We have news of involvement by HAMNET members in four emergency situations in the last 2 weeks.

From Andrew Gray ZS2G we hear that 12 HAMNET and PEARS members assisted in fighting the bush fire in the Theescombe area that advanced across the Heatherbank Hill towards the Lorraine area on the 6th December. Local inhabitants were helped to evacuate their belongings away from the threat. Luckily the wind died down that evening, and the fire was brought under control when it reached the grassy areas of Heatherbank.

Over the weekend of the 17th December the same members assisted in the search for a 65 year old lady who had left her home in Lorraine at about 9am that morning. The bushy areas of Lorraine and Kamma Park were scoured without success, and the search was called off at 10 that evening. Next morning early, it was reported that she had returned home unaided at 5.30am, before the search could be resumed. Thank you to the Division Two operators who assisted in the search.

And in Cape Town, we heard this week of two searches occurring simultaneously on Thursday night the 22nd December. Grant Southey ZS1GS, reports that he responded to assist at a search for a 20 year-old female, who had got separated from her family in Newlands Forest and not rendezvoused at 20h30 that evening.

The female and her family were visiting from Gauteng and she had spent the afternoon hiking alone in the area. She was in cellular contact with her mom and had sent her an image of her location but did not arrive back at the expected time. While a search manager was interviewing the mother of the patient, a second call for a male lost on the Hout Bay side came through. This meant that the teams that had gathered were split and some sent to Hout Bay while some remained at Newlands forest to search for the missing lady.

The Hout Bay call was on Kabonkelberg and the patient had comms via cell phone with the incident commander. He was advised to reserve the battery life for when help was closer so that he could be located more easily. Phil Van Den Bossche (ZS1VCC) and Jason Codd (ZS1ZW) were deployed as logistic operators to assist with that rescue.

In the meantime 5 teams of around three people each were sent through the forest to try to locate the missing lady in Newlands. From the image that was sent to her mother it appeared that she was at the contour path 2 hours before her last contact with her mom. Further information from a trail runner showed that she was higher than expected and a team was rerouted to the area and ultimately found her shaken and injured, but  still able to walk herself out most of the way home. However, she was piggy-backed on the last stretch, via Tafelberg Road.  She was transported back to Newlands Forest where she was reunited with her family.

At around the same time the patient on Kabonkelberg was reached and he too was in a exhausted condition and required the assistance of technical rescuers to get him to safety. He was brought down from the mountain and all parties stood down around 05:00 the next morning.

Both these incidents could have turned out tragically, as the weather was deteriorating, and during the night, some rain was experienced.

Grant thanks all those who assisted in the searches.

We congratulate a very active radio club in KwaZulu Natal, the Highway Amateur Radio Club, on its successful display at the Watercrest Mall recently, and reported on in the Highway Mail of 21 December. Members of the HARC are staunch supporters of HAMNET, and many assist with the communications at all the important sporting events in KZN, such as the Comrades Marathon. The display at the Watercrest Mall had the purpose of interacting with the general public, to make known the purpose of the club and to dispel any incorrect preconceived ideas they may have about our hobby. Interested parties may visit their website at www.harc.org.za.

Although the earth’s crust continues to fidget, there have been no severe earthquakes this week. Instead we are watching with concern two tropical storms that are threatening to make landfall soon.

The Philippines are again being threatened by a storm, this one tropical Cyclone NOCK-TEN-16, which is barrelling along from South-East to North-West, across the Northern aspects of the Philippines and towards the Chinese mainland. Maximum wind speeds so far have been measured at 194kph! The estimated population affected by Category 1 (120kph) wind speeds or higher is 12.6 million.

And on a smaller scale, North-Western Australia is being approached by Tropical Cyclone Yvette-16, which may broach the coast in the next day or two. However, wind speeds have not been measured at higher than 83kph yet, so the threat is currently not very great.

But spare a thought for Northern and Eastern Mongolia, currently experiencing vicious winter weather. Mongolia’s livestock and herders are at huge risk. Nothing we experience in South Africa can ever compare with this area’s weather, where temperatures are currently minus 56 degrees Celsius! Mongolia’s traditional nomads are facing a natural disaster known as ‘dzud’, where frigid temperatures and heavy snow cause widespread livestock deaths, threatening herders’ livelihoods. The region is now under 40 centimeters of snow, four times the usual level. The dzud of 2009-2010, one of the most severe in history, saw a total of 9.7 million livestock deaths. As many as 1.1 million head of livestock died last winter, and this winter doesn’t look any better.

On that chilly note, may I take this opportunity, on behalf of all HAMNET members, to wish you all a very happy and safe holiday, wherever you may be. Travel safely, remain vigilant, and above all, remain radio-active!

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

A fire has been raging just outside Plettenberg Bay in the last 2 weeks, with some 30 000 hectares of park land in the Garden Route National Park razed, evidence of the danger created by drought conditions.

The fire, mostly affecting the areas close to The Craggs (about 20kms outside the coastal town of Plettenberg Bay) was declared a fire disaster area. The fire which started on private land on Monday 5 December, jumped to the National Park and had an 11km long active fire line.

Dirk Smith, spokesperson for the Southern Cape FPA, said the western and eastern flank as well as the head of the fire were major concerns. “We had 180 firefighters on the fire line, including three tankers, as well as close to 20 management staff in control of this fire. The fire burnt mainly fynbos areas where there are no structures,” said Smith.

So far 30 000 Hectares of land have been burnt out, and parts of the burn remain very inaccessible in the mountains. Flares-up continue, in spite of some success with back-burns being used to prevent spread in certain directions.

Chris Warren, in his “Off-Grid Ham” blog says that, after careful consideration, he has realised that the random end-fed long wire is the best portable HF antenna for emergency conditions, that is easily erectable, and gives good result. After deciding that, he then looked at various versions of the end-fed long wire, and realised there are three possibilities, all based on simple premises. They should be of stranded wire for strength, at least 17 metres long, or greater than a halfwave length of the lowest frequency you plan to use, and all need an antenna tuner.

Your choices are:

1) Connect your long wire to the centre hole in the SO-239 of the tuner, and earth your tuner to a ground rod. Beware of hot spots along the wire or cable to ground rod where RF burns are possible. This antenna is easy but not very efficient.

2)This one is the same as the first, but you connect the earth connector of your tuner to another long wire, and lay it out on the ground below the antenna, to act as a counterpoise. This type will satisfy your tuner far better than the first.

3) In this construction, you connect coax to your tuner, and at the far end of the coax, install an “UNUN” balun, and connect both the long wire and the counterpoise to that. An UNUN is a simple transformer that matches an UNbalanced antenna to an UNbalanced feed line. This is not the same as a BALUN, which matches a BALanced antenna to an UNbalanced feed line. The UNUN is necessary if your operating position is some way away from where the antenna is sited.

Chris says this last setup is his favourite. The second choice might be ideal for a RaDAR field event, if you need to operate on several frequencies. If you are going to be active on one frequency only, a horizontal dipole cut for the frequency of choice is still the best.

Thanks to Chris Warren and his Blog for the contents of that insert.

And as I write this, news of a magnitude 7.9 earthquake has come through, at 9.51pm local time, Saturday evening, about 45 km east of Papua New Guinea’s New Ireland island, and not very far from last week’s quake near the Solomon Islands, slightly South-east of Papua New Guinea. A tsunami watch has been instituted, but luckily nothing has been reported yet, possibly because the earthquake struck at a depth of 73.4km.

In a message from Francois Botha, ZS6BUU, he says “The thought crossed my mind – the 40m band is dead currently. I would suggest that members – where possible – monitor their respective HAMNET Emergency Frequencies on both 2M and 70 cm links for possible traffic.

I am going to monitor 7.110 MHz, anyway but currently, it is of no use to man or amateur.”

He is about to move to Bloemfontein, and notes that, once there, he will become more active on the 2m and 70 cm links from there. For the rest he is going to try and erect some hidden antennas in his ceiling for 40/20 & 15 M either phone or digital communication.

We wish you well in your move, Francois, and hope you will settle in quickly!

If you are planning to travel over the next two weeks, and can operate VHF or HF from your vehicle, please monitor 7110kHz on HF, or a suitable VHF frequency for the Province or area you are in, and put out calls frequently to announce your presence, and to make it clear to others that you are listening. Please drive very defensively, and always presume the other driver is going to do something unexpected.

May I take this opportunity to wish all the listeners and readers a happy holiday, and a Merry Christmas where appropriate.

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

Between Tuesday and Friday this week, the Earth’s mantle continued to demonstrate its discomfort by producing no less that 55 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or higher. Most of them were around the Pacific Rim of Fire as usual, with a magnitude 6.4 shock starting us off on Wednesday the 7th at 00h03 our time just off the coast of Aceh Province in Indonesia. Jim Linton VK3PC of IARU region 3 has been reporting on this, and says Hams are operating emergency communications on 7110kHz there. In his third report on Thursday, Jim says:

“The death toll from the earthquake in Aceh (Indonesia) on Wednesday has reached 100, with nearly 300 injured, and hams providing emergency communications to help with the response. The earthquake struck at 5am local time on Wednesday and the toll could have been much worse with the collapse of school mosques, which were not occupied at the time. IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee’s Dani Hidayat YB2TJV reports that it took two hours for the Ham Radio Group from Orari Aceh Region to reach the earthquake damage zone. An ORARI  Aceh province team (wearing ORARI uniform) lead by Abdullah Ali YB6AA (President), and Ismul Huda YB6AG (Secretary) and other friends supported the emergency communications in the field at Pidie Jaya. They soon received news that Zainal Abidin YC6FZ was injured when his house collapsed but his family were safe. Ismul YB6AG took Zainal YC6FZ to the Banda Aceh Hospital for treatment. Dani YB2TJV reports that 7.110 MHz is being used for emergency traffic, and the activation of hams was notified on the Whatsapp Group of National CORE that handles resources. There were flattened houses and buildings, infrastructure damage and large cracks in roads, in the worst-affected districts of Pidie Jaya and Pidie. As search and rescue teams continued to check the rubble of at least 125 homes, 105 shops and 14 mosques, many hundreds sheltered in a make-shift refugee camp.” End quote.

Slightly East of all this, India is being threatened by Tropical Cyclone VARDAH – 16 as it barrels down on the South-East coast of the country. Wind-speeds of up to 154kph have been measured, and the storm hasn’t formally crossed the coastline yet, lying 840km South-SouthEast of Vishakhapatnam as I write this.

And near the Solomon Islands, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck at a depth of 10Km under the sea, generating a tsunami of up to 3 metres high, on Thursday the 8th, at 19h38 our time. Luckily, there have been no reports of major damage or loss of life. About 35500 people live within 100km of the quake’s epicentre.

In his final message to HAMNET Western Cape for 2016, at our end-of-year function, Grant Southey ZS1GS, Regional HAMNET Director, took the opportunity to thank those in attendance for their support and efforts throughout the year. He noted that not everyone could attend the event, so took the opportunity to thank everyone who had assisted. To everyone that responded to rescues under the auspices of WSAR, Mr Neville van Rensburg asked him to thank them all on his behalf. WSAR acknowledge our contributions and vital input to help save people when they require our services.

Grant continued: “Under the banner of Hamnet, we had an eventful year with the Journey for Sight & Service, The 99er Cycle race, The Two Oceans and the Transkaroo Cycle race.  We also had a few members assist at other WSAR affiliated organizations’ events such as Matroosberg and Cedarberg. The regular Wildrunner events, being Silvermine, Jonkershoek, Helderberg and Marloth Mountain Challenges, also provided ample opportunities for us to put into practice our knowledge and expertise. To all the operators that assisted on these events – THANK YOU! I would also like to make a special thank you to Matt Feinstein, Herlu Mare and Peter Dekker for arranging these events. It is always tough doing the arranging and your efforts do not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

”2017 is only a few days away and I do not see it as a repeat of the previous year, but rather as a year of opportunities where, as the leaders of the organisation, we are able to achieve more and better. I already have a planning session on the cards with a few members to help me forge the path forward and I know that we are up to the challenges that are laid before us.

“Remember that opportunities to help our fellow beings in times of need and disaster, take no holidays, so I ask that you remain vigilant and prepared to assist in whatever way you can, monitoring the designated frequencies and remaining “radio- active”. In closing I would like to wish you and your loved ones a peaceful and blessed festive season and I look forward to serving with you again next year.” End quote.

As a member of HAMNET Western Cape, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank Grant for providing a shining example of what a Regional Director ought to be. Grant leads by example, and sets a high standard for us all to aspire to!

While I’m at it, let me thank Paul van Spronsen, our National Director, and Francois Botha, our custodian of the FaceBook pages, for continuing to steer the ship so faithfully and carefully, ensuring that we remain the facet of amateur radio that all provincial disaster managements know they can rely on, for communications in times when regular systems don’t work. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?!

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

At 00h40 UTC on Friday morning the earth’s crust again demonstrated its instability when a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck a fairly densely populated part of Peru. The epicentre was only 3.56km below ground in the Puno area, where about 60000 people are within a 50km radius, and very likely to suffer damage to person and property. Another 800000 people live within 100km of the quake zone, but no news of major loss of life has been reported.

And from Jim Linton VK3PC, Chairman IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee, comes news that Tropical Cyclone Nada has developed to the East of Sri Lanka and will impact India this weekend. Gopal Madhavan VU2GMN reported that a severe cyclonic storm with heavy rains is predicted over the next few days and emergency amateur services were initiated as of Friday. He advised that 7070 kHz will be used on HF, as well as several VHF frequencies. Several control stations including VU2GMN are ready. Heavy rainfall will increase the risk of flooding of inland areas and winds are confined to near the storm. Weather experts are closely watching its movement which includes touching the northern edge of Sri Lanka and moving to India’s Western coast late Friday and into Saturday. While the cyclone may weaken over Southern India, eyes are watching for a second cyclone that could develop in the first half of next week.
 

The KwaZulu-Natal government launched its latest roll-out of lightning rods, aimed at disaster stricken communities last weekend. Lightning conductors are crucial for the protection of rural communities which have borne the brunt of the extreme weather across the province.

December and January have traditionally proved to be the most deadly time of year. The roll-out of the lightning rods was specifically targeted at rural communities and the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs has partnered with municipalities in ensuring that public spaces such as community halls, clinics, and schools had lightning rods installed, especially in high-risk areas.

The roll-out included a massive awareness campaign that also encouraged communities to buy the lightning rods at their local hardware supplies for their own homes. Each lightning rod provides a circle of protection of about 100 metres, so each village or suburb in a vulnerable area needs many of these needles in the sky to protect the local property and people. Twenty five people have so far died in KZN this year from lightning strikes.

In a prelude to a story that is going to grow over the next 5 years or so, research is being conducted in the South Pacific to determine to what extent drones can play a part in mapping disasters and planning relief efforts. The researchers are backed by the Australian Red Cross and the Department of Foreign Affairs, and will travel to Fiji and Vanuatu, and surrounding small islands, hit by tropical storms last year, and cut off from aid for up to 4 days after the disasters. Mapping of disaster areas, and the determination of exact coordinates of damage to buildings and other infrastructure by small drones will considerably speed up aid by the countries themselves, or from neighbouring states. As drone technology improves and expands, this kind of rescue service will become commonplace, so watch this space for future developments.

The annual SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) on-the-air activity took place in the United States yesterday from 00h00 until 23h59 UTC. Developed by the ARRL and the National Weather Service (NWS) in 1999, SKYWARN Recognition Day honours the contributions that SKYWARN volunteers make to the NWS mission — the protection of life and property during threatening weather. During the SKYWARN Special Event, hams operated from several NWS offices. W1AW took part in the event. So did WX4NHC at the National Hurricane Centre, on HF, VHF, and UHF, plus APRS and WinLink. WX4NHC activity centred on the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) frequency, 14.325 MHz.

The object of the event is for all participating Amateur Radio stations to exchange contact information with as many NWS stations as possible on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, and 2 meters, as well as 70 centimetres. Contacts via repeaters are permitted. Stations exchange call signs, signal reports, locations, and a one or two-word description of the weather at their respective locations (e.g., “sunny,” “rainy,” “partly cloudy,” “windy”). NWS stations use various modes, including SSB, FM, AM, RTTY, CW, and PSK31. Thank you to the ARRL Letter for this excerpt.

Two of our regions will be holding end-of-year meetings this week. On Wednesday evening, HAMNET Western Cape will hold its final meeting at the Roll Bar at Killarney race track. This will take the form of an early bring-and-braai at 18h00, and members are all invited to bring their “significant others” and some meat to braai. The bar will be open, and fires will be provided.

And HAMNET KwaZulu-Natal will hold its final meeting next Saturday the 10th, at 12h30 for 13h00, at 84 Signals Unit in Old Fort Road. This will be a meeting as usual, but will finish with the usual bring-and-braai, and all members are heartily invited to attend. All the provinces need rain, but let’s hope Wednesday evening in Cape Town, and Saturday midday in Durban are not washed out!

Talking of rain, the dam report has been issued by the Department of Water and Sanitation, and I’m mildly relieved to tell you that the dams are almost exactly at the same levels as last week. The country-wide average is 50% full, as it was last week, but still down on the 62% full this week last year. At least there has been no further deterioration in the situation. Please do all in your power not to use water if you can help it.

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