Image: Not long afterwards and this vehicle was swept away by the water. - Gourits River, between Mossel Bay and Albertinia
The Western Cape in South Africa experienced two severe weather outbreaks recently that caused thousands of Rands of damage to property and infrastructure. Unfortunately 4 people lost their lives during these storms. These severe weather events is no strange phenomena and has occurred in the past. Today I do not want to discuss severe weather but rather power- and internet outages that effects general- and radio communications during such events.
Severe weather had an effect on analog as well as digital radio communications during these two events as observed by the editor of this article. The cause of amateur radio communication outages need to be investigated urgently and steps taken if there is any indication that some of the outages could have been prevented.
What worked and did not work?
Worked flawlessly even during power- and internet outages:
- AREDN Mossel Bay = An Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network is a high speed data network built with Amateur Radio Operators and Emergency Communications Infrastructure in mind. Linked to the ZS1I Mossel Bay Network.
- 49355 ZS1I AllStar HUB Node, Mossel Bay linked to a 2m VHF Simplex Radio Setup on 145.550 Mhz. Also linked to the AREDN Network.
- ZS1I DMR Bridge Node, Mossel Bay linked to the ZS1I AllStar HUB Node and the ZS1I DMR Repeater. Also linked to the AREDN Network.
- ZS1I DMR Digital Repeater, Mossel Bay - Linked to the AREDN Network.
Did not work as a result of power- and internet outages:
- All Echolink Nodes (Links and Repeaters) connected to analog repeaters and radios. Even private users of Echolink was offline and did not work.
- Several repeaters in the Western / Southern Cape Area. As this might be sensitive to some I will not mentioned the repeaters that was down during and after the severe events. Information that I obtained revealed that some repeaters died due to power outages as backup batteries ran flat. I am not talking of only one repeater here!
- Several amateur radio stations (HF, VHF, UHF) were off the air due to the fact that they had no backup battery- or generator power when the power failed.
- APRS Internet Gateways and some APRS Stations - No Internet or Power.
- Echolink- and MMDVM Servers - Locally and Internationally - No Internet and Power failures.
Did work but propagation conditions were bad due to solar activity:
- HF Radio Communications - During the past two weeks solar activity featured several M-class flares, including a significant M5.8 event on May 10, accompanied by a fast Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). A massive Earth-facing coronal hole also unleashed high-speed solar winds, which recently triggered G1 (Minor) to G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storms. Contact was possible at times but conditions were very bad. Not sure if it would have suffice for emergency communications.
As the title indicates there are many silent amateur radio killers out there lurking to kill systems and networks and not only during severe weather events. I hear you say but amateur radio is just a hobby and I am not involved in emergency radio communications. Be as it may you might have been one of the lucky one's this time around that was not effected by the severe weather event. However there were quite a few radio amateurs that could not pick up on their regular afternoon nets and skeds as a result of the outages. Even the radio amateurs up country that experienced no severe weather indicated that they were "cut-off " from the Western- and Southern Cape and left in the cold.
What needs to happen to prevent systems from going down during severe weather events. Well one cannot curb outages to the full but you can alleviate the effect up to 80% if you take the necessary actions/precautions prior to the severe weather event. Unfortunately I can write 100's of essays explaining how this can be done but as far as I am concerned this will be a waist of time. Ever since the Devastating Fires in Knysna in 2017 nothing wide spread has been done relating to emergency communications in the Southern Cape Area except on an individual basis.
Image: Violent gale-force winds that battered the Garden Route on May 11, 2026 caused catastrophic damage to the historic George Golf Club, uprooting an incredible 263 trees across the 120-year-old golf course.
Be as it may it gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to test my amateur radio equipment during severe weather events to see what is working and what can be improved. Nothing more satisfying when my systems and networks is fully functional during severe weather and other emergency events. No and this is not to brag. It serves as a barometer of how effectively I can run such systems and networks.
Will I make changes to systems and networks after this past events. Definitely! I already started to change and improve my networks with the necessary and noticeable improvements. Having said that there is still a few silent amateur radio killers out there lurking ..... and they will kill more systems and networks if the necessary changes are not made. In the next article I will look at one of the deadliest killers that is killing digital radio networks even if there is no power- or internet outages. However I have a few ideas how this can be solved. Provisional tests look very promising!
Finally: I enjoy having a Plan A, B and C for most eventualities. I hate when incidents happen that result in communication outages. Some just except their "fate" which in many cases are preventable in amateur radio. Maybe I am just old school but life has taught me a few lessons. One of the most important ones being prepared as best one can for any eventuality. After all it effects my family, friends and the community. Are you prepared and is it important to you to prevent communication outages during any eventuality?
