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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."
Sometimes just making money isn't the best thing.
73 - KL1SA
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
They are not kosher.
Opportunity knocks on people's door in the most bizarre way
Not as much as you may think. The media likes to discover a lot of things that were obvious for many years, especially if they can hang on to the disaster-happy public long enough to play one more commercial or display another banner. Ham and CB radio have served in just about every natural or man-made disaster since they have been in the hands of citizens.
I feel sadness inside everytime it occurs to me people think the reason to buy a two-way radio is to chit-chat about BS over public air-waves. These are powerful tools, baby.
To my knowledge, amateur radio provides the only free-as-in-speech global communication network that can operate completely independent of any grid. You can even run computer networks on it, unlike the cell system.
Well, that's the beauty of ham radio. You can power one site and send messages thousands of miles away with a single tower and a car battery. To power all the cell towers, you'd need significantly more power, with significantly more towers and then you have to figure out how to send the signals off island. Plus you have to actually charge the cell phones. I don't think areas of Aceh had or are going to have electricity for a very, very long time.
A family friend is a member of ARES, a network of ham radio operators who spring into action when the power goes off and cellular is a distant memory. These guys take their (volunteer) positions pretty seriously, and have acted a few times in the past decade to get news around quickly when more conventional methods aren't working.
Also, this is the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Some of these islands are being protected by India because they have stone age cultures untouched by modern culture. I would think electricity is pretty sparse, let alone cell phones.
So yes, Ham radio, Wow. Think of them as the Amish of 21th century communications. When the power grid collapses, they're the ones who will be there to save your ass.
Many of these islands haven't been contacted yet, even one week later. This is an excellent scenario for Ham Radio use. Let's hope that along with new seismic bouys they can dot the Indian Ocean with emergency Ham Radio systems.
Sunday's Washington Post had an article on another Ham Radio operator (link - probably requires registration - sorry). A real life, very public example of why ham radio is important.
Sleep is for the Weak
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...
Coincidentally, when I was home for the holidays I saw an article about this in the Orlando Sentinel:
/ or l-asectsunamiham01010105jan01,1,2331864.story
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld
It needs a free reg, or bugmenot.com
It's really amazing what they did. Here's a snippet from the article:
And with most telephone lines down and cell phones scarce, the ham-radio club's efforts proved invaluable as the scope of the disaster increased day after day.
The first messages were to let people on the Indian mainland know that those on the island were safe and unharmed.
A young waiter at Harpole's hotel asked them to get word to his mother in Hyderabad, India, that he was alive and well.
"We found a ham-radio operator on the mainland, gave the mother's telephone number," Harpole said. Within five minutes a ham operator in Hyderabad called the waiter's mother and relayed the message.
"He told us the mother was crying with joy," he said.
Harpole's group cheered and clapped. Word spread quickly across the island, and their work went on for hours and hours.
When Indian government officials learned of the hamradio operators, they relayed messages for official requests for medicines, water and blankets. Several of the radio operators headed south to Nicobar.
How likely is it that Joe Ham in some suburbs is going to be capable of talking to India? Even with perfect weather and a great rig, very unlikely. Even with repeaters, rather unlikely.
Not all Ham radio is in the short-range VHF/UHF bands. HF bands in the 15 meter to 160 meter wavelength range can directly "reach" India from the U.S. There are thousands of Joe Hams in the suburbs with this kind of equipment.
Right, but the side receiving the signals from those in the disaster area aren't in a disaster area. BPL noise interferes with the reception of the emergency traffic.
kc8apf
Hams (at least those with interest) can be well trained in this area. They are trained to do everything from serve as simple phones for wellness traffic ("Hi mom, my house is gone but the dog is OK.") to assisting emergency relief personel (operating their radios for them to keep hands free, helping co-ordinate the operation by keeping information on everyone up to date on people's position, how many more people a relief station can handle so those in the field know where to take new ones, that there are X people with Y injuries that need to be medivaced, etc.)They are much more than normal people with "magic cell phones" that still work without the infrastructure.
In the US you can find them doing ARES and RACES (I think those are the big two) which are disaster relief and such training to do the kind of things mentioned above. Not only do they do drills simulating traffic and operating without power and normal communications and stuff, the practice regularly by helping out with the running of parades and other public events to keep their skills sharp in doing that kind of thing.
On my local repeater (RACES repeater, I think) every so often (Wed nights at some time) they practice carrying traffic between people. It's usually unimportant stuff (saying "hi" to friends, party invites, happy birthday, etc.) but they practice. Someone is incharge and they ask for messages and they go through them one by one. The guy with the message will say "this is ____ and I have a message for _____ in _____, can anyone carry it" (or something like that). Someone will volunteer (either they know the person or they will just call them or pass it on to the next 'net). The person sending the message and the person who volunteered will then chat (either there, or more frequently on a nearby empty frequency so things can keep moving along) and the message gets sent. It's all quite interesting actually.
Hams do alot (besides just chat and also neat expirmatents trying to bounce signals off various layers of the atmosphere, the moon, mars, commets, asteroid showers, balloons, and anything else more than 5 feet in the air).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Hundreds of thousands...
http://ah0a.org/FCC/Licenses.html\
General, Advanced and Extra licensees have HF
operating privileges.
That's just in the US.
There are several million Amateur Radio operators world wide.
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
Amateur rado "hasn't advanced" in the last 10 years? Sorry, but when I look at the new, yet afforable HF radios with dual DSP, or send GPS data through a sat. link, bounce microwaves off mountain peaks, or use pure digital VHF communication (Which is now possible and commercially available), I can't help but think you haven't seen an issue of QST since 1995. The hobby has matured, and more than kept [ace with changing technology. Rich de KY6O
A few years ago, a guy used a light bulb as an antenna and was able to work contacts on all 6 continents. There was an article in the ARRL magazine, but I can't seem to find it...
You can easily work around the world with a 5w transceiver and a simple wire antenna. Does having 1500w running through a 100' tower help? Sure. Is it necessary? Not even close.
A couple of hundred dollars of equipment could allow you to work even the most distant contacts under most circumstances. What did you spend on *game* software last year? Could someone else have chosen to spend the same amount of money on something they consider a valuable public service?
Here's one for you: *DID* a millitary fly in sat phones? If they did, would they be used by everyday people to let loved ones know they were still alive? No. So why do you assume it would happen tomorrow when it didn't happen today?
As for it not having advanced in the last 10 years: how much more advanced is that land telephone in your house? That power outlet that you plug your computer to? Don't you hate the fact that the power company hasn't "innovated"? Sometimes dramatic innovation isn't necessary. Computers are at most 50 years old. Radio is *twice* that. Wouldn't you expect a slower rate of innovation? And by the way, search for PSK31: just because *you* haven't heard of the innovatins, doesn't mean they don't exist...
Ham radio is not for everyone. It's not terribly exciting. But when there's a disaster, it's a community dedicated to serve. When was the last time you heard about those LAN network administrators who were instrumental in helping whole communities to communicate in the event of a disaster? No, that's right: They were too busy whining that their DSL was down...
Linux IT Consulting and Domino Development in Michigan
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 kg4gytThe only reason the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were so familiar to me was because of ham radio. They're well known for being off limits to ham radio operators. I don't know why -- India's had lots of hams for years on the mainland, but they wouldn't let anyone do those islands. So they remained "rare ones" to the main DX award hunters. Hams have been going on "DXpeditions" to rare countries for years, sometimes financed by DXers looking for the contact and QSL card, and it was in the 1960s that I read some travelogues which mentioned trying and failing to get permission to go to "VU4". What's on those islands anyway? (Or what was?)
It's a fortunate coincidence that Charly finally got permission to operate there only a short time before the tsunami!
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
From my experience, it is almost common for public service to ask the help of Ham radio operators in time of crisis. My local county and state OEM requires them for storm spotting. They might not be the first on the scene, but they will endure and are more flexable than any other form of communications. Talk to fire fighters, police, and other public service personel that served during the wildfires in the west, 9/11 in NYC, and various other disasters. Hams put their lives on hold to help others. The take thousands of dollars of their gear to remote location and provide a service free of charge. All they ask is some respect and bandwidth to "play radio." I think its more important than broadband to remote locations.
One thing that you do NOT realize ... BPL *WILL* kill effective long range communication. Making it MUCH MORE difficult to help out in a situation like this.
BPL raised the noise floor from being able to hear a weak signal (less than 5 watts) ... to not being able to hear a station booming out with 1500 watts and a highly directional beam.
THIS is why its brought up ... to shed light and attention to it.
Since the FCC has given BPL a green light, we'll have to see how effective Hams are in the future, hopefully, as in the past, Hams will push the technology forward and overcome this roadblock.
PS, yes, I am a Ham ... and the above scenario is sensationalized ... but a possibility
Karma? Karma? I don't need no stinkin' karma.
I hate to have to ruin my karma like this, but please refrain from lumping "HAM" operators with the CB groups. We frankly don't like that. Although, most "HAM" (amateur) operators usually train for stuff like this just incase we actually are needed. They have quite a few groups/classes that you can do to help learn where you fit in the 'disaster' picture.
Although, I must admit, you at least nailed the point on the head with your second thought you put down. Amateur Radio operators don't just get their license to chit-chat about stuff. Most of us are here for when we're needed.
Case in point: The recent streak of Hurricanes out around Florida. The Amateur Radio community had spotters in the field the entire time relaying information to the National Weather Service and the Hurricane Watch Center.
A good resource for those of you interested in getting your Amateur Radio Service license is:
http://www.arrl.org (Amateur Radio Relay League)
It's considered the "voice" of the community and has quite a bit of news on there.
Harm
Actually, this is not really media contrived or a matter of opportunity knocking. I am part of the University of central Florida Amateur Radio Club (The Moderator can verify this if desired, I do not feel like giving out my email address to thousands).
Dr. Harpole (K4VUD) was actually part of what they called a DXpedition. Where he had gone , there had never in history been an officially sanctioned amateur radio station before. It was mere coincidence that he had been there 2 weeks prior that special permission had been granted for the radio operators to operate there. The ARRL has more on the DXpedition gone into emergency mode
Also, It should be noted that Dr. Harpole was not the only radio operator there. We have been keeping a series of links on this, however, which are available on the UCF Amateur Radio Club's wiki.
I would like to point out that I do not typically reply to Slashdot posts, however, this is actually something of which I am somewhat a part, and figure I should set things straight. (despite the fact people will still continute to put up off the wall posts on the subject anyway)