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Ham Radio Fills Communication Gaps In Nepal Rescue Effort
itwbennett writes: Amateur radio has stepped in to fill communication gaps in Nepal, which is struggling with power outages and a flaky Internet after a devastating earthquake on Saturday killed over 5,000 people. Though 99 persons have ham licenses in Kathmandu, about eight use high-frequency (HF) radios that can transmit long distances, while another 30 have very high frequency and ultra high frequency sets for local traffic, said Satish Kharel, a lawyer in Kathmandu, who uses the ham call signal 9N1AA. The hobbyist radio operators are working round-the-clock to help people get in touch with relatives, pass on information and alert about developing crises.
Do you think there is much powerline networking going on in Nepal right now?
These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
While you do have a good point, I think that any disaster that requires ham radio for communication would also likely have taken out the local power grid leaving consumer power line networking inoperable.
Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster?
Yes. Because it's great to hear about geeks helping people. And it's wonderful to see technology used in positive ways. I love seeing people being nice to one another. These are heroes: not the assholes shooting. Any asshole thug can pick up a gun or bomb, but it takes skill, kindness, and bravery to help people you don't know to contact others.
We need to see and hear more of this in the violent shitty World.
I think we do, but why? It's educational for the younger audience. I would have never known of ham radios and their usage during disasters if not for slashdot. We get new and young readers now and then. It's good for them, but maybe not for you.
Hey Sparky.. you don't like an article?? easy fix... Dont READ it... Some of us like to hear about ham radio being used for critical stuff... geez.. What a specail snowflake.. just because he doesn't like a story, nobody else here should be able to read it either.... .
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Do we really need stories about rescue efforts after every disaster?
No, but some of us like the news - even that which you find repetitive. I find it interesting that, with all of the modern technologies now available, old-fashioned ham is still useful. Every time a disaster happens, even more time elapses and ham gets even older - and so the news is even more interesting. To me, this is just as anachronistic and interesting as if amateurs were using hot-air balloons to effectively deliver rescue supplies.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
No, but if you're trying to work on a relay in the US and there is broadband interference it is still an issue. That said, I don't thing consumer powerline networking is going to be very widespread, thanks in no small part to the ARRL's effort.
Further, this is why you do need to 'advertise' when amateur radio is used for public safety purposes. We are still fighting a rear guard battle and anytime the public (and our wonderful legislators) see the service as beneficial it slows down the attempts to limit amateur radio's spectrum and rights.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster?
Yes, because its an efficient indicator of the immediate scope and nature of a disaster. if the most critical and arguably resillient communications systems have finally failed, Ham is your red-flag indicator that the situation is dire.
I'm sure it's being used, but not to the extent of official radio communication.
Thats exactly the point. Ham is being used because Official or commerical communications systems are either damaged, destroyed, or overwhelmed beyond inteded or effective capacity. If you're in the united states the equivalent official communication would be the Emergency Alert System over a VHF repeater, if ones still standing. If not, Hams take everything from presidential to local law enforcement messages to where they need to go in a structured, orderly manner.
"People communicating by any means possible," is not news.
People communicating by any means possible is a normal society with twitter, cellphones, and wifi. People reliant upon analog and digital communication outside thestructure of a commercial ecosystem and in lieu of direct government correspondance is news. Ham operators build and run antennas, configure messaging relay and repeater systems, repair existing infrastructure, assist in dispatching emergency services and handle every communication thats needed in an emergency from local to state and even international SOS for emergency assistance. The point is when you're now reliant on Ham in any context to assist in a rescue effort, the outlook for existing infrastructure is very bad.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I'm ham licensed as well, and this kind of news is a really important aspect of the hobby. There are lots of folks out there who would like to take our radio space and sell it off and it is important that we keep reminding folks that when things get ugly we keep working.
It's not the powerline networking in Napal that is a problem. It's the powerline networking here that is. It's over loads the receivers front end and makes it near impossible to receive the signal from Napal. That is why powerline networking is bad. The typical transmitter in an HF rig is 100 watts. Put that 100 watts in to a good yagi antenna and you can send a signal any where in the world. Even with powerline networking your signal will get out. By the time that signal gets to it's destination it is only a few micro volts in strength. So if the powerline is putting out a few more micro volts then the signal your trying to receive your receiver will never here the weaker signal.
While I am a ham radio operator, it's been a while so what I'm remembering might be a bit off.
Ahhh....an egocentric comment by a confirmed cellular addict.
I spent two years on a sailboat in the canals and fjords of Chilean Patagonia and Argentina. I have been south of every automobile, paved road and street light in the world. Most of the time we were 100 miles or more from the nearest cell phone tower (and road). Sat phones are unreliable at these latitudes (about 55 degrees south) because the satellites are in more or less equatorial orbits. And the Chilean navy wants to hear from you twice a day when you are in Chilean waters. The only tool that will work is a single side band HF radio. When connected to A PC via a specialized modem, this setup can send and receive emails from anywhere in the world. My transmitter is only rated at 100 watts and yet it routinely communicates with stations that are more than 3000 miles away. I have contacted Europe from the Pacific Ocean. "Hobby"?!? For those of us who are really out there, amateur HF radio is the communications lifeline.
P.S. Could the submitter of "Again?" make an attempt to explain to me what "official radio communication" means?
73's
KR6AS
In 1998 there was an ice storm that struck Upstate New York. Hams were virtually the only source of communication as official communication channels ran out of gas (in many cases literally) after a day or so. I sat in a Firehouse with my own equipment relaying communications from ambulances (where another ham was riding along) to other base stations in nearby towns. We did most of this over 2 meters.
Hams were absolutely crucial because we could move in and quickly setup and operate additional equipment. I know times have changed....but every time I look at the state's disaster readiness plan hams would be needed again.
I think you are over estimating the ability of official channels to be ready to function on their own for weeks at a time.
neorush
There are in general two kinds of operation of ham radio. First is local communications - local rescue groups using hams to help communicate and coordinate between groups on the ground and HQ.
There's also the longer distance communications - these guys get the signal out so someone in an area not affected by the disaster can pass on messages and whatnot. Think more along the lines of "I'm safe and sound" type messages being passed on to family.
The problem is power line broadband basically makes the long-distance communications less reliable. I mean, given Nepal's economic conditions, sending out "I'm safe" messages usually mean transmitting to India, where the infrastructure works fine. Powerline broadband would be working as well, which means your message will not be received because the receiver can't hear your message over the noise.
Power line networking or broadband generally affects long-distance HF communications more so than short-range VHF/UHF comms. And that's bad because short range would mean the power and infrastructure is down so it's not a problem. But you want to pass your message to places unaffected by the disaster where there IS working infrastructure, and then you have interference.
And that's the beauty of ham radio that blows people's minds away - it's not just about people talking to people in a city, but around the world - it spans the ability to talk to people from your neighbourhood or city to around the globe. Most people are fascinated because most of them only see extreme short range communications - a few miles at most for a cellphone to the tower, to a few tens of feet for wifi and Bluetooth. Telling them that it's possible to actually go around the world on wireless...
Yes, because everyone not affected seems to assume that stuff like the Internet and cellphones will kill ham radio. Yet I'm pretty sure that while in normal circumstances you could get access to the Internet, and yes, the vast majority of people have cellphones, well, guess what? That stuff's not working now, so now what? Bit hard to use the Google or Facebook "I'm safe" feature when you can't get online now...
Call a friend, or text? Pretty hard when the towers are overloaded and maybe even in states that would appear to work, but not.
And that's a problem because people assume that because in the normal case it's not needed, it's obsolete. I'm sure a lot of people on /. wonder about AM/FM radios given that you can stream Pandora and other stuff off the internet.
And yes, ham radio is often official radio communications methods - many rescue groups use hams to provide communications between teams on the ground and HQ, or even to provide a way to tell someone else outside the country to relay messages onwards. And local government also often uses hams for emergency communications - the ham radio infrastructure may often be better than what their official radios have.
Ham radio fills in the gaps for ALL natural disasters. Katrina it was a huge aspect of communications.
This is not new, this is what ham radio does.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I send signals around the globe with 5 watts. 100 watts is for the guys that have crap antennas.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Well it either takes money, or no money. You can't fit too much on a sail boat, so it's not like you have a lot of possessions. It really takes setting priorities.
I really have noticed people who were looking for me, standing outside of the mailbox store looking confused.
Bruce Perens.
Actually, the FCC is now proposing that amateurs share those LF spectrums that BPL uses as experiments BY HAMS have determined they can co-exist just fine. In fact, Hams are getting more frequencies now than they have ever lost. http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-seeks-to-assign-entire-amateur-portion-of-160-meter-band-to-primary-status-to-amateur-radio-serv is just one of several similar articles the ARRL has reported on recently. Please don't keep up the BS argument that we're losing our bands and privileges when the opposite is true. Aside from a portion of the 220MHz band that we might actually be getting back, where else have we lost spectrum and rights? There are more licensed hams than ever now and the reduced license restrictions offer more privileges for less work.
W1BMW
(name withheld by request)
Back when McVeigh bombed the Federal building in Oklahoma City, so many emergency personnel rushed into the area from so many jurisdictions that it brought all of their radio communications down due to saturation and intermod - the only thing that worked reliably was ham radio, and there were hams assigned to work with the fire crews and police to get their traffic passed.
Also, when a disaster strikes the cell networks are usually the first to go down. The older towers can't handle the sudden massive spike in the number of people trying to make calls at once, and would actually explode from the power demand and resultant overheating. The newer towers protect themselves by shutting down when they get spiked like that.
I'm not trying to downplay the role of amateur radio communications - I am a shortwave radio buff. But I've heard people on the news talk to survivors in Nepal using telephones. Apparently, there is some landline or satellite communications to Nepal available. Just saying.
That's the case in any disaster - some traditional communications are working, but not in all areas. Even Satellite has limited capacity, it works when a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand disaster workers are using it, but if a significant fraction of the population start using their satellite phone, the system is going to be overwhelmed. Ham Radio is also capacity constrained, but with many ham radio users being trained in disaster communications, organized health and welfare messages can still be sent out of the disaster area through the limited communication channels.
I was in Hawaii for the 2006 quake that knocked out power on Oahu. The landline system was nearly useless -- took 45 minutes to get a dialtone and even then, it was impossible to make a call (both locally and out of the area). I had DSL for about 45 minutes until my UPS battery ran out, but it was super slow. No voice cellular calls, but could send SMS within the same network (i.e. I could send to other AT&T customers, but not to Sprint and Verizon, and vice versa).
My landlord was worried about his elderly mother 15 miles away and a car accident plus a downed tree had blocked the only entrance/exit from our neighborhood so I ended up riding my bike to his Mom's house to check on her since he couldn't use the phone system to reach her. (turns out she was at her neighbor's house who was having a big BBQ to use up the meat from his fridge before it went bad)
And this was a relatively minor 6.7 earthquake 200 miles away that caused no real physical damage on Oahu, just knocked out the power on the Island. If it were a 7.0+ quake on Oahu, the situation would have been much worse.
You may think so, but I assure you that your impression of amateur radio's place in the scheme of things is sadly wrong. Think of them more like rabid Maker's hooked on radios instead of Arduinos and 3D printers. They aren't random people yelling breaker, breaker into a CB. It's a very technical hobby. Some might have just a transceiver and an antenna. But others have setups that look more like a satellite comm center. The people who dive into emergency comms do so with as much seriousness dedication as any EMT, fireman, or policeman. They're more like the guys who chase tornadoes. They go _to_ the trouble.
But don't misunderstand their purpose. They don't do this just for emergencies. Radio is a way of life for many of them.
Sure, "the communicate by any means" is still there. However, amateur radio operators provide vital communications to coordinate rescue and relief efforts all over the world, way more than just providing "I'm alive" messages. They've been doing it for over 1000 years. Ham operators happen to be sprinkled around all over the world, so they might already be there when bad shit happens. The operators have networks, procedures, and contact in place for emergency situations.
Ham radio's activity in this regard is officially recognized in the US and most other countries.
In the US, MARS (DoD program), ARES (civilian org, "ARRL"), and RACES (DHS program). All three deal deal with the use of amateur radio to provide emergency/disaster services.
In the mid-west storm spotters, ham operators, and other volunteers coordinate with sheriff's departments to get relevant information to the national weather service and out to the pubic during times of severe weather. Tornado season is a particularly busy time for them and they are appreciated.
People like to forget that while traditional analog radio isn't secure, when these kinds of disasters happen being able to broadcast such that multiple people can receive and possibly respond is a feature, not a flaw. Consumer cell phones are designed to let the phone communicate with the carrier only, not to communicate with other phones directly. That means that contacting multiple parties is so much more complex that when the system is stressed it breaks.
I've actually broken down on the Interstate where I had no cell service, and the passengers from the other incapacitated vehicles (from debris on the road) also couldn't get cell service, so it wasn't just one provider. It wasn't a terrible emergency, but if we'd needed an emergency response we couldn't have called for it.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
There are more licensed hams today than ever before. Part of that is because we modernized the licensing rules and don't have a Morse code test any longer (for which I take partial credit). And they already have a commercial niche. Most of them have jobs. Many of us got those jobs because of the skill we developed through Amateur Radio. In general they pay as well or better than offering ISP service to the boonies.
We don't want to see commercial use of those frequencies, even if such use would help some folks get more equipment, because if that happened, there would not be room for Amateurs any longer.
You should consider that all of the ham HF frequencies together are smaller than one WiFi channel. And they have global range. So, if you offer a good bandwidth signal to some home in the boonies, you have potentially used up that freuquency for the whole world!
Bruce Perens.
What I would like to see is for ham to be assigned a legal commercial niche that it can occupy as an incentive to buy gear and revive the experimental edge that the service has long been renowned for.
What possible commercial activity using ham radio could trigger experimental activities? Given the ability to experiment now, how could allowing commercial ham usage improve that?
How about Internet service in rural areas? Allow hams to offer commercial interconnect from fiber and other wired broadband to the scattered users who have difficulty getting ISP service any other way.
Cool. Consume the available ham frequencies with people selling ISP services. What a great way to promote ham radio.
The connectivity we would get from this type of commercialization is, furthermore, exactly what would help the most in time of disaster.
I hate to tell you, but infrastructure in the ham radio world requires a great deal of dedication and commitment. You will find a few people who will do it for fun, but a lot more hams USE the infrastructure than provide any of it. In my county, for example, there are two VHF Winlink gateways. One is provided by a state grant of equipment and an associated requirement to keep it on air. The other is at my house.
No, a ham-operated public internet would not be what you want to rely on in a disaster, because 1) it would probably be down, too, and 2) were it operational, it would be clogged with users trying to use it and useless for disaster relief.
This is why having multiple different means of communication is important in case of emergencies. You mention cell service being down or spotty, but amateur radio is not immune to unavailability either. There are many places in the US (and the world), where you will not be able to reliably reach somebody with ham radio (especially VHF and UHF, but even HF if you're limited in what you can carry or conditions are too bad). In some of those places, phone service may work fine.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.