Chi­na earth­quake dis­as­ter — Update

The emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions response by radio ama­teurs in Chi­na is con­tin­u­ing dur­ing the res­cue and recov­ery phase of this major dis­as­ter that has result­ed in a great loss of life. 

IARU R3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee mem­ber, Fan Bin BA1RB said, “We have more ham radio oper­a­tors ready to go for dis­as­ter relief, we will do our best as radio ama­teur oper­a­tors for the big dis­as­ter.” The earth­quake struck in the after­noon local time on 12 May and the imme­di­ate response by hams includ­ed the IARU radio soci­ety CRSA issu­ing a world­wide alert that a num­ber of HF fre­quen­cies were in use for dis­as­ter relief. These are 7050, 7060 and 14270. Fan Bin BA1RB reports soon after the earth­quake hit the local UHF/VHF repeaters in Cheng­du area were back to oper­a­tion to pro­vide communications. 

It took three days for the pub­lic telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions net­work to be restored in most but the remote areas which remain with­out com­mu­ni­ca­tions. The Sichuan radio sports asso­ci­a­tion ama­teur radio sta­tion BY8AA was able to on air in HF band han­dling many valu­able front line emer­gency mes­sages and had an hourly sked with the CRSA head­quar­ters sta­tion BY1PK in Bejing. Bin Fan BA1RB reports that many radio ama­teurs in the earth­quake epi­cen­tre and near­by areas have put up sim­ple anten­nas from the dam­aged buildings. 

Hams from Bei­jing, Nan­jing, Wuhan and oth­er cities went to Sichuan tak­ing their own require­ment. The dis­as­ter has hit moun­tain­ous ter­rain that requires the use of VHF/UHF and HF radio. 

- Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man, IARU Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.