HAMNET Report 2nd February 2025

Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ has sent me news of the Fast One cycle race held in Midvaal over the weekend of the 25th and 26th January. He says:

”It was a late night and early morning for the members of the Sasolburg Amateur Radio Club and HAMNET, but their hard work at the 2025 Midvaal Fast One is appreciated.

“Think of the Midvaal Fast One and you immediately think of hundreds of cyclists taking the long route. However, there are also the organizers, the volunteers and the emergency services who all have a task or six for the day.

“Who keeps all the people in touch with each other? On Sunday, it was once again the men and women of Sasolburg Amateur Radio Club and HAMNET who ensured that all racing vehicles could be followed on the computer. They also had volunteers at the water points who were in radio contact with the radio club’s temporary operations centre.

“We know where everyone is on the road at all times and can provide assistance immediately. This gives peace of mind for the cyclists and the organizers.

“This year we also provided the front vehicle, you know the one that rode out before the first riders in the 100km. We view cycle races and marathons as training sessions should a disaster occur somewhere,” said Gideon Jannasch.

“On Sunday, we again ensured that the nearest ambulance and emergency vehicle were informed of the exact location of a cyclist in need. On a previous occasion, we even had to get the helicopter out for a cyclist who had suffered a skull fracture.”

“Sasolburg Amateur Radio Club celebrates their 60th anniversary this year and is part of the SA Radio League, which is celebrating its centenary this year.

The team offers their services free of charge and most of the time uses their own equipment. A big day like the Midvaal Fast One keeps them busy for at least two full days: the first to equip all the emergency vehicles and then the full-time service during the race.

“Yet the men and women enjoy their unique, diverse hobby and are always ready to provide the necessary support through radio communication in any emergency operation.”

Thank you to Brian for sending me the report and the team of 15 volunteers who took part! And Happy Birthday to you Brian for yesterday!

Here’s some intriguing technology for you.

When astronomers detected the first long-predicted gravitational waves in 2015, it opened a whole new window into the Universe. Before that, astronomy depended on observations of light in all its wavelengths. We also use light to communicate, but mostly radio waves. Could we use gravitational waves to communicate?

The idea is intriguing, though beyond our capabilities right now. Still, there’s value in exploring the hypothetical, as the future has a way of arriving sooner than we sometimes think.

New research examines the idea and how it could be applied in the future. It’s titled “Gravitational Communication: Fundamentals, State-of-the-Art and Future Vision,” and it’s available on the pre-press site arxiv.org. The authors are Houtianfu Wang and Ozgur B. Akan. Wang and Akan are both with the Internet of Everything Group, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, UK.

“The discovery of gravitational waves has opened a new observational window for astronomy and physics, offering a unique approach to exploring the depths of the universe and extreme astrophysical phenomena. Beyond its impact on astronomical research, gravitational waves have also garnered widespread attention as a new communication paradigm,” the authors explain.

Traditional electromagnetic communications have definite drawbacks and limitations. Signals get weaker with distance, which restricts range. Atmospheric effects can interfere with radio communications and diffuse and distort them. There are also line-of-sight restrictions, and solar weather and space activity can also interfere.

What’s promising about gravitational wave communication (GWC) is that it could overcome these challenges. GWC is robust in extreme environments and loses minimal energy over extremely long distances. It also overcomes problems that plague electromagnetic communication (EMC), like diffusion, distortion, and reflection. There’s also the intriguing possibility of harnessing naturally created GWs, which means reducing the energy needed to create them.

“Gravitational communication, also known as gravitational wave communication, holds the promise of overcoming the limitations of traditional electromagnetic communication, enabling robust transmission across extreme environments and vast distances,” the authors point out.

Definitely food for thought! Now, how to get a gravitational wave generator to fit in the handheld I’m currently carrying?

Thank you to Evan Gough, reporting in universetoday.com.

Thejournal.ie reports that the secure communications network used by Ireland’s Emergency Services “went down for a period” during Storm Éowyn, according to the HSE’s CEO.

TETRA, which stands for “Terrestrial Trunked Radio”, is the secure radio network used by the likes of Ambulance Services, gardaí, the Coast Guard, and the Civil Defence.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, HSE CEO Bernard Gloster said that the TETRA radio communications system used by the Ambulance Service “went down for a period” during Storm Éowyn.

“That’s now, in the majority, restored and the service is functioning well,” added Gloster.

The Journal has obtained radio traffic from a Coast Guard station struggling to reach islanders off the West Coast during the storm via Tetra.

Gloster also said all of the HSE’s services have been restored following significant disruptions due to Storm Éowyn.

“There was a lot of concern last weekend,” said Gloster.

“And I know there have been anecdotal stories of concern about people who have experienced loss of power and water and heat, and of their dependency on electric items for things like home dialysis, for pressure relief in mattresses and so on.

“All of our high dependency patients were contacted pre and post the storm and no adverse events have been reported.

“That’s not to underestimate the difficulty and challenge people are experiencing now where they’re without heat, power, water, and the communications network has affected us all.”

The usual fix for an outage would be personal mobile phones but these were unavailable because of power outages. The other issue is that they no longer have analogue services available except in marine units. 

It is understood that more than 180 base locations which broadcast the system were hit.

It seems that this was one wild storm..

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