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Ham Radio Served as Main Link to Disaster Area
SonicSpike writes "A University of Central Florida ham radio operator K4VUD (and founder
of their film program) was caught in Port
Blair during the earthquake and following tsunami! He and a team of other ham radio operators arrived in the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands to setup the region's
first ham station 2 weeks prior to the disaster. Once they realized what
happened they immediately began transmitting for 20 straight hours using car batteries as a power source. Most cellular and land-line communication was down. His team became the main link to the rest of the world from the region."
Opportunity knocks on people's door in the most bizarre way. Yesterday they are just some university radio folks, today they are globally recognized.
Well, I guess this is an "I told you so" from those who opposed BPL for ham-interference reasons. ... being able to read slashdot faster on BroadBand, or the lives of innocent little children? Easy enough question, to those of you who aren't terminally selfish.
What do you care more for
I think the Hams win this one.
Sometimes just making money isn't the best thing.
73 - KL1SA
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Okay... ham radio... wow... we should all be impressed... how about using said car batteries and other forms of power to power the damned cell sites... much more useful... not everyone has a ham radio at their disposal... but I'm sure you'd find a cell phone, even in poverty stricken areas within a 5 kilometre radius...
Let's see, maybe because:
1. They actually *HAD* a ham radio, not a cellphone tower.
2. I doubt if they had found a cellphone tower that they would just happen to have a power converter suitable to running it off of their car batteries. (And if they did, I doubt the batteries would last long supporting that dynamo.)
3. A back up generator would have been much more suitable to running something like a cell tower.
4. Can you say "cellular network"? Powering up one cell tower isn't going to do you diddly squat if the other cell towers and phonelines are down.
Ham radio was and is useful when natural disasters happens, this is something the rest of the people knows only when it's too late.
how about using said car batteries and other forms of power to power the damned cell sites...
And how, my friend, do you expect that cell tower to communicate with the rest of the world when the land lines are out? That said, do you have any idea how much power it would take to run an entire cell tower, off of car batteries? These cell towers don't run off of 12V DC, and even if they did, the power from one battery (or even 5) isn't gonna cut it. HAM radios (or any radio, for that matter) are still a very viable communication method when standard infrastructure goes the way of the shitter.
Just be thankful the world is reacting at all I say. If this had not have been a natural disaster, but rather another genocide or brutal regime killing people, the world would still be sitting on its collective hands watching the death toll rise. Natural disasters are easy to deal with. No messy issues with who is the "good guy" and who is the "bad guy", just throw money at it to prove how much you care.
well this is a feel good story and all, but I always wonder -- how exactly are these amateur radio operators helping in more than an anecdotal way during disasters? I mean, is it like they're ferrying critical rescue and operations traffic? I have a feeling not, because to do that, both they and the operators on the other side would have to be tied in to whatever government or agency is reaching out to help. And to have that be the case, there would have to be serious pre-disaster networks and agreements set up.
I mean, this is similar to the relief organizations in the area now -- they keep telling regular people not to volunteer to fly to the region and help out, because what they really want are people who know what they're doing and part of the organization already, and can be deployed. A single ham radio operator on his/her own is not going to be that useful.
So maybe I'm not really familiar with the true value of ham radio operators in situations like this -- can anyone give a more informed picture? Do they just serve to carry random individual messages of "I'm ok", until the military/relief authorities arrive and set up a real command communications network?
thanks for the info.
Radio travels at the speed of light. Ships and helicopters travel at the speed of bureaucracy.
Next question.
2. Maybe the aussies actually had to load stuff on the ships. You know...stuff that people might need, like medical supplies, water, blankets. Does no good to send empty ships.
3. It takes quite a while for a carrier battle group (the Abraham Lincoln) to steam several thousand miles. Unless you know of another way to get helicopters and 15,000 navy people across a few thousand miles of open ocean.
It seems to me you're bitching just to be bitching.
If they had communications from the disaster, why did it take the international community a week to react.
You think there are cargo ships and helicopters loaded up 24/7 with crews, appropriate supplies and doctors just waiting for a disaster to strike?
You can't take the sky from me...
If they had communications from the disaster, why did it take the international community a week to react. Why did Australia just start sending its ships? Why did the USA helicopters just arrive in Sri Lanka today?
Well do you suppose they just have big old ships full of disaster relief supplies sitting dockside in Australia? Or do you suppose that they have to be fueled, loaded up (once they figure out what types of supplies will be needed) and sent on the way?
Does the United States have helicopters that can make trans-oceanic crossings? Or do you suppose that maybe they have to operate off some sort of vessel? Might that vessel have to travel close enough to where relief supplies are needed so that the helicopters can make round trips to deliver muliple loads of supplies? Or do you expect that just sending the helicopters on a one way trip with a single load of supplies would be sufficient?
Have you stopped to consider that delivering relief supplies to disaster areas actually takes some thought and organization rather than being done in a chaotic, willy-nilly fashion?
Were you aware that even though there has been a huge disaster there are still functioning bureaucracies in the affected areas? Bureaucracies that expect i's to be dotted, t's to be crossed and the proper clearances obtained and the correct forms filled out in triplicate? Were you aware that a licence is required to import medicines into India and that the requirement is not being waved even in light of the huge disaster?
Apparently you haven't really considered these things or else you'd know that relief is actually being provided pretty damn fast on an international scale. If you want to offer any criticism on the tardiness of relief efforts then I suggest you look to the governments a little bit closer to the disaster areas as they are the ones who are properly positioned to provide immediate relief and are therefore the ones who are most responsible for doing so.
Amateur radio has been used all over the world many many times during disaster. Hurricanes here in the states, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. They usually go unnoticed, despite being the only source of communication at times. Severe storm warnings are usually issued after HAMs report, via radio, that there is in fact a severe storm (after undergoing training of course). Without us even knowing it they can be a huge part of our daily lives.
Its good to see that such a useful, threatened hobby can show one of its many goodsides to the world by helping out.
73 de kg4gytI miss the smell of a hot soldering iron. And my 3 DSW & SmallWonder Lab radios all worked the first time. *
Rich (* = But my degrees are in English Lit, Rhetoric, and Composition Theory ;)
A: Very likely. Contrary to your belief, it does not require that Joe Ham have a lot of power or a huge antenna on a tower to communicate with the other side of the world. Nor does it require repeaters on the HF frequencies.
I've been an FCC licensed Ham since 1958 at age 12 and operate only with low power (QRP to us hams) as a challenge precisely because making long distance contacts was too easy with even moderate power (say 100 watts) and modest wire antennas. I've communicated directly with Japan and New Zealand from my car in Illinois using a 4 watt transmitter and a 4 foot antenna on the trunk. If you get up to around 100 Watts and a reasonable wire antenna hung up in the trees in the back yard, you can very easily talk anywhere in the world, given reasonable conditions.
What good is it from the other end? I was with Project Hope in Tunisia in 1969 and provided daily "phone-patched" phone call service to the staff of about 150 people so they could stay in touch with their families back home, without having to pay the $13.00 for the first 3 minutes that the landline cost. It made a huge difference to the people on the hospital ship. In disaster situations, it's orders of magnitude more important. Some of my fellow hams here in the states provided similar communications for military and Antarctic bases for years.
To learn more about Amateur Radio, visit the ARRL website. ARRL Oh, and please, please, do not lump us in with CB folks, as nice as some of them are. Hams are tested and licensed to FCC standards prior to being allowed to put their transmitters on the air.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
And yes, BPL is bad, and can/will interfere with HAM, but there are better ways to point this out than to completely ignore both the tragedy and what good these students, and other amateur HAM operators have been able to do since the tragedy occured.
So maybe my post is a bit off-topic, but I find it very disturbing that folks will focus on things like this when a tragedy occurs, especially the trolls. Think about what you're saying, and think about what it says about you before you click that submit button. (And yes, I know this is the Internet, and particularly /., but some of the trolls especially have managed to sink to new lows this time.)
This already exists, more or less. Most countries have their own military, with aircraft and helicopters. What you propose would have to be a fleet every 500 miles or so, all the way around the planet. Helicopters are notoriously shortlegged. And quite often, they are the only thing that can get to the affected area. No runways exist, or are left after the disaster.
In this case, such a fleet would have been more useful for evacuation purposes. Seismographs recorded the earthquakes long before the tsunami hit populated areas.
Radio and telephone are far faster. And efforts were made in this case, to little effect.
No transport systems existed in those areas to get people out, but a first response system may have been able to get some out and deliver warnings to others. Enough that perhaps we'd be seeing death rates a tenth (or less) of those we actually have.
How many people can you evacuate via helicopter? 20 each? How many helicopters to evacuate 100,000 people in an hour?
I would like to mention several things:
/.'ers have already posted their sympathy and condolences about this tragic situation. Don't believe me?8 /012024 0&tid=991 /001620 6&tid=99
/. We are about technology and technical things. Discussing communication technology, people who use it, methodology, functionality, and even the human side of it is perfectly within the realm of informative speech.
1) There is no better time to point out the effects of a technology than when it is being used during a crisis! In 5 years (assuming there isn't another crisis of this magnitude) people will largely forget about ham radio and its function especially as an emergency communications network. Now is a GREAT time to launch a PR campaign of awareness and information about the art and hobby of ham radio. (if you notice though I didn't mention BPL in my article because I didn't want it to be the main focus of things). I guarentee you that thousands, if not millions, are exceptionally appreciative of ham radio at the moment.
2) A lot of
Read this:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/2
and this:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/3
3) This is
4) I bet that the doctors and EMTs over in that area are discussing their professional and technical perspectives of the disaster among their collegues. Why? Because they want to learn and exchange information. So are the structual engineers, and the civil engineers, and city planners etc...
No one is saying that this is not a very tragic situation. But with the free exchange of information and objective discussion perhaps better methods of communication or preperation could be devised to help save more lives or maybe to ease the burden next time.
Libertas in infinitum
On the topic of Ham radios during disasters, I would like to bring up something that annoys me to no end...
Why in the hell is it that emergency services aren't equipt to handle anything but a normal day? When some idiots have assault weapons and body armor, police are practically helpless (they got lucky, actually). When there is anything larger than a house fire, firefighters don't have the equipment, training, numbers, etc. When there are real emergencies, police, firefigters and ambulance services don't have any working and practical communications equipment at all. It seems the more developed our country becomes, the more emergency services depend on the very infrastructure that will be first to fail when it's really needed...
It's clear that local (city/county, sometimes state) governments are to blame. They cause flood damage by approving roads to be built, but don't account for drainage, and allow homes to be built in the obvious path of flood waters. In the worst areas, they may even build storm-drains, but do nothing to keep they clear, rending them completely useless wastes of money. Emergency services in flood-prone areas never seem to have the equipment that would make it easy to perform the necessary rescues, meaning people die, money is wasted, etc.
They allow homes to be built near wooded areas, prone to major fires, and don't do the slightest bit of maintenance on those areas to prevent major fires. I've heard of only one city in Southern California that spends a small ammount of money to clear brush, why don't the rest? Firefighters are helpless against forrest-fires, and yet, the preventative controlled burns (the method previously used) have even been stopped.
Hospitals are now (finally) required to have a generator, but only required to have enough capacity to stay up for a short time (a couple days IIRC) when blackouts can last far longer. Besides hospitals, emergency services depend greatly on the power grid, and rarely have the generators they need (typically short-term battery power) so they are the least able to handle emergencies, when they are needed THE MOST.
The point of all of this is simple... What the hell is the good of having a local government, if they aren't taking care of the real necessities? Local governments are needed for the very things they are now neglecting to do, so why not get rid of them all-together? The basic things can be handled by the state government anyhow (police, fire, medical, schools, etc) so if we aren't going to be well-served by local governments, why keep them on as a leech, taking our tax dollars and spending them on trivial things few of us want, and most of us feel like we are getting ripped-off by?
Personally, of course I would prefer if local governments would just start doing their jobs, but since that's not happing, I'd like to see them abolished, rather than keeping the status-quo. What good are they, as is?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
"Can you imagine a 500% return on your investment in the business world?"
Yes, I can.
Let's see, the space race heated up in what... 1957?
And this study was done when? 1987? 1997?
Did they go back even further to the WWII rocket research?
500% over what time period?
An article on blogging, as contained in the Dec. 27th issue of 'Time' magazine, made a reference to ham radio as a "faintly embarassing" hobby.
I wonder if the operators of that station find it so? Especially since they're providing a most valuable service that the (supposedly) much tougher public infrastructure failed to?
The same thing happened with the Nisqually Quake in 2001. Within minutes after the shocks subsided, landline phones and cellphone networks alike were overwhelmed into non-functionality.
Guess what stayed up and working through the whole affair? Yep. Ham radio VHF and UHF repeaters, and HF nets.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies