Hamnet Western Cape has been busy this week. Our first report comes from Michael ZS1MJT our Regional Director for HAMNET, who writes that the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC) requested HAMNETs assistance at 11h47 on Saturday 17^th October, in locating a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) which had been detected as active in the area around Phillippi, Cape Town. HAMNET members were activated and from the locations received, tried tracking the beacon in the Kommetjie area and in the direction of Phillippi. No beacon was heard from either location.

After an hour of waiting at a high site to hear the beacon, a decision was made to move closer to the GPS coordinates received from ARCC. Driving round the area on the R300, we were able to hear the beacon with a strong signal as we approached the Heinz Park area. Some direction findings gave good landmarks to start the search. South African Police Services were called in, and we were then able to start searching in the area we identified as most obvious.

As most of the structures in the area are made from corrugated iron, there were a lot of reflections, and we drove and walked around the area as the signal was extremely strong. As dusk approached, we called off the search and headed home.

On Sunday morning, 18^th October, we resumed the search with some more triangulation. This time, all triangulation pointed to a particular double-storey building and we again requested the services of SAPS before entering the area. We went straight to where the signals were strongest and started on foot. Unfortunately, SAPS requested that we make it quick as they had some more urgent calls to attend to. We requested a drive around the block and were then able to locate the beacon. It was found in the glove compartment of a vehicle.

Once we retrieved the unit, we were able to switch it off and then inform ARCC as to the serial numbers and details of the unit.

I would like to thank SAPS for their help in escorting us to the area, ARCC for their patience during the search and Shawn, ZS1LED for his help and time in making this search a success.

Thank you, Michael, for the report and your personal efforts.

Danie ZS1OSS, our HAMNET liaison with Disaster Risk Management in the Western Cape, notes that part of the compliance requirements for the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station (KNPS), 20 km North of Cape Town CBD, includes an annual exercise with all disaster management agencies to show evidence of preparedness for any incident that may require evacuation of residents within varying radii and direction of Koeberg. The purpose of the exercises is:

* for the various agencies to practise the roles they each play

* to test their equipment and processes; and

* to practise their teamwork with the other agencies.

An annual station exercise is held in which only the local agencies take part, under the control of the City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management Centre (DRMC). Eskom’s KNPS feeds in the simulated situation as it unfolds, along with the prevailing weather conditions, while practising its own containment measures. The wind determines which way any simulated radiation plume may be travelling, and disaster management agencies need to plan accordingly. So if the wind is blowing from the NNW side, then a Mass Care Centre (MCC) cannot be set up on the southern side of KNPS. Sites are already identified for MCCs on the northern, eastern and southern directions from KNPS.

On Tuesday 20 October 2026, a biennial NNR exercise was held. This exercise is overseen by the National Nuclear Regulator, and the scenario is controlled by them. So our local teams have no idea when it will actually commence, or even which way the wind will be blowing, until the NNR feeds that information into the exercise. The NNR also determines what sort of incident will be simulated at KNPS. So Eskom and all disaster management agencies have to take their cue from the NNR. Local and international observers also attend NNR exercises.

The wind was simulated to be blowing from the NNW at about 20 km/h and the radiation plume meant that firstly we would have to deploy the new Mass Care Centre at Mamre, which was north of KNPS. Then the evacuation area expanded, and a second MCC was to be opened at Malmesbury to handle the overflow. The second MCC was simulated, which meant it was not physically set up, but each agency had to go through the motions and communicate what they would be doing.

Then came the ultimate curveball… we were informed that the simulated radiation plume was now threatening the area where the Disaster Operations Centre (DOC) was, and we’d have to relocate the DOC as well. We simulated this as well, but that meant estimating the travel time to a backup location at Stellenbosch, and during this time we could only use phones or whatever we’d have in our vehicles.

Although HAMNET has a fully equipped dedicated radio room at the Goodwood DOC, we also have a mobile trailer equipped with VHF and HF radios, digital communications, and APRS location tracking. So in our case we would deploy this trailer with us, as part of our relocation to the backup DOC.

This was definitely one of the more eventful exercises we’ve all had to participate in. But the whole point of exercises is to be prepared and to know how to work together with others. It is all about teamwork and knowing what everyone else does, and what resources are available across the teams. After every exercise there is also a debriefing session with all agencies, where we share challenges we had, and suggestions for improvement. Not a single debriefing has gone by without a few changes or improvements being suggested, and in this way our preparedness improves with every exercise.

Thank you, Danie. It was an interesting disaster-game, and intriguing to watch the heads of each agency present interacting and bringing the impromptu exercise to a successful close.

The stand-down SMS was received from the Duty Coordinator at 14:21 CAT.

The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) reports that the worldwide map of Transient Array Radio Telescopes has expanded with Madagascar being the latest African recipient of the groundbreaking and innovative instrument.

The installation took place during a five-day conference and workshop taking place between 8 and 12 June 2026, held by the Universite d’Antananarivo, that resulted in the installation of a Transient Array Radio Telescope (TART), the first instrument of its kind in Madagascar.

The TART is an open source radio telescope originally developed by Dr Tim Molteno from the University of Otago and the Electronics Research Foundation (ERF) in New Zealand, and students at the University of Otago’s Department of Physics. The TART is a radio-telescope with the capability to observe the entire sky continuously and optimized to detect satellites, near-earth objects and transient events including high-energy cosmic rays. The telescope is also designed to serve as a platform for the development of new imaging algorithms.

As part of an effort to install TART telescope in all the African SKA Partner countries, this workshop followed installations in Namibia (2025), Zambia (2025), Botswana (2025), Hammanskraal, South Africa (2025), Ghana (2025), Mauritius and Kenya (2024).

The initiative to place TART telescopes in SKA African Partner countries was started in 2023 and is a joint effort of the University of Otago, Rhodes University, SARAO, the DARA programme and the Electronics Research Foundation.

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

The ARRL reports that Amateur radio operators from Florida’s Santa Rosa, Nassau, Lake, Pinellas, and Leon Counties played an important role in supporting emergency communications efforts during and following Hurricane Isaias, helping ensure that critical communication capabilities remained available throughout the storm.

In Santa Rosa County, volunteer amateur radio operators staffed the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and the evacuation shelter at the Milton Community Centre. These volunteers provided a communications link between the shelter and the EOC, relaying situational updates and maintaining readiness to support emergency communications should traditional systems become unavailable.

Amateur radio operators across the state also supported auxiliary communications efforts, providing additional capabilities to maintain contact with the State Emergency Operations Centre in Tallahassee if conventional communication networks experienced disruptions.

“While traditional communications systems have become significantly more reliable over the years, amateur radio continues to serve as a dependable auxiliary communications resource,” said Arc, W4CPD, Santa Rosa County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Program Manager. “When disaster strikes, our volunteers are trained, prepared, and ready to step in wherever we’re needed. It’s another layer of resiliency that helps protect our communities.

“During tropical weather events impacting Florida, our Auxiliary Communications team provides volunteer operators to monitor amateur radio communications at the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee,” Arc explained. “This ensures that if someone is unable to reach emergency officials through traditional means, we have another way to receive and relay critical information. We always hope we’re not needed, but we’re glad to be there just in case when all else fails.”

In the Pacific, Tropical cyclone CHAMPI has been issued a RED label, specifically threatening Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands as a category 5 storm, with current wind speeds of 80km/h, and projected to increase to 260km/h, threatening a population of 175000 people. At the time of writing, it had not crossed Guam yet.

Capechamber.co.za says that the Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management Centre (WC: PDMC) has warned that accelerating climate variability and intensifying severe weather events are placing increasing strain on the province’s emergency infrastructure and municipal response systems. 

Releasing its annual findings, the Centre highlighted that while institutional frameworks and multi-agency coordination have matured significantly, persistent capacity constraints and erratic environmental patterns demand a fundamental shift toward predictive, data-driven resilience.

Reflecting on the mounting pressures facing the region, Head of the Provincial Disaster Management Centre, Dr Colin Deiner, cautioned: “While significant progress has been made, challenges remain, particularly in relation to capacity constraints and the increasing frequency and intensity of disaster events. Addressing these challenges will require continued focus on building skills, strengthening systems, and enhancing coordination across all levels of government.”

The report’s overarching conclusion emphasises that the province is navigating an increasingly volatile environmental baseline. Summarising the year under review, the report warns: “Despite these achievements, the reporting period has also highlighted persistent and emerging challenges, particularly related to increasing climate variability, capacity constraints, and the need for enhanced data integration and interoperability. These challenges underscore the importance of sustained investment in institutional strengthening, innovation, and collaboration.”

To counter these compounding risks, the WC: PDMC has advanced several strategic interventions during the reporting period, including the development of a pioneering provincial flood hazard model in partnership with Stellenbosch University, enhanced early-warning dissemination protocols via the South African Weather Service (SAWS), and expanded municipal training initiatives.

And channelafrica.co.za says that a three-day conference on disaster risk reduction and resilience in Africa concluded on Thursday.

The meeting was organised by the African Union Commission, in collaboration with the government of Mozambique and the Southern African Development Community.

The meeting, under the theme ‘Scaling Proactive Governance and Strategic Investment for Disaster Risk Reduction and a Resilient Africa’, also brought together financial institutions, development partners, academia, civil society, and the private sector.

Daniel Chapo, Mozambican President provided the impact of the natural disasters in the continent.

“Floods, tropical cyclones, and droughts accounted for about 90% of the total damage caused by disasters in Africa. The number of occurrences increased from 602 to 738 events, which caused more than 74 000 deaths at the level of our continent.”

Chapo, spoke about the Mozambican experience.

“At the country level, we have more than 1 500 local disaster risk management committees. This is our front-line army, which warns communities in local languages, uses megaphones, and community radios, so that people can leave the danger zones before the phenomenon happens.”

The event took place at a time when Mozambique faces difficulties in accessing climate finance to respond to the impacts of extreme events, in a country highly vulnerable to climate change.

Finally WSAR in the Western Cape reports that an evening run along the Pipe Track on Table Mountain ended with a rather unusual rescue near Spring Buttress on Thursday night, after an overly enthusiastic dog discovered that not all mountain adventures are worth pursuing.

The dog and his owner were enjoying an afternoon run when the pup spotted a tahr (which is a mountain goat) and decided that a chase was simply too good an opportunity to pass up.

Unfortunately, the tahr had a distinct home-ground advantage.

The agile mountain resident disappeared down the steep mountainside, with the determined hound in hot pursuit. Almost 80 metres below the trail, the dog suddenly realised that his four-legged opponent was considerably better equipped for the terrain, and that the chase was well and truly over.

There was, however, one small problem. Getting down had been considerably easier than getting back up!

The dog’s owner followed a short distance down the slope before wisely deciding against going any further.

Spotting his adventurous companion stranded on a small ledge below a cliff, he called the emergency number – 021 937 0300, for assistance.

A small team of Wilderness Search and Rescue (WSAR) rescuers was deployed to the scene.

Using a rope system, a rescuer was lowered to the ledge, where the stranded hound was happily secured inside a rope bag and hoisted back up to the trail.

The operation was successfully concluded at 22h45 on Thursday evening, with everyone safely back on the trail.

While the tahr presumably continued about its evening entirely unaware of the excitement, we suspect one adventurous hound may think twice before challenging a mountain goat to another downhill race!

A big thank you is extended to the rescuers who gave up their Thursday evening to bring this adventurous pup safely back to his owner.

It doesn’t say so in the report, but I’ll take a small bet with anyone that was a Jack Russell!

Written versions of this bulletin will be available after the transmitted version, on the SARL website and on the “About the SARL” menu > SARL HAMNET > scroll down to WEBSITE and click on HAMNET Emergency Communications. It is also available on two facebook pages, namely “HAMNET – SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE”, or “SARL Hamnet”

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

Our weather and geology news starts with a magnitude 7.7 earthquake which struck Panama at 17h56 UTC on Friday evening. The epicenter was 10km from the town of Pitaloza Arriba. A tsunami warning was issued, but subsequently cancelled because the quake struck dry land rather than under the water. As of Saturday night no news of casualties had been received, but the quake was felt across the nation by around 4.5 million people, and lasted for a minute, with over 80 aftershocks measured the same day. Shipping through the canal was not affected by the quake.

The Panamanian quake was at least the fourth quake this year in Latin America surpassing 7.0 in magnitude, after devastating back-to-back earthquakes in Venezuela’s Guaira in June, and a powerful earthquake in western Colombia in August.

Tropical Cyclone Isaias developed in the Bay of Mexico, and moved North East in the direction of the Gulf coast of the US, crossing the coastline on the West coast of the Florida pan-handle on Friday/Saturday as a category 3 storm with winds of up to 180km/h. Large parts of Florida were evacuated in anticipation of the storm.

The ARRL reported on Friday that the Hurricane Watch Net was up and running on both 14.325 and 7.268 MHz due to propagation conditions. Hurricane Isaias had increased in strength to Category 3 with maximum sustained winds of 200 km/h, making it a major hurricane as it continued to head toward the Florida panhandle and Alabama coast. Landfall was expected overnight Friday night.

Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ from HAMNET National tells me that he assisted the Gauteng Scouts with their Kim Shield Challenge that took place in the Crocodile River Reserve to the west of Centurion in Gauteng on 11-13 September. As not many resources were needed, he participated on his own, ensuring that there was good communications amongst the more that 30 bases spread over the reserve that needed to be visited by the participating Scout Patrols.

He deployed and monitored a portable repeater with the antenna attached to the 6m mast attached to his vehicle. For security the repeater was deployed before 06h00 in the morning and taken down again after the last patrol had checked into the base camp. There were over 600 scouts and more than 130 adult helpers participating in the event, and he worked closely with Mark Pollock ZS6MJP who was responsible for the communications from the Scout’s side.

He also notes that HAMNET Gauteng and some members from the East Rand Club will be assisting the Scouts at Arrowe Park with the JOTA/JOTI event next weekend from 16-18 October. They are expecting more than 400 scouts to participate from Arrowe Park and there will be many other scout groups from all over Gauteng also participating in their own JOTA/JOTI events at their scout halls.

Apart from the usual radio activities allowing the scouts to make contacts over HF, VHF and DMR, HAMNET will also be monitoring the BACAR-14 launch and flight and will try to receive and decode some of the payloads as well as communicating via the transponders that will be flying with the balloon. The whole idea is to show the scouts some of the interesting activities that wait for them when they do their Amateur Radio Operator badge.

There will also be a special Fox Hunt event on Saturday evening where HAMNET will explain to the scouts the significance of fox hunting or radio direction finding and how we can locate emergency locator beacons using the basic techniques. The Scouts will then have the opportunity to hunt for both a VHF and a UHF beacon that will be hidden on the Arrowe Park camp grounds.

A whole SATOps display will also be operational, including ADB-S signal reception, weather satellite reception and SSTV reception.

HAMNET is also responsible for ensuring that all the Scouters and activity coordinators can communicate with each other throughout the weekend.

Thank you, Brian, for these items of news from your region. This is an appeal to other Regional Directors to consider sending news of their regions for inclusion in the bulletin, to show that Division 6 is not the only active HAMNET region.

Danie, ZS1OSS has drawn my attention to a South African map application, called LastBar. His website says that “LastBar is a map of where mobile phones have signal and where they do not, made by the phones of the people who use the App. When you are stuck with no bars, it gives you the distance and the direction to the nearest place where your phone will work, and to the nearest water and shelter. It needs no connection to do so.”

This is an interesting South African app that is intended specifically for those who venture into areas where there is no cellphone signal coverage. This app will point you in the direction where you will most quickly find a signal, depending on which network you use. That may be a nearby hill, but could be any location where signals were confirmed from. He remembers being in a wilderness retreat once for a work session, and the only place you could just get a signal, was at one of the tennis courts. This app would typically point you to such a location. An emergency call can be made from any phone network, so in that type of scenario, the app will navigate you to where any phone network is reachable.

But it is more than just finding a location with a signal. The map also shows water, shelters, huts and caves, clinics and hospitals, police, fuel and peaks, using OpenStreetMap. Tap one for its address and a number to call, where there is one.

The app works without any Internet. What your phone measures shows on your own map at once, with no internet needed. Readings wait on your phone and go up by themselves when a connection returns.

It is not an open source app, but the privacy policy seems to cover all the bases with just the essential information being collected, and anonymised. There is no account that needs to be registered and your name, phone’s IMEI, or SIM details are never sent either.

The free version will include ads (and we all know what that means, as there will then be basic ad tracking) so the better option is to go for the paid version which excludes any adverts. It is available for both Android and iOS.

Thank you Danie.

Written versions of this bulletin will be available after this transmission on the SARL website on the “About the SARL” menu > SARL HAMNET > scroll down to WEBSITE and click on HAMNET Emergency Communications. It is also available on two facebook pages, namely “HAMNET – SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO LEAGUE”, and “SARL Hamnet”.

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

Michael ZS1MJT from HAMNET Western Cape has sent me a paragraph about the Rola Ford Motor Rally, held round and about Caledon in the Western Cape yesterday. In cool and cloudy conditions with a slight breeze, the race started from Rola Ford’s showrooms at 09h05.

Nine radio operators were deployed around the course, at various starts and ends of the 5 stages, and 16 vehicles took part, although 5 cars didn’t finish the course due to mechanical failures. He says there were no major calamities, as the radio operators radioed start and end times through to the JOC, as each car completed a stage.

The final stage ended with the arrival of the last car at 14h05, in a fine drizzle. The day was enjoyed by the operators and the spectators who had positioned themselves at all the major vantage points.

The operators were Ian ZS1BR, Andre ZS1ATX, Rassie ZS1YT, Davy ZR1FR, Hughie ZS1YS, Schalk ZR1SWB, Pieter ZS1PJG, Reg ZS1ADC and Michael ZS1MJT.

Thanks Michael for the report.

From the Cape Town section of the Mountain Club of South Africa, we learn that, in September 1889, a party of hikers on Table Mountain was caught by the infamous “Table Cloth” and forced to spend a cold night on the mountain.

The incident helped set the ball rolling towards the formation of the Mountain Club of South Africa in 1891. From the very beginning, one of MCSA’s objectives was to organise search and rescue parties to assist fellow mountaineers and members of the public in difficulty.

More than 130 years later, Search & Rescue remains a fundamental part of MCSA.

Today, MCSA Search & Rescue comprises five volunteer teams across South Africa, involved in hundreds of operations each year. Teams provide specialist support to government agencies and, when required, take the lead in organising and carrying out search and rescue operations in remote, wilderness and mountainous environments.

From that cold night on Table Mountain in 1889 to the highly trained volunteer teams operating across South Africa today, helping people in the mountains has been part of MCSA’s purpose from the very beginning.

Universetoday.com asks us where Earth’s center of mass is? The answer seems trivially obvious. It’s right in the middle of the planet. Ah, but that kind of thinking won’t get you a paper in the Geophysical Journal International. It’s also not a trivial question. Knowing Earth’s center of mass down to the order of millimeters reveals some interesting facts about our planet.

To measure Earth’s center of mass accurately, we must look to space. Satellites don’t just orbit Earth; they orbit the exact center of Earth’s mass. Any small shift in that center of mass means there is a shift in orbital trajectories. All you have to do is measure the orbits precisely. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, this was done using satellites known as LAGEOS. These spherical satellites were covered in reflective panels so that ground-based laser observatories could measure their positions over time. These allowed us to determine the center of mass to within a centimetre or so.

This new study improves this accuracy by using GPS data to account for tiny shifts in the locations of ground-based observatories. It also adds data from a host of low-orbit satellites to improve accuracy even further. The result reduces our uncertainty to less than a millimetre.

Part of the results is as we expected. The Earth is not a static mass. During the winter season of the Northern Hemisphere, snow and ice builds up in the polar region, which means there is more mass there. The warming and cooling of oceans shifts their densities. The rainy season of the Amazon moves water to its delta. All of this causes Earth’s center of mass to move seasonally.

The surprise is that this shift is smaller than we thought. The results of this study find a seasonal drift that is about half of earlier estimates. This means that there is less water and air moving between hemispheres. The two regions aren’t as interconnected as we assumed. The team also observed longer-term shifts in the center of mass due to geological effects such as volcanic activity and earthquakes. These shifts can also affect things such as Earth’s rotational speed.

Precise measurements such as these not only help us understand geological changes; they also help us better locate our location on Earth. It has an impact on everything from transportation and shipping to the orbital drift of satellite constellations. It’s also remarkable to think that we can pinpoint the middle of the Earth with such accuracy.

And heraldousa.com reports that Scientists have detected a radio signal transmitted from thousands of light-years away for the first time, from the exoplanet ‘Beta Pictoris b’,

The study was published on Sept. 15 in arXiv and was led by astrophysicists Kevin N. Ortiz Ceballos, Edo Berger and Yvette Cendes.

Researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Oregon said that, until now, an “auroral radio emission” has never been detected on a planet outside the solar system.

To ease many minds, the radio signal from the exoplanet ‘β Pictoris b’ is not of human origin but a natural process recorded on planets, according to Avi Loeb, who led the research.

“The same radio-emission mechanism operates in the solar system and does not indicate a technological origin,” he said.

According to the specialists, the auroral radio emission is produced “by the electron-cyclotron maser instability” [whatever that is] and comes from a “gas giant” planet that is twelve times larger than Jupiter.

The frequency of the emission is determined by the intensity of the planet’s magnetic field.

While this is not the first time astrophysicists have detected a radio signal from a planet in the solar system, it is the first time one has been recorded on an exoplanet.

“Although auroral radio bursts are observed on planets in the solar system and on some ultracool dwarfs, no radio detection had previously been unambiguously traced to an extrasolar planet rather than its host star,” the study states.

The detected frequency from the planet β Pictoris ranges from 0.85 to 3.5 GHz, with a magnetic field of 1.25 kilo-Gauss or greater.

This is a significant finding for science, as it allowed for the direct measurement of the magnetic field intensity of the exoplanet.

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

Michael, ZS1MJT, Regional Director for HAMNET Western Cape, reports that HAMNET Western Cape was requested to assist with communications on and around Table Mountain on 19 September 2026, by the Cape Province Mountain Club and the Kirstenbosch Rotary Group.

The aim of the event was to introduce scholars to hiking and the outdoors. HAMNET’s task was to provide radio communications from various control points back to a Joint Operations Centre (JOC).

While marshals could communicate with each other over specific, short-range areas, their communications were geographically limited by line-of-sight. This was where HAMNET was able to fill the gaps and provide communications between the various control points and the JOC.

HAMNET members and other marshals met at 05h00 on Saturday morning at the JOC, near the Kloofnek parking area. The HAMNET trailer was set up and, once parked and levelled, we were ready to operate.

A briefing was held to ensure that everyone understood what was expected of them. From 07h00, everyone deployed to their respective positions. Once all stations were in position, contact was established with the JOC and we waited for the participants to start and eventually arrive at our various positions.

The route started at the Kloofnek parking area, heading up Kloof Corner and then along the contour path on the Cape Town side of Table Mountain.

At the Platteklip intersection, the participants ascended Platteklip Gorge and proceeded to the dams on the back of the mountain. They then continued to the Cape Province Mountain Club hut, where they were provided with drinks and food before heading towards and down Kasteelpoort.

At the Pipe Track on the Camps Bay side, they proceeded back towards Kloofnek and the finish.

The scholars were in good spirits and showed a high level of enthusiasm, except during the couple of uphill sections! Temperatures on top of the mountain were around 22.5°C, with a very gentle breeze, making it ideal weather for outdoor activities.

A fun day was had by all, and HAMNET would like to thank the organisers for involving us. We also extend our congratulations to all the participants for completing the challenge.

Thank you also to all the marshals, officials, medical staff and Volunteer Wildfire Services for their contribution towards making this a successful day.

Finally, I would like to thank the HAMNET crew for giving up their time and sharing their expertise. They were Andre ZS1ATX, Torsten ZS1ABT, Ian ZS1BR, Andrew ZS1BAT, Shawn ZS1LED, Rassie ZS1YT and of course Michael ZS1MJT.

Thank you for the report, Michael.

In the ARRL newsletter of 24^th September, it is noted that it’s been a half century since single sideband (SSB) supplanted amplitude modulation (AM) as the most popular voice mode on HF, due largely to its spectrum efficiency, occupying roughly half the bandwidth of an AM signal. Now, there’s a new digital voice mode from FreeDV called Radio Autoencoder, or RADE, that occupies half the bandwidth of an SSB signal and reportedly provides more natural-sounding speech.

According to Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), which funded research that advanced RADE’s development, “FreeDV RADE combines machine learning with classical digital signal processing (DSP) and can operate at signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) as low as -2 dB. Its design also addresses spectrum use, speech quality, and power efficiency, all important considerations for voice communications over HF.”

Most significantly, ARDC reports that manufacturers are beginning to integrate the mode directly into their radios, starting with a module that can be downloaded and installed on certain FlexRadio models. Users of other transceivers may run the mode through computers connected to their radios. More details are available from FreeDV and on the ARDC website.

Thanks to the ARRL for these paragraphs.

Phys.org is reporting this week on research done to plan the layout of the antennas to be used at the SKA-Low radio-telescope in Australia.

Gaby Clark reports that the telescope being built in Western Australia will operate across a wide frequency range, from 50 to 350 MHz, and will be the most sensitive telescope of its kind ever built. The completed instrument will link 512 stations spread across an area roughly 75 km wide. All the station’s antennas work together like a single large dish, so their arrangement directly shapes what the telescope can detect.

An earlier prototype station, AAVS2, arranged its antennas in a scattered, pseudo-random pattern to avoid unwanted signal artifacts. But antennas placed too close together can interfere with one another, a problem known as mutual coupling. This interference grows stronger below about 150 MHz, squarely within SKA-Low’s operating range.

To address this, researchers at the observatory proposed a new arrangement inspired by the spiral pattern seen in sunflower heads, known as the Vogel layout. Spacing the antennas this way reduces interference between neighbors while preserving the station’s collecting power. The SKA Observatory built a new prototype station, AAVS3, using this layout to test it under real-sky conditions.

Simulations run while AAVS3 was being built predicted a loss of sensitivity directly overhead at around 125 MHz. The team traced this to repeated antenna spacings, about 2.4 meters apart, throughout the sunflower pattern. Those spacings create interference patterns that reduce sensitivity. The older prototype, AAVS2, showed no such problem with its scattered layout.

Observations confirmed the prediction. When the galactic plane passed directly overhead, images clearly showed the same dip in sensitivity at 125 MHz. This confirmed that the problem was a built-in consequence of the antenna geometry, not a flaw in the equipment or method.

Because of the sensitivity loss at 125 MHz, engineers ruled out the original sunflower layout for the finished telescope. Further simulations led them to a modified version, called “Perturbed Vogel,” which keeps antennas spaced to avoid interference while removing the repeating pattern that caused the problem.

The AAVS3 results give SKA-Low’s teams practical guidance for building and calibrating the stations during construction. Combined with lessons from AAVS2, this work has directly shaped the observatory’s testing process and supported a key construction milestone, known as AA0.5, marking the first stations to come online.

South Africa’s SKA antenna system will apparently not have this problem, because we will rely on incoming focused beams striking dishes, being undisturbed by neighbouring dishes and of course operating in much higher frequency ranges, where mutual coupling will not occur.

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

Greg Mossop, G0DUB reports that a message sent by the Organization for Amateur Radio in Indonesia (ORARI) on Friday announces that, in response to the activation of the ANAK KRAKATAU volcano in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, The frequencies of 7100 and 7110 kHz LSB will be used for emergency voice comms and JS8Call data comms respectively.

Operators are encouraged to maintain a listening watch where possible and to follow any further operational announcements issued by ORARI.

The cooperation and support by radio amateurs during this emergency communication operation are greatly appreciated.

The message is signed by YB1BTM, Ageng Aditya, Disaster Communication Committee Chair in IARU Region 3,

ANAK KRAKATAU is the name given to the resurgence of the volcano that was KRAKATAU, a mountain which literally blew up and disappeared in the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history in 1883. ANAK means “child of” in local dialect, and refers to the remnant of the original volcano which has slowly been brewing, spitting out lava, and rebuilding a volcanic mound again.

Its last severe eruption was in 2018, when the south west portion of the volcanic mound slid into the ocean triggering a tsunami resulting in 437 deaths and 31900 injuries, when the waves struck coastal regions of western Java and southern Sumatra.

It would appear that the spirit of KRAKATAU is still alive and smouldering in central Indonesia.

In its letter for 10^th September, the ARRL honours James Clerk Maxwell, regarded as the “grandfather” of radio, for his theory of electromagnetic radiation, which laid the foundation for all modern electronic communication techniques, in spite of the fact that the average person knows little or nothing about him. The community where he is buried hopes to change that, as does the James Clerk Maxwell Radio Society, MMØPMS.

James Clerk Maxwell died in 1879 and is buried at the church in Parton, Scotland. The Church of Scotland has put the Parton Kirk, or Church, up for sale. The local community has been given the first option to purchase the building and is attempting to raise the funds to do so. According to Richard Hopkins MM1BHO, co-founder of the James Clerk Maxwell Radio Society, the town of Parton is keen to preserve the Church and develop a Science and Community Centre named after him, to celebrate his scientific contribution and life, and at the same time provide a legacy facility for the community. More information is available on the MM0PMS page on QRZ.com.

Amateur radio emergency communications does not usually require messages to be sent more than 14000km, but a story from the Falkands war 44 years ago bears repeating.

Bob McLeod was a radio ham on Falklands and was the first to break the news to the world that the Falklands had been invaded. However, he drew attention to his own presence by his signals, and his equipment was quickly confiscated by the enemy.

On 29^th May 1982, 2 PARA had fought a gruesome battle to take Goose Green, freeing more than 100 villagers who had been held captive in a hall by the Argentinians for almost seven weeks. Eighteen British soldiers died in that fight. Back at home, the families of 2 PARA had heard nothing since the soldiers had set sail and had no way of contacting them.

Alan Bullock was the Forward Observation Officer of D Company, 2 PARA and while walking through the main street of Goose Green, spotted an antenna on the house belonging to Bob. (The antenna had not been confiscated by the enemy.) So he knocked on the door of the house, and Bob answered, and admitted to being a radio amateur, but without equipment.

Bob’s wife suggested that Bob’s 50w amplifier could be used. This had been hidden away under the stairs. As a Forward Observation Officer, Alan had his state-of-the-art at the time, military clansman radio which, with power of only 20 watts for communicating over short distances, could be hooked up to the amplifier.

To get messages back to the UK, Bob made contact with John Wright, a radio amateur in Oxford who he had been chatting to over the airwaves for many years. Together, Bob and John devised a cryptic code for their conversation and each transmitted on a different frequency, in case anyone was listening.

John was sent a soldier’s phone number and a short message over the air to pass on to his family.

Word quickly got around the troops and soon it wasn’t just D Company’s families Bob and John were contacting. Before long, there was a queue outside Bob’s door, with each message always the same – ‘I am safe’. 

John said: “Normally, amateur radio enthusiasts talk about their radio equipment, or experiments they’re doing.

“In this case, the communication was to pass family (third party) traffic which, under normal circumstances, isn’t allowed, but I threw caution to the wind and did what I could as quickly and as clandestinely as possible.”

Successfully, this took a lot of worry off the shoulders of the soldiers whose families were contacted, and they agreed they were all very grateful for that.

Thanks to forcesnews.com for the gist of this story.

Such messages are being passed in Tibet after the glacier and landslide, in Indonesia after the volcanic eruption, and in many other emergency situations worldwide. The role of the amateur radio emergency operator will never fall away.

For most radio amateurs, whether they use Morse Code on a daily basis or not, the rhythm of Continuous Wave, as it is formally called, is recognizable and to an extent reassuring.

The seemingly trivial ability to hear a regular pulse in music is a remarkable—and perhaps distinctively human—feature of the brain. In a wide-ranging critical review, Gábor Háden of the HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences and Henkjan Honing of the University of Amsterdam evaluated more than two decades of research into how this capacity develops and has evolved. Their paper was published this week in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Beat perception allows us to extract a regular pulse from a rhythm. It makes it possible to clap along, dance together and coordinate a musical ensemble. The review critically examines four often-made claims: 1) that beat processing is near-universal across human cultures, 2) that it develops spontaneously, 3) that it supports a distinctive form of predictive timing and 4) that it is rare across other species. The conclusion of the paper is deliberately nuanced: The foundations of beat perception appear to be present at birth and are refined by experience, movement and culture, but the available evidence does not justify every stronger claim made in the field.

However, you are fully justified in playing CW conversations to your infant children. They will resonate with their innate rhythms just as well as lullabies.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, preparing for the flack, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

Huge rescue efforts are still underway in Nepal, in the wake of the collapsed glacier and resulting landslide that has killed more than 1000 people. It appears that there are still about 1000 people trapped in hydropower station tunnels.

Rescue Specialist Arnold Dix is coordinating remote assistance to locate survivors in those underground facilities, with teams drilling from above, hoping to be in the right locations to get into the tunnels, whilst facing extreme challenges including boulders up to 10 metres in size, hardened mud and floodwaters that are estimated to have travelled at nearly 200km/h down the valley.

Masses of tourists from around the world were visiting the area for religious festivals, and many countries are searching for 40 to 50 of their citizens still unaccounted for. They may perhaps never be found, buried in tonnes of mud.

The disaster has destroyed 14 or 15 hydropower stations in the valley, and any rescue work is hampered by difficult terrain requiring all rescue equipment to be brought in by helicopters, whose maximum weight carrying limit is 3 tonnes.

Cbc.ca reports that Geoscientist Jakob Steiner says it looks like “someone took a knife,” cut a 1,300-metre-wide chunk from the lower part of a glacier on Nepal’s Himalayas and “dropped it off the mountain cliff.”

The researcher at the University of Graz in Austria says the “blast” of ice, rock and sediment that came crashing down 1.2 km, from a height of 5,000 metres above sea level, temporarily dammed the river below and created a lake.

Once that lake filled with the enormous amount of water released from the glacier, Steiner says the dam breached and unleashed the violent torrent that pummeled downstream villages on either side of the border and buried them in mud. 

This accounts for the secondary floods that affected towns and villages further downstream, as well as across the border in Tibet.

The Guardian says that over 4000 people were still unaccounted for, but that Nepal’s Chitwan district has become the site of mass burials for hundreds of unidentified victims whose bodies were swept away by the devastating flash floods. Authorities have dug ⁠hundreds of graves in the district’s Devghat forest, which is serving as a temporary burial ground for bodies too badly decomposed to be identified.

Morgues across Nepal are already overflowing. Authorities have been overwhelmed trying to identify the dead, with many bodies beyond recognition, turning up miles downstream.

Happily, 11800 people were rescued after the flood and the Nepalese army deployed 9200 personnel to assist with search and rescue activities.

On the Chinese/Tibetan side of the border, advanced technologies were mobilized to support rescue operations, including disaster-information datasets, aerial assets overcoming road and communication blockage, reconnaissance drones surveying the disaster area and searching for stranded people, and satellite remote sensing for disaster monitoring, according to media reports.

Meanwhile Tropical Cyclone SAUDEL, mentioned in last weekend’s bulletin seems to have stalled in the South China Sea, not reaching coastlines, and situated southwest of Japan, northeast of Philippines, and southeast of the coast of China. 13 million people remain threatened by winds of greater than 120km/h, and maximum wind speeds in the cyclone are being measured at 210km/h.

Dig.watch notes that, at the beginning of Deaf Awareness Month, South Africa’s Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities has called for South African Sign Language to be integrated into public services to improve access to information and government services for deaf and hard-of-hearing people.

Speaking at the launch of Deaf Awareness Month, the department’s Chief Director for Advocacy and Mainstreaming, Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Phuthi Mabelebele, said accessible communication should be incorporated into government planning, budgeting, procurement, monitoring, and accountability systems. She also called for public service information, including emergency and disaster communications, to be provided in accessible formats.

South African Sign Language was recognised as an official language following the signing of the South African Sign Language Bill into law in 2023. The department said improving accessibility in public services is necessary to enable deaf and hard-of-hearing people to access information and exercise their rights on an equal basis.

As more public information and services are delivered through digital and other communication channels, inaccessible formats can prevent people with disabilities from accessing essential information and services. Making accessibility part of government planning and procurement can help address these barriers before services are introduced.

For deaf and hard-of-hearing people, access to information in a recognised language is closely connected to participation in public life. Ensuring that communication systems and public services accommodate South African Sign Language can therefore support more equal access to government and civic services.

Ian Bradley, ZS1BR has sent me a short report of the Malmesbury motor rally, held yesterday the 5^th. He writes:

“Eight radio operators were asked to assist at the Malmesbury Rally this year, with responsibilities ranging from riding with the officials to manning the start and end of rally stages.

“Primary operations were carried out on the 145.650MHz repeater, but, to complicate the situation, the start of stage 1 could only be reached by the 145.625MHz Picketberg repeater.

“All stages ran on time with only three withdrawals due to mechanical failure and the event was wrapped up by 15:00.

“Thanks go to Johann ZS1JM, Jan ZS1LAM, Conradt ZS1ES, Andre ZS1ATX, Justin ZR1JJ, and extra special thanks to our two first timers Andrew ZS1BAT and Michail ZR1CS for volunteering their time and equipment to make it a safe and enjoyable day out!”

And thanks to you Ian, for your part in the comms plan, and for writing the report.

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

Sudden flash floods wrought havoc in northern Nepal on Wednesday, washing away vehicles, damaging homes, roads and critical infrastructure near the Tibetan border. Authorities launched rescue and relief operations after floodwaters surged through parts of Rasuwa district, triggering evacuations along riverbanks. The disaster has disrupted transport links, electricity supply and raised fears of casualties as emergency teams race to assess the damage. The cause of the flood is said to be the collapse of a glacier on the Nepal side of the Himalayan mountains.

Phys.org reports that Geomorphologists Kristen Cook and Dan Shugar said initial images from Nepal were obscured by clouds and dust from the debris, so they could only see that part of a glacier had broken off from Langtang Lirung peak, near the border with Tibet. In clearer images from Thursday, they said they could see that the bedrock underneath the glacier had collapsed, taking the massive chunk of ice down with it and sending boulders and ice into the valley.

“It shows the whole area without anything hidden, and we could see that, yes, it looked like there was not only this glacier that had failed, but a much larger chunk of the bedrock of the mountainside itself that had given way,” said Shugar, associate professor at the University of Calgary. “You have this big bedrock failure that took part of the glacier with it.”

The death toll was in the mid 500’s by Friday midday, with 2500 missing or unaccounted for, and 93000 people affected, according to the Red Cross. Rescuers continue the search for at least 2500 people, many of them tourists, from places like India, the US, the UK, Australia and Canada, in areas where dozens of bridges and almost 40km or roads have been destroyed

The UK, the EU, India, the US and the Red Cross have all provided immediate aid or pledges of aid.

There is a fear of a secondary flood, as the flood waters have filled a lake at a site along the Tibet-Nepal border, prompting fears that it could burst its banks. Chinese authorities in Tibet say hundreds of people are missing and three deaths have been recorded there.

Tropical Cyclone SAUDEL in the north-west Pacific, with wind speeds forecast to be up to 210km/h, has been threatening the Northern Mariana Islands, Japan and China since early in the week. 13 million people are in the path of 120km/h winds. As of Friday, it had missed the northern tip of Philippines, and the southern tip of Japan, and was headed towards the coast of mainland China.

Einthoven University of Technology Student Solar Team has successfully completed the first practical tests of the solar ambulance Stella Juva in Kenya. The ambulance generates more solar energy than it consumes during medical use. This demonstrates that Stella Juva can operate independently without relying on an electricity grid or fuel. To test the delivery of health care powered by the sun, the student team drove to several remote field locations in Kenya.

Writing in medicalxpress.com, the Solar Team reports that Stella Juva was developed by 23 students with the aim of making medical care accessible to people in remote areas where reliable infrastructure, electricity and fuel are lacking. In doing so, Solar Team Eindhoven wants to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future while also making a social impact. For its development, the team collaborated with the international health organization Amref Health Africa.

Unlike a traditional ambulance, Stella Juva brings health care directly to people. The solar ambulance generates energy using solar panels on the roof and, while stationary, via extendable panels on the sides of the vehicle. This energy proves sufficient to drive and power medical equipment.

The team tested Stella Juva at various field locations in Kenya around the Narok region. The solar ambulance is approved for use on public roads, meaning it could be deployed on both paved and unpaved roads—the conditions in which the vehicle could ultimately be used. At one point, the team spent six hours traveling on challenging roads to reach a remote field location in Mosiro.

In total, the team covered more than 800 kilometers. Aside from a broken steering rod, which was replaced within half an hour, the vehicle hardly ran into any problems on the challenging route. This demonstrated that the solar ambulance is reliable and performs well under challenging conditions.

Stella Juva is equipped with medical equipment that is urgently needed by health organizations in remote locations, such as an X-ray machine, ultrasound, automated external defibrillator (AED) and cooling equipment for vaccines. During a two-day test with Amref Health Africa, the solar ambulance proved that it could have provided medical care to approximately 200 people.

While stationary, Stella Juva generated far more solar energy than it consumed while using all the medical equipment simultaneously. This showed that the solar ambulance can operate in an energy-independent manner, allowing health care workers to keep using medical equipment at all times.

“It is really great for the team to see the potential of Stella Juva in practice,” says team manager Mathijs van Gerven, “not only to drive sustainably, but also to be able to provide fully independent care. Especially in remote areas where energy is often scarce, this can make all the difference.”

Two interesting apps have been announced for your windows desktop on the Amateur Radio Weekly menu.

The first is “Spothole” for HF enthusiasts, which is an aggregator of amateur radio spots from DX clusters and outdoor activity programmes. It’s free for anyone to use and includes an API that developers can build other applications on. Go to spothole.app, and you will find a live constantly updating list of stations that are currently on the air, their frequency and mode, as well as the type of activity they are engaged in, such as POTA, or WWFF, and also the station that posted the DX. This is very convenient, and easy to use.

The other is DXChrono, which is a free web-based application designed specifically for amateur radio operators, shortwave listeners, and anyone interested in global time visualisation. It provides real-time visualisation of time zones, propagation conditions, and solar activity across the world map.

The application combines accurate time zone calculations with live solar data to help users understand optimal transmission times, greyline propagation, and worldwide communication patterns. For a full local shack display with DX Cluster, N1MM+, satellites, and more, see DXChrono Desktop.

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

A report in chroniclejournal.com, written by Darryl Greer says that a caver has been rescued after being trapped vertically underground at the Rat’s Nest Cave in Canmore, Alberta, Canada, in an operation that deployed volunteer-built underground radio technology for the first time. Search and Rescue Alberta says the man became pinned in a tight spot known as the “Psych Squeeze” around 11:30 a.m. local time on Saturday.

The Alberta/BC Cave Rescue team was called in, and hammer drills were used to remove rock, with the caver eased out in a process measured in “inches per hour.” Search and Rescue Alberta says the man was freed around 10 p.m. and he finally emerged from the cave around midnight, after an operation involving 13 cave rescuers, 10 firefighters and two Kananaskis Mountain rescue members.

The rescue group says a cave radio that transmits signals through rock was used in a live operation for the first time. The technology was developed by members of Alberta/BC Cave Rescue, which is part of Search and Rescue Alberta, in response to the difficulty of using traditional communication methods like phones, radios or GPS underground.

“By providing reliable text-based communications from deep inside caves to the surface, or between different locations in a cave, teams can now deploy with equipment that is purpose-built by the rescuers who will use them in the field,” Search and Rescue Alberta says in a news release.

It says the new radios are smaller and lighter than traditional analog cave radios, which use technology that can no longer be repaired.

The rescue team now has a cave radio system using technology known as QDX-M, capable of communicating through more than 500 metres of solid rock, the release says.

“Such units are not currently available commercially at an affordable cost, so the benefits of volunteer design and construction work by cavers with electrical engineering and amateur radio backgrounds has been considerable,” it says.

John Alexander, the CEO of Search and Rescue Alberta, said the Rat’s Nest rescue “is a display of what can be achieved when multiple emergency response agencies come together in collaboration, and of the incredible innovation and initiative taken by our 1,500 volunteer search and rescue professionals who defy odds and overcome barriers every day, so others may live.”

Thanks to Darryl Greer for his article.

Popular Mechanics is reporting this week that few things are more dangerous to living beings than radioactive material. The ionizing radiation emitted by radionuclides can damage tissue and alter human DNA, so in a way, it’s remarkable just how cavalier Western countries have often been in their choice of methods to dispose of this extremely dangerous waste.

Europe decided to dump more than 200,000 barrels of radioactive waste into the Atlantic Ocean between 1971 and 1982!

For the past two years, scientists from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) have used resources from the French Oceanographic Fleet to survey the North Atlantic nuclear waste disposal site. They’ve discovered thousands of barrels lying on the seafloor covered in sea sponges, anemones, and crabs. In 2025, the CNRS canvassed the 14,500-square-kilometre spill site with an autonomous robot capable of diving to a depth of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) and used a multi-beam echo-sounder and synthetic antenna imaging sonar to map huge areas of the seabed. Although the robot mapped only 2 percent of the spill area, it successfully found 3,500 barrels of radioactive waste.

“The barrels alter the environment by providing a hard substrate that becomes colonized, potentially facilitating the transfer of radionuclides to living organisms,” two researchers involved in the project, Javier Escartin and Patrick Chardon wrote in The Conversation. “This is one of the first radio-ecological studies in the deep sea, requiring the implementation and development of new procedures and methodologies ranging from the definition of the sampling strategy to onboard radiation protection.”

While it’s too late to undo the damage inflicted on the environment by previous generations, having a deeper understanding of how these systematic episodes of pollution impacted the world will help future generations avoid making the same mistakes.

Thank you to Popular Mechanics for these excerpts from their article.

The ARRL, writing in their letter of Friday says that Hawaii was bracing for Hurricane Lala last week. The eye of the hurricane skirted Hawaii’s Big Island without making landfall but left heavy wind and rain damage. On Saturday, August 15, and Sunday, August 16, 2026, amateur radio operators throughout the state assisted emergency management agencies during the hurricane’s approach.

Several Big Island locations received over 90cm of rain, with Laupāhoehoe recording more than 1070 mm in just two days. The Nāhuku Lava Tube and Nene Cabin, one of two A-frame vacation cabins located just outside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in Volcano, received just over 920 mm of rain. Hurricane-force gusts up to 220km/h were recorded at Mauna Kea’s summit.

National Weather Service (NWS) radar for Saturday, August 16, 2026, at midnight UTC, showed the 80km approach of Hurricane Lala to South Point on the Big Island. South Point is the southernmost location in the United States. The greatest damage occurred at Naalehu in the Big Island district of Kau, where the runoff from the torrential rains on Saturday night devastated the community. Roads were blocked and damaged, which isolated and impeded response.

Torsten ZS1ABT reports that HAMNET assisted in event communications on Sunday 16 August (2026) at the Kogelberg Biosphere Trail Series Super League trail run.

ZS1ABT set up BASE radio at the Kleinmond Day Camp before sun rise, and was later joined by ZS1GA, ZS1SWN and ZS1HR.

ZS1CBY deployed west above the Palmiet lagoon with his 4×4 vehicle to provide communications relay to stations beyond line of sight of BASE.

106 runners completed the 23 km extra-long course, with only one runner dropping out due to injury.

Special thanks go out to the members of the Winelands ARC who cut their time short at the Hangklip lighthouse, as part of the International Lighthouse Weekend, to assist at this event.

Finally, remember that the 26^th August is International Dog Day, so please be extra specially kind to your furbaby on Wednesday!

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, sharing my private stash of biltong with my doggie, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

Greg Mossop G0DUB reports that a major magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) region of Indonesia early on Saturday morning. Preliminary reports indicate damage to buildings and disruption to normal communications infrastructure in several affected areas.

In support of ongoing emergency and disaster-response communications, amateur radio operators in Indonesia and throughout the Region are respectfully requested to keep the following frequencies clear and avoid causing interference to emergency traffic:

40 metres: 7.110 MHz

2 metres: 145.100 MHz

7.110 MHz is being used for HF emergency communications, while 145.100 MHz is being used for local VHF coordination in affected areas.

All amateur radio operators are requested to give absolute priority to emergency and disaster-relief traffic on these frequencies and to monitor without transmitting unless specifically requested to assist.

The IARU Region 3 Disaster Communication Committee, together with the relevant emergency communication coordinators and IARU Region 3 officials, remains on standby and is coordinating as necessary to support any requests for amateur radio emergency communication assistance.

We appreciate the cooperation and discipline of the amateur radio community during this emergency.

This report came via Greg from Ageng Aditya, YB1BTM, Disaster Communications Coordinator for IARU Region 3.

Redcross.org reports that, after their magnitude 7.4 earthquake of 10^th August, the Colombian Red Cross has been supporting the national response through coordinated emergency operations and specialized response teams. They have activated their National Crisis Room and telecommunications systems, mobilized 17 search and rescue teams – including 585 personnel and 19 canine units – coordinated with national authorities and remain prepared to deploy additional health and emergency response capacities as required.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has also activated its large-scale emergency readiness plan in Colombia and is coordinating closely with the Colombian Red Cross to assess needs, mobilize technical support and provide other assistance.

Meanwhile en.people.cn reports that China has released a five-year plan to spur the development of the safety and emergency equipment industry this week, stressing the role of leading enterprises in enhancing the country’s emergency response capabilities.

The plan, jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Emergency Management, aims significantly to raise the industry’s scale, technological capabilities, product quality and application levels by 2030, with output in key areas reaching 1.4 trillion yuan.

It also calls for breakthroughs in key technologies, the development of more application scenarios and the cultivation of internationally competitive leading enterprises by 2030.

China’s safety and emergency equipment industry has grown rapidly in recent years, with output in key areas surpassing 1 trillion yuan in 2025.

New technologies and equipment have been increasingly deployed in frontline rescue and relief operations. During this year’s flood season, drones and satellite communications systems were used to detect risks at dams and ensure communications during emergencies, making flood control and disaster response more precise and efficient.

In January, a guideline on promoting innovation in emergency management equipment set out targets for breakthroughs in more than 20 key technologies, the development of over 20 types of innovative equipment and the wider application of more than 30 types of advanced equipment by the end of 2027.

Popular Mechanics reports this week that, nestled between Hawaii and the western coast of Mexico, lies the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a 4.5 million-kilometer-square area of abyssal plain bordered by the Clarion and Clipperton Fracture Zones. Although this stretch of sea is a vibrant ecosystem filled with marine life, the CCZ is known best for its immense collection of potato-sized rocks known as polymetallic nodules.

These rocks, of which there are potentially trillions, are filled with rich deposits of nickel, manganese, copper, zinc, and cobalt. Those particular metals are vital for the batteries needed to power a green energy future, leading some mining companies to refer to the nodules as “batteries in a rock.”

However, a study reports that these nodules might be much more than simply a collection of valuable materials for electric cars—they also produce oxygen 4,000 meters below the surface where sunlight can’t reach.

This unexpected source of “dark oxygen,” as it’s called, redefines the role these nodules play in the CCZ. The rocks could also rewrite the script on not only how life began on this planet, but also its potential to take hold on other worlds within our Solar System, such as the moons Enceladus or Europa. The results of this study were first published in July 2024 in the journal Nature Geoscience.

“For aerobic life to begin on the planet,” Andrew Sweetman, deep-sea ecologist with the Scottish Association for Marine Science and lead author of the study said in a press statement, “there had to be oxygen and our understanding has been that Earth’s oxygen supply began with photosynthetic organisms. But we now know that there is oxygen produced in the deep sea, where there is no light. I think we therefore need to revisit questions like: where could aerobic life have begun?”

The journey toward this discovery began more than a decade ago when Sweetman began analyzing how oxygen levels decreased further into the depths of the ocean. So it came as a surprise in 2013 when sensors returned increased levels of oxygen in the CCZ. At the time, Sweetman dismissed the data as the result of faulty sensors, but future studies showed that this abyssal plain somehow produced oxygen.

Taking note of the nodule’s “battery in a rock” tagline, Sweetman wondered if the minerals found in these nodules were somehow acting as a kind of “geobattery” by separating hydrogen and oxygen via seawater electrolysis.

A 2023 study showed that various bacteria and archaea can create “dark oxygen,” so Sweetman and his team recreated the conditions of the CCZ in a laboratory and killed off any microorganisms with mercury chloride—surprisingly, oxygen levels continued rising.

This discovery adds more fuel to the already-fiery debate over what to do with these nodules. Mining outfits like the Metals Company, whose CEO coined the phrase “battery in a rock,” sees these nodules as the answer to our energy problems. However, 25 countries want the governing body—the International Seabed Authority (ISA) Council—to implement a moratorium, or at the very least a precautionary pause, so more research can be conducted to see how mining these nodules could affect the ocean. This is especially vital considering that the world’s seas are already facing a litany of climate challenges, including acidification, deoxygenation, and pollution.

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