Amateur Radio Ops are lending a helping hand in the wake of Disaster!
(from the ARRL news letter)
As the tsunami relief and recovery effort continues in South Asia, Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has joined those paying tribute to Amateur
Radio's ongoing emergency communication role. Director and Executive Vice
Chairman S. Suri, VU2MY, of India's National Institute of Amateur Radio
(NIAR), noted January 5 that the PM "was all praise for hams in India and
the entire world who helped us in this hour of need." Suri said the
administrator of hard-hit Car Nicobar Island has asked NIAR to keep on
duty Rama Mohan, VU2MYH, and five other radio amateurs who have been
providing communication with the island since shortly after the December
26 disaster.
"The district administration chief of Car Nicobar Island spoke to me this
morning to say even now it is only the ham communication that is aiding
them for relief and rehabilitation measures," Suri said in an e-mail to
Jay Wilson, W0AIR, of the Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response
Association (DERA) and shared with ARRL. Mohan, who had received DERA
training in the US, was part of NIAR's VU4NRO/VU4RBI DXpedition to Andaman
and Nicobar Islands. When the earthquake and tsunami struck the region,
DXpedition team leader Bharathi Prasad, VU2RBI, promptly shifted the
operation to handle emergency traffic and health-and-welfare inquiries
between the island and the Indian mainland. More than 20 Indian radio
amateurs are said to be involved in providing emergency communication
support in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Ironically, until the recent
NIAR DXpedition the Indian government did not allow Amateur Radio
operation from the islands. It's since cleared the way for all Indian hams
to operate from VU4.
In the disaster's immediate aftermath, Suri said, Mohan and other
DXpedition team members risked their lives to alert the chief of
administration on Andaman Island, since tsunami waves later overran the
road they'd traveled. NIAR staff member Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, was providing
emergency communication remote Hutbay Island.
Now back on the Indian mainland, Bharathi Prasad has reported that the
VU4NRO/VU4RBI logs are safe and at NIAR headquarters, and QSLing will
commence once the emergency operation concludes. DXer Charly Harpole,
K4VUD/HS0ZCW, now in Bangkok, Thailand, told The Daily DX
<www.dailydx.com/> that QSL cards already are showing up at NIAR.
Harpole, who was visiting the DXpedition in Port Blair on Andaman Island
when the earthquake and tsunami hit, has since been helping to handle
emergency traffic from Thailand, where his wife's family lives. "I have
been listening to the traffic from VU4 back to the India mainland, and by
now it is smooth as silk with lots of H&W and some government messages
running almost constantly," he said in an e-mail made available by QRZ DX
<www.dxpub.com/> Editor Carl Smith, N4AA. Harpole advised amateurs
worldwide to avoid the primary emergency traffic frequency of 14.190 MHz.
In Thailand, Harpole reports, hams have been using mostly 2 meters for
their emergency traffic "and doing a huge job." He said he's heard very
little from Bangladesh, and nothing from Sumatra and Burma (Myanmar). The
earthquake's epicenter was some 100 miles off Sumatra, a part of
Indonesia.
Just three days after the calamitous tsunami, Radio Society of Sri Lanka
(RSSL) President Victor Goonetilleke, 4S7VK, declared that "uncomplicated
short wave" radio had saved lives.
"Ham radio played an important part and will continue to do so," he said
in an e-mail relayed to ARRL. Goonetilleke said Sri Lanka's prime minister
had no contact with the outside world until Amateur Radio operators
stepped in. "Our control center was inside the prime minister's official
house in his operational room," he recounted. "[This] will show how they
valued our services."
Horey Majumdar, VU2HFR, in Calcutta, said improvisation was "the name of
the game" in the emergency's aftermath. "Hams had to switch to good old CW
and switch frequencies from 14.190 and 14.160 MHz to 7.090 MHz," he said.
Majumdar noted that hams from all over "have been checking into the VU
emergency nets and extending their fullest cooperation in the truest
spirit of Amateur Radio."
According to the latest estimate, more than 150,000 people died as a
result of the tsunami, about one-third of them children.
Although the US does not have third-party traffic agreements with any of
the countries affected by the disaster, international emergency and
disaster relief communications are permitted unless otherwise provided.
While FCC Part 97 has not yet been updated to reflect revisions to
third-party traffic rules at World Radiocommunication Conference 2003, FCC
staff has told ARRL that if the government agencies responsible for the
Amateur Service in affected countries do not object to their amateur
stations receiving messages from US amateur stations on behalf of third
parties, the US has no objection to its amateur stations transmitting
international communications in support of the disaster.
Additional information on Amateur Radio and the tsunami disaster is on the
ARRL Web site.
This is what it is all about fellas!
1.
(Material from The ARRL Letter may be republished or reproduced in whole or
in part in any form without additional permission. Credit must be given to
The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League.)
<span style="color
range;font-family:helvetica;font-size:large;">RadioActive</span>
</p>
(from the ARRL news letter)
As the tsunami relief and recovery effort continues in South Asia, Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has joined those paying tribute to Amateur
Radio's ongoing emergency communication role. Director and Executive Vice
Chairman S. Suri, VU2MY, of India's National Institute of Amateur Radio
(NIAR), noted January 5 that the PM "was all praise for hams in India and
the entire world who helped us in this hour of need." Suri said the
administrator of hard-hit Car Nicobar Island has asked NIAR to keep on
duty Rama Mohan, VU2MYH, and five other radio amateurs who have been
providing communication with the island since shortly after the December
26 disaster.
"The district administration chief of Car Nicobar Island spoke to me this
morning to say even now it is only the ham communication that is aiding
them for relief and rehabilitation measures," Suri said in an e-mail to
Jay Wilson, W0AIR, of the Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response
Association (DERA) and shared with ARRL. Mohan, who had received DERA
training in the US, was part of NIAR's VU4NRO/VU4RBI DXpedition to Andaman
and Nicobar Islands. When the earthquake and tsunami struck the region,
DXpedition team leader Bharathi Prasad, VU2RBI, promptly shifted the
operation to handle emergency traffic and health-and-welfare inquiries
between the island and the Indian mainland. More than 20 Indian radio
amateurs are said to be involved in providing emergency communication
support in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Ironically, until the recent
NIAR DXpedition the Indian government did not allow Amateur Radio
operation from the islands. It's since cleared the way for all Indian hams
to operate from VU4.
In the disaster's immediate aftermath, Suri said, Mohan and other
DXpedition team members risked their lives to alert the chief of
administration on Andaman Island, since tsunami waves later overran the
road they'd traveled. NIAR staff member Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, was providing
emergency communication remote Hutbay Island.
Now back on the Indian mainland, Bharathi Prasad has reported that the
VU4NRO/VU4RBI logs are safe and at NIAR headquarters, and QSLing will
commence once the emergency operation concludes. DXer Charly Harpole,
K4VUD/HS0ZCW, now in Bangkok, Thailand, told The Daily DX
<www.dailydx.com/> that QSL cards already are showing up at NIAR.
Harpole, who was visiting the DXpedition in Port Blair on Andaman Island
when the earthquake and tsunami hit, has since been helping to handle
emergency traffic from Thailand, where his wife's family lives. "I have
been listening to the traffic from VU4 back to the India mainland, and by
now it is smooth as silk with lots of H&W and some government messages
running almost constantly," he said in an e-mail made available by QRZ DX
<www.dxpub.com/> Editor Carl Smith, N4AA. Harpole advised amateurs
worldwide to avoid the primary emergency traffic frequency of 14.190 MHz.
In Thailand, Harpole reports, hams have been using mostly 2 meters for
their emergency traffic "and doing a huge job." He said he's heard very
little from Bangladesh, and nothing from Sumatra and Burma (Myanmar). The
earthquake's epicenter was some 100 miles off Sumatra, a part of
Indonesia.
Just three days after the calamitous tsunami, Radio Society of Sri Lanka
(RSSL) President Victor Goonetilleke, 4S7VK, declared that "uncomplicated
short wave" radio had saved lives.
"Ham radio played an important part and will continue to do so," he said
in an e-mail relayed to ARRL. Goonetilleke said Sri Lanka's prime minister
had no contact with the outside world until Amateur Radio operators
stepped in. "Our control center was inside the prime minister's official
house in his operational room," he recounted. "[This] will show how they
valued our services."
Horey Majumdar, VU2HFR, in Calcutta, said improvisation was "the name of
the game" in the emergency's aftermath. "Hams had to switch to good old CW
and switch frequencies from 14.190 and 14.160 MHz to 7.090 MHz," he said.
Majumdar noted that hams from all over "have been checking into the VU
emergency nets and extending their fullest cooperation in the truest
spirit of Amateur Radio."
According to the latest estimate, more than 150,000 people died as a
result of the tsunami, about one-third of them children.
Although the US does not have third-party traffic agreements with any of
the countries affected by the disaster, international emergency and
disaster relief communications are permitted unless otherwise provided.
While FCC Part 97 has not yet been updated to reflect revisions to
third-party traffic rules at World Radiocommunication Conference 2003, FCC
staff has told ARRL that if the government agencies responsible for the
Amateur Service in affected countries do not object to their amateur
stations receiving messages from US amateur stations on behalf of third
parties, the US has no objection to its amateur stations transmitting
international communications in support of the disaster.
Additional information on Amateur Radio and the tsunami disaster is on the
ARRL Web site.
This is what it is all about fellas!
1.
(Material from The ARRL Letter may be republished or reproduced in whole or
in part in any form without additional permission. Credit must be given to
The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League.)
<span style="color
range;font-family:helvetica;font-size:large;">RadioActive</span>
</p>
