The General Meeting for the Month of July will be held at 5.45pm at the Tourist Board Committee Room on Wednesday 31st July 2002.

A Special General Meeting will be held prior to the General Meeting at 5.30 pm ( same date and venue) on a Resolution moved by Ernest Amarasinghe - 4S7EA to amend Paragraph 10 (Emblem and Flag) of Memorandum of Association of RSSL . A separate Resolution notice has been sent to all Members.

Please note that unless otherwise notified, monthly General Meetings will be held at The Ceylon Tourist Board Committee room, 80, Galle road, Colpetty at 0530 PM on the last Wednesday of the month.. Please also monitor the RSSL net regularly on 145.625 MHz at 0900 p.m. for RSSL announcements You are welcome to contact any Council member if you need to verify. (Hony. Secretary - Sam Silva - 4S7GF Phone : 763474 )

1. Meeting called to order

2. Announcements

3. Reading and adoption of the minutes of the previous General Meeting.

4. Matters arising out of the minutes

5. Election of two new Council Members (1 Corporate and 1 Associate)

6. Discussion on reduction of Morse code speed for Amateur Radio Exams.

7. Increase of Life Membership fee.

8. Any other business.

9. Conclusion

Hony. secretary
The Radio Society of Sri Lanka.

SOCIETY NOTICES

Romesh Lokuge 4S7RF has tendered his resignation from the Council of RSSL as he is migrating to VK land. A new council Member will be appointed from among the Corporate members at the July General Meeting.

Nayomi de Silva 4S6NY who was elected to the RSSL Council to represent Associate Members has obtained her Amateur Radio license and her callsign is 4S6NY. RSSL welcomes her to the band. A vacancy has been created in the RSSL Council to represent Associate Members as Nayomi has become a Corporate Member. This vacancy will be filled by appointing another Associate Member to the Council at the July General Meeting. Only Associate Members can propose and Second another Associate Member for this position.

The RSSL welcomes the following new Members.

Mahesh Jayasuriya

Ranuka de Silva

Shivantha Pedris

Ashane Gunaratne

Wimal Manage - 4S6WM

M.S.S. Selvanayagam

D.R.S. Bandara

R.C. Fernando

D.R.Samuel

D.R.Samuel was appointed to the RSSL Council to represent Associate Members at the April General Meeting after the position became vacant when Bharat Aponso obtained Corporate Membership on getting his callsign 4S5BA.

ECHOLINK

EchoLink is software which allows Amateur Radio stations to communicate with one another over the Internet, using voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology. The program allows worldwide connections to be made between stations, from computer to station, or from computer to computer. There are now more than 3,500 registered users of EchoLink in 57 countries around the world

EchoLink is designed to be fully compatible with the popular iLINK system. EchoLink can be used to communicate with stations which are using either EchoLink or iLINK.

The program runs on Microsoft™ Windows® 95 or above. It is offered as freeware and may be downloaded at http://www.synergenics.com/el/register.htm

EchoLink is a full-featured software package with many important and useful features.

Above Info given by Ron 4S7RO.

Anybody who wishes to obtain RSSL membership application forms can obtain them at the General Meeting or by sending a stamped addressed envelope to the RSSL.

HF BEACON ON THE AIR AGAIN

The HF Beacon 4S7B has been temporarily installed in Galle at the estate of Asantha 4S7AK till a permanent place is found. The Beacon was off air for over a year, and it was installed in Galle on 24th June by Kusal and Asantha and was switched on at 4 pm. (The RSSL wishes to thank Asantha for taking the initiative and also Kusal for helping. Tnx guys. Ed)

HF Beacon Network

The Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) in cooperation with the IARU - International Amateur Radio Union, constructed and operates a worldwide network of high-frequency radio beacons on 14.100, 18.110, 21.150, 24.930, and 28.200 MHz. These beacons help both amateur and commercial high-frequency radio users assess the current condition of the ionosphere.

Stan Huntting, KW7KW, wrote, "There are at least two possible explanations for an apparently dead band: 1) propagation is poor, or 2) no one is transmitting. The NCDXF/IARU International Beacon Network addresses the second of these possibilities by insuring that reliable signals are always on the air, around the clock, from fixed locations worldwide." With three minutes of listening for the beacons, one can find out either where a particular band is open or which band has the best propagation to a particular part of the world.

In principle, one can simply listen on the beacon frequencies and copy the CW callsigns of the various beacons to figure out where the band is open, but in practice, not every ham operator can copy calls at twenty-two words per minute and some beacons may be heard at too low a signal strength to catch the call. Because the beacons transmit at known times, it is easy to know which beacon one is hearing without actually copying the CW callsign. Since the beacons are running one hundred watts to a vertical, even a weak beacon signal may indicate a path with excellent propagation for stations using higher power and directive antennas.

In order to know which beacon is transmitting at any particular time, one can either refer to the Beacon Transmission Schedule or use your computer and one of the Programs to Help Beacon Listeners. If you want to know where to point your antenna or decide which beacons are the most interesting to you, you can refer to the Beacon Locations. There are 18 beacons spread throughout the world and RSSL is privileged to host a beacon in Sri Lanka under the callsign 4S7B.

The beacons are located in

Canada, United States, Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Russia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, Finland, Madeira, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, and United Nations Bldg.

If you have a computer and a computer-compatible radio and would like a record of when various beacons can be heard at your QTH, you will want to learn about Automated Beacon Monitoring.

The beacons transmit every three minutes, day and night. A transmission consists of the callsign of the beacon sent at 22 words per minute followed by four one-second dashes. The callsign and the first dash are sent at 100 watts. The remaining dashes are sent at 10 watts, 1 watt and 0.1 watts.

Above info was obtained from NCDXF beacon web site, and you can get a beacon transmission schedule and more info from this web site.

Web address is http://www.ncdxf.org/beacon.htm

RSSL DATABASE A form to update RSSL Membership database was included in the last newsletter, many members have returned the form with their details and some have emailed the required information. If you have not already sent your information please send them as early as possible.
LIGFHTHOUSE DXPEDITION

Every year in the third weekend in August the Light House Contest has been organised thanks to the efforts of hams like 4S7DF, AK, DP, SW, RO and a very few others. We have had it at Dondra and Beruwala so far. If sufficient interest is shown a little earlier than other times and more people than just the regulars come forward, this event could be turned into a very interesting field day. Please think about it seriously

RSSL COUNCIL MEMBERS-CONTACT INFO

President - Dammika Fernando -4S7DF

Phone : 730386 - Res. 077-309175 - Mobile Email : damrad@slt.lk

Secretary - Sam Silva - 4S7GF Phone : 763474 - Res

Treasurer - Jagath Bandaranayake - 4S6JB Phone : 911042 - Res 072-246528 - Mobile Email : jlbandaranayake@ieee.org
Editor: Victor Goonetilleke - 4S7VK Phone : 614098 – Res

Email::victorg@slt.lk

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS : The Treasurer or the Assistant.. Treasurer will be present at the Monthly Meetings to accept membership dues. Please support the RSSL by renewing your membership on time.

That is all for this month OMs/Yls. If you have articles or news for the Newsletter do send them in. I will publish them and I am sure they will make the newsletter even more interesting. – de 4S7VK editor, 298 Madapatha Road, Piliyandala. Tel: 614098 E-mail victorg@slt.lk

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.

.Edited and designed by Victor 4S7VK with the assistance of Jagath 4S6JB, printed at Gestettner & Co.Ltd, Vauxhall Street, Colombo 2 and published by The Radio Society of Sri Lanka.