Turkish
Amateurs Fill Post-Quake Communication Gap
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 6, 2002--Amateur Radio
operators in Turkey were among the first responders following an earthquake in
central Turkey February 3. More than 40 deaths and some 170 injuries have been
reported in the aftermath of the earthquake, which registered 6.0 on the
Richter scale and shook the province of Afyon.
"Our communication system was used by our
members within the Civil Defense SAR [search-and-rescue] team for communicating
with their HQ in Ankara and within the affected area," said Aziz Sasa, TA1E,
president of the Turkish national Amateur Radio organization TRAC (Telsiz ve Radyo Amatörleri Cemiyeti). "I
must add that we were the only long and medium-range communication resource
until normal communication facilities were restored."
Sasa said normal telecommunications systems
in the region were restored "very rapidly," and that the amateurs were able to
wrap up their response the same evening. He said efforts to coordinate with
Civil Defense authorities in the region initially delayed an amateur response,
but TRAC members in Konya "took the initiative and sent out a response team."
As a result, he added, TRAC has decided to return to its former--and
successful--procedure and will forego CD coordination in the event of similar
emergencies. He said TRAC now plans to automatically dispatch an assessment
team the moment it gets information regarding the location and strength of a
tremor.
"As the incident was more of a local nature
with a very limited size of the affected area our duty time was relatively
short," Sasa reported. Hams were at the scene in Afyon for about 10 hours. "HF
was utilized only partly, most of the communication was handled on VHF and UHF
with repeaters linked to each other." The terrain allowed wide coverage that
included the capital city of Ankara--some 200 miles away.
Page last modified: 02:00 PM, 06 Feb 2002 ET
Page author: awextra@arrl.org
Copyright © 2002, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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