I start this bulletin with the sad news that Francois Botha, originally ZS6BUU and now ZS4X, has said farewell to his wife Estelle, after a long and difficult battle with cancer. HAMNET salutes you Francois, and hopes you will weather this storm, comforted by the thought that you left no stone unturned in your care for your wife.

Francois was the originator of this weekly HAMNET report, and for many years the National Director of HAMNET, before he stood down to care for his wife. Our deepest sympathies to you, Francois.

I’m also able to report this week that the Hurricanes and Typhoons are quietening down a bit. Hurricane SARA resulted in 7 deaths and countless people displaced in the Caribbean, but was destined to settle down by Wednesday past. Typhoon MANYI has crossed the Philippines and has dissipated in the sea south of Hainan island, leaving injury but luckily no deaths.

A smaller storm called BHEKI, approached Mauritius and Reunion, with wind speeds of about 75km/h, and was due to pass by the islands, dissipating on Friday the 22^nd.

Let’s hope lots of mopping up can be done before any more storms arise.

Writing in airport-technology.com, Steve Giroux, of Barrett Communications notes that Africa’s diverse environments present significant challenges for long-distance communications technologies. Spanning vast deserts, dense forests, and mountainous regions, the continent’s varied environments can present major obstacles to the deployment of traditional communications infrastructure and can result in limited connectivity, particularly in remote areas.

High-frequency (HF) radio offers a reliable solution to maintain effective communications in such conditions. HF radio systems do not require extensive infrastructure, making them ideal for emergency services, armed forces, logistics and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in potentially adverse environments with limited accessibility. Additionally, HF radios allow communications across vast distances, which is crucial in emergency scenarios where rapid coordination is necessary.

HF radio has advantages over satellite communication systems, as it does not require extensive ground infrastructure and is “free to air”. In addition, HF radio is ideal for remote environments and can be integrated into existing infrastructure to enhance communications capabilities.

Countries in Africa with high quality and reliable power infrastructure obviously are more able to guarantee quality HF communications, while it is a lot more challenging in countries with unreliable power. However, HF is still the most efficient way to carry out long distance communications in Africa.

Thanks to airport-technology.com for this summary.

Businesstech.co.za says that The National Disaster Management Centre in South Africa has declared another National Disaster.

Dr Bongani Elias Sithole, the Head of the National Disaster Management Centre, declared the national disaster due to the loss of life from poor food safety practices in the country.

Sithole received reports from several organs of state and made his decision after assessing the magnitude and severity of the foodborne illness that emanates from or may still emanate from poor food safety practices in the country.

These poor food safety practices have led to deaths and serious illnesses across the country, which resulted in the classification as a National Disaster. As per legislation, the primary responsibility to coordinate and manage this disaster lies with the National Executive.

The classification of a National Disaster follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on Friday, 15 November, where he outlined the plans to get all spaza shops in the country registered within 21 days.

Unregistered spaza shops that do not meet health standards are set to be closed.

Ramaphosa’s plan comes after 890 incidents of food-borne illnesses have been reported nationwide, with Gauteng and Kwazulu-Natal (the two most populated provinces) reporting the most.

I have received a report from Brain Jacobs ZS6YZ, deputy National Director of HAMNET, telling me of the search that was conducted on Wednesday of this week for an ELT beacon that had been detected in the region of the Wonderboom Airport.

Brian ZS6YZ and Anja ZS6SJC live close to the Airport, but were unable to hear the beacon from their home, so they then drove to the airport, where the signal was audible but not very strong. It seemed to be coming from the Technical Area on the West side of the airport. Brian and Anja obtained permits of entry and started a systematic search for the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT).

Brian and his daughter followed the signal and narrowed it down to the South West corner of the Technical Area, so split up and proceeded down either side of a row of hangars, where suddenly it was clear that the signal was very strong. Both Brian on one side and Anja on the other side of the hangar confirmed a building as the source of the signal.

They found one of the hangar doors to be open, and proceeded into the building, removing the antennas from their handhelds to attenuate the signals. There they found an aircraft where the beacon was located.

Brian alerted the team from ARCC in their ATNS marked vehicle, the owner was identified, the beacon switched off, and some stern words conveyed.

The Mountain Club of SA – Search and Rescue Gauteng had also been mobilised, because they wanted to try out their new ELT detection device, but unfortunately their inexperience led to them getting bogged down by reflections amongst the metal hangars.

Brian invited the members of MCSA to the next HAMNET Gauteng ELT training session, to build their experience and capabilities with their new equipment.

Thanks to Brian for the report and to him and Anja for successfully finding the source of the noise.

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

I am starting to sound like a stuck record. The news of the world contains only natural disaster reports, but we’ll start in South Africa, which has declared a national disaster after floods and storms caused widespread damage in the country, allowing the government to free up funds for relief and reconstruction.

Disruptive rains, floods, strong winds and hail from October 22 to 29 affected the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Limpopo, North-West, Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces, Elias Sithole, head of the National Disaster Management Centre, said in an official notice on Wednesday. That caused damage to property, infrastructure and the environment, and disrupted the provision of basic services, he said.

The floods left at least 10 people dead and hundreds more displaced in the Eastern Cape alone, Johannesburg-based broadcaster eNCA reported.

The declaration of a national disaster assigns primary responsibility for the coordination and management of the clean-up to the national government, Sithole said.

The announcement comes almost a year after South Africa proclaimed a climate-related national disaster following floods and storms in three coastal provinces in September and October 2023.

In addition to last month’s storms, the country had unseasonal snow in September that closed a major highway for two days, and a major snowfall in November for the first time in 85 years.

Poor old Cuba has been struck again, this time by an earthquake, of magnitude 6.8, just off the South coast at a depth of 14km. No tsunami was generated, but 51000 people were exposed to severe shaking.

And hot on the earthquake’s heels, comes a warning for Tropical Storm SARA, which is threatening Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala and Mexico. Cuba has only just said goodbye to RAFAEL, with maximum measured wind speeds of 194km/h.

Carlos CO2JC, he of IARU Region 2, said on Thursday that “During the early hours of today, the low pressure area in the central Caribbean Sea became a tropical depression and later Tropical Storm SARA. At 18:00 UTC its centre was located NE of Cabo Gracias a Dios, on the border between Nicaragua and Honduras and 330 km ESE of Guanaja Island, Republic of Honduras. SARA is moving west at a rate of 19 km/h. Since this (Thursday) morning, it has been raining in towns in eastern Honduras, especially in the regions of Gracias a Dios and Colon.

“In the next 24 to 48 hours, Tropical Storm SARA is expected to move along a similar track, slowing down its speed, very close to the coast of Honduras. During its movement over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea it may gain a little more in organization and intensity.

“For this reason we have received a request from the emergency coordinators of Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua to protect the following emergency frequencies:

“40m band: 7080 kHz, 7143 kHz, 7198 kHz

“2m band: 146.520 MHz, 147.300 MHz (+600KHz offset)

“Earlier today we learned through Juan de la Cruz Rodriguez Perez (YN1J), that they are listening on Echolink “CONFERENCE ZONE YN“, linked to the Node YN1J-L and remain alert for any help that can be provided.”

Thank you to Greg G0DUB for passing on those frequencies to avoid.

Not to be outdone, Philippines has 4 orange or red alerts for Tropical Cyclones bearing down on it. Cyclone YINXING is threatening Philippines with 231km/h winds, Cyclone USAGI has maximum wind speeds of 185km/h, Cyclone TORAJI has positively boring wind speeds of 148km/h, and MANYI, still a way off, has wind speeds of 231km/h. So far this hurricane season, Philippines has been struck by eleven tropical storms, and is, for the third year running, the most disaster-prone country in the world. The resilience of the Filipino people must be extraordinary, as they have hardly picked up the pieces from last week’s cyclone, or several from last year’s season, before being struck by the next one. Just how many times can one rebuild one’s house?

In 2018, on August 12^th to be precise, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe, designed to fly towards the sun, using Venus gravity assist flyby’s to adjust its trajectory into a final orbital configuration, which will bring the spacecraft closer to the sun than any human made object has ever been.

After its November the 6^th flyby, Parker will be on course to swoop within 6 million kilometres of the solar surface, the final objective of the historic mission first conceived over 65 years ago. No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker’s data will be charting as-yet uncharted territory. In this hyper-close route, Parker will cut through plumes of plasma still connected to the Sun. It is close enough to pass inside a solar eruption, like a surfer diving under a crashing ocean wave.

“This is a major engineering accomplishment,” said Adam Szabo, mission scientist for Parker Solar Probe at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The closest approach to the Sun, or perihelion, will occur on Dec. 24, 2024, during which mission control will be out of contact with the spacecraft. Parker will send a beacon tone on Dec. 27, 2024, to confirm its success and the spacecraft’s health. Parker will remain in this orbit for the remainder of its mission, completing two more perihelia at the same distance.

Personally, I’m a bit concerned that the solar probe will be cooked to a cinder in the sun’s corona, without being able to send back any useful science, but this doesn’t seem to be bothering the mission scientists, and I guess they have done their sums. Anyway, it is the 27^th December we must wait for, to get that beacon tone to signal its health.

Thanks to science.nasa.gov for extracts from their report.

In a good example of lateral thinking, scientists decided to ask Gophers (or burrowing rodents) to rescue the ecology of a volcanic eruption. This started with the eruption of Mount St. Helens in May of 1980, which caused staggering ecological damage. Faced with a devastation that would take the local environment a substantial amount of time to recover from, scientists were open to unorthodox ideas that might speed the process along.

Specifically, as laid out in the University of California’s report, the thinking was “by digging up beneficial bacteria and fungi, gophers might be able to help regenerate lost plant and animal life on the mountain.” So, just two years after the devastating eruption, that’s exactly what scientists did. They gathered up some gophers, brought them to the eruption site, and let them do their gopher thing.

And, six years after the gophers were placed on two specific plots of pumice for a single day, there were 40,000 plants thriving.   Nearby areas, that didn’t get the gophers, took much longer to recover. 40 years later, the microbial community fostered within those plots, specifically mycorrhizal fungi, are still allowing plant life to thrive in the area.

So, the interaction between burrowing animals, turnover of the soil, and the interactions between Mycorrhizal fungi and soil bacteria, should never be underestimated.

Perhaps the habitual digging by my Jack Russell should not be condemned after all.

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

On this Sunday closest to Remembrance Day, HAMNET salutes and remembers with respect those members of the Ham Fraternity who lost their lives in the world wars or in the commission of amateur radio activities during disasters of one sort or another.

 “At the going down of the Sun, and in the morning, we shall remember them”.

Tropical Cyclone KONG-REY eventually resulted in very heavy rainfall over Taiwan, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 185km/h, resulting in 3 fatalities and injuries to more than 690 people.

Another hurricane, this one becoming a category 3 storm, and called RAFAEL, started threatening western Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and central-western Cuba this week.. On 5^th November, it was registered as a category 1 storm, with winds blowing in the 150km/h range, and threatening 230000 people in its path. RAFAEL left Cuba’s 10 million residents without power, but, by the 7^th, had moved away from Cuba and was heading northwest towards the Gulf of Mexico.

Carlos CO2JC, again advised that, taking into account the approach and better organization for tropical storm Rafael, as well as the rains that have already affected areas of the central and eastern regions, they decided, in coordination with the National Staff of Civil Defence, to activate the National Emergency Network of the Cuban Radio Amateur Federation, starting at 16:00 EST (20:00 UTC) on November 5, 2024.

Carlos said that they will use 7110 kHz (primary) and 7120 (alternative) as working frequencies for shortwave (HF), and also, if the conditions of the stations allow it at night, 3720 kHz and 3740 kHz. In addition, the VHF frequencies of the different municipalities and the installed repeaters will be used live. In the capital, 145.550 MHz will also be used as a provincial emergency frequency.

Again, they requested the international ham fraternity to keep away from those frequencies, and allow emergency traffic to take precedence.

The ARRL said that the Hurricane Watch Net, the VoIP Hurricane Net, and WX4NHC, the amateur radio station at the National Hurricane Centre were activated until the night of the 6^th, local time, before being stood down.

And the Philippines was also clobbered by a category 1 tropical cyclone called YINXING, affecting about 22000 people in its path on the 5^th November. By the next day, GDACS was issuing a RED alert for the cyclone over the Philippines, with 1.6 million people facing the 120km/h winds, but maximum wind speeds forecast to reach 231km/h.

By Tuesday of this week, the death toll from the most severe natural disaster Spain has ever experienced stood at 221. 69 people are still missing, while 36000 people needed rescuing. 98% of areas without electricity have now had their power restored. Luckily the flood waters are subsiding progressively, but a return to normal life in the affected Provinces will take a long long time.

South Africa has also not escaped extreme weather, with several districts of Limpopo province, north-eastern South Africa experiencing heavy rain and hailstorms, causing floods and severe weather-related incidents that resulted in casualties and damage.

According to media, four people died across the worst-affected districts of Sekhukhune, Mopane and Vhembe. By the 7^th November, rainfall had subsided, although skies were still overcast.

Danie ZS1OSS, has sent me a formal report on the Annual Koeberg Nuclear Power Station Exercise, which I’ll quote properly now. He writes:

“The Annual Koeberg Nuclear Power Station Exercise was held on 24 October 2024. The purpose of the exercise is to prepare for the unlikely scenario where there may be a radiation leak from the power station, which necessitates the evacuation of residents and animals from the surrounding areas. Such an exercise involves Eskom staff, the City’s Disaster Risk Management Services, SA Police Service, SA National Defence Service, City Fire and Traffic Departments, Provincial Departments such as Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Human Settlements, the Robben Island Museum, the SPCA, Golden Arrow and MyCiti bus services, various media liaison organisations, and also HAMNET.

“HAMNET’s role is defined in its own emergency communications plan for Koeberg and similar disasters. Members are deployed to the DOC (Disaster Operations Centre at Goodwood) where the situation is monitored. If there are critical communication breakdowns, then HAMNET will operate the dedicated radio room for this purpose at the Disaster Risk Management Centre at Goodwood, and will deploy additional available members to where they are required to restore communications with the DOC.

“The exercise itself goes through the stages of initial containment, and escalates up to emergency levels where bus services are deployed to evacuate the public to mass care centres for decontamination. The location of the Mass Care Centres takes into account which direction the wind is blowing from Koeberg. Some aspects are simulated so this year the Koeberg emergency sirens were not activated and no residents were physically evacuated, but the Mass Care Centres were established where they need to be, and traffic roadblocks were put in place without hindering the traffic flow.

“The different Categories of Emergency are defined as:

• Unusual Events – unplanned incidents take place
• Alerts – requiring activation of all Koeberg emergency personnel
• Site emergencies – serious radiological hazards on site
• General emergencies – serious radiological hazards to the public

“For each category, additional actions are triggered and monitored as part of the exercise.

“After the completion of the exercise at 12:13 the instruction to stand down was sent out. There was a debriefing session held to discuss any lessons learnt and improvements that need to be made. As with all previous exercises there is always one or more lessons learnt, and this year was no exception. But this is exactly the purpose of holding regular exercises, so that role-players all get accustomed to what they need to do, how they work together as a team, and to improve what they will be doing the next time.

“This exercise was itself also a preparation for the Biennial Koeberg Nuclear Power Station National Nuclear Regulator Exercise to be held on 19 November 2024.

“Present from HAMNET Western Cape this year were Danie ZS1OSS and Shawn ZS1LED.”

Thank you, Danie and Shawn, for your conscientious support of these exercises, and the report.

Our radio station ZS1DCC is upstairs from the Disaster Operations Centre at Goodwood, and all equipment is permanently on and running, to be used at a moment’s notice if the Disaster plan calls for it.

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

It is Spain’s turn to receive the first mention in this week’s bulletin. Jose A Mendez EA9E, Spain’s National Emcomm Coordinator writes of what they call a “DANA”, which is Spanish for an isolated depression at high levels, and which recently affected the east and south of the country, bringing a year’s worth of rain to the region in 6 hours. We still call an isolated depression at high levels, a “cut-off low”.

This has resulted in flooding, river overflows and damage to infrastructure. The most affected communities include areas in the east and south of the country, such as the Valencian Community, Murcia and Andalusia. 

Emergency services are working to care for affected people and to recover damaged areas. Evacuations are also being carried out in high-risk areas. In addition, a meteorological alert has been activated in several provinces, and the population is advised to follow the instructions of local authorities.

In the areas affected by the DANA, telecommunications have been disrupted due to flooding and damage to infrastructure. It is common for mobile phone coverage and internet service to be down in emergency situations.

Operators are working to restore services as quickly as possible, but recovery times may vary depending on the severity of the damage and weather conditions. Local authorities usually provide updates on the telecommunications situation and the population is advised to stay informed through radio or media that do not depend on the internet. The REMER (Civil Protection Radio Emergency Network) is pre-alerted in the affected areas. The VHF-UHF repeaters are working correctly and providing coverage in the affected areas.

On Friday evening, I gathered that the death toll from the flooding was standing at 158.

And the red alert issued last Sunday by GDACS for Tropical Cyclone KONG-REY showed it to have arisen in the Guam region, and, travelling northwest, was skimming the top of the Philippines, and aiming squarely at Taiwan. Maximum expected wind speeds were in the 210km/h region, and it was expected to arrive in Taiwan on Wednesday the 30th. The storm was then expected to move along the southeast coast of mainland China, before threatening Japan. 15 million people were threatened with winds speeds in excess of 120km/h.

And from sciencenews.com this week, I have discovered that the very new field of Forensic Entomology is being used to investigate the worrying field of rhino poaching.

In 1988, police officers in Australia came for Ian Dadour. Not because the entomologist was under arrest, but because they needed his expertise. Investigators asked Dadour to estimate the ages of maggots found on a human body to help them gauge when a homicide victim had been killed. Dadour went on to teach this and other entomology-based forensic methods to the South African Police Service. Today, officers are using these tools to investigate another type of crime: rhino poaching.

South Africa is home to thousands of rhinos, including critically endangered black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) and near-threatened white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum). Poachers kill hundreds of rhinos every year, usually for the animals’ horns. The country’s police force adopted forensic entomology into its poaching prevention arsenal in 2014, training officers to collect insect evidence found at wildlife crime scenes.

The process works the same with rhinos as it does with humans, says Dadour, now of Source Certain, an Australian company that verifies the origin of agriculture and seafood. Officers collect adults, larvae and eggs of carrion insects such as flies and beetles from the victim. Carrion insects are quick to find and lay eggs on a dead body — often descending in under an hour — which then hatch and develop at a predictable pace. In that way, they act as a biological clock.

Forensic entomologists can estimate how long a body has been dead based on what insects are present and the life cycle stage of the insects’ offspring. That estimate is called a minimum postmortem interval. The method is most accurate before and during active decay; because, as decomposition progresses, accuracy drops. “When the conditions are right, it can be very useful,” says Martin Villet, a forensic entomologist based in Cape Town, South Africa. Investigators can use the data to track down killers, and prosecutors can use it as evidence in the courtroom. 

Dadour and Melanie Pienaar — a forensic entomologist at the South African Police Service — wanted to document which insects were used to investigate rhino deaths. They examined 19 cases of rhino poaching that were investigated in part using forensic entomology. Their analysis of the cases, which occurred between 2014 and 2021, involved tallying the various insect species present at each stage of decomposition, comparing the minimum postmortem interval estimates and factoring in the average ambient temperature during each time period.

Of the 119 insects collected from the rhinos, blowflies (Diptera) and beetles (Coleoptera) were the most abundant and useful for calculating the minimum postmortem interval for each rhino, the team reports October 9 in Medical and Veterinary Entomology. Some bugs (Hemiptera) were also present, but weren’t as helpful for these calculations.

Dadour has trained wildlife officers to use the technique outside of rhino poaching, for example when keeping tabs on endangered Australian marsupials called numbats (Myrmecobius fasciatus). It can also be used in animal cruelty cases.

However, forensic entomology isn’t widely used to investigate wildlife crimes,  Dadour says. For South Africa’s rhinos, at least, it and other anti-poaching measures have helped populations slowly increase, he says.

Thanks to Sciencenews.org for this evidence of progressive thinking in the fight against the threat of extinction facing the South African rhino.

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