SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE NEWS FOR SUNDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2020
Good morning and welcome to the weekly news bulletin of the South African Radio League read by ................ [your name, call sign and QTH]
The South African Radio League broadcasts a news bulletin each Sunday in Afrikaans as well as in English at 08:15 and 08:30 Central African Time respectively on HF and various VHF and UHF repeaters around the country. The bulletin is relayed on Echolink by Johan, ZS6JPL. Audio and text bulletins may be downloaded from the League website at www.sarl.org.za where you can also sign up to receive future bulletins by e-mail.
In the news, today:
THE SARL RTTY CONTEST THIS AFTERNOON
THE SARL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 30 JUNE 2019
and
FOUR CW CONTACTS PER DAY CERTIFICATES
Stay tuned for more information on these and other interesting news items.
THE SARL RTTY CONTEST THIS AFTERNOON
The SARL RTTY Contest takes place from 14:00 UTC to 17:00 UTC this afternoon with activity on 80, 40 and 20 metres. The exchange is an RSQ report and your grid square (first 4 digits). Logs in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format with a summary sheet and labelled “your call sign Digital Contest,” shall be submitted by 2 March 2020 by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za. Get the rules on page 31 of the 2020 Blue Book.
2020 NATIONAL CONVENTION BOOKLET
The 2020 National Convention Booklet is available for download from the League web site. Click on the link on the front page or visit the AGM Documents page. The Booklet contains the Registration Form, the Proxy Form, the programme for the SARL Symposium, the agenda for the SARL AGM and the list of SARL Awards and Trophies.
THE SARL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 30 JUNE 2019
In terms of Rule 8.9.1 and 8.9.2, the SARL Financial Statements for the year ending 30 June 2019 were uploaded to the League web site on Thursday 31 October 2019 and the SARL Secretary sent out a SARL Communication to members on the same date. By Sunday 1 December 2019 only 7 copies of the financial statements had been downloaded. At the Council Meeting held on 7 and 8 February 2020, Council stated that an electronic vote (Rule 8.9.2) would be held. No written complaints or enquiries were received by 1 December 2019 (Rule 8.9.3).
The electronic vote started at 00:00 CAT on Monday 17 February 2020 and will conclude at 23:59 CAT on Wednesday 26 February 2020. At the time of writing this bulletin only 85 of the 1 615 members had cast their vote. Follow the link on the front page of the League web site and cast your vote.
TWO 40 METRE CONTESTS NEXT WEEKEND
The first leg of the SARL 95 40 m Club Sprint takes place from 12:00 to 13:00 UTC on Saturday 29 February with CW activity on 7 000 to 7 040 kHz and phone activity on 7 130 to 7 200 kHz. The exchange is a RS or RST report and 4 character grid square (e.g. KG30). Log sheets in MS Excel format ONLY shall be submitted by 23:59 CAT on Saturday 7 March by e-mail to zs4bfn@mweb.co.za. The rules are on page 65 of the Blue Book.
The popular SARL HAMNET 40 m Simulated Emergency Contest takes place from 12:00 to 14:00 UTC on Sunday 1 March 2020 with phone activity between 7 063 to 7 100 kHz and 7 130 to 7 200 kHz. Log sheets must be submitted by 9 March 2020 by e-mail to contest@peham.co.za. Make this a Club outing with a bring and braai and operate as a multi-operator portable station. Get the rules on page 33 and 34 of the Blue Book.
You are listening to a news bulletin of the South African Radio League.
BOOK NOW FOR THE SARL SYMPOSIUM
The SARL Unlocking Amateur Radio Technology Symposium, will be held at the Wanderers conference centre in Illovo, Johannesburg on 3 April starting with registration at 13:00 and the symposium at 14:00. The event will be followed by a cocktail finger supper at 18:30.
The keynote address will be delivered by Dominic White, Chief Technical Officer, Sensepost. His presentation will be about the commonality of the hacking community and the radio amateur community. He told SARL news, "We have a lot in common. Both are inquisitive by nature; both are founded on experimentation and both have learning as a core principle. However, they deviate in one important area, their view of "the rules." In this talk I would like to look at how I and other hackers became interested in radio, entirely outside the radio amateur community and my eventual move to get a license and get other hackers licensed. I would also like to propose that some of the legislated and self-enforced restrictions on the radio amateur community end up inhibiting the development and wider spread understanding of important security advances that result in poor security of many commercial radio offerings, by looking at how hackers have shaped the development of security in other areas."
Other presentations on the programme include HF is drowning in Noise, Contesting 101, Lightning - the misconception of unplugging it all, Restoring equipment of yesteryear and Why beacons matter! Book before 13 March and benefit from the early bird promotion. Full details on www.sarl.org.za
FOUR CW CONTACTS PER DAY CERTIFICATES
The ZS-CW group have started a new initiative to get more people active on CW on all bands, this will get you a certificate at the end of the year. Make four CW contacts per day and qualify for the following certificates: 200 to 250 days - Bronze certificate, 250 to 300 days - Silver Certificate and 300 plus days - Gold Certificate. Send proof of your contacts by Excel log submission to Andy, ZS6ADY at andyzs6ady@vodamail.co.za or Mike, ZS6MSW at zs6msw@gmail.com.
AMSAT SA SPACE SYMPOSIUM
The AMSAT SA Space Symposium will be held on 11 July 2020. Prospective authors are invited to propose papers by submitting a brief synopsis to admin@amsatsa.org.za before Friday 28 February 2020.
RESULTS OF THE SARL NATIONAL FIELD DAY
The contest committee received 11 logs for the first leg of the SARL Field Day, which was influenced by rain.
1st the Highway ARC, ZS5HAM - 31 020 points
2nd the Sandton ARC, ZS6STN - 19 548 points
3rd Johannes van Zijl, ZS4DZ - 13 068 points
Congratulations to the Highway ARC!
THE WEST RAND BOOT SALE ON 29 FEBRUARY
Due to popular demand and allowing Club Member an opportunity to participate in the SARL 95 Club 40 m Sprint on Saturday 29 February, the West Rand committee decided to have the boot sale an hour earlier starting at 11:00. Gate will open at 10:00 for refreshment and social, Vendors can setup at this time. Book a stand, table or for inquiries contact Phillip, ZS6PVT on 083 267 383
PROPAGATION REPORT
Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, reports that the solar activity is expected to remain at low levels. There are currently no sunspots visible. If you want to do your own frequency predictions, the expected effective sunspot number for the week will be around one. The 15 to 30 m bands will, especially late afternoon, provide some good DX fun. Please visit the website spaceweather.sansa.org.za for further information.
Finally, a diary of some upcoming events:
Today – the SARL RTTY Contest
27 February – International Milk Tart Day
28 February – closing date for synopses of AMSAT SA Papers
29 February – the West Rand Flea Market and the SARL 95 40 m Club Sprint
1 March – the SARL Hamnet 40 m Contest
5 to 8 March – Hobby-X and ZS95SARL
7 March – the Cape Town ARC Flea Market
8 March – International Women’s Day and the SARL YL Sprint
14 and 15 March – the SARL VHF/UHF Analogue Contest and the RSGB Commonwealth Contest
To conclude our bulletin, a quick overview of our main news item:
The SARL RTTY Contest takes place from 14:00 UTC to 17:00 UTC this afternoon with activity on 80, 40 and 20 metres. The exchange is an RSQ report and your grid square (first 4 digits). Logs in ADIF, Cabrillo or MS Excel format with a summary sheet and labelled “your call sign Digital Contest,” shall be submitted by 2 March 2020 by e-mail to contest@sarl.org.za. Get the rules on page 31 of the 2020 Blue Book.
This concludes our bulletin for this morning.
We invite clubs and individuals to submit news items of interest to radio amateurs and shortwave listeners, in both English and Afrikaans if possible, by following the news inbox link on the South African Radio League web page. News items to include in the bulletin should reach the news team no later than the Thursday preceding the bulletin date.
You are welcome to join us every Sunday morning for the weekly amateur radio program, Amateur Radio Today at 10:00 Central African Time. The program can be heard on VHF and UHF repeaters countrywide and on 7 082 kHz lower side-band. A rebroadcast by Andy, ZS6ADY can be heard on Monday evenings at 19:30 Central African Time on 3 620 kHz. We welcome your signal reports, comments and suggestions; please send these by e-mail to artoday@sarl.org.za.
You have listened to a news bulletin compiled by Dennis Green, ZS4BS, edited by Herman Erasmus, ZS6CTA and read by ..............
From the news team, best wishes for the week ahead!
