Keeping everyone connected when disaster strikes is a key component of all emergency communications efforts. Without communication, everything else breaks down.

Knowing which roads are open, which ones are jammed or damaged contribute enormously to rescue efforts. Emergency responders have all sorts of tools at their disposal to make sure first responders know what’s going on, but what about your family? How would you make sure everyone is safe?

A cell phone call likely won’t be an option. Cellular networks will be overloaded, land lines could be cut off, and internet disrupted as well. Email and texting may be viable options since they work on different systems than cell phones.

To avoid trouble contacting your loved ones, establish a pre-arranged contact out of your area. If someone is trying to call home in the disaster zone, the call may not go through. Your chances are better outside the zone.

Everybody should call a designated person, and tell them where they are, how they’re doing, and what they’re going to do. Then, you have one point of contact who can help coordinate things.

Amateur radio operators can be the hub that hold communications together in an emergency. They can reach anywhere in the world without the issues linked to phone and cell service. A radio operator might not be able to get you directly to your loved ones, but he or she can get you very close.

Thank you to King 5’s Disaster Preparedness Facebook page for these wise words.

Ward Silver N0AX has written a long article for Nuts and Volts magazine about the effects of the coming solar eclipse on radio signals. He notes that the usual slow change in ionisation in the upper atmosphere as evening approaches and nightfall arrives, will be speeded up and the temporary night-time conditions will last about 3 hours, bearing in mind the slow start of the eclipse and the final clearance of the moon’s shadow. Areas directly within the total eclipse will experience the most unusual phenomena, but areas North and South of the path of totality will also be affected, and DX to all parts of the world may be improved or reduced in intensity.

Radio amateurs will use the eclipse to hold a huge QSO party, to make as many contacts as possible, collecting data at the same time, and documenting the effect the eclipse has on their propagation. Automated receiving decoders, such as CW Skimmer, a programme written by VE3NEA, the Reverse Beacon Net and WSPRNet, will receive CW, RTTY, WSPR and PSK signals and store them. Professional researchers at Virginia Tech will turn all the data into a database that geophysics researchers can use.

Hams enjoy doing this kind of research. Science is what led to ham radio in the first place, and hams have worked with the scientific community since the early days of wireless.  Listening tests by radio amateurs conducted in the early 1920’s confirmed the presence of a reflecting mechanism in the atmosphere, now called the ionosphere.

So the eclipse will not just be a visual delight for those within its path. We wait to hear whether unusual effects were noted this time round. It will be a long time before we experience an eclipse in Southern Africa again.

Solar flux figures continue to deteriorate over this weekend, as the sun settles down again after the coronal mass ejection and resulting solar wind last week, pushed both the solar flux figures and the A and K indices up, both helping and harming our attempts at propagation during the week. The sun is basically spotless this weekend, but  an elevated solar wind stream is continuing to contribute to minor  geomagnetic storming at higher latitudes. Isolated periods of enhanced activity were possible during the last 24 hours. The K index is 5 as I write this, making DX communications poor.

The office of the Premier of the Western Province announced plans some time ago to use a mobile desalination plant, and tap the natural aquifer under Cape Town’s Table Mountain, to prevent a disaster in Cape Town. Boreholes are also to be drilled in hospitals and schools in high-risk areas in an effort to collect additional ground water.

The Western Cape province is facing its worst water shortage in 113 years. The Karoo and West Coast areas of the Western Cape previously declared drought disasters in 2016.

The southern African region has been experiencing a severe drought for almost three years, as a result of the devastating effects of the climatic phenomenon El Niño. The United Nations estimates that over 40 million people have been affected by the drought, which has resulted in the decimation of crops and water resources, leaving millions dependent on aid. While areas such as northern South Africa, parts of Mozambique, and Zimbabwe have benefited from heavy rainfall this year, other areas, such as in southern Angola, remain seriously affected by low precipitation levels.

Examination of the Provincial dam level averages, reveals that the provinces that don’t experience rain in Winter have dams emptying by about one percentage point this week, while the Western Cape has gained one percentage point over last week’s readings. The snow that fell over last weekend can be expected to add considerably to our dam levels as it slowly melts, but, at 25% full, Western Cape dams are very far from the 47% level they were at this time last year. And high pressure cells over the South-Western Atlantic  and Western half of the country are keeping the cold fronts far to the South of us, continuing to keep our Winter rainfall averages very low.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

Johann Marais, ZS1JM, of HAMNET Western Cape, and Wilderness Search and Rescue, issued a copy of the letter he received from Sanparks in the Eden district this week, after WSAR had assisted in the post-fire period. It read:

“On behalf of South African National Parks, I would like to extend  heart-felt thanks and sincere gratitude to you for taking time out from your work responsibilities and life, to assist in the infrastructure damage assessment of the Garden Route fires.

Without your dedication, commitment and professionalism this operation would not have been a success. It is generous people like you who make our communities a better place, and we thank you for your involvement and support, without you these things would not be possible. Yours sincerely, Len du Plessis.”

Len is the Manager, Planning, of the Garden Route National Park, and in charge of the damage assessment after the fires. While he addressed the remarks to Johann, I’m sure the thanks were also addressed to the nine operators who drove from Cape Town to do the grid-assessment of all the damage. Well done, all!

Talking of fires, there has been a wonderful fire on the Sun this week, in the form of a huge solar flare and a coronal mass ejection from sunspot region 2665, possibly celebrating Bastille Day on Friday! The M-class 2.4 flare was associated with a 10cm radio burst lasting 44 minutes. A minor S1 radiation storm occurred yesterday, a moderate G2 geomagnetic storm may occur today the 16th, and the coronal mass ejection may affect the earth today and tomorrow the 17th.

This mostly affects HF communications across the earth’s poles with commercial pilots flying over the North Pole. Occasionally airlines delay or cancel flights, fearing radio blackouts. Beautiful auroras will also be visible at high latitudes, both North and South, of the equator.

The Sunspot number is currently 58, Solar Flux 94, and K index 1, as I write this on Saturday afternoon. Let’s hope the bands open for a bit while the numbers are temporarily higher than usual.

In a message from Greg Mossop, G0DUB, of IARU Region One, he says that the Winlink development team will be testing a new central messaging server (CMS) system on July 16th from 15:00 UTC until 17:00 UTC (that’s today for two hours). The team says:

“This test requires no action on your part, other than to use the system as you normally would during the period.

However, if you do use it during this period, potential impacts could include:

-Temporary system outage (unlikely)

-Messages from a winlink account to another winlink account that are not retrieved by the addressee before the end of the testing period will be lost. Mail to Internet (SMTP) accounts as well as mail from Internet accounts will not be impacted.

-Mail from Internet accounts may be duplicated (received a second time) after the testing period.

-Changes made to account settings (password, forwarding address, sysop details, etc.) during the test period will be lost.

With these impacts in mind, we hope you help us by using the system during this period.”

The notice is issued by Steve, K4CJX, for the Winlink Development Team. So, if you’re experimenting with Winlink this afternoon, to use during your emergency comms, please bear this in mind.

Then, the TX Factor team has announced that Episode 17 is now available. This regular HD video insert features an intro to DMR, System Fusion and D-STAR, the path taken by QSL cards in getting to and from you, and a visit to a Field Day event with the Norfolk Amateur Radio Club. The URL is at: www.txfactor.co.uk

Then a major disaster was averted in San Francisco by the wonder of radio communications, when the landing of an Air Canada flight at San Francisco International Airport was aborted.

An Air Canada plane with 140 people on board came within 30 metres of crashing on to two of four planes lined up to take off at San Francisco International Airport last week, according to a preliminary report Canadian air safety regulators released on Thursday.

Instead of lining up to land on the runway, the pilot of the flight from Toronto mistakenly descended toward a parallel taxiway just to the right, where four other airliners were idling in the darkness, on Friday the 7th.

As the Airbus 320 pulled up sharply it flew 30 metres over the first two jets, about 60 metres above the third and about 90 metres over the fourth, the summary said.

“This was very close to a catastrophic event,” said John Cox, a safety consultant and retired airline pilot.

Collisions on the ground are particularly dangerous because planes waiting to take off are loaded with fuel. The deadliest crash in aviation history occurred in 1977 when a KLM Boeing 747 taking off in the Canary Islands ploughed into a Pan Am 747 that was waiting to take off; 583 people died in the crash and fires.

According to the report released on Thursday, the plane was less than a mile from the taxiway, flying well over 160 kilometres per hour, when a voice — apparently one of the pilots on the taxiway — interjected on the landing radio frequency, “Where’s this guy going? He’s on the taxiway!”

Only at that point did the controller order the Air Canada jet to pull up. The jet then did another circuit and landed safely on the correct runway. At worst, five aeroplanes would have been involved in the smash, each with 140 people or more on board, and the risk of about 800 casualties or deaths. The matter is under investigation.

Finally, a strong cold front has just passed across the Western Cape, bringing a fair amount of cold rain to this province, snow to high-lying areas, and cold with snow to inland mountainous areas. If the forecast is correct, the Cape should experience about 50mm of rain, which will be nice, but the snow is equally welcome, because when it melts it runs into our dam catchment areas. Here’s hoping…..

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

From Michael ZS1MJT, of the Cape Rally Group, comes the news that, on 1 July, the Riebeek Valley Rally was held in the Riebeek Kasteel area. Control was at the Meiring Primary School in Riebeek Kasteel.

Communications worked extremely well as all stages and radio operator positions were in ‘open’ areas and were in line of sight of the 145.650 repeater.

Michael thanks all who helped and the users of the 650 repeater, who allowed them the opportunity to use the repeater for the day.

He says the next rally is the All Tar Rally in Killarney on the 28 & 29^th July.

Also in the Western Cape, a particularly difficult rescue of an injured person from the Yellowwood Amphitheatre in du Toit’s Kloof took place over Thursday night and Friday morning. HAMNET’s Johann Marais, ZS1JM, coordinated Wilderness Search and Rescue’s efforts from 13h00 on Thursday to assist with the rescue. Members of the Mountain Club of South Africa and Metro Rescue services all gathered on the Eastern Side of the  tunnel, to await instructions. An Oryx helicopter was deployed from Ysterplaat Air Force Base and could not proceed because of bad flying weather, but did manage to drop off a paramedic and a technical rescuer a little way away from the patient. Another team of 3 rescuers walked in to the spot with supplies, warm clothing and food to allow the group to spend the night on the mountain. The patient was reported as being in a serious but stable condition.

Next morning, the Oryx was able to fly in and extract the injured man, from where he was transported directly to Groote Schuur hospital. Thank you to all the WSAR operatives involved, and the SAAF helicopter crew for completing the rescue.

The Seattle Times reported on Monday the 3rd that the British Airline Pilots Association is warning of a looming catastrophe unless drones are subject to tougher regulations.

The association demanded the compulsory registration of drones on Monday after Gatwick Airport briefly closed its runway over safety concerns when a drone was spotted in the area.

Authorities diverted four EasyJet flights. One British Airways flight was sent to Bournemouth Airport.

The union’s flight safety specialist, Steve Landells, says the incident shows “the threat of drones being flown near manned aircraft must be addressed before we see a disaster.”

There have been several near-misses between drones and aircraft in Britain, with sheer chance averting collision in some cases.

Under British rules, a drone operator must be able to see it at all times and keep it away from planes, helicopters, airports and airfields.

From the West Australian, a report says commercial pilots are reporting near misses with drones in WA, prompting warnings that it is “only a matter of time” before an incident occurs.

WA Labour senator Glenn Sterle, who chairs a Senate inquiry into drone safety and regulation, wants tighter restrictions on recreational drone use after the Australian Transport Safety Bureau received 170 reports of remotely piloted aircraft being flown in flight paths, near airports and at dangerous heights.

“They’ve had incidences at Jandakot (Airport) where they’ve had drones at the end of the runway, with someone operating one out of the park,” Senator Sterle said.

“Anyone can walk in and buy a drone and they have no training, no awareness. It’s not a matter of if, but when.”

On the other side of the argument comes another report about a group of students from MIT trying to ease the burden on emergency responders by providing a high-flying solution to downed communication lines. The team has designed and tested an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can fly for more than five days straight, offering a new solution for bolstering telecommunications systems during disaster situations. I wrote about this briefly in a previous bulletin.

In emergency situations, especially natural disasters and fires, the very communications networks that are so important to coordinating response are often damaged or overloaded. MIT’s long-flying drone is poised to change that.

The UAV, which resembles a glider, weighs less than 150 pounds and has a 24-foot wingspan. The petrol-powered craft can carry up to 20 pounds of telecommunications equipment at an altitude of 15,000 feet and in winds up to the 94th percentile, according to the students’ calculations.

The drone has passed initial tests after being modified to fit the FAA’s regulations for small drones, which required the payload and amount of fuel to be reduced to meet the FAA’s overall weight limit of 55 pounds. Future tests are needed to determine if the UAV can actually fly for more than five days straight.

“There are a few aspects to flying for five straight days,” Warren Hoburg, Boeing assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics, said in a statement. “But we’re pretty confident that we have the right fuel burn rate and right engine that we could fly it for five days.”

The drone was designed as part of the Beaver Works capstone project at MIT in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force. The original goal of the project was to create a long-duration UAV powered by solar, but the team ultimately found that solar power was not conducive to emergency response, a field that demands reliable tools, regardless of the availability of sunlight.

A prototype constructed last fall featured a petrol engine instead, along with a frame made of lightweight materials like carbon fibre and Kevlar. It is designed to be easily dismantled and reassembled for easy transport.

The design makes the drone suitable for many long-term missions, said R. John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

“These vehicles could be used not only for disaster relief but also other missions, such as environmental monitoring. You might want to keep watch on wildfires or the outflow of a river,” Hansman said. Thank you to Statescoop for the body of this report.

Join us next week for more news relating to emergency communications.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

Last weekend saw the ARRL’s annual Field Day contest, and this week saw the hundreds of inserts in the local newspapers around the US, as amateur radio in general, and emergency communications in particular, got the greatest publicity of the year there. I have been watching communications posts on Google all week, and it seems all the clubs who mounted field stations last weekend, had their activities written up in their local paper. There can be very few people in the US who have never heard of amateur radio, and the ARRL is to be congratulated on the way the public’s attention has been captured.

Not all reports I read were entirely positive. The ionosphere didn’t play along, of course, so contacts were down a bit on last year. A big contributor to difficulties was the problem of overloading of nearby receivers by transmissions on adjacent bands by other transmitters in the same deployment. Some operators had bandpass filters for each radio as it swung across the bands, but not everyone was so lucky. Some radios are more robust, and able to withstand adjacent band interference, but not all. Field Day allows one to test these things, and reflections of some operators are that they will not use, for example, Radio X next year, because they were flooded by interference. This is the inherent value of Field Day. Would that we could mount such a comprehensive weekend exercise in this country!

Friedrichshafen in Germany has posted an itinerary of some of its activities for the Hamfest on July 14 to 16. “Germany Welcomes the World” is the theme of the 2017 edition of Europe’s major annual Amateur Radio gathering, known simply as “Ham Radio” but more commonly called “Friedrichshafen,” the city on the shores of Lake Constance where it takes place each summer. ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, will head a League contingent to the event, which this year runs from Friday, July 14, until Sunday, July 16.

The 42nd edition of Ham Radio will feature some 200 exhibitors from 30 countries, including around 70 associations. This year, the German Amateur Radio Club (DARC) will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Amateur Radio center in Baunatal and will welcome visitors to the Lake Constance Conference. Among its show activities, the DARC will sponsor a competition for radio or electronics kits suitable for young people. Young radio enthusiasts aged 11 and older should be able to assemble the kits within 30 minutes, without having to etch circuit boards.

There will be an on-site Amateur Radio flea market.

The Chair of the IARU Region 1 Youth Working Group, Lisa Leenders, PA2LS, has invited young radio amateurs to join the International Youth Meeting on Saturday, July 15, at 10 AM, in the Liechtenstein Room. The program will include a rundown of the youth contesting program at 9A1A, plus an open mic session, where participants can share their experiences on youth activities. “This is the moment to share your experiences on youth activities and to ask questions to other attendees,” Leenders said. Members of the UK YOTA 2017 team will be at Ham Radio in Friedrichshafen to receive the official Youth on the Air (YOTA) flag from the YOTA Austria 2016 team.

A Ham Rally will take place on Friday and Saturday, offering a varied program for young Amateur Radio operators between the ages of 8 and 18, and a Ham Youth Camp — organized by the fairgrounds and DARC for participants aged 27 and younger — will take place during all 3 days of Ham Radio 2017.

World Radiosport Team Championship 2018 (WRTC 2018), which takes place next July in Germany, will be a particular focus at Ham Radio 2017. The show will include an exhibit of WRTC equipment, plus a demonstration of the competition, as well as video presentations about WRTC 2018. Ham Radio sponsors say several other presentations at the show also will highlight the upcoming international event.

A foxhunt will be held in the wooded area near the fairgrounds on the final day of the show.

The concurrent and fourth annual Maker Faire will open its doors at the Fairground on Saturday and Sunday, offering creative minds and tinkerers ideas and accessories at about 80 exhibitors.

And don’t overlook the Emergency Communications meetings on Friday the 14th July that I mentioned last week.

Thank you to the weekly ARRL letter for these extracts.

I’d like to draw your attention to a slightly dated but very good series of “Basic Soldering Lesson(s)” from Pace Worldwide, to be found on the hackaday.com website. Definitely worth a watch if you want to brush up on your skills. If you can’t find the site, just Google the following words, all joined up by hyphens: key-to-soldering-pace-yourself and you’re sure to find the series. Enjoy the revision!

A quick revue of the dam levels in South Africa this week reveals that most of the provincial average capacities have gone down by one percentage point compared to last week, except the Western Cape, whose capacities have gone up by 2 percentage points compared to last week, but still 15 percentage points lower than this time last year. Urban areas in the Cape are experiencing about 5 to 10mm of rain a week at the moment, so irrigation is probably unnecessary now. The City of Cape Town has introduced harsher water restrictions as of yesterday, hoping that the population will use less that 87 litres of water per person per day. We’re not out of trouble yet!

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

Those of you wishing to practise your DX communications may care to listen out for the American Radio Relay League’s Field Day contest, which finishes today. From the correspondence on websites, blogs, the ARRL and You Tube, it seems about 30 000 American radio amateurs will be running  portable stations, doing their best to qualify for all the points the ARRL offers for extra activities to make their stations capable of transmitting an emergency message if called upon so to do . I wish South Africans had the kind of enthusiasm for contest and events like this that the Americans demonstrate. Anyway, listen out if you have time today, and try and make a contact on twenty and fifteen metres, if they’re open.

Part of a communication from Greg Mossop, G0DUB, Emergency Communications Co-ordinator of Region One of the IARU, involves the arrangements for meetings to be held in July.

He writes: “14-16 July begins the largest gathering of Radio Amateurs in Europe and also the largest gathering of Emergency Communicators at HAMRADIO 2017 in Friedrichshafen. IARU Region 1 will be hosting a meeting for Radio Amateurs interested in Emergency Communications in Room Rom on Friday 14th July between 12.00 and 16.00 local time with the following preliminary programme (times may change):

12.00-12.30 Reports from the IARU region 1 Emergency Communications Co-Ordinators

12.30-13.30 Open forum for National Co-Ordinators to report on activities in their countries.

13.30-14.00 Italian Earthquake response 2016 – Alberto IK1YLO

14.00-14.45 RAYNET-UK – What Technology should we use for emergency communication?

14.45-15.15 Discussion- What is an emergency and when should we activate?

15.15-15.45 Discussion – How can we have an international network?

15.45-16.00 Closure and discussion around Friedrichshafen 2018

The Working language for this meeting will be English.”

Thank you for these notes, Greg – we wish you all success with the meetings.

Over and above the Grenfell fire disaster in London, and the forest fires in Portugal, news has come of an earthquake off the coast of Guatemala on Thursday afternoon our time, at a depth of 10km, and with a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale. Some 1 275 000 people live within 100km of its epicentre, but no reports of large scale damage or casualties have been received.

And closer to home, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck at a depth of 10km in Mozambique yesterday morning, at 04h37 our time, 61km North-West of Beira, where about 1 370 000 people live within 100km of that epicentre. Damage appears to have been light, and no casualties have been reported yet.

Melanie Gosling, reporting in AllAfrica this week, writes “A major problem fighting the massive fires that ravaged Knysna last week was the lack of communications and electricity outages, according to local councillor Mark Willemse.

“Landlines were down and Cell C and MTN were not operating. Vodacom was working.

” ‘Comms were an issue. We used SMSes and loud hailers. One thing we can work on better and can change is communications,’ Willemse said at a report-back meeting in the town on Tuesday.

“Another problem was that the Joint Operating Centre, co-ordinating the fire-fighting and evacuation operations, had been without electricity.

“The Garden Route fires that began on 7 June and stretched from Great Brak to Plettenberg Bay, wreaked the most destruction in Knysna where 846 houses were gutted and another 307 were damaged. Of the 846 houses destroyed, 150 were informal structures, and the rest formal dwellings. The suburb hit hardest was Knysna Heights, where nearly 22% of houses burnt down.

“Willemse said Knysna’s entire disaster management plan would be changed ‘drastically’ in the wake of the massive fires, which at times were burning in 26 different places.

” ‘The fires have been a good wake-up call to us as to just what disasters can cause. We will look at anything and everything to make sure it doesn’t happen again,’ he said.

“Knysna’s executive mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies said at the meeting that a major lesson learned was the difficulty in getting in and out of Knysna in the event of extensive fires.

” ‘The road network is a problem. At one time both exits from Knysna were closed because of fires. At one stage we were looking at evacuating 6,000 people from Rheenendal, but we couldn’t get  buses in from George. Luckily we didn’t have to evacuate them,’ Bouw-Spies said.

“Experts have said the number of natural disasters such as fires, floods, droughts and extreme weather events is increasing as a result of global climate change. Asked if Knysna would take the reality of climate change into account in its future disaster management plan, Bouw-Spies said: ‘We will adopt a climate change adaptation strategy. It is time for us to make sure that we do that.’

“Another factor which fuelled the fires was the vast amount of alien vegetation in the area, which burns hotter and spreads faster than a fire in indigenous vegetation. Willemse said the council would tackle the enforcement of alien tree clearing. Landowners outside the urban edge are legally bound to clear their properties of certain invasive alien vegetation, which consumes large quantities of water and is a fire hazard.

“Asked if the council would ensure that controlled burns were done at Knysna’s large housing estates, where this was a condition by the provincial government when the estates were given development approval, Willemse said the council would do so.

“There were 25 tourist establishments damaged, which represented about 500 beds. About 2,500 people had lost jobs. The mayor said she was concerned that domestic workers would also lose their jobs where their employers had lost their houses.

“However, she said national government had already said it could help immediately with the creation of 500 jobs in the fire clean-up programme.” End quote.

Join us next week for another look at disasters and emergency communications. This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

From the disaster in the Eden district comes the story that SANParks has been requesting help to coordinate the rescues and management of the fire damage in the area. When Johann Marais ZS1JM, of Wilderness Search and Rescue reminded them that WSAR had handled 407 rescues in the Western Cape last year, WSAR was asked to provide about ten 4×4 teams to drive to outlying areas, assessing fire damage and offering medical assistance. HAMNET operators in the teams would maintain communications with a central Joint Operations Centre near Knysna to be manned by two of our experienced lady operators.

Western Cape Regional Director Grant Southey ZS1GS sent out a request to all HAMNET members to volunteer to spend from Thursday the 15th to Sunday the 18th in the Eden district supplying the vehicles, radios and operators, to comb the areas, releasing trapped communities, distributing brochures and completing a survey of the status of the countryside. The Off Road Rescue Unit and the Land Cruiser Club of South Africa, being part of WSAR, were very quick to offer their assistance and provided some of the vehicles. Each vehicle had a Medic, a chainsaw operator to clear fallen trees, and a Ham station. The teams were required to provide their own camping equipment, but food and petrol expenses were sponsored by SANParks.

Teams left Cape Town on Wednesday and Thursday, and we’ll bring you some more news of their activities next week.

Keith Lowes, ZS1WFD of HAMNET KZN has sent me the basic arrangements for the Standard Bank Ironman 70.3 being swum, ridden and run today. Ten HAMNET operators are assisting at the event this year, which starts with a 1.9km swim at uShaka Pier, followed by a bike ride and then a road race to finish in front of SUNCOAST, where the race course closes at 16h00. Good luck to all those participants, and thank you to the HAMNET volunteers for giving up their Father’s Day to assist at the event.

From Birmingham City University comes news of a portable system which allows communications to be restored in the wake of a disaster and help direct survivors to safety.

Ron Austin, Associate Professor of Networks and Security at Birmingham City University, has created the prototype system which could be used to plug a crucial gap in systems such as telephone, GPS and internet links during the first 24-hours following a disaster.

The network runs using Raspberry Pi computer development boards, which can be linked together to form a bespoke setup, tailored to the needs of a site, which could also be used to monitor environmental factors such as earthquake aftershocks and tsunami second waves.

Around 90 per cent of live rescues are made during the first 24-48 hours following a disaster – a period known as the ‘golden 24 hours’ – but large scale infrastructure takes around two days to ship to a disaster site.

The new portable system could help save lives by allowing basic systems to be put in place to plug the gap during that critical window and allow communication with emergency services and survivors until full scale systems can be restored.

The system would be used by first responders to restore telephone systems, provide internet services and GPS links, help direct survivors to areas of safety, monitor the environment for key factors such as aftershocks following an earthquake, or second waves of a tsunami, provide links with emergency services, eliminate the reliance on heavy duty equipment which is unavailable during the first 48-hours, and provide an expandable network which is easily adjusted.

Ron Austin, Associate Professor of Networks and Security at Birmingham City University, said: “It was while experimenting with Raspberry Pi’s that I first came up with the idea of using them in this way.

“By connecting a number of Raspberry Pi’s together I’ve found that we could have a genuine solution to the gap in services following a disaster.

“We know it takes a long time to ship out heavy duty equipment to get the full scale systems back up and running, but we also know that that first 24-hour period is crucial in saving lives during disasters.

“If we can provide a system that gets these important services back up and running swiftly and simply then we would have a real opportunity at getting people the information they need which could save lives.”

First responders would be able to transport the system in a single box or briefcase to the site and instantly setup communications systems which have been damaged or eliminated during a disaster.

Inbuilt battery power supplies fitted to briefcases or transportation boxes would provide power for up to two days, while solar panels could also be used in areas of good lighting.

Researchers hope to work alongside emergency services and disaster recovery organisations to see how the system might be best utilised.

Thank you to the Phys.Org website for this insert.

To end this bulletin, I have the tiniest bit of good news for you. The Dam Level report issued last Monday shows that all provinces have maintained their water levels compared with last week, and the Western Cape has recorded two percentage points of increase over the previous week, for the first time this year! Western Cape dams stand at 20% full, compared to 18% last week, and 30% at this time last year. We’ve got a long way still to go!

Finally, may I take the opportunity to wish all fathers out there “Happy Father’s Day”! May your children make it a day to be remembered by all of you.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

It has been a tumultuous week for the Western and Southern Cape. The warnings started going out last Sunday, when our maritime connections started to talk about a severe frontal system hitting the Western Cape on Wednesday, with storm strength winds up to 90 kph, and severe rain. The WeatherSA forecasters followed soon after with predictions of up to 75mm of rain between Tuesday evening and Thursday midday, snow, and extreme cold over the Cape and the Overberg. Radio amateurs shared warnings to drop any telescoping antenna systems they had, or check the guying involved.

The NSRI was not far behind, with warnings of very heavy swells up to 12 metres or more in height along the West Coast, the Cape Coast, and Southern and Eastern Cape Coasts. All seamen were advised to stay off the sea, particularly because the end of the week saw the full moon Spring tide, which brings higher than  normal high tides, and stronger currents, including very strong rip currents. Winds of up to 120kph were forecast for Cape Agulhas!

The South African Weather Service followed it all up with their formal Severe Weather Report for 7 and 8 June, covering heavy rain, snow falls, gale force winds and very high seas!  Synoptic charts of the  trough of low pressure and the cut-off low prolonging the rain fall were displayed.

We were well and truly warned!

Tuesday started a nice day in the Cape, with wispy high cloud, and filtered sun. By the evening, clouds were gathering and the wind started to gather speed from the North-west, blustery and unsettling, followed by the rain in squalls at about 22h00 our time that evening.

For the rest of the night, gusting winds took out trees, ripped off branches around the Cape,  whipped up the foamy surf, which crashed the Sea Point promenade, and flooded the car parks there. The fairly horizontal rain continued on and off all day, which may have confused all the rain gauges, unable to catch rain that wasn’t raining downwards, so the rain figures weren’t as impressive as expected. One or two areas experienced up to 50mm rain on Wednesday, but for the rest, measurements of 15 to 30mm were made.

Disaster Management crews were magnificent, responding to reports of downed trees and blocked roads as soon as they were received, and half of the chaos was cleared up by daylight the next morning. Rain and wind carried on intermittently all Wednesday, but the Cape was prepared, because Schools had been closed for the day in preparation, and many businesses had told their workers to stay at home.

HAMNET cancelled our monthly meeting for that night, and arranged a special call-in at 19h30 that evening on our 145.700 repeater on Constantiaberg, followed by a call-in on 145.225 simplex, and it was gratifying to see and hear how many operators were there to report on their areas, and make contact on simplex. Regional Director Grant Southey ZS1GS issued a directive to local amateurs, and requested other divisions to monitor 3770kHz and 7110kHz LSB, and 5260kHz and 10125kHz USB if at home, and to be available to assist with communications if needed.

Wednesday night was less dramatic, as far as wind and rain was concerned, and by midmorning Thursday, the Cape was licking its wounds and starting to settle down.

What nobody had paid much attention to were the very extreme Berg Wind conditions occurring in the tinder-dry Southern Cape, and so it was that multiple fires started up in the region of Knysna, Belvedere, and Brenton, causing a far greater humanitarian disaster than we experienced in the Western cape. You have all been following the press reports, so will know of the hundreds of dwellings burnt out, properties devastated, and some lives lost.

When it became clear that communications were proving difficult in the area,  National Director of HAMNET Paul van Spronsen ZS1V was called in by Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management, to establish communications between Eden Disaster Management Centre and the Emergency Management Centre at Tygerberg. The ionosphere of course was not playing along, 80 and 40 metre bands were not of much good, and 60 metres not available to most. The usual telephony infrastructure was soon back online and so the focus changed to ensuring that the Cape Nature fire fighters who were being deployed from Cape Town to assist and who operate on midband frequencies, would have the necessary communications in the operational area. On Friday, a team of 3 HAMNET operatives from division 2 deployed to the area to assist with message handling and the operation of a Cape Nature portable repeater. WhatsApp signals were whizzing back and forth, and, at any time, I have been seeing 60 to 80 messages being spread amongst the members of the groups, together with many pictures, videos and voice messages. Of course these only work where the internet, phone lines and cell towers are not damaged, so have been of use to those at a bit of a distance from the centres of high impact.

As I write this on Saturday afternoon, I have 50 messages on WhatsApp, referring to the N2 closed due to poor visibility due to smoke, fires having reached the East end of Groenvlei, spreading against the winds coming in from the West-north-west, and little or no rain in  the area to help dampen the embers. Amateurs along the South Coast continue to maintain listening watches on the repeaters and on simplex where repeaters don’t reach. Gale Force winds from the West have forced the grounding of the many helicopters available to dump water on the fires. Buffalo Bay is also being threatened, and, in some places, electricity has been cut to areas that might suffer cable damage due to fire.

Disaster Risk Management at Tygerberg has despatched the Metro Four disaster bus to Knysna, and radio amateurs may be called to help man it once there.

Another cold front has arrived in the Western Cape today (Saturday), and 5 to 10mm of rain have been measured so far, but not much has filtered through to the Eden Disaster Management area, so the fires continue unabated. Our thoughts are with those who have lost so much in the last four days.

This is  Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

Keith Lowes ZS5WFD says HAMNET KZN has been exhibiting at this year’s Comrades Expo following the fantastic support received during their participation for the first time last year.

The Comrades Expo is the official registration point for the Comrades Marathon and therefore one of the highlights of this historic ultra-marathon. As the largest running related Expo in South Africa, the Expo boasted more than 110 exhibitors and attracted over 50 000 visitors during the 3 days.

The Comrades Expo featured all the major athletic brands with a multitude of other exhibitors promoting and selling everything from supplements and nutrition to the latest in running technology.  The Expo was aimed at sport enthusiasts of all ages who were in the market to purchase new apparel or stock up on race day essentials.

The Comrades is being run as I speak, and we hope to have more reports from Keith or Dave after the event. Thank you to all HAMNET members making the Comrades safe for the runners.

Members of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka (RSSL) responded to an urgent call for help in the wake of torrential monsoon rainfall in South-western Sri Lanka on May 28, that caused flooding and landslides. The Road Development Authority (RDA) contacted RSSL President Jaliya Lokeshwara, 4S7JL, seeking communication help from radio amateurs. The RSSL reports that emergency communications were needed to link remote Kalawana, one of the worst hit areas, and Ratnapura. All communications had failed due to heavy flooding, landslides, and damage to the telecommunications infrastructure.

The RDA declared roads were impassable. Only air rescue by the Sri Lanka Air Force helicopters was possible, and the lack of communication support made that task even more difficult. A plan was quickly put into place to airlift four radio amateurs from the capital, Colombo, to both affected locations to form a communications link.

Jaliya Lokeshwara, 4S7JL, and Nadika Hapuarachchi, 4S6NCH, were the first ready to go. A second team consisted of Victor Goonetilleke, 4S7VK, and Dimuthu Wickramasinghe, 4S7DZ.

“We knew we could do it. We were self-sufficient and willing to rough it out,” Goonetilleke said. “It was a hard task, but within 30 minutes of landing, the high frequency link was established.” They used 40 and 75 meters, as well as 2 meters. He said they spent 2 days coordinating rescue flights, the movement of patients from Kalawana hospital to Ratnapura, and food drops.

The emergency link remained in place until mobile phone service was restored and roadways cleared. “We are happy we could win the day for simple high-frequency radio,” Goonetilleke said.

The disaster recovery continues. Over 200 people died, and thousands were displaced by the weather disaster. — Thanks to Jim Linton, VK3PC, Chairman IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee, with Jayamt Bhide, VU2JUA, National Coordinator for Disaster Communication in India (ARSI), and Victor Goonetilleke, 4S7VK.

Victor Goonetilleke 4S7VK has in fact posted a very comprehensive report on the help given by Sri Lankan hams during this disaster, at www.rssl.lk/rssl_response_to_flood_disaster_may_2017/. It makes very interesting reading, is well laid out, and has many accompanying photographs.

Mike Eaton has drawn my attention to an article in New Atlas about technology I have mentioned before, that could have aided the Sri Lankans during their floods, had it been available, namely, drones acting as flying cell towers during disasters.

Nick Lavars, writing on 31 May in New Atlas says “drones can bring benefits to disaster-relief scenarios in a few ways. One is by providing search and rescue workers with an eye in the sky, another is by delivering aid, and a third is serving as temporary communications networks in place of those destroyed by the event. Researchers at the University of North Texas (UNT) have taken a promising step forward in this last area by demonstrating a drone-based cell network system that offers coverage kilometres away.

When violent storms strike, they can not only bring buildings to the ground but communication infrastructure too. This makes things even harder for workers relying on these networks to coordinate their relief efforts, and the idea behind research projects such as these is to provide a temporary solution.

The scientists in the University of North Texas’ electrical engineering department have also been active players in this field. In 2014 they exhibited a new kind of directional antenna they said could be attached to drones to provide Wi-Fi signals up to 5 km away.

Now, in what the team is calling the “first-ever drone-provided cell service,” the researchers have taken their airborne communications tech into the field. It says its Aerial Deployable Communication System is the first of its kind, and they were able to successfully test it in Waxahachie, Texas. This involved fixing the system to a drone and sending it up to an altitude of 400 ft (121 m). The cellular technology was programmed to tune into the bandwidth assigned to first responders, offering them a high-flying replacement for damaged cell towers.

“We demonstrated a portable communication system that can be attached to a drone,” said Kamesh Namuduri, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UNT. “The system, with just 250 milliwatts (of) transmit power, is capable of providing instant cellular coverage (of) up to two kilometres during disaster-relief operations. If the system is scaled with a 10 watt transmit power, the system can provide cellular coverage to the entire city of Denton (Texas).” End quote.

Clearly, this technology can’t be released soon enough, and we wait eagerly to see its launch internationally.

The news of Western Cape drought conditions continues to be dismal. No rain has fallen in the last week, though 15mm has been forecast for this weekend, and about 40mm on Wednesday and Thursday coming. The average dam levels stand at 18% of capacity, though only 8% of that is really usable. Level 4 water restrictions have now been imposed, and potable water may only be used for drinking, preparing food and washing. Plans to provide extra water seem to be proceeding at snail’s pace, and our lack of confidence in the art of weather forecasting is starting to show.

Perhaps I’ll have better news for you next week!

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

HAMNET South Africa would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the RAE candidates who passed their exams last week, and are now sporting swanky new call signs. We welcome you all to the wonderful world of amateur radio, and hope you will add to your enjoyment of the hobby by joining HAMNET, the emergency communications arm of the SARL. Our aim is to prepare ourselves, and volunteer to help in any situation where communications will help in the management of a natural or manmade disaster, or in a sporting event. There are Divisions of HAMNET in each region, and a request to your local club, or RAE tutor, will give you the name of your Divisional Director. Contact him, and join, at no cost, the part of amateur radio that makes a difference in the lives of the community. You are also welcome to contact me at zs1dfr@telkomsa.net

Riaan ZS4PR of the Vaal HAMNET team sent me this report on Wednesday:

Just before 8 am on Monday morning of 22 May, Sasolburg was shaken by a massive explosion at NATREF.  The shockwave was felt as far away as Vereeniging some 25km’s from the Sasolburg industries.

The Vaal HAMNET team immediately activated on the 145.600 MHz repeater, located at SASOL 1. The radio amateurs working at the NATREF, OMNIA and SASOL plants were contacted via WhatsApp and the Sasolburg fire department was contacted to confirm their involvement.  Within 25 minutes of the explosion the total plant was evacuated and the fire teams, ER24 and various other services had arrived on the scene. The fire brigade managed to put out the fire after about 50 minutes of hard work.

While this drama played out, the HAMNET team was on standby, and liaising with some of the authorities, since the GSM network was taking strain with all the localised chatter happening around the area and between the various support organisations, CPF and social media.  The event was covered on the national news services as well.

By 10 am the HAMNET standby was cancelled as the authorities had managed to complete the roll calls, and the injured workers had been taken to local medical centres.

A hydrogen compressor had exploded, causing injuries to 14 workers.  At the time of writing this article, the cause of this explosion and malfunction was still being investigated.

HAMNET members were in contact with the ER24 team, and some of the radio amateurs working at and nearby the area of the disaster.  This speedy reaction and HAMNET standby helped to ensure that the correct authorities were contacted first, so that they could then receive accurate information to assess and then deal with the problems. Because the GSM network was taking strain, HAMNET members used the Sasolburg repeater, allowing critical information to get out of the plant to the authorities in a more effective manner.

Thank you to Riaan and the group for their assistance, and for the report.

The Western Province has been declared a drought disaster area by Premier Helen Zille, thus freeing up a variety of funds to be used to mitigate the effects of the drought. Dam levels are at 20.7% full and level four water restrictions are due to be implemented next week. Extra moneys will become available to sink boreholes at strategic places like hospitals and clinics, drill more effectively in to the Table Mountain Aquifer, and bring in a portable desalination plant, something I pondered on in this bulletin about three months ago. I wonder if Helen Zille reads these bulletins and got the idea from me!

Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip has also signed a disaster declaration‚ setting in motion a process for the Bay to be declared a disaster area. Speaking at a briefing at City Hall on Wednesday‚ Trollip said the metro would be declared a disaster area “once the water crisis is promulgated and gazetted”.

He described the water situation in the Bay as “precarious”. “We are not the only municipality preparing for disaster declaration. Many other metros are affected‚” Trollip said.

Mayoral committee member for infrastructure‚ engineering‚ electricity and energy Annette Lovemore said they had indicated earlier they would initiate the process of declaring the Bay a disaster area once dam levels dropped below 40%. The current levels are 38.5%.

The Dayton Hamvention has come and gone. From all reports, last week’s convention at its new venue at Xenia, just outside Dayton, went very well. There are countless blogs and reports available on the web, with news of new rigs, new interfaces, and new antennas. As usual, it rained heavily on the Saturday, turning the out-of-doors fleamarket into a “mudfest”! Indoors, the presentations and seminars were greatly appreciated, and there will be many youtube videos of talks given to come. A useful weekly report, entitled Amateur Radio Weekly, and available on the URL k4hck@hamweekly.com shows a set of links to reviews and interviews, a hamvention report, photos inside and outside the buildings, and reflections on the new venue.

ICOM and FLEX radio went head-to-head over their respective new SDR radios, the much talked-about IC-7610, and the surprise Flex-6600M, and the talkgroups are abuzz with comparisons. Neither radio is available yet, but specifications are keeping speculation about the two rife. My money is with the IC-7610, a complete SDR radio in a box, with two separate receivers, a touch-sensitive screen, a DVI socket for an LCD screen, and capable of being used by pointing and clicking on the screen with a mouse. It also has Ethernet software built in, and can be connected directly to the internet for remote-functioning. All SDR functionality occurs in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), and there is hardware space for multiple firmware updates in the future. This radio replaces the IC-7600, and very nearly eclipses the IC-7851 for receive sensitivity, filter variability, and all-round good looks. It has transverter ports, three antenna ports, three USB ports, and an SD card slot on the front for saving settings, recording QSO’s, or sending pre-recorded CW or voice calls during contests.

As quoted in the headquarters bulletin this morning, the amateur radio hobby of today has advanced very far in the last decade or so, and we must stay with-it and keep up. SDR is here to stay.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

In a communiqué issued on Wednesday,  Johann Marais ZS1JM has advised that he has decided to resign as Deputy National Director for HAMNET. He says “In the beginning I requested Paul to be the Director and undertook to assist him with the job. It is however the prerogative of the Director to appoint this deputy. I therefore resign with immediate effect to allow Paul to exercise this discretion. I remain a loyal and active member of HAMNET in the Western Cape.” End quote.

And a message received from Paul van Spronsen, HAMNET National Director, says “We wish to express our thanks to Johann Marais ZS1JM, who has served as Deputy National Director of HAMNET for the past several years.  We wish Johann well in his further efforts within the Offroad Rescue Unit, Wilderness Search and Rescue and as a continued member of HAMNET.  Johann’s replacement will be announced in due course.” End quote.

Rory ZS6RBJ of the West Rand Unit of HAMNET Gauteng South has sent me a report of their involvement in a bike ride held on 14th May. The Think Bike marshals have been experiencing difficulties communicating  between their marshal’s on bikes over varying distances using only their Hand Held Radios, even though some of the marshal bikes have been fitted with mobile whip antennas.

Chad ZS6OPS felt that the HAMNET unit could assist with this, and various communications tests were conducted amongst the HAMNET Gauteng South West Rand Unit members and several members obtained licences in their personal capacities for the frequency used by Think Bike in order to communicate with the Think Bike marshals. Tests conducted between the HAMNET vehicles on the Think Bike simplex frequencies yielded positive results amongst the West Rand HAMNET members. The duty on the 14^th May was twofold. One, to provide communications for the event, and Two, to provide feedback and possible solutions for the marshals communications moving forward.

The event started with a briefing held at the Sasol Garage on Republic Road from 06h45 by the Think Bike event coordinator, Bill Nash, on the planned formation and route which the bikes would take along the highway. HAMNET gave a brief talk on radio procedure and their role in the morning’s activities and at about 08h00 all Think Bike marshals escorted the HAMNET vehicles to the World Wear Centre on Beyer’s Naude Road from where all bikers participating in the Bike Awareness Run would start.

We had 7 HAMNET vehicles in attendance which were crewed by a driver and two radio operators (one on amateur bands and the other on the Think Bike frequency) ensuring drivers could concentrate on the road during the run.

Although the event was expected to be attended by around 500 bikes, on the day only around 80-90 bikes took part. This was likely due to the cold weather, and the fact that this was the first event of its kind, not to mention it being Mother’s Day!

The group set off in convoy at 09h00, Think Bike marshals blocking the on ramp, left and centre lanes of the N1 South to allow the bikers to join the highway safely.

They rode the route which took the convoy along the N1 South, N12 West, N3 North and finally the Modderfontein off-ramp, with the final destination being the Fireman’s Tavern.

Think Bike marshals and JMPD crew (who unexpectedly joined the run) provided a vital role in traffic control as well as ensuring safety for all. Think Bike marshals are well trained and extremely professional and it was really eye opening to watch them at work. Before the convoy reached the next on-ramp along the route, the marshals along with JMPD had stopped traffic, which allowed the bikers to pass safely. Our HAMNET vehicles travelled on the left of the convoy which took up the centre lane on the highway for about a 1Km stretch of road.

Radio communications were good between Think Bike and HAMNET, with all teams and marshals in contact along the route. Think Bike’s radio procedure was also on point, and it made it very easy for us to keep in touch along the route. Fortunately there were no incidents along the way, and everyone arrived safely at Fireman’s Tavern.

From a HAMNET perspective we gained a lot of valuable knowledge. This was the West Rand Unit’s first official role in a “mobile” event, as we are all used to setting up field stations and control points during exercises and club activities, and working in convoy while on the move was a completely different challenge. VHF simplex operation was very reliable in this instance.

Another good learning curve was the ability to communicate with non-amateur radio organisations. We were given the opportunity to utilise the Think Bike frequencies during this event, which meant a lot of planning and equipment gathering before the event. However on the day of the event all the planning and testing certainly paid off.

Huge thanks to Think Bike for allowing us to take part. We look forward to working with them in the future. Another big thanks to all our HAMNET members who gave up their Sunday Morning and braved the cold to assist with the event, which from everyone’s comments afterwards, was a success.

Thank you to Rory, and the HAMNET volunteers.

And in an extraordinarily precise document, Dave Holiday ZS5HN of HAMNET KZN has sent me further information of the deployment of radio operators during the upcoming Comrades Marathon. I counted 28 amateur call signs in the list, and a lot of Land Cruiser Club members and CB operators as well. The forward planning in Dave’s document has to be seen to be believed, and, in that we are about 3 weeks ahead of the race, he and HAMNET KZN are to be congratulated on organisation well planned and well in advance! Thank you for keeping me in the loop Dave.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, continuing to hold thumbs for rain in the Western Cape, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.