Teaching amateur radio skills to school-children in South Africa presents a key opportunity to provide children with hands-on, scientific experience to develop technical skills and help with land and sea rescue operations, says nonprofit organisation South African Radio League (SARL) president Rassie Erasmus, call sign ZS1YT.

The SARL wants to get more schools involved to increase practical and technical knowledge and to join a global communication network. It is holding a youth week from 13 to 18 February next year.

While a technical exercise, a person can quickly erect a radio antenna and establish a connection with another radio amateur to relay a message. This simple yet highly effective way of communicating is used often in emergency situations, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Australia, the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake, in Italy, and after the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, says outgoing Hamnet national director Francois Botha, call sign ZS6BUU.

Hamnets provide regular first-response communication capabilities during many events, including the Two Oceans Marathon and many large sporting events. During search and rescue operations in remote regions, this entails setting up signal repeaters on hills and mountains using offroad vehicles, with radio amateurs working on a voluntary basis, Erasmus adds.

“As recently as the Boston Marathon bombing, amateur radio network operators called for additional emergency services within five minutes of the detonation of the bombs and provided emergency communications because cellphone connectivity was impaired by the flurry of calls following the incident.”

Hamnet South Africa also provided emer-gency communications between Beira, in Mozambique, and OR Tambo International Airport, in Gauteng, during the search for a Beechcraft aircraft that went missing in 2010, and radio amateurs were on stand-by during the 2010 Soccer World Cup, highlights Botha.

Besides emergency communications, the technicality of amateur radio is also an effec- tive way to train students in the practicalities of telecommunications and electronics.

Most technical schools and colleges in Gauteng and in the Western Cape offer amateur radio courses, which involves building and oper- ating radios, which create a strong understand- ing of telecommunications equipment and electronics among students.

SARL national director Chris Gryffenberg, call sign ZS6COG, highlights that technical colleges and schools have traditionally had the most active student participation in the SARL. However, several previously disadvantaged schools, specifically in southern Gauteng, are becoming more active, owing to the dedication of their science and technical-subject teachers.

“There is a critical need to support amateur radio as a first response and as a fail-safe communications network by excluding amateur radio antennas from the rules governing commercial radio antennas. Currently, amateur radio antennas must be approved by the Department of Communications.”

“South Africa is doing itself a disservice by discouraging training, research and development in radio technology and preventing the development of technically skilled students,” emphasises Gryffenberg.

Engineering News watched as Hamnet Western Cape provincial director Paul van Spronson, call sign ZS1PVS, contacted radio hams worldwide, including in the Czech Republic, Russia, France, Germany, Poland, Lesotho, Botswana, Cape Town, the US, the UK and Zambia, beside others, to celebrate the 88th anniversary of the establishment of the International Amateur Radio Union in 1925.