In reaction to Tropical Cyclone GEZANI, which finally stopped being a danger to Madagascar and Mozambique this last week, the South African Development Community has deployed its Emergency Response Team (ERT) to support the Government of Madagascar after GEZANI made landfall on 10 February 2026. This was a second destructive system to hit Madagascar within just ten days, following the impacts of Tropical Cyclone FYTIA which made landfall on 31 January, compounding the crisis. The cyclone resulted in loss of life, significant displacement, destruction of infrastructure and significant disruption to essential services.

The deployment of the SADC ERT forms part of SADC’s established regional disaster response mechanisms, which are designed to complement and reinforce Government-led efforts in Member States severely affected by natural disasters. The ERT has been deployed in collaboration with MapAction, Rescue South Africa and the World Food Programme (WFP). The teams will be on the ground in Madagascar from 16 to 28 February, providing technical support to national authorities in emergency response coordination, search and rescue, geospatial expertise to inform decision making, ongoing situation monitoring and the consolidation of a regional humanitarian appeal informed by evolving impact assessments.

GDACS says the final death toll in Madagascar stands at 59, with another 4 fatalities recorded in coastal areas of Mozambique, where GEZANI passed close to the city of Inhambane last Saturday. Luckily, the Cyclone then moved directly south and appears to have dissipated in the Indian Ocean south east of Southern Africa.

Brian ZS6YZ tells me that HAMNET Gauteng supported by members from the Vaal area, the Free State and Secunda provided communications support for the DisChem Retina SA Ride for Sight Cycle Event over last weekend the 14-15th February.

The events started and ended at the Boksburg Stadium, just a stone’s throw away from the Brakpan airfield where HAMNET Gauteng has their base and where their trailer and container cache is also situated.

Early on Saturday morning the trailers were collected from the rental company using the rental vehicles that were delivered on Friday. The communications equipment needed was collected from the cache at the container and the set-up of the JOC on the first floor of the Boksburg stadium started. Antennas were mounted on the mast of the HAMNET trailer and on the 6m mast attached to the rear of Brian’s Land Cruiser, with RF cables being run to the operating positions of the two JOC radio operators, Stephen ZS6SKY and Gideon ZS4GJA. A repeater was set up for Stadium communications and another repeater was set up at a venue on the Eastern side of the Suikerbosrand as fill-in for the dead spot behind the mountain. A WiFi link was also put up between the JOC and the start/finish to allow for a camera feed so that the JOC could have situational awareness of what was happening at that spot.

This year a number of the HAMNET members decided to sleep over at the JOC and after setting up their beds a welcome bring and braai was enjoyed by everyone and then those sleeping over retired for the 03:00 start on Sunday morning.

During the course of the day on Saturday the weather turned cold with an easterly wind blowing straight from the Antarctic. Luckily there was no rain and the next morning the day started off cold, windy and partly cloudy – ideal weather for the cyclists.

At short notice the organizers needed to change the long route due to road works. This changed the 106 km long route to a distance of 125 km and the first water point on the long route had to be moved to a different location. This change in the route was welcomed by everyone as it took the cyclists out into the country and on to the open road. The organizers introduced a new 10 km fun route for the youngsters that also attracted a number of entrants. Over five thousand riders participated and the event ran successfully with relatively few incidents other than two vehicles being stolen from the stadium despite a strong security presence.

Both Willem, ZS6WIM the JOC Commander for the event and Brian, ZS6YZ who assisted Willem on the day would like to thank all the water point managers of the 5 water points that acted as mini-JOCs and their sweeps for doing a great job fielding the curved balls thrown at the HAMNET team this year. Maud, the XYL of Willem provided all the logistics support assisted by Elaine the XYL of Stephen ZS6SKY and Linda ZS6LMG.

As Brian reminded everyone at the debrief on Monday evening after the event, curved balls are a part of any disaster response and having curved balls thrown at us just helps us become more resilient and better prepared for the time that we are called for duty.

Thank you, Brian for the comprehensive report.

For those of you interested in a special contact with Bouvet, the latest DXpedition to Bouvet Island, 3YØK, is back on track after a 2-week delay for mechanical repairs to its ship, the Argus. Team Media Manager James Gallo, KB2FMH, confirmed reports from earlier this week that the ship had arrived in Cape Town, and was being loaded with the expedition’s equipment. The team of 24 operators includes 22-year-old Max Freedman, N4ML, an ARRL staff member.

In an earlier statement on the 3YØK website, the team leadership explained that “Our vessel requires additional maintenance to ensure it is fully prepared for the demanding voyage to one of the most remote and challenging locations on Earth.” The announcement added that “While this delay is disappointing, the safety of our team remains our highest priority. The adjustment does not change the overall strategy of the DXpedition, which has been carefully planned over the past three years.”

Gallo says the ship will head out soon and that arrival time will be weather-dependent. Updates will be posted on the expedition website, www.3y0k.com.

On Wednesday the 18^th, an APRS beacon popped up in Cape Town, belonging to one of the members of the expedition, with call sign OY1R, using a handheld radio. He has not been seen again since Wednesday. OY is the prefix for the Faroe Islands, belonging to Denmark, about halfway between Iceland and the Scottish Hebrides.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, wishing the team Bon Voyage down south, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

Last week, we talked about Tropical Cyclone FYTIA crossing the waist of Madagascar from West to East, and causing 15 fatalities and affecting 85000 people. Hot on its heels comes Tropical Cyclone GEZANI, this one crossing the waist of Madagascar from East to West, and first announced by GDACS on Saturday the 7^th as “unnamed no 10”. Maximum wind speeds of 230km/h were predicted, and over 2 million people were in the firing line of winds of at least 120km/h. It was expected to make landfall in the province of Toamasina, on Tuesday the 10^th.

On Thursday, bbc.com reported that at least 40 people died after the cyclone struck Madagascar, says the disaster authority in the Indian Ocean Island, with GDACS reporting 427 injured people, 16300 displaced, 18700 houses destroyed, and 51700 damaged, as well as 269400 people affected in one way or another. The Cyclone made landfall on Tuesday, hitting the island’s main port, Toamasina. Madagascar’s disaster management office said there was “total chaos” – reporting that houses collapsed in the impact zone, where the bodies were found.

Neighbourhoods were plunged into darkness as power lines snapped, while trees were uprooted and roofs ripped off.

As many as 250,000 people are “affected or displaced”, Environment Minister Max Fontaine Andonirina told BBC Newsday on Thursday. Huge challenges include “disruptions to food-supply chains, to the fuel transport, and to medical access, because most of the major roads are cut”, he added.

“What happened is a disaster, nearly 75% of the city of Toamasina was destroyed,” the country’s military leader Colonel Michael Randrianirina, who seized power in October, told the AFP news agency. “The current situation exceeds Madagascar’s capabilities alone,” he added.

The cyclone’s landfall is likely to have been one of the most intense recorded around the city in the satellite era, according to the CMRS cyclone forecaster on France’s Reunion island, AFP reports.

GEZANI emerged over the Mozambique Channel on the night of the 11^th, and was expected to approach the southeastern coast of Mozambique between Friday and Saturday.

For the first time, scientists have detected a molecule critical to life in interstellar space. Writing for UniverseToday, Matthew Williams says that The chemical is known as Thiepine, a ring-shaped sulfur-bearing hydrocarbon produced in biochemical reactions. When examining a star-forming region about 27,000 light-years from Earth near the centre of the Milky Way, astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) and the CSIC-INTA Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) detected this complex molecule in space for the first time. This detection represents the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever detected beyond Earth, with significant implications for the study of the cosmic origins of life.

By combining astronomical observations with laboratory experiments, they confirmed the presence of this six-membered, 13-atom molecule in a region of space similar to the cloud of gas and dust (nebula) from which new star systems form. The team synthesized the molecule in the laboratory by subjecting liquid thiophenol, a related hydrocarbon, to a 1,000-volt electrical discharge and then examining the results using a custom-built spectrometer. This enabled them to measure the precise radio-frequency emission from the resulting thiepine molecules.

They then compared this spectral signature to data obtained by CAB astronomers using the IRAM 30-meter and the Yebes 40-meter radio telescopes in Spain. Until now, astronomers had only detected small sulfur compounds of six atoms or fewer in interstellar space, which play an essential role in proteins and enzymes. Meanwhile, larger sulfur-bearing molecules like thiepine remained elusive, so the gap between the types of organics found in meteorites and the chemistry observed in space persisted. The newly discovered thiepine molecule is structurally related to molecules found in meteorite samples.

This demonstrates, for the first time, a connection between Astrochemistry and life on Earth. “This is the first unambiguous detection of a complex, ring-shaped sulfur-containing molecule in interstellar space—and a crucial step toward understanding the chemical link between space and the building blocks of life”, said lead author Mitsunori Araki, a researcher at MPE. “Our results show that a 13-atom molecule structurally similar to those in comets already exists in a young, starless molecular cloud. This proves that the chemical groundwork for life begins long before stars form”, added co-author Valerio Lattanzi, a scientist at MPE.

The discovery suggests that many more complex sulfur-bearing molecules likely remain undetected in interstellar space. The results also bolster recent findings from Aarhus University and the Institute for Nuclear Research that showed how peptides, another crucial ingredient for life, can form in interstellar space spontaneously. These and other findings indicate that the origins of life reside in space, and are far more plentiful than previously thought!

Thank you to universetoday.com for this article.

Ian Bradley ZS1BR sent me, hot off the press, a report on the Porterville Car Rally held yesterday the 14th, supported by hams from round and about the Western Cape. He writes:

“The 2026 rally season got off to a cracking start in Porterville this year with 19 vehicles competing for the top spot.

“Control was established at Porterville Showgrounds at 08:45, and operators dispatched to the start and end of stages. Although it was sunny, the weather remained fairly cool for a change, with temperatures peaking at 28°C and a cool breeze throughout the day.

“We received a bit of a curve ball when the Piketberg repeater (145.625) dropped out at 11:30 and stopped responding to any input. Fortunately we had a backup plan in place and quickly switched to the Hawequa repeater (145.650) for the remainder of the day. Both were easily accessible with a handheld, but the windy conditions did make communications challenging at times.

“The competitors suffered all manner of mechanical failures, and one vehicle even finished a stage with only 3 wheels attached! Thankfully no serious incidents occurred and the medical teams were not called upon. The final stage finished at 15:30 and we were able to relieve all of their duties and send them on their way.

“Special thanks to ZS1JM, ZS1LAM, ZS1ES, ZR1JL, ZS1PJG, ZS1JFK, ZS1ATX (and of course ZS1BR) for lending their expertise and making it a very successful outing.

“We encourage you to volunteer and practice your emergency communication skills, as well as test your equipment at the next rally.”

Thank you Ian, for sending me the report so soon after the event.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, hoping to get lots more reports like this one from divisions around the country, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.

GDACS continued to issue Orange Alerts for Tropical Cyclone FYTIA, crossing the waist of Madagascar from west to east all of this last week, with increasing estimations of population threatened by the high winds. It was forecast to cross the coast of Madagascar on Saturday, a week ago, with very heavy rainfall, strong winds and storm surges along the coast of the central and northern parts.

With maximum sustained winds of 180km/h, it barreled across the country, exiting on Monday the 2^nd, leaving behind 7 fatalities, over 20000 displaced people, and 8 destroyed schools in amongst the 10800 damaged houses. Heavy rainfall was expected to continue until this Thursday just past.

Did you know that Japan is the country that experiences the heaviest snowfalls on earth? I didn’t know that. Well, scmp.com reported on Wednesday that parts of Japan have experienced “disaster-level” snowfall in recent days, with authorities reporting at least 29 dead and 290 injured in accidents since January 20.

The prefectural authorities requested help on Sunday after 183cm of snow fell within 24 hours, 2.7 times the average annual snowfall in the Magonai district of Aomori city. It was the first time in 21 years that the military had been tasked to help residents deal with a snow-related emergency in the Aomori region.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has warned of a strong winter pressure pattern over much of Japan. Heavy snow has been reported along Japan’s north coast, from Saga in Kyushu in the far south all the way to the most northerly tip of Hokkaido.

“The amount of snow and the low temperatures that we are seeing so far this winter are generally more extreme than we would expect,” said Takahiro Oyama, a researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies’ Centre for Climate Change Adaptation.

Thank you to scmp.com for parts of their report.

Danie, ZS1OSS, of HAMNET Western Cape, tells me that he and Michael ZS1MJT, our HAMNET Divisional Director attended a Multi-Hazard Joint Operations Centre (JOC) meeting on Thursday, convened by Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management. The session follows a national directive to activate Multi-Hazard JOCs across South Africa. The strategic objective of this Multi-Hazard JOC is to establish a single, integrated provincial coordination centre that enables prioritized decision-making, efficient allocation of scarce resources, and coordinated multi-sectoral response to mitigate the impacts of wildfires, water security risks, and animal health incidents, while ensuring effective governance, accountability, and communication.

During the proceedings, official word was received that a National State of Disaster has been declared regarding water scarcity for the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Northern Cape. This declaration serves to unlock emergency funding and grants authorities additional powers to expedite critical decision-making and response actions.

The Multi-Hazard JOC also included the various provincial departments, City of Cape Town Disaster Risk Management, City of Cape Town, and the various District Municipalities. Thursday’s session was very much a situation report on the status of the focus areas per district municipality and the Metro. It was encouraging though to see that some preventative measures as well as longer term strategies were also touched on.

Right now HAMNET will have no immediate role to play, but we will monitor the situation, especially from a communications perspective. It is expected that the meeting will convene weekly on Tuesday mornings.

Thank you Danie, for keeping your eyes and ears open, and sending me these snippets.

And, as mentioned above, the government has classified yet another national disaster in South Africa, this time flagging drought conditions and water provision. This could impact the provinces of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Northern Cape.

The provinces have already been on high alert about dry conditions for some time, with many municipalities, metros and provincial departments warning of impending ‘day zeros’, when water cannot be provisioned for use, ie, the taps run dry.

On Saturday the 7^th, HAMNET Western Cape helped the organizers of the 99er Cycle Tour, in the outskirts of Durbanville, make the races successful and safe. There were 4 routes as I told you last week, one of which was an off-road race, which we didn’t monitor.

We had 13 radio operator teams, 9 roving the various parts of the route, and 4 managing the narrow bridges on the long 95km route, where oncoming cars meeting speeding cyclists would have caused disasters. All rovers used APRS trackers, and we supplied Byonics All-in-One trackers to 5 segment marshals, the back markers of all 4 races, and the front marker of the off-road route, leading the way on a motorbike.

As a continuation of a particularly hot and humid week in Cape Town, Saturday’s forecast was for partly cloudy skies, winds of less than 30km/h from the SSW, and temperatures of 20 to 28 degrees.

The front riders of the long race set off at 06h00, and the last riders of the short route were sent off at 08h25.

An APRS digipeater was set up on the highest local hill on the farm Meerendal, and another at a high beacon site just outside Malmesbury, to ensure good coverage of most of the route.

All proceeded smoothly, and our operators excelled themselves at patrolling, reporting in minor injuries and riders withdrawing due to bicycle trouble, and generally being at all the right places at the right times.

There were no major calamities or injuries, and the last riders were back at the finish by 12h30.

Thank you to ZS1’s MJT, L, JFK, AXT, YT, JM, CBY, BAT, GA, CO, S, LED, NOS, EZ, UP, OSS, BR, and ZR1JL, who singly or in pairs went about making the race safe. The organizers say every year that they feel safe, knowing that HAMNET is quietly roving the route in the background, and providing immediate assistance when it is needed

A particularly active sunspot group, labelled Active Region 4366, has released over a dozen solar flares in the last week, some of them very big, but strangely none of them having much influence on the earth’s magnetosphere, when the associated coronal mass ejections finally got here.

Many M-class flares were recorded, and about 5 X-class flares, of which the strongest was an X8.1 during the time Region 4366 has been marching across the visible face of the sun, potentially able to wreak havoc on the top layers of our ionosphere, with all the usual electrical effects. Luckily, very little was detected, and even the auroral lights haven’t been very impressive either.

And on Wednesday at 14h13 CAT, the sun fired off another powerful solar flare, this time an X4.2, briefly disrupting radio communications across parts of western Africa and southern Europe as intense radiation flooded Earth’s upper atmosphere.

Things could certainly have been worse.

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

Under the bad weather section, I can report that heavy rainfall, strong winds, storm surges and very low temperatures have been affecting the United Kingdom (mainly western and south-western England, Scotland and Northern Ireland) over the last few days, causing several severe weather-related incidents, floods and coastal floods that have resulted in casualties and damage. The severe weather was caused firstly by the storm INGRID and after that by the following storm CHANDRA, both officially named by the UK Met Office.

And in the USA, very heavy snowfall, very low temperatures and strong winds have been affecting north-eastern and eastern USA (from New England southward to the Mid-Atlantic States) and southern USA over the last few days, causing several severe weather-related incidents resulting in casualties and damage. Media report, as of 27 January, 31 fatalities and 34 injured people, and 1,490 evacuated people in 141 shelters.

Severe weather continues in Mozambique and Brian ZS6ZY, leader of the USAR communications team reports that he and Johan ZS6DMX left for Mozambique with our Emergency Response Team to aid in rescue activities, but, owing to complicated bureaucratic issues, he and Johan were held back and diverted to Mpumalanga and Limpopo areas of our country, which are in almost as much peril from heavy rain as Mozambique is.

GDACS has been reporting on a Tropical Cyclone named FYTIA, which formed over the northern Mozambique Channel on 29^th January in the afternoon, and started moving from west to east toward Madagascar as a tropical storm. On 30^th January, it was just offshore of the town of Vilamasta, with maximum wind speeds of 116km/h. It was expected to make landfall over Vilamasta late on Friday, with maximum sustained wind speeds of up to 179km/h, moving slowly across the “waist” of Madagascar on Saturday as a tropical storm.

A RED alert for the storm was issued by GDACS on Friday afternoon, warning that 120000 people would be in the path of the winds of at least 120km/h, and that the storm would have a high humanitarian impact on the population of central Madagascar.

As a result of my request to the divisional directors to supply me with news I can use here, Keith Lowes ZS5WFD of HAMNET KZN has told me about a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) that needed locating after it had been stolen in KZN. It was first traced to Wiggins/Cato Manor, but then switched off.

When it came back on again the next day, Keith deployed himself, together with Metro Police Search and Rescue. Using his Airband receiver, and the AMSAT-SA handheld Yagi, he searched unsuccessfully for the beacon, which had been transmitting intermittently. Help from Justin ZS5JW, Jitesh ZS5JM, Norman ZS5JY, Brian ZS5BR, and Ben ZS5BN was unsuccessful in triangulating the low power signal well enough to get a bearing.

By 13H00, the beacon signal had disappeared, and the ARCC Operations Chief Gregory Critchley stood the team down.

Keith says: “Although we were not able to recover the unit, it was a good exercise and an opportunity to strengthen our working relationship with the Metro Police Search & Rescue Unit.” Of course, the HAMNET group was also able to test and assess their equipment and direction finding capabilities.

It can be extremely difficult to pinpoint a signal like this when it is emanating from suburbs, because of all kinds of signal reflections off buildings and foliage, which confuses your direction finding immensely. Thanks Keith, for the report.

Gideon ZS4GJA, HAMNET Regional Director for HAMNET Vaal has sent me a report of last Sunday’s FastOne Cycle Race. He writes that HAMNET Gauteng, Vaal and Free State took part in a joint venture to provide communications for the race which was held on 25 January in Meyerton and surroundings. It consisted of a cycle race over 106 km and a shorter route of 62 km, organized by the Rotary Club of Vanderbijlpark to raise funds for their projects throughout the year. This year was the 20th race and about 2000 cyclists took part. The weather was perfect for cycling. 

HAMNET actually started with preparations for this event last year.  Boxes with a dual band radio, tracking device and a battery were built by HAMNET Gauteng. These made the installation process a breeze, where in the past it took a few hours to install all the trackers and radios into the ambulances and sweep vehicles.  This year it was done in less than an hour and a half. HAMNET also had to provide lead vehicles and back markers for both distances due to the shortage of traffic officials.

HAMNET set up a JOC with representatives of the Rotary, Ambulances, Road Rangers and the security company to coordinate the race and make sure that all injuries were attended to and bicycles were picked up. There was a radio amateur at each water point to make sure there were communications with the JOC.

A spinoff from the race is that HAMNET will have to make sure that all the Road Rangers motorcycles have trackers in future in order for their coordinator to know where they are on the route due to problems they experienced with cell phones.

This event was once again proof that HAMNET does have a place in the communications world and that different HAMNET regions can co-operate without any problems.

Thank you, Gideon.

Next Saturday the 7^th February sees the riding of the well-known 99er Cycle Tour out of Durbanville sportsgrounds in the Western Cape. This is a selection of 4 cycle races, three of which are on roads, and the fourth of which is a combined tar, gravel and off-road race for the mountain bikers.

The long 95km race, the 76km medium race and the short 45km route have different start times, as does the off-road race, but they all end at the combined finish in the streets of Durbanville, with a final cut-off at 12h30.

HAMNET Western Cape is fully involved, with nine mobile rovers patrolling various parts of the routes, reporting on various cut-offs, and monitoring their sections for accidents or riders who wish to bale out. There will be another four radio stations, stationary on each end of two narrow bridges on the long route. A station at the end of each bridge receiving oncoming cyclists will notify his partner on the far side, so that the traffic police can stop cars which might otherwise meet the riders on the narrow bridge.

Michael ZS1MJT HAMNET Western Cape Regional Director, and Sybrand, ZS1L, his Deputy, will use the HAMNET Communications trailer as our JOC, parked next to the Medical JOC at the race start and finish.

There will be two temporary APRS digipeaters installed to cover the race terrain, and mobile rovers will use their own trackers, while important race marshals, and the back markers of all four routes will use our HAMNET All-In-One trackers to be followed and identified on the route. Our APRS tracking will also be visible to the medical team in their JOC, to aid them in the identification of trouble spots.

A report on this race should be available during next week’s bulletin.

This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, happy to have some real communications news to bring you, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.