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Indian Hams Working Around the Clock in Quake Relief Effort
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 1, 2001--Nearly one week after a devastating earthquake struck the State of Gujarat in Western India, Amateur Radio continues to play a major role in the relief effort. Amateurs have established HF and VHF stations throughout Gujarat to aid in supplying food, clothing, medicine and shelter to the earthquake victims. More than 20,000 have perished, and the death count is expected to go much higher.
"The death toll is mounting," said Horey Majumdar, VU2HFR, in Calcutta, which is some distance from the quake zone. "The worst part is that there could be tens of thousands still under the debris in Bhuj."
The US and India do not have a third-party traffic agreement, and no plans have been announced at this point to seek a suspension of that arrangement to permit international third-party message traffic via Amateur Radio. Raj Kumar, VU2ZAP, in Bangalore has agreed to accept earthquake-related inquiries via e-mail from the US to vu2zap@yahoo.com. VU2ZAP says he is in touch with Amateur Radio teams and Amateur Radio Society of India officials via telephone and fax and will do his best to assist those seeking information. He requests that all inquiries include all possible information, in particular telephone numbers. But there are no guarantees. "In some small towns, complete streets and houses have vanished," he said.
Amateurs from IARU member-society the Amateur Radio Society of India and from the National Institute of Amateur Radio (VU2NRO) have been on the scene since January 27 providing communications support and information on victims. D.V.R.K. Murthy, VU2DVO, reports that S. B. Ram, VU2LIC, has established an Amateur Radio net control point in the residence of Gujarat's chief minister. In addition, he says, some 50 other hams are spread throughout the affected region--including the hard-hit city of Bhuj--and are "working round the clock." Amateurs from other cities, including Mumbai (Bombay) and Bangalore also are helping. Telephone service in the earthquake zone remains out for the most part.
"The ham operations have become very useful, and all the media are reporting about hams working in the area in almost every bulletin," Murthy said. He said NIAR also has heard from hams in the US, Japan and Turkey who have offered to come to India to assist or to send a donation. "We advise them that they can come and work with the equipment provided by NIAR and with its teams," he said. Waiting for government permission to operate their own gear could "take some time," he said.
There's been a downside to the favorable Amateur Radio publicity, however. B.L. Manohar, VU2UR, in Bangalore, says media reports about ham radio's presence in the quake zone has led to a flurry of calls from all over India requesting hams to radio the affected region for information on friends and loved ones. "Most of the Amateur Radio operators manning the stations in Gujarat do not know the local language (Kutchchi/Gujarati) or the streets and areas of the city where they have stations established," he said. "With no help in the form of local people to run about, all such messages are getting piled up." That's led to some backlash aimed at the amateur community, Manohar said.
The epicenter of the earthquake January 26 was reported to be 20 km northeast of Bhuj. The magnitude was reported to be 7.9 on the Richter scale. Manohar said more than 250 aftershocks have been reported in the affected area. "All sorts of help is pouring in--equipment to move debris, gas cutting sets, concrete cutting saws, huge excavators, and many others," he said.
Page last modified: 02:03 PM, 01 Feb 2001 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2001, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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