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
. 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 . 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 . 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
or Mike, ZS6MSW at .

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
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
. 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 .

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!

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