PARS emergency communications organiser Asad Marwat AP2AUM that while the linking of so many repeaters will cause a tail squelch delay, given the circumstances and lack of proper equipment it will be acceptable.

A convoy of radio amateurs is relocating a repeater already installed at Changla and relocating it to Malakand Heights, so it can be linked into the emergency communications system via Nowshera.

Asad AP2AUM said that a team of radio amateurs will be transporting via a helicopter a VHF base station with a high gain antenna, and subject to the availability of a 12v car battery all should be up and running.

As the massive flood disaster that has ravaged Pakistan for the past month shows no signs of easing, PARS continues to collaborate with Islamabad Jeep Club members and the Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians to provide support for those affected.

Some 30 radio amateurs are involved in providing emergency communications in response to the disaster estimated to have affected 20 million people and claimed 1500 lives.

Jim Linton VK3PC
Chairman,
IARU R3 Disaster Communications Committee

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred at 4.36am local time Saturday 4 September, while most people were asleep in their homes.

The result was extensive building damage in New Zealand’s second largest city, Christchurch, with only two people seriously hurt and no one reported trapped or missing.

AREC Deputy Director, Geoff Chapman ZL3PX who lives in Christchurch, said that while AREC was at the Civil Defence Headquarters, there has been no requirement for it to pass any emergency traffic.

That is due to restoration of telephone and power to the majority of the affected areas. While water and sewerage systems have been affected there has been no reported major loss of roads or bridges.

However AREC is ready, as the situation could worsen with the weather bureau issuing a warning of very strong winds with gusts up to 130km/h and heavy rain posing new threats to already damaged buildings.

Adding to the danger are numerous aftershocks with authorities advising that these will continue for many days or weeks.

The ‘quake is New Zealand’s most damaging since the one which hit Napier (Hawke’s Bay) in February 1931, that saw radio amateurs extensively provide emergency communications.

That led to the formation by the IARU national radio society, the New Zealand Amateur Radio Transmitters (NZART) of what is today known as AREC.

Jim Linton VK3PC, Chairman, IARU Region 3, Disaster Communications Committee.

HAMNET INVOLVEMENT REPORT

During October 2009, HAMNET was approached by the Johannesburg Disaster Management to become part of the communications team preparing for the soccer World Cup as well as the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality that covers the East Rand area. One must remember that Gauteng South has three major Metropolitan Areas namely Johannesburg itself, Ekurhuleni that covers the East Rand From basically Bedford View to Springs in the far east rand and Mogale Metropolitan Area that covers the West Rand.

The Johannesburg communications team comprised people from all walks of life and included at least 3 communications specialists to assist with the establishment of the network to cover events during the SWC.

However, prior to that, during a Disaster Management Forum meeting held in August 2009, we had guest speakers from various organisations elaborating on their involvement, approach to and planning of various scenarios that may occur before and during the SWC.

These were representatives from S.A. Police Services, The Civil Aviation Authority, Health Departments, Emergency Medical Services, Provincial Directors, Traffic authorities and so the list goes on.  No stone leading up to the event was left unturned, inspected, discussed and replaced with a plan of action.

Hamnet’s final involvement began fairly late in the run up to the event – around March 2010, three months before the opening ceremony.  This was due to the Joint Communications Committee in their planning realising that they had to plan for the eventuality of there being a total blackout of all types and forms of communication.

1. All normal forms of communications are lost and our brief would then be to restore communications by utilizing amateur radio frequencies or any other appropriate frequency with Hamnet members seconded to the emergency services at key points.
2. A disaster occurs in an area where normal communications is nonexistent and Hamnet would have to set up a radio link between the incident and the controlling authority.

The JCC building did have its own power supply generator should general power fail – and so did all the soccer stadiums around the country!

We were invited to attend meetings within the building allocated as the Joint Communication Centre which in itself immediately presented some problems.  The building was a classic example of a Faraday Cage with result communications from the control desk on the 3rd floor on 2 metres to a repeater on the roof, another 8 floors higher, was impossible.

We then looked at running a cross band set-up by utilizing 70cm from the control room to a repeater on the roof and then out on 2 metres.  This worked well as the JCC was within simplex reach of both the stadia – Ellis Park and the main arena, Soccer City – and many of the other venues due to the height of the antenna!

Our next objective was to obtain a list of all the Fan Fest Parks, Team Locations (Hotels etc.), Training Venues, Township TV facilities, Park and Ride facilities, Bus Routes, Park and Walk facilities, and finally, the Road Closure list on days of games at the two venue’s.

Once this was done, we then drew up a list of all the volunteers in the Gauteng South Region – looking particularly at those with mobiles and 2 m facilities.  The authorities at this point also invited us for a photographic session so we could be issued with EMS (Emergency Management Service) volunteer cards with our speciality embedded in the card.  All the volunteers were briefed on their roles via meetings and on an individual basis prior to the start of the event!

The South African Police Service then required a complete list of all the volunteers including their types and makes of vehicles, registration numbers, name of driver, ID number colour of the vehicle etc.  All this was done within a deadline of completion being one month prior to the opening ceremony.  This was for accreditation purposes.

The Accreditation Routine was extremely strict – and so was security.  Should there be an incident and a volunteer was required to do duty, that person first had to obtain a security clearance or accreditation certificate, attend to his call out and then must return the certificate from the issuing point after the incident is over!

We then ran into a problem regarding the equipment required for the ops room.  Some new equipment including a suitable Flight Case had to be urgently obtained from suppliers locally and from Japan.  We were also donated a good working 2nd hand laptop as this was going to be built into the Flight case for Internet and APRS usage if required.

Although the emergency unit (kit) was ready approximately one week into the month long event, we decided in consultation with the JCC committee that we will remain on stand by and should it be necessary to install the emergency kit into the ops room, this could be accomplished in a very short period of time!  The committee were happy that Hamnet was in place and that all the volunteers were on stand by if required.  We also needed permission to possibly drill holes into the wall on the roof to mount the antenna.

This was ruled out and an alternative arrangement was prepared whereby the antenna was mounted on a footplate that was held down by concrete slabs to prevent the wind blowing down the mast.  Fortunately, to erect this was never required – but it was in place!

This arrangement remained in place for the full duration of the games – locally and in other centres – as all games were displayed on Fan Park TV screens where anything could go wrong.

This takes care of Gauteng South Province.

In all the other cities/venues like Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Rustenburg, Polokwane, Pretoria and Nelspruit, the arrangements for the volunteers was not that elaborate as in Gauteng.  Each town or city had at lest 3 people who were on standby and in communication with their local Disaster Management and SAPS members should they be required tor duty.

We know that Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Durban also had special facilities within their Disaster Management ops rooms for communication to any volunteers in their vehicles as well as being able to communicate directly with the main Hamnet station in Johannesburg via HF, Echolink or Skype through the Internet.

In all, it turned out to be an excellent operation in preparing for something that my or may not happen.  Gauteng South benefitted by way of now having 2 emergency kits available and Cape Town will benefit from taking over one of the rigs for use in their ops room.

Gauteng disaster Management with its ops room in Midrand, were never part of the Gauteng South plan but they were on stand by for the whole period of the cup event.

In total, for our area only, the number of amateur radio operators that took part – Hamnet and non Hamnet volunteers, totalled around 65 people.

We also wish to thank the authorities for allowing us to form part of and be on stand-by during this whole operation and sincerely hope this will benefit closer cooperation between Hamnet and local authorities in the future!

Reporting for Hamnet, this is Francois Botha, ZS6BUU – National Director.

Radio Amateurs in Region 1 are reminded that the following frequencies
may be in use by nets in North and Central America to track and deal
with the consequences of these severe weather events. It is possible for
Region 1 amateurs to cause unintentional QRM to these nets so please
listen carefully if operating near these frequencies.

14.300 MHz is used by the Maritime Mobile Service Net daily and as well
as handling traffic from Maritime Mobile Stations, also gathers weather
reports from maritime stations to assist forecasters.

14.325 MHz is used by the Hurricane Watch Net and the net is established
whenever it appears that a storm may affect the US mainland. The net
gathers weather information and links to the American National Hurricane
Centre.

14.265 MHz is used by the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio  Network (
SATERN )  provides Health and Welfare traffic links for those in
affected areas as well as supporting the Salvation Army Disaster relief
response should a hurricane strike.

Frequencies used in Cuba
7.045, 7.080, 7.110 MHz
3.740 MHz

Frequencies used in Central America;
Red Centro Americana :  7.090 and 3.750MHz
Guatemala: 7.075 MHz
Nicaragua: 7.098 MHz

Mexico (FMRE)3.690 and 7.060 MHz

Cuba and Mexico co-operate with long distance relays on 40m when
propagation makes this possible.

Local emergency communications groups may also activate if a hurricane
approaches their area and those frequencies would be announced at the time.

From the 26 to 30th of April. the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), Region 1 (Europe, Africa, Middle East and Northern Asia), European Community Sub-Regional Working Group (EUROCOM) is hosting an exhibition in the European Parliment entitled Amateur Radio Benefits Society. The exhibition is sponsored by MEP Mrs Brigit Sippel and was opened by IARU Region 1 President Hans Blondeel Timmerman, PB2T

IRTS and AREN is represented by Seán Nolan, EI7CD, and Séamus McCague, EI8BP (pictured below)

Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Dr. Kristalina Georgieva gives a mention to the exhibition in her Blog and concludes the post nicely with.

The expressions “Humanitarian Aid” and “Crisis Response” often suggest large organisations delivering aid and heavy loads in helicopters or trailers. But, very often, it is about the job of anonymous people that continue to broadcast information and hope from damaged equipment and fallen antennae, as they like to say, “when everything else fails”.

he official toll following the 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Qinghai province in north west China as at 10am local time 18 April is 1706 deaths and 12,128 people injured. Local authorities estimate that up to 90 percent of buildings collapsed.

The Chinese Radio Sports Association (CRSA) reports that amateur radio rescue teams from An Hui, Qinghai, Beijing, Shandong, Jiangsu, Sichuan provinces have joined the disaster mitigation efforts.

The rescue and recovery efforts following the quake that occurred on 14 April are difficult in the area which is a mountainous plateau more than 4,000 metres above sea level that experiences with very low overnight temperatures.

The amateur radio teams have set up VHF and UHF repeaters to provide quick support communications, 7050kHz and 7060kHz are their main HF QRGs, and sometimes 14270kHz in 20 meter band has been used.

The CRSA is borrowing from its experiences gained in the Great Sichuan earthquake of two years ago. To a avoid traffic jam travelling to the earthquake centre area, the ham radio and other support teams are following the instructions set by the government.

While commercial communications recovered on 15 April in six counties of Yushu district, emergency amateur radio communications teams are continuing to assist the disaster mitigation.

The CRSA thanks those IARU member societies such KARL, JARL, MARTS and HARTS and others who have given their support by translating Qinghai earthquake reports for their local websites and for all in helping keep the emergency frequencies clear.

(Report provided by Fan Bin BA1RB, CRSA Coordinator IARU Region 3. Disaster Communications Committee and Chairman Jim Linton VK3PC)

The Chinese Radio Sports Association (CRSA) has asked that the frequencies of 7050kKHz and 7060kHz be kept clear for emergency ham radio communications following  a devastating earthquake in Yu Shu district, Qinghai province.

A number of radio amateurs are already active in supporting the rescue and recovery efforts including BG9UA, BG9UP and BG9UO.

The emergency communication team of Anhui amateur radio society, led by Mr Du BG6CEV was flying to Qinghai today (15 April) to bring communication equipment.

The earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Ritcher scale occurred on the morning of Tuesday has left 589 people dead, nearly 10,000 injured and 10,000 families needing to be resettled due to 99% of houses damaged.

Yu Shu located in a plateau with temperatures fall to -5 degrees (minus five degrees) making conditions bad for those without shelter as well as hampering rescue efforts. Water, electricity and other facilities are cut.

(Report provided by Fan Bin BA1RB, CRSA Coordinator of the IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Conmmittee via Jim Linton VK3PC)

As parts of earthquake-hit Chile again this week were shaken by severe aftershocks there has been further news of the role of radio amateurs, including them being a highly sought after reliable source of information.

A television news report describes them as a collection of dedicated ham radio operators scattered across the country, proving to be an information lifeline during the recent devastating earthquake, tsunami and its aftermath.

Interviewed was RCCH Secretary Alejandro Jara CE3JWF and Director of SER (Servicio de Emergencia de Radioaficionados) Rafael Riesco CE3FFR, the Spanish language report, translated to English said “They were on air within 10 to 15 minutes of the quake – where possible. ”

“While telephones and the internet largely failed, many of the radio operators have back-up power and were able to provide vital lines of communication, picked up by National Radio Chile and rebroadcast, giving status of various affected areas.”

The report added that, “Even where internet still worked, gossip social networking pages could not be trusted, exaggerating and getting things wrong.”

“Ham radio operators of the Radio Club of Chile are more honourable, dedicating many hours of their lives to their radio networks and broadcasting, in some cases, from damaged equipment, even after the collapse of antennas. Thanks to them – Save Chile in a crisis!”

“The ham operator callsign enabled national radio and authorities to trust the information as members of the club have ‘honorable’ status, a great asset in a crisis where messages can get distorted through normal communiciation channels, if available.”

The report went further to say “Claims that ham radio is dying were put to rest as these operators provided such vital communication links, and the operators are voluntary and definitely don’t want to be paid.”

When the massive earthquake struck early February 27, the Red Chilena Nor Austral de Servicios (RECNA) and RCCH networks worked in coordination with the army handling information about locating missing persons, condition of roads and support for the emergency administration.

The magnitude-8.8 earthquake resulted in more than 720 deaths, 1.5 million destroyed homes along with damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

The RCCH has expressed its thanks to the world’s radio amateurs for keeping emergency frequencies free during their nation’s time of need. All previously announced HF frequencies are not currently required for emergency communications.

(Jim Linton VK3PC, Chairman, IARU Region 3 Disaster Communications Committee)

Dr. Cesar Pio Santos, HR2P, IARU Region 2 Emergency Coordinator has release the use of the emergency frecuencies based on information received from Dr. Dino Besomi, CE3PG,President of Radio Club de Chile.

We thank the world radio amateur community for their support in keeping emergency frequencies clear during the past days.