First of all, Happy Women’s Day to all the girls out there! Thank you for all you do, to keep the world rotating.
The alert for Tropical Cyclone DOLPHIN in the NW pacific has been raised to an orange level, with further forecasts predicting it will move from the Marshall Islands in the general direction of China and Japan. Maximum wind speeds of 270km/h are still predicted, and the estimated population affected by category 1 (120 km/h) wind speeds or higher currently is 4.1 million.
The projected path of the storm seems to imply that DOLPHIN will travel in a NW direction between the Northern tip of the Philippines, and the Southern end of Japan’s South Island, bringing storms to Japan, but eventually smacking straight into the SE coast of China, where I expect the most damage to be done.
The planning meeting for the Koeberg Communications Exercise to take place on the 18th August in Cape Town was held this week on the 7th. A Disaster Ops Centre will be set up on the 18th at Goodwood Disaster Risk Management Centre, once the start-of-exercise SMS is received from Disaster Management. HAMNET will be represented in the Strat Room downstairs with any extra ham onlookers upstairs in the overflow auditorium, which has audio and video connectivity to downstairs.
Danie ZS1OSS is our main liaison with DRM, and has suggested all ham attendees have handheld radios tuned to 145.250 MHz simplex, with earpieces, to minimize noise in either auditorium. In a real event HAMNET’s role could be to deploy members to the DOC, to the ZS1DCC radio room, and to vital locations with no communications such as at traffic roadblocks, a mass care centre location, or Koeberg itself. Our primary role is to help re-establish communications which may include taking MeshCore companion node with us.
No mass care centre will be set up for this exercise, but will be for the planned National Exercise in September.
Brian Jacobs ZS6YZ sent me a report yesterday saying that HAMNET Gauteng participated in the 2nd African Rover Moot, providing camp communications and showing off some of the communications equipment that is used to provide emergency communications.
Brian ZS6YZ and Willem ZS6WIM set up the HAMNET Gauteng Emergency trailer and from there provided camp communications for the duration of the Moot.
Last Sunday and Monday they showcased the equipment and discussed the importance of amateur radio in emergencies when commercial telecommunications systems are vulnerable and often fail.
These discussions continued throughout the week with a number of delegates spending time individually with the team to find out more about amateur radio, whether there are Amateur Radio Societies in their countries and who they should contact either to become Radio Amateurs or to arrange for Radio Amateurs to assist with JOTA/JOTI. This is important in light of the fact that the African Telecommunications Union also has an initiative to develop Amateur Radio in Africa.
Fruitful discussions also took place at an international level with Scout leaders present as to how Scouts in general and Radio Amateurs can come together to serve the youth and so mutually benefit both organisations.
The week’s activities culminated in a cultural day where dignitaries and visitors met the scouts and experienced the cultures of all the countries that attended the Moot.
HAMNET also had the opportunity to talk to other Service organisations and build relations resulting in an invitation to present Amateur Radio and Emergency Communications to these organisations.
Thank you for the report, Brian.
You may have heard that a piece of one of Elon Musk’s rockets that launched two private lunar landers to the moon last year, crashed into the moon this week. Phys.org says that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site soon after the Falcon 9 upper stage inadvertently ploughed into the moon on Wednesday. Danuri made multiple passes, snapping photos from lunar orbit that were released by the space agency on Thursday.
The terrain is noticeably darker where the rocket hit and carved out a crater, sending dust and rock everywhere. Korean space officials said Danuri gathered before and after shots. Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched Danuri from Cape Canaveral in 2022.
NASA expects its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to fly over the crash site next week to view the aftermath.
SpaceX sent the pair of private lunar landers to the moon last year. The upper stage from that launch is what crashed into the moon this week at 8,700 km/h, placed on an accidental collision course by solar activity and gravity, according to SpaceX.
This is the second manmade crater created on the moon. In 2022, a stage of a Chinese Moon mission crashed into the moon, but on the far side, and thus not visible to earth.
Hot of the press, so to speak, and received last night at 18h15, Ian Bradley ZS1BR sent me a report of the All Tar Rally held in Cape Town yesterday. He says:
“Reporting live from Killarney:
“Radio amateurs were again requested to assist at the annual All Tar Rally held at the Killarney Raceway where rally cars and track cars, or “challengers”, fight it out in unconventional stages.
“The initial two stages went off without a hitch, although several cars were knocked out with mechanical failures. A crash in the fourth stage required a recovery team as the car was blocking the track, but thankfully there were no injuries.
“Due to the large field of competitors, as well as a few minor incidents on the track and other delays, the final stage began just as the rain started. Thankfully this did not cause any additional issues and the final car crossed the line just after 17:00.
“This year we were assisted by three new amateur operators, namely George ZS1GLH, Jean ZR1JT, and Justin ZR1JJ, who filled in at the last minute. Special thanks to them and their ability to learn fast and under extreme pressure. We hope they weren’t intimidated or scared off, because not all rallies are quite as challenging!
“Thanks also go to Johann ZS1JM and Andre ZS1ATX at the track, as well as Davy ZR1FR and the rest of the team working in the background.”
And thanks to you Ian, for so conscientiously writing the report in your car, and still at Killarney.
This is Dave Reece, writing from an icy and wet Cape Town, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.