I’d like to begin this bulletin by pointing out what must be very obvious to most of you – the lack of news in these bulletins relative to amateur radio emergency communications in South Africa. I assure you I am very aware of this deficit.

It stems from the absence of communications news relative to disaster or sporting events in this country. I spend 2 hours every week scouring news sources for information which pertains to communications, without much success.

As a result, these bulletins are filled out with science, space or biological reports which may be of interest to you. I will continue to do so, if no specific reports emanate from the HAMNET divisions.

Riaan Greeff ZS4PR, Divisional Director of HAMNET for the Free State Province has questioned the degree to which amateurs should, but don’t, ensure their intercommunicability with other nearby hams with a view to conveying news of local happenings, or disaster management.

He says that “the Free State SARL members and the new radio amateurs in the Free State, are invited to make contact with him (Riaan ZS4PR HAMNET Director Free State).  2026 will be a year of training, and refreshing member’s knowledge about their function within the HAMNET structure, general radio preparedness and the effective integration with other HAMNET groups.  To date there are just over 20 active radio amateurs on the HAMNET membership list.  The majority of amateurs are in the Vaal region. 

“It is surprising to see how many radio amateurs are involved with other groups of safety and protection, but are not members of HAMNET.  As radio amateurs, our core advantage is to be able to ensure we set up communication in the case of disasters and emergencies.  Yet we do not do this. We as radio amateurs are not called upon when an industrial accident occurs. We are not called upon when fire or flooding hits our regions.”

He goes on to inform Free State hams about facilities and networks which are already running, and welcomes any ideas or suggestions for improvements to the way HAMNET functions in Division 4. He also invites interested parties to join the Free State WhatsApp group with a view to joining in the training. Thank you Riaan!

And Andrew Gray ZS2G, Divisional Director of HAMNET Eastern Cape has been reporting in the last 3 days of the electricity calamity befalling his area. There is a huge electricity outage which may take 2 weeks to sort out, as two towers in the Bethelsdorp-Greenbushes 132kV overhead powerline supply to the Nelson Mandela Bay municipal powerline collapsed, apparently due to vandalism combined with adverse weather conditions.

Andrew reminds his division that without electricity, water-pump stations that feed municipal areas will most likely be out, adding to the inconvenience and suffering in the area. Two weeks is a long time to be without guaranteed power, and commerce and industry will suffer severely.

A 79-year-old Sutherland man says he faces the prospect of moving home or losing decades of specialist radio research after plans were lodged for a 528-panel solar development at a nearby water treatment works.

The Northern Times reports that Scottish Water is seeking to install the large ground-mounted solar array and associated infrastructure at its Savalbeg Water Treatment Works, around a mile north-east of Lairg.

The proposed installation would sit within 100 metres of the home of Clive O’Hennessy, an amateur radio researcher and licensed radio operator living at Savalbeg.

Mr O’Hennessy moved to Savalbeg with his wife in August 2000, having been long-time visitors to the Lairg and Rogart area. He chose the location for its isolation and quiet environment.

He is now living alone at home following the passing of his wife last year, with his sons and their families based in South Wales.

Speaking about the proposal, Mr O’Hennessy said: “This application has been implemented without any consultation or even consideration to its neighbours.

“[It] will be within 100 metres of my house and I only found out about it by a comment that I came across by chance on Facebook.”

Mr O’Hennessy said his decision to settle at Savalbeg some 26 years ago was shaped by his work as an amateur radio researcher.

“I am an amateur radio enthusiast and moved to Savalbeg near Lairg to find an area that was extremely quiet in the VHF radio spectrum,” he said. “This was back in 2000.”

He now fears the proposed solar installation could bring that to an end, with the proximity of the panels to his transmission mast making continued operation impossible.

“A solar farm being erected so close to my home will generate a very large volume of electro-magnetic noise,” he said.

“The solar panels being less than 100 metres from my transmission mast will render continuance of my over 40 years of research and investigation into VHF propagation – via thermal reflections, aircraft reflection, reflection off the Aurora curtain, meteor reflection and even bouncing signals back from the surface of the moon – totally impracticable.

“To continue my research will require another move of home,” he said. “The water board will not compensate for this type of disruption to my life. My radio research is important to me, but the costs of a move of home will be prohibitive.”

Mr O’Hennessy said solar installations were a known source of radio interference and pointed to existing issues caused by a much smaller system nearby.

“My neighbour at Savalbeg Farm has 14 panels on his roof and these result in very strong radio noise if I beam towards his property, rendering a 45 degree quadrant unusable to me,” he explains.

Talking of propagation conditions, I’m sure many radio hams noted the total collapse of propagation this week, as the strongest geomagnetic storm to hit the earth in 20 years killed all communications on HF, a variety of satellite communications, and some GPS functions, but by way of compensation provided some of the best auroral lights at high latitudes in years. The Planetary K index rose to 9 on Tuesday, which is as high as it gets, and all you could hear on the shortwave radios was atmospheric noise. Fortunately by the weekend, the K index was simmering down to 4 again, and communications were becoming possible again.

Gideon Jannisch ZS4GJA, Director of HAMNET Vaal has informed me of the FastOne cycle race taking place today the 25^th in Meyerton and surrounds. There is a long 106km race, and a shorter 62km route. I look forward to giving you a follow-up report perhaps next week.

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

While Limpopo Province and other easterly areas of our country deal with extreme rainfall, flooding and washaways, southerly areas along the Cape Coast struggle with an approaching drought. Knysna has enough water for the community for another 10 days, and surrounding areas are not much better off.

Disaster alert teams have reported 19 deaths in Limpopo province in the last week, and huge areas of the Kruger Park are under water, while 631 guests at the rest camps have been evacuated from at least waist-high flooding.

The Limpopo government has conceded that it does not have the capacity to respond fully to the scale of flooding, as the province enters a fourth day of heavy rain.

This as the South African Weather Service has upgraded the warning to red level ten, the highest and most dangerous alert, signaling extreme weather conditions that pose a serious risk to life, infrastructure, and basic services.

Schools remain closed, several roads and bridges have been cut off, and essential services have been disrupted, with provincial officials admitting the damage has outpaced available equipment, personnel, and funding.

Authorities say damage assessments are continuing as communities remain on edge under a red level ten warning and uncertainty over when conditions will improve.

Meanwhile, municipalities in the Southern Cape are desperately making plans to truck water in to communities who will have nothing to drink or to wash and ablute with. The scene reminds me of the almost-drought in the Western Cape in 2017 which was narrowly averted.

And in the country itself, the Minister of Agriculture is planning to declare the Foot and Mouth disease status amongst cattle another State of Disaster. He said that he will table a declaration of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak as a state of disaster at the next Cabinet meeting.

On Wednesday, 15 January 2026, he outlined the national strategy for containing foot-and-mouth disease in South Africa.

“I have a clear roadmap for the protection of our national livestock herd and the restoration of South Africa’s international standing in the agricultural sector,” he said.

Since losing its foot-and-mouth disease-free status in 2019, South African farmers have faced unprecedented challenges.

“I have received many pleas for help, from commercial to communal farmers, who have borne the heavy burden of the recent outbreaks in the country,” he said.

“I must be frank with the nation: achieving FMD-free status is a monumental task that will not happen overnight.”

The Minister said the strategy will be phased over ten years, beginning with stabilisation and consolidation.

It will then move towards the eventual withdrawal of vaccination and final recognition of national freedom through vaccination by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

“I need to emphasise that vaccination is not a silver bullet to eradicate or manage this disease. It is merely one of the tools to combat the disease,” he said. The targeted vaccination will prioritise high-risk zones, with the goal of reaching at least 80% coverage in targeted cattle populations.

High-quality vaccines with high potency will be used during the campaign, especially the trivalent vaccines of SAT 1, 2, and 3, which are currently circulating in South Africa. The Minister added that he wants the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak declared as a state of disaster, which will allow for a better and less constrained response.

He said the state of disaster will allow them to get better cooperation from the police and traffic departments to assist with the movement control of animals.

Marineinsight.com reported on Wednesday that all 21 fishermen onboard a local fishing vessel were rescued safely after a fire broke out on the vessel off the coast of Gqeberha on Monday evening.

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said its Gqeberha duty crew was alerted at 17:52 on Monday, January 12, after a member of the public reported seeing a fishing vessel on fire about one nautical mile offshore of Noordhoek.

At the same time, maritime authorities monitoring radio communications intercepted a Mayday distress call on VHF marine Channel 16 from the fishing vessel Silver Dorado, reporting a fire onboard and that all 21 crew members were preparing to abandon the vessel.

NSRI crews were immediately mobilised to respond from Station 6, while shore teams were sent directly to Noordhoek. Rescue craft Bay Guardian and Rescue 6 Alpha were launched.

Eastern Cape Government Health EMS, the South African Police Service, Transnet National Ports Authority Port Control at the Port of Port Elizabeth, the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre were all alerted.

Telkom Maritime Radio Services broadcast an all-ships alert on VHF Channel 16, asking vessels in the area to assist. Several fishing vessels nearby responded to the distress call and headed towards the burning vessel.

The fishing vessel Legugu was one of the first to arrive and launched its own life raft to assist crew members who had entered the water near the burning vessel. By this stage, all 21 fishermen had abandoned the vessel into the sea.

NSRI reported that Legugu rescued 12 fishermen from the water and from a life raft. The fishing vessel Raka rescued four crew members, Maverick rescued another four, and Vulcan rescued one fisherman. All 21 crew members were accounted for and reported to be safe.

When NSRI rescue craft arrived, all survivors were already onboard four fishing vessels. The fishermen were transferred onto NSRI’s rescue craft Bay Guardian, with the transfers carried out in stages by Rescue 6 Alpha. They were then taken to the NSRI rescue base at the Port of Port Elizabeth.

All 21 men were medically assessed by EMS paramedics at the rescue base and were confirmed to have no injuries and to require no further medical treatment. NSRI said all crew members are believed to be South African.

The burning fishing vessel continued to drift towards Cape Recife. NSRI’s rescue craft Rescue 6 Alpha monitored the vessel’s movement and speed on behalf of SAMSA. Authorities later confirmed that the vessel was near a reef close to Cape Recife and was still on fire.

SAMSA has said that the vessel’s owners have appointed a salvage and spill response company. However, efforts to reach the vessel were limited due to the dangerous reef and darkness during the night, and monitoring of the situation is ongoing.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined and will be investigated by SAMSA along with the South African Police Service. Telkom Maritime Radio Services has issued navigational warnings to alert vessels to the hazard at sea.

NSRI added that the fishing vessel had left the Port of Port Elizabeth earlier and was heading towards fishing grounds when the fire started.

Nest week, I hope to have a report of a rescue of an injured fire-fighter, in which HAMNET took part!

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, apologizing for the total lack of any HAMNET-related news in these bulletins, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa

For those not aware of the extreme heat wave and windy conditions causing fires to rage in the Southern Cape coastal areas, Eye Witness News issued a summary on Friday, saying that firefighters in the Western Cape have their hands full trying to put out several fires in the Overberg and Garden Route areas.

In the Overberg region there are currently three raging fires in Stanford, Pearly Beach, and Greyton. The municipality said the Pearly Beach fire – which has entered its fifth day – has spread all the way to Stanford wineries.

Garden Route district firefighters are also batting two wildfires in Mossel Bay and Tsitsikama. The N2 between Dana Bay and Langeberg Mall in Mossel Bay has since been reopened after it was closed in both directions due to smoke.

Overberg District Municipality Fire Chief, Reinard Geldenhuys, said firefighters are also busy trying to put out other small fires in the region.

“The Greyton fire was contained but, with the strong westerly wind, the fire jumped the road to Riviersonderend and it’s currently burning in the mountain. There is a fire just outside our area that’s also running, a small one in Villiersdorp.”

Meanwhile, the Franschhoek fire remains out of control and a fire at De Wet Cellar in Worcester is burning in the direction of De Doorns.

And in the Eastern Cape, the Kouga Municipality has issued an immediate evacuation order for residents in several high-risk areas as fires rage uncontrollably.

Residents of the Zwartenbosch area along the R330 towards Hankey were instructed to evacuate without delay after flames spread on both sides of the road, threatening homes, farms and nearby infrastructure, including a poultry farm in the area. The municipality said the cause of the fire remains unknown, but worsening weather conditions have significantly hampered containment efforts.

Dense smoke has also forced the closure of the N2 between Jeffreys Bay and Humansdorp, with motorists urged to avoid the area entirely.

Kouga Mayor Hattingh Bornman said firefighters were dealing with multiple active fire fronts as winds repeatedly changed direction.

“With the increasing wind and change of direction, the fire has flared up again and currently we have two situations; on the R330 between Humansdorp and Hankey, as well as between St Francis and Humansdorp. The fire on the Kromme River is out of control, and we are asking residents who live close by to evacuate with immediate effect so that we don’t suffer any loss of life,” Bornman said.

The evacuation order also extends to residents along Oyster Bay Road, surrounding farming areas, and the Kromme River and Riverside communities.

Authorities urged residents not to delay and to follow instructions from emergency services, confirming that temporary accommodation would be made available for displaced families.

At the other weather extreme, GDACS is reporting heavy snowfall, freezing rains, strong winds, and very low temperatures affecting most of the United Kingdom (UK) and northern France (due to the storm Goretti) and northern Germany (due to the storm Ellie) over the last 24 hours, causing disruptions.

In the UK, GDACS reports several school closures, closed roads, rail transport disruptions, closed airports, cancelled flights, and cancelled ferry transports, while France experienced rail transport disruptions, some closed roads, and around 380 000 power outages, and in Germany  several traffic accidents, some closed roads, rail and bus transport disruptions and flight cancellations were reported.

Over the next 48 hours, more severe weather is forecast over the already affected countries. Several warnings were issued by the national meteorological offices of all three countries.

GDACS is also reporting floods in Malaysia, Indonesia, Zambia and Tanzania, and there are flood alerts out in Bosnia and Hertzegovina, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.

Two interesting stories coming from space research have an impact on life right here at home.

Mark Thomson, writing for Guide to Space, notes that surface terrain can make travelling by vehicle in that kind of area difficult or impossible. Nothing remarkable about that! In exploring stony or rocky paths it does mean that vehicles with small wheel diameters are likely to get stuck.

But, a research team led by Professor Dae-Young Lee from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology found an elegant solution by looking backward in time. They combined principles from Leonardo da Vinci’s self-supporting bridge designs with origami folding patterns to create a wheel that transforms without any traditional mechanical joints.

The wheel uses an elastic metal frame and fabric tensioners that flex rather than pivot. This design can expand from a compact 230 millimetres to 500 millimetres in diameter, more than doubling its size. A small rover equipped with these wheels maintains a low profile during transport but gains the climbing ability of a much larger vehicle once deployed on the lunar surface.

The team put the wheel through rigorous testing using artificial lunar soil. It demonstrated superior traction on loose slopes and survived a drop impact equivalent to falling 100 metres in lunar gravity. The metal frame proved flexible enough to transform reliably while rigid enough to support the rover’s weight across loose regolith.

While all this will work well in near weightless environments, it may need a bit of work to be modified for work on earth, but one never knows.

Writing in the same edition of Guide to Space, Mark reports on an experiment with adult mice sent to the Chinese Space Station on 31^st October. For two weeks, the rodents lived in microgravity, exposed to space radiation and the peculiar conditions of orbital life. They returned safely on 14 November. Then, on 10 December, one of the females gave birth to nine healthy pups. And that simple fact might matter more than you’d think for humanity’s future beyond Earth.

In this study six of the offspring survived, which researchers consider a normal survival rate. The mother is nursing properly, and the pups are active and developing well. Wang Hongmei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Zoology, emphasised the significance of their discovery that short term spaceflight didn’t damage the mouse’s ability to reproduce.

This wasn’t just about sending mice to space for the sake of it. Mice share high genetic similarity with humans, reproduce quickly, and respond to physiological stresses in ways that often mirror human biology. If space breaks something fundamental about mammalian reproduction, mice would show it first.

Now researchers will monitor these “space pups” closely, tracking their growth curves and checking for physiological changes that might hint at hidden effects from their mother’s space exposure. They’ll also test whether these offspring can reproduce normally themselves, searching for multi-generational impacts.

Noting that it has taken me about 13 years since I first started writing these articles to get sex into the HAMNET report, this is Dave Reece ZS1DFR reporting for HAMNET in South Africa!

May I start by wishing you all a very healthy and happy 2026? May your appreciation of amateur radio, and the service you can offer to others using ham radio, expand and develop in the coming year.

Greg Mossop G0DUB, the IARU Region One Emergency Communications Coordinator has issued a greetings bulletin at the start of the New Year. In it, he mentions that 25 events, activities, or disasters were managed by the IARU Region One Emcomm operators, in the 5 year period since 2020.

He notes: “When you look through them you will wonder why some countries events are not reported, or why other events get mentioned which you did not even know about. Sharing information between our groups is useful so we can learn from each other, and it also helps us understand we are not alone and even if we live in countries where we are not called for often, amateur radio does still have a role and we can use these examples to inform our authorities. 

“I am hoping for a more balanced year ahead with more focus on training than administration and more time to promote what we do to a wider audience. My thanks to you, your families and all of your volunteers across the region for your support of Emergency Communications this year and I hope you all have a happy, healthy and safe 2026.”

Thank you Greg, we in South Africa reciprocate your greetings. We are very grateful to you for the professional lead you take and the guidance we all receive.

Thursday the 1^st marked the 125^th anniversary of the Lizard Wireless Station’s inauguration at a remarkable clifftop site in Cornwall, on the English west coast, that played a pivotal role in the early history of wireless communication and helped change how the world connects.

Voicenewspapers.co.uk says that it was opened on the first of January 1901, and became one of the first commercial wireless telegraphy stations in the world, communicating with ships up to 80 miles away and pushing the boundaries of what was thought possible at the time.

Later that same month, the station achieved a world record when it successfully received a wireless signal from St Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight – proving for the first time that radio waves could follow the curvature of the Earth.

This breakthrough paved the way for long-distance communication and laid crucial groundwork for Guglielmo Marconi’s famous transatlantic transmission from nearby Poldhu later that year.

Today, the Lizard Wireless Station remains a place where history is not only preserved but actively lived.

Cared for by the National Trust and supported by passionate volunteers, the site continues to operate as an amateur radio station, connecting modern radio enthusiasts with the very landscape and conditions that made these early experiments possible.

To mark the 125th anniversary, the station’s historic call sign GB125LWS will be active throughout January, and visitors will be welcomed inside, offering a rare glimpse into a site where global communication history was made.

A review in irishtimes.com says that the 10 most costly climate-related disasters in 2025 caused 100 billion Euros worth of damage. The analysis carried out for Christian Aid shows the wildfires that raged in California last January were the most expensive in financial terms, assessed at more than €51 billion.

A spate of cyclones and associated extreme rain and flooding in November killed 1,750 people and cost at least $25 billion in Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Malaysia. Extreme flooding in China, India and Pakistan; back-to-back typhoons in the Philippines, Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, floods in Texas and a prolonged drought in Brazil each caused damages exceeding $1 billion while hundreds of people died.

Wildfires destroyed 47,000 hectares of moor, woodland and highlands in Britain; 260,000 hectares in Portugal and 383,000 hectares in Spain.

Drought crippled several countries in South America, Iran and west Asia while floods caused devastation in Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The world is paying an ever-higher price for a crisis we already know how to solve,” said Joanna Haigh, emeritus professor of atmospheric physics at Imperial College London.

“These disasters are not ‘natural’ – they are the inevitable result of continued fossil fuel expansion and political delay.”

Christian Aid said while the high bills arose in richer countries, the impact of climate-related disasters was disproportionately severe in poorer countries.

They said that “long-pledged financial support is still not flowing to developing countries at the scale and speed required.

“In 2026, world leaders must address this injustice and act with urgency. This means meeting our climate finance targets, investing in climate action, and breaking our dependence on fossil fuels urgently to reduce emissions.”

Thank you to irishtimes.com for that news.

A report from indiandefencereview.com says that, high above storm clouds where commercial jets don’t fly and conventional satellites cannot observe in detail, scientists have begun collecting data on elusive electrical discharges known as transient luminous events (TLEs). These phenomena include red sprites, blue jets, and ELVES—brief, high-altitude bursts of light triggered by lightning that occur far above thunderclouds.

From the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts are now documenting these discharges with unprecedented precision. Instruments installed outside the station are capturing high-speed images and radiation measurements, giving scientists fresh insight into how these flashes may affect Earth’s atmosphere, long-distance radio communications, and even climate processes.

The renewed focus on storm-generated upper-atmospheric electricity is reshaping how researchers understand severe weather systems. By viewing lightning activity from orbit, space agencies are opening a new frontier in atmospheric research, offering evidence that storm energy often travels far beyond the visible storm cloud.

The ESA’s Atmosphere–Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM), installed on the ISS in 2018, plays a central role in observing upper-atmospheric lightning. Built by Danish aerospace firm Terma and operated from a control centre in Belgium, ASIM is designed to detect light, ultraviolet radiation, and X-rays from rare electrical phenomena occurring between 20 and 100 kilometres above Earth’s surface.

Its position outside the station allows it to record events above large thunderstorm systems, particularly in equatorial regions. ASIM’s instruments include high-speed photometers and X-ray sensors that identify and record brief discharges like ELVES, which appear as large, expanding rings of light, and red sprites, which look like vertical bursts resembling jellyfish.

Earth.com noted that ASIM confirmed that lightning-like discharges can emit enough electromagnetic energy to reach the ionosphere, the charged layer of the atmosphere that supports long-range radio communication. These vertical pulses, triggered by storm activity, may influence how radio signals travel across continents, creating potential disruptions to aviation, naval and military communications systems, (not to mention signals of radio amateurs).

Thanks to indiandefencereview.com for these paragraphs.

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