Communication During Emergency Situations Like Earthquakes And Tsunamis

Communication When Calamity Strikes

When calamity strikes, like the earth tremors and tsunami which struck Japan, the most important action to be done is to establish communications. Obviously all existing communication lines are already destroyed, transmitting and receiving towers are already flat and un-usable. So the only communication that can be established is Amature Radio Communication. All this needs is a radio (a small box with circutory), some wire to act as antenna and a 12 volts battery. All such emergency communication is done with a 12 volt battery since the battery is easily available from any car that is availabe even in damaged condition. There are two types of frequencies used for communicating.

Using Very high frequency
Using High frequency.

All over the world, ham radio operators are operating their equipments every day and communicating. The official language of communication is English, though, when local hams are communicating, they talk in their own mother tongue or in their own national language. But when they communicate with hams from other countries, the language spoken is English.

Call Signs

All ham radio operators have a unique identification called CALL SIGN. This is given to them by the government of a country, where they have appeared and passed in a simple test of electronics and communicaation and a small test in morse communication (sending and receiving). The call signs contain some information about the country of origin. For example VU is for India. (Incidentally I am a ham and my call sign is VU3KUX)

Connect Using Ham Radio

The Ham radio operators speak in a language containing some cryptic words. Also they use some funny words, like fundamentals for parents, hormonics for son and daughter . All male are referred to as OLDMAN and all female are refered as YOUNG LADY, irrespective of age.
When calamity strikes in any area where communications are to be established, ham operators are to be transported to different parts of the area, where they will establish a network of communication stations and help in people from different areas communicating with each other. They can get information about their kith and kin and friends residing in different areas, since no external power is needed, this work is feasible. It takes hardly any time to establish a station. Connect a battery and tune the radio for a preplanned ham frequency and you are on. Hardly 5 minutes. Vhf radio is almost best suited for local communication. For communicating with international bodies, HF radio will be needed. VHF radio covers local areas and even up to say 100 km, when wave propagation is good. HF can cover entire world. Of course there will be some places where the communication will not be heard (hop frequency).

My Video

With a little bit of information, a small video is being presented which illustrates ham radio communication. The equipment shown in the video belongs to Mr. Rama Prabhu, who, is a veteran ham, teacher, research and development engineer and an avid designer of HF ham radios. His production models are very efficient in quality and are reasonably priced.

Please watch and comment.

LINK TO JAPAN EMERGENCY CATEGORY

Tags: Communication, During, Earthquakes, Emergency, Ham, Radio, Situations, Tsunamis

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Comment by Dr Muhammed Rafeeque on March 28, 2011 at 12:17am: Thanks for posting this blog, because it gives me nostaligic memories of my childhood. My elder brothers were regular users of HAM Radio. On several occasions, they had pinched my ear lobs for playing with their self assembled communication device. It was like an amplifier, but not it looks small like a mobile phone!

Comment by Debby Bruck on March 28, 2011 at 12:39am: Breaker-Breaker! We also used the communication devices. Both, because my dad was an electrical engineer and loved gadgets. I'm thinking he also used morse-code in WW11, and because when we lived in a colder climate with tons of snow and ice, we had to communicate this way before cell phones.

Comment by Veeraraghavan A.R. on March 29, 2011 at 5:11am: I already knew some information about HAM radio. now your article gives more informations. Your video is enjoyable.

Comment by Anita Maden on April 1, 2011 at 2:19am: Also for me this brings back child hood memories, My dad was overseas during world war 2, he was in communications and told many stories, he always maintained in his later years in an emergency ham radio would be only way to commnicate. Many thanks

Comment by Dr. Bruce Arnold on April 2, 2011 at 4:56pm: I am a ham radio operator (call sign N8UTY), teach classes, and coordinate license testing in my local area. It is a wonderful hobby. I enjoy both talking to people and using Morse Code. It is a lot of fun to improve your equipment so that it uses less and less power. To be able to communicate with someone thousands of miles away with only 5 watts of power, for instance, is a satisfying accomplishment. (Most large commercial radio stations in the USA use 50,000 watts, for comparison.) Here in North Carolina, we have frequent hurricanes which can knock out all other forms of communication. Therefore, our emergency management officials rely on us to keep information flowing when no other method works. There is something deeply satisfying about this activity also. Thanks for posting this, Dr. Anand.

Comment by Debby Bruck on April 2, 2011 at 9:27pm: Thank you Bruce. You have many varied talents. We do rely on ham radio operators here during storm outages.

Comment by Veeraraghavan A.R. on April 3, 2011 at 9:54am: Thanks Dr. Bruse,

Would you please explain about how to to become a ham radio operator? What are the formalities?

Veeraraghavan A.R.

Comment by kuram srinivasachar anand on April 4, 2011 at 12:31am: It was great to know that you are a Ham dr. Bruce. What frequencies do you operate on? Shortly I will be getting a software driven transeiver and will be on HF. May be 20m band or 40 m band. Hope to contact several stations in the world. Anand. VU3KUX.

Dr. Veera, to become a ham You have to undergo a training and pass an exam conduted by communication ministry. You need to learn some basic electronics and communication systems and morse code. May be I will give you some info about this.

Comment by Veeraraghavan A.R. on April 4, 2011 at 3:21am: Thank you Kuram Sir,
I am eagerly waiting for you info.

Comment by Dr. Bruce Arnold on April 6, 2011 at 12:02am: Dear Dr. Kuram,
Thank you for offering your help to Dr. Veera. I am not familiar with requirements in other countries, beyond the basic facts that all ham licenses involve some form of test, and that bright children of the age of 10 or so are able to pass these tests. So I encourage anyone with an interest in communication to pursue this hobby; they will not be sorry. With used equipment often available inexpensively and in good working condition, one need not spend much money. Lord knows I haven't. I tend to spend most of my time on 40 meters CW (Morse Code) when I am operating on the shortwave bands. So perhaps I will hear you up there some day.

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