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www.southgatearc.org
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Hamnet shows its muscle in joint exercise with WSARA combined Hamnet team from Cape Town, West Coast and the Winelands showed
their muscle in a joint rescue Hamnet member Christi van Zyl, ZR1CVZ, offered his farm for the exercise. A group of 18 HAMNET members deployed and established repeater and simplex communications for the exercise, including a VHF/UHF link which provided excellent penetrative communications into the winding kloof. Included in the arsenal of equipment, was a complete HF station, as well as a Pactor 3 HF email system which was used to update strategic persons on the progress and achievements. Saturday was set aside for lectures and testing equipment, while Sunday was used to plan and execute a mock rescue of an elderly gentleman who went missing in one of the kloofs. At first light two mountain rescue teams, including two HAMNET members per team, were deployed to conduct the search mission. Despite the radio unfriendly terrain, communication was maintained either by repeater or via the VHF/UHF link. Feedback from the rescue teams and Incident Commanders was extremely positive. HAMNET teams also provided logistical support in the form of driving the rescuers by 4x4 from the base to the rescue staging site. Metro Emergency Medical Services provided an Incident Command bus which had VHF, UHF, Airband and Tetra radio equipment, conference facilities, sleeping place for their operators, a kitchen and a generator for backup power. A small team consisting of an Incident Commander, Planner, Operations, Logistical and Admin personnel executed the rescue plan, with HAMNET members logging, operating the radios, as well as manning the logistics and planning positions. "In general, we learnt an enormous amount of how rescues and searches are planned and conducted, as well as how to plan and execute effective radio communications in a short space of time," Pierre Tromp, ZS1HF, Hamnet Coordinator for the Western Cape said. "Our team gelled and worked extremely well together." The South African Amateur Radio Development Trust earlier this year awarded the Siemens Radio Amateur of the Year Award to Pierre for his support of proactive Hamnet activity.
Source: The South African Radio League
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