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."

That's life

Opportunity knocks on people's door in the most bizarre way. Yesterday they are just some university radio folks, today they are globally recognized.

Re:That's life

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.

Re:That's life

Not to dispute your point, but the "space race" was a cold war pissing contest.

Right, but the nations are examples of this greed and a collective of resources. This was sort of my point.

Has getting to the moon really done much for us lately? Surely abstract technological progress has been made by funding space endeavors in general (and more specifically space probes and telescopes), and I'm not really knowledgeable enough to say whether it's worth the federal investment, but did we really need to send up some guys to put a flag in the dirt (aside from political motivations of course)?

Um, just about every electronic item you own, every "space-age" fabric you use, the technology used in your car, a better grasp of cheaper space travel, countless medical experiments with many positive results, etc. The list goes on and on. We have benefitted in many ways from this "pissing" contest. Yes, we paid great prices and it probably wasn't the best way, but it happened and we probably wouldn't have been so pressed to research and increase technology had there not been a foe there to incite us.

Re:That's life

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.

Re:That's life

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 [ucf.edu] (The Moderator can verify this if desired, I do not feel like giving out my email address to thousands).

Dr. Harpole (K4VUD [qrz.com]) 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 [arrl.org]

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 [ucf.edu].


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)

Que the griping about data over powerlines:

Here's your big chance.

Re:Que the griping about data over powerlines:

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.

Morse Code

But did they use Morse Code?

A very interesting article!

Wow what a great article! It was nice to read more about HAM radio operators! This is a good way to bring HAM radio into the limelight again! I'm sure they saved many lives!

(The submitter and I just had three shots of espresso!)

See, if you take out the exclamation points, it doesn't sound so insincere.

Broadband over power lines

Well, I guess this is an "I told you so" from those who opposed BPL for ham-interference reasons.
What do you care more for ... 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.
I think the Hams win this one.

Re:Broadband over power lines

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.

Re:Broadband over power lines

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.

Re:Broadband over power lines

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

Re:Broadband over power lines

Wrong.

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...

Re:Broadband over power lines

A few years ago, a guy used a light bulb as an antenna and was able to work contacts on all 6 continents.

I call shenanigans. Hams sometimes use light bulbs as dummy loads, but it's not really a good idea because the resistance changes too much with the temperature of the bulb.

If a ham really did work (ignoring repeaters and things like echolink) six continents with his light bulb antenna, he probably did it via the transmission lines going to his light bulb (if you spread them out and/or make them uneven, they can make a nice antenna. In that case, the light bulb would just be a terminator, and not an antenna by itself.

The antenna is the most important part of a rig used for DXing. If you put 1500 watts into it, I imagine you could get a few watts out of a light bulb as RF, but it wouldn't be able to pick up anything. I just don't buy it.

You can easily work around the world with a 5w transceiver and a simple wire antenna.

This is a bit more plausable, though it's certainly not easy to talk to somebody 12,000 miles away with only 5 watts and a simple dipole antenna.

Oh, and I'm AD5RH.

Re:Broadband over power lines

AHA!

A link that pretty much backs up what I was saying. And it even mentions that the author used a balun to reduce feedline radiation!

http://qrp.kd4ab.org/2000/000617/0033.html [kd4ab.org]

I really wish I could find the actual article, but this is close enough for me... Wrong on the year, though: it was mid-2000. Everything else is close enough.

Q: How likely??

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 [projecthope.org] 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 [arrl.org] 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

Re:Broadband over power lines

In 1985 I worked more than 200 Health and Welfare Querys an hour for most of a day, in and out of Mexico city after their earthquake.

From a station in Suburbia. Palo Alto, to be precise.

-Z

PS: Repeaters are a VHF-and-up thing. Disaster work is usually HF. You know, the frequencies BPL wipes out.

Another good reason for BPL....

Just another reminder (the World Trade Center should serve as another one in recent memory) that Amateur radio frequencies should be protected from spectrum auctions and Broadband over Power Lines (BPL).

Sometimes just making money isn't the best thing.

73 - KL1SA

Re:Another good reason for BPL....

This would be one of the times when BPL would probably be either out or turned off.

The problem isn't interference at the time of a disaster (which, as you pointed out, would likely disappear), the problem is interference with preparation, drills, and tests.

Not to mention the deterrent effect that constant interference would have on amateurs beforehand. It may look like we're just "playing radio," but those are the activities that keep people interested and active in between disasters.

Re:Another good reason for BPL....

BPL just might spell the death of Amateur Radio. Think about it, for most of us, the original purpose of obtaining an amateur radio license was to

a) To talk to people in distant places

b) Perform public service (RACES/ARES, etc)

c) Be able to fix/build/repair your own radio gear.

Now, let's see what happens today:

a) Anyone can plug in a $4 mic, use VoIP, and "talk" to almost anywhere on Earth, no license or self-study required.

b) Whip out your cell phone. That is unless a disaster hits, and all the cell sites are down, or your 40 min. battery dies. Also the "big news guys" literally take over a cell site. CNN's truck logs in via cell at every major story, and keeps an open line as a backup. If even 200 reporters did this, kiss off any chance of getting a cell signal, since the towers would be overloaded

c) How many parts inside a modern radio are actually user-servicable? I mean, I *can* probably replace a blown out chip-capacitor, if I had to, but when it is smaller than a pencil point, and 5 seconds of extra heat would wipe out the printed circuit board by lifting the traces, is this something you would want to do to a $2000 piece of amateur radio? The new ICOM rig sells for more than $10,000! Who would ever want to "modify" something like that? Rich de KY6O (Extra class license holder. Proof that if I can do it, anyone can. For more info on obtaining a license, see http://www.arrl.org/ [arrl.org] which is the official site of US amateur radio operations)

Link to South America

Two years ago, I was in Brazil when they had a huge flood. The only communication out was radio. Fortunately, I had my Icom 706 and was able to establish a CW link through an AO satellite.

The old story

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.

Send them guys some Bawls

20hrs stright thats nuts let all pitch in and get them some bawls so they can go another few days non-stop.

Other Ham Heroes

Sunday's Washington Post had an article on another Ham Radio operator (link [washingtonpost.com] - probably requires registration - sorry). A real life, very public example of why ham radio is important.

Re:Other Ham Heroes

This is exactly why there are field days twice a year.. Ok, under normal circumstances it's just a contest, but it is meant to be an exercise to set up a working radio station without external support within a minimum of time. That includes setting up a power supply, transceiver system and an antenna. In case of a disaster, information about the needs is the first step towards help.

Ham operators have proven time upon time that when disaster strikes, they are upon the first to establish communications.

ok, but...

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.

Re:ok, but...

Well, idealy you would have hams already there, not flying in.

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).

Re:ok, but...

time insensitive, as he says, they're "I'm ok" messages that could wait.

"I'm OK, as well as the 500 other people in this hotel" is a lot better than 500 missing persons.

Early Warning

I wonder if any of these operators were able to contact other costal cities before the wave hit there. I read somewhere that there was somehting like a 2 hour lag between the time the first and last places were hit. Think that would even be enough time to accomplish anything? -Yoweigh

Orlando Sentinel article

Coincidentally, when I was home for the holidays I saw an article about this in the Orlando Sentinel:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ or l-asectsunamiham01010105jan01,1,2331864.story

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.

So many links

I'd like to RTFA, but which one??

wahooo

yay for ham! KB3HLJ :-D

What modes were used?

The article doesn't say - so I'd have to assume voice via Single Sideband and morse code.

There are some very good ham digital modes suited to the high-frequency bands where l;ong distance communication is possible via reflection from the ionosphere. PSK31 works well for keyboard-to-keyboard use. Of particular note here is a system known as winlink (yes it is windows based). It is specifically designed for text email communications to and from remote locations where other communciations infrastructure does not exist or is extremely expensive.

A good reference to winlink is http://www.winlink.org/ [winlink.org]. The status of winlink stations in tsunami affected areas is given at http://www.bur.st/~philsuth/tsunami_status.html [www.bur.st]

That sure beats...

my cell phone carrier

fix BPL before worldwide implimentation

If the "entire world" had BPL, then the noise levels from current technology (BPL) would have made it impossible to get these messages out. Current BPL technology pretty much kills a lot of the HF bands that are used for worldwide communication. I'm all for the advancement of anything that will allow better (cheaper) forms of broadband, but not at the cost of killing a form of communications that helps in time of need. Amateur radio ops are always having "training" sessions where they take everything required to carry out communications without any form power from a utility company. They use batteries, generators, solar power, home made antennas etc, to make sure they can do it, IF called upon.

HAM Radio in disasters

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 kg4gyt

Andaman and Nicobar were off limits for years

The 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!

Re:Andaman and Nicobar were off limits for years

Some parts of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are home to tribes that have had very little contact with the outside world and who have little or no natural immunity against the illnesses that most of the rest of us take for granted.

They've had cases where vast swathes of these tribes have been wiped out by things like measles, influenza, etc, with recorded instances of deadly outbreaks as far back as the 18th and 19th centuries.

Hence, for their own protection, access to those people has been limited. I guess it's easier to spot a fair-skinned Westerner as being an outsider and avoid them accordingly than it is to do the same with mainland Indians who share similar complexions. Even so, you need a permit to visit the islands, and that's why.

Re:Andaman and Nicobar were off limits for years

I've been working on a project in the A&N Islands the last couple of years so I know a bit about this: There are a couple of reasons the islands have been off-limits. The main one is defence security. If you look at a map of the Indian Ocean, the A&N Islands are at the opposite corner of the ocean from mainland India - much closer to Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. As a result a significant chunk of India's navy and air force are stationed there - think forward positioning. One of the first major casualties of the tsunami was the Indian Air Force base on Car Nicobar islands in the extreme south, which was totally wiped out. Even now, foreigners are allowed to visit the northern Andamans, but are prevented from travelling to the southern Nicobars unless they have special permission. Protecting the native tribes is a much less significant concern. There are around 300-400k mainland Indians living in the Andamans now (plus a bunch of migrant Burmese and Bangladeshis) so preventing the transmission of diseases isn't really an issue anymore, with the possible exception of the 200-odd Sentinelese living on North Sentinel Island.

field day

I can remember going to field days for many years setting up complete communications centers in the middle of nowhere. One thing I always realized about 99% of those into amatuer radio is that they were always ready, willing and prepared to get into the middle of things.
As others have pointed out, HAMs have helped out in most every major disaster in recent history.

Jerry KB8GIG
http://www.syslog.org/ [syslog.org]

What's Truly Sad..

Reading through the relatively few comments so far (especially few for a /. topic), it's really sad how many people are still trolling and/or taking time to trumpet things like how bad BPL (Broadband over PowerLines) is. Folks this is a tragedy that's so far killed more than 100,000 people. We still don't have enough knowledge of the areas hit to even know if that number represents a goodly portion of deaths, or if it's just the start of a number that will reach truly staggering proportions. I noticed in the article that the quake that started this has been reclassified as a 9 on the Richter scale, that's about as bad as a quake can get, the scale [wikipedia.org] classifies 9 and greater as "rare greats", that occur roughly once in any 20 year period. It's only .5 below the worst quake on record, the Chilean Quake in 1960 and that one only killed 3000 people. This quake/tsunami combo's surpassed that by a VERY large margin already.

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.)

Re:What's Truly Sad..

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