Amateur Radio & Disaster
As we all know, Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans, US really hard. Eventhough i’m living thousand miles from there, i can feel their lost. It is hard to bear with material lost, let alone your losing all family members. The sharp pain on the chest. Oh my, it remind me of my sister. Yesterday, it have been 15 years since she left us. I can still feel the pain. Al-Fatihah to her.
For all the victim of Hurricane Katrina, my thought & prayer is always with you. With all the strength within, you will get back on your feet as if the Hurricane never touched you before.
When the very first moment Katrina touch New Orleans, running more than 150mph, sweeping everything under her sight, i just wonder how they keep the communications running? Don’t tell me mobile communications is still available, because this is the first medium that will collapse if disaster struck. Remembers 9/11? All base-station is jammed with calls where it remains unconnected to the other station due to the disaster. Remember how many perished on that day? One of the factor is communication.
At that point, do you think we can utilize uplink satellite communications to be the backbone. The problem is, how many people have the gadget(s) to utilize it. Worse still, do they know how to operate it?
Enter Amateur Radio. This is the best solution. The effeciency & effectiveness have been proven time again. Setting up its backbone can take very minimal amount of time. I saw my ham buddies setting up their infrastructure (repeater) which took less than 15 minutes. Amazing? U decide. Harnessing on the 2 meter band (144-148 Mhz), a single repeater can cover a large communication area (without taking account of geographical factors). So, having said that, by this band, where can be operated by man on the street (licensed operator, of course), the search and rescue process can be speed up, if not easy.
Having said that, with all the advantage of Amateur Radio, i just wonder why it is not well promoted in this country. Is it because of the awareness of fellow countrymen, or perhaps we are waiting for disaster to strike, then we will learn from there. As of this blogtime, it is estimate around 2000 licensed amateur radio operator in this country. 2000 out of 26 million citizen. Do your math. In Indonesia, they have at least 700,000 licensed operator. They learned from their previous experiences, i suppose.
Whatever the reason being, i hope Amateur Radio can be one of hobby to many people in this country, if not all. This is one of the hobby that can be save life. We might not the one who will do the search and rescue. With our competency setting up proper infrastructure in no time, we can save life more than we can imagine.
Thanks Allah SWT to HIS blessing, Malaysia seldom hit by disaster. Nevertheless, we can’t just sit and wait for it to happen. We need a very good, pragmatic Disaster Recovery Plan & Program if disaster strikes. I just wonder, do we have that on the National Level…hmmm. I’ve never heard of any.
To whom that read this entry, please consider yourself to join the Amateur Radio League. We might save lives in the future.
Plenty of website around about Hurricane Katrina & Amateur Radio. Here are some that caught my attention.
Ham radio operators aiding Katrina effort
WX4NHC Amateur Ham Radio at National Hurricane Center
Go GOOGLE, you will find aplenty.
73
Well we do have the Special Malaysian Disaster Relief and Rescue Team (SMART). IIRC it was set up after the Highland Towers incident.
Bro,
Thx for your info. SMART is the task force who response to such disaster. What i’m looking at is National Disaster Program, a plan in toto, not a piecemeal solution. Do you think we have that?
73
Thank you for your kind thoughts. Hams in America are doing what they can to help out in the aftermath of Katrina. Those who can are taking their “Field Day” equipment as close as possible to the affected areas, those who can’t are donating money or supplies.
You’re right — all local communications are destroyed in many areas. Repeaters are down, towers are down, entire neighborhoods are destroyed or missing in some areas.
An important lesson we are learning here is that if an evacuation order is issued — OBEY IT. GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN. Take your family first, your gear second, and go. You’re more useful alive and displaced than you are dead or injured at your house or job.
Do hams in Malaysia have a “Field Day” event like we do in the US? It’s a great way to raise awareness of amateur radio and to make sure your “go bag” is ready to “go”.
Jet,
In Malaysia we have a “Field Day” that you mentioned, an occasion where operators gather and change thought and idea. It is very small compare to what you have back home. Most of the operators are very helpful in sharing their knowledge in Amateur Radio. Unfortunately, the awareness among Malaysian is still lacking. Nevertheless, we are doing our best to increase it bit by bit. I’m game for any voluntarily work that got to do with Amateur Radio.
FYI, my jalopy is equipped with a dual band transceiver and well as wideband receiver. I think it is important for me to monitor wide range of band. We never know what might happen the very next minute.
As of now, i saving hard to get my “go bag” ready and fully equipped. I’m a firm believer of the principle of “helping people is the best virtue of all”.
73
hai 9W2KMI (Kimi)…
terlebeh dahaulu saya ucapkan jutaan terima kasih kerana mengLink kan blog anda dgn saya punya blog pbg station Radio Ham kat brunei…
pada mula nya saya terkejut juga ada blog brunei kat anda.. rupa2nya 9w2jar yg bwa kat sini & tq also kat 9w2jar…
so salam kenalan dri saya kat anda d sna.. hnya tak tau yg mna satu pic anda..
so.. jmpa lgi byeee
73