Hamnet weekly report 1/4/2012

Tropical cyclone Pakhar-12, situated over southern Vietnam and heading toward Cambodia, was issued with a red alert at one stage on Friday, but by Saturday, this had been lifted to orange.

However, with winds up to 120 kph it did cause damage to building, roads due to heavy rain and at this point we have had no reports of deaths.

Another interesting item in the media this week is that scientists think they may have developed a system which can to a certain extent predict when a volcano will erupt. This is after studying volcanic activity in places like Ethiopia and Iceland. It will be interesting so see if what they have learnt can be put to the test.

At home, Hamnet Gauteng south – to a certain extent, will be putting on a display at the Sacred Heart College on Wednesday the 4th of April. Although it is school holidays, the school approached us and asked us to assist them in their science week.

Chris Gryffenberg, ZS6COG and Francois, ZS6BUU will run two 90 minute sessions on Wednesday morning with a tea break around mid morning.

We invite operators to listen out for us on 7,110 MHz in the 40m band and also on VHF/UHF on local repeaters. We have applied for a special educational licence and will allow some learners to talk to operators on air.

So please diarize Wednesday the 4th of April for this educational station under the call ZS6BUU or ZS6COG!

Finally, please scrutinize your news papers very carefully today – and I think you know why! The media always insert some catchy news item which sounds very far fetched and probably is simply because it is April fools day.

Reporting for Hamnet, this is Francois Botha – ZS6BUU.