taught in most academic institution, and form one of the first lessons in any course in journalism. The WWW or any good book store can give you a good idea of how to go about using information. The violation of copyright laws can lead to serious trouble. Being ignorant of such ethics can hardly save one out of such a predicament.
The editors of the RSSL Newsletter and Web site web masters are guided by such rules and journalistic ethics. However, do not hesitate to submit your articles to the RSSL. We shall always check them and get back to you if there is any such danger, or lack of credits and bibliographical information. The basic moral behind the whole issue of copyright is the respect and recognition that people give others who contribute something worthwhile to society. It is our duty to give credit where it is due and acknowledge it gracefully. Editor 4S7VK
CW/ Morse Code Speed
At the last General Meeting members were of the view that the RSSL should go along with international trends regarding Morse speeds. However, it was decided to await definite implementation of such revised speeds by internationally recognised bodies such as, RSBG, ARRL before initiating such moves in 4S land.
RSSL MEMBERS IN COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT
4S7DZ Dimuthu, 4S7KE Kusal and 4S6TP Thusitha took Ham Radio to the community when they provided communications to the environment cleaning project at Adams Peak after the season in early May. The RSSL received a letter of appreciation from the Zoological Association. We thank Dimuthu for initiating this project and demonstrating how ham radio can help the community
NEW MEMBERS:
We are happy to welcome the following New Members.
1] Mohan Lasantha Siriwardene (Associate) of ‘Lakshmivasa’,
Rendapola, Dodangoda.
2] Thusitha Priyal Abeywickreme Goonetilleke 4S6TP (Corporate)
of 142/18 Devika Garden off Polhengoda, Colombo 5.
NEW CALL SIGNS
Asantha E.De S. Illesinghe of 32, Bagatalle road, Colombo 3. Has upgraded his CALL SIGN to 4S6AK. Congrats Asantha and welcome to the world of High Frequency too! It is really heartening to see members upgrading their licenses.
The RSSL DX NET ON 14180 1600z Every Sunday
Please note that the Net time is 1600Z and not 1630 as mentioned in the last Newsletter.(sorry for the mix up ed.) Nihal 4S7NS has been conducing the net on Sundays, but informs that the weekend contests make things quite difficult. Anyway please check in on Sundays and give Nihal your support. By the way Nihal and yours truly VK celebrated our 18th ham anniversary on the 13th of May!!
4S7 Dx contest – 4S7NS Nihal has submitted a proposal to conduct a World Wide DX contest on the HF Bands. Council has decided to appoint a committee headed by Nihal 4S7NS and request 2 members to volunteer at the next GM. Will those interested in helping Nihal organise this contest please contact Nihal (866145)or the Secretary T. Adrian
VHF NET 146.625 YATIYANTOTA REPEATER 9.00PM DAILY
The VHF Net continues very regularly and since the return of Asgar 4S7AA from his tour in the middle east, we have a real stalwart to support. You might recall that Asgar revived the net last year after it had gone into limbo. Also tnx to Romesh, & Trevor who have been regular net-controllers this last month.
HF PROPAGATION- Every year the months of June and July bring in the short path opening on 20m to the West Coast, and the Mid West states of North America from about 1530 UTC. Depending on daily variations the path is open till a little past 1730. The beam heading from Sri Lanka is slightly east or north, going over eastern Siberia, Korea, Alaska and sweeping down British Colombia, Oregon, Washington to California.
Great Circle Paths: A G.C. Path is the shortest path or the true direction between two locations on the earth. This is also the route a radio signal will take on HF (Short Wave) from your QTH to another location. To find the GC path one must consult a globe. If you take a stiff piece of twine and pull it to connect the two points on a globe you will find the signal path. However, when long distances have to be measured, you must make sure that the line between the two points and the point exactly opposite your location on the other side of the world (antipodes)are in line. If not you have not pulled the string correctly. If one continues in the same direction beyond the antipodes, one will come back to the starting point having gone right round the world. This then makes it obvious that to any point from your location there is a short path and a long path if ones goes the longer way. It is truly fascinating to see the way your signal is travelling to get to the other station. It adds not only an interesting dimension to your contact/QSO but also gives you an idea what propagation is all about. Being aware of signal paths and the way the movement of the Sun and the seasons affect the regions of the earth, give you an understanding of how radio propagation works. A good operator does not switch on his transceiver and call CQ hoping to find out what he can hear. Well there is no harm in that at all. However, if you know how radio propagation works, you will know where and on what band at what time on what path to contact stations. You will know why the band is open to East Coast N. America (ECNA) around 1200 UTC on 20 M on the long path and not the short path or why it is only in December-Feb that the long path is open on 20m at 0100 to WCNA. If you can get hold of a globe or a great circle map centred on Sri Lanka it will make things much easier. Many years ago the first thing I bought with my first pay packet was a Globe and it has been my constant companion though almost 30 years of radio listening. 4S7VK.
INTERNET REPEATER LINKING: Internet repeater linking represents an important element in the future of Amateur Radio. With a hand-held transceiver it will be possible to connect to any repeater in the world by punching in a 4 digit number. The Internet makes all this possible. Read all about it in: http://www.qsl.net/g3zhi
Ranjit 4S7RR sent the above info. In fact it is a very interesting article which unfortunately is too long to publish due to space limitations. If anyone wants a copy of it I could send a print out. Ed.
MEBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS: Members are kindly reminded to pay up their membership dues early. The RSSL is a non profit organisation and runs on a tight budget. Subs could be paid at General Meetings to Jagath Bandaranayake 4S6JB or by mail to 171 Wewalduwa Road, Kelaniya.
RSSL IDENTITY CARDS: 4s7df Dammika informs that those members who have not yet applied for identity cards can do so by paying Rs 150 to the treasurer and then contacting Dhammika Tel 730386 or via mail to P.O.Box 907 Colombo.
GREETINGS FROM MEMBERS
G3BGL Paul Sollom would like to send greetings to all the old timers especially 4S7EP Ernie and 4S7GV Glen. Paul is doing fine and remembers the grand old days of radio in Sri Lanka.
Also VE3ILG/4S7RN Abdul says Hi to old timers. Abdul is keeping fine, but has hardly any time for ham radio, but goes fishing in the Canadian lakes. How you do it in those icy cold waters I don’t know Abdul. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a Loolla or Madakana in years!! One more: Arul 4S7JN is doing fine in the Gulf. Was down here recently. All the above keep an eye on the 4S7 scene via the Newsletter
MEMEBRS INFORMATION It would be really good if we can feature member profiles in the Newsletter so that others can get to know you. We should be able to run a photo or two as well. Send in any info about your activities for publication. You can write about your SWL activities, hamming, technical topics or even buy or sell, other than old XYLs or OMs! 73 and Gud DX till next month.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE RSSL NEWS
RSSL NEWS is a forum for RSSL members’ amateur radio and electronics technical experiments, experiences, opinions and news. Manuscripts with drawings and/or photos (including those of the authors) are always welcome. Articles on computer disk or Internet e-mail with text formatted using Microsoft Word® or WordPerfect® for Windows and diagrams formatted using Visio® are especially welcome. They should be forwarded to : G.Victor A.Goonetilleke 4S7VK, Shangri-la, 298 Madapatha Rd. Piliyandala. (Tel. 614098) or via e-mail to victorg@slt,lk to be received not later than two weeks before the last Wednesday of the month of issue.
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.
RSSL NEWS ON THE WEB
Current and back issues of RSSL NEWS are
available on the World Wide Web at the URL: http://www.anugency.bizhosting.com/rssl
and also through the RSSL URL: http://www.qsl.net/rssl
RSSL NEWS is published monthly by The Radio Society of Sri Lanka (RSSL) as its official journal and is sent free of charge and post paid to all its members and selected libraries world-wide. It is posted on the penultimate Wednesday of each month at the Central Mail Exchange, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Edited and designed by Victor 4S7VK with the assistance of Jagath 4S6JB, printed at The Commercial Printing Department, The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited, Colombo 10 and published by The Radio Society of Sri Lanka.
© The Radio Society of Sri Lanka 2000