Thank you for all the responses, allow me a few comments:

mm, I checked the Diana site, and $296 is a bit much for a compass
that lists for about $150 in the US and Canada. The Euro has gone up,
but not that much!

Eric, I actually tried one of those, and the one I found (admittedly
at a cheap car parts store) bounced around so much that it was pretty
much useless. Also, it read "backwards", showing the compass
directions as you would see from above, not reversed as is needed on a
compass seen from behind. I haven't really looked any further, so
there may very well be some workable ball compasses out there. As far
as Experimental, my LS6 flight manual lists a TSO'd compass on the
minimum equipment list, and as I understand the nature of
"Experimental-racing" as applied to JAR-certified gliders, I legally
should comply with that equipment list. Comments, anybody?

Ray, I checked W&W, K&G, and Solaire - all were out. I'll give John
Murray a call and see if he has one. Thanks for the tip. I was in
Goldsboro last week working on Seymour Johnson AFB and it was a bit
chilly - I used to be stationed there in the AF and flew with the NCSA
at Wilson and Harnett County. I wonder what happened to the old 1-23
they had; I really liked that old piece of tin - a true SIFOW glider
if there ever was one.

Tim, it's nice (?) to hear that I'm not the only one having trouble
communicating with the folks at PZL - I hope they are reading this!
BTW, still no word from Arndt. I think he's hiding out with Osama,
trying to fix al-qaeda's database software...What a great partner!

Hans, I thought about a Bohli, but they are extremely rare in the US
and haven't found any dealers for them (plus they are a bit
expensive). Are they the ones that could be used for cloud flying and
were banned for a while? Or just flat mounted compasses with a
reflecting mirror? Anyway, probably a bit out of my price range (I
saw one for sale at the Glider Forum for $250, I think), but thanks
for the info.

Cheers!

Kirk