Emcomm gets APT and MARS attention

The Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Union (IARU) helped to fur­ther raise aware­ness of the role of Ama­teur Radio dur­ing times of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters caused by extreme weath­er events and man-made fail­ure of com­mu­ni­ca­tion infrastructure.

Also lat­er this month the US-based Mil­i­tary Aux­il­iary Radio Sys­tem (MARS) will join with Ama­teur Radio in Asia in an exer­cise to test emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tion avail­abil­i­ty and usefulness.

At the 4th APT (Asia Pacif­ic Telecom­mu­ni­ty) Work­shop on Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment & Com­mu­ni­ca­tions held last month the IARU and Philip­pines Ama­teur Radio Soci­ety (PARA) gave a presentation.

IARU Region 3 Chair­man Gopal Mad­ha­van VU2GMN and Ramon Anquilan DU1UGZ of
PARA were well received by del­e­gates at the meet­ing in Pasay City, Philip­pines on July 23–25.

The pair was asked ques­tions about Ama­teur Radio and how it helped keep the lines open dur­ing severe weath­er events, includ­ing those that plagued the Philip­pines, and gave update to date and informed responses.

The APT acknowl­edged the con­tin­ued sup­port and exper­tise pro­vid­ed by radio ama­teurs and want­ed to hear more in future through the IARU R3 as part of the APT work program.

IARU Region 3 appre­ci­at­ed the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tribute to the fur­ther under­stand­ing of the wider com­mu­ni­ty, the role that Ama­teur Radio can play in pro­vid­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions dur­ing major dis­rup­tions dur­ing disasters.

Mean­while MARS will join Ama­teur Radio in Asia on August 26 in a unique test the capac­i­ty to assist in the event of a major transpa­cif­ic disaster.

Exer­cise Pacif­ic Endeav­or-13 is in response to the lessons learned in Japan’s 2011 tsuna­mi catastrophe.

MARS will use emer­gency stan­dards rec­om­mend­ed by the IARU. In the exer­cise sce­nario, vol­un­teer MARS mem­bers will estab­lish com­mu­ni­ca­tion with radio ama­teurs in fic­ti­tious ‘Paci­fi­ca’, which is actu­al­ly Nepal.

The avoid undue alarm, the MARS sta­tions using Ama­teur Radio call­signs locat­ed in Oki­nawa, Japan and Hawaii, will talk about a sport­ing event dur­ing their mes­sage han­dling which may include images.

The MARS exer­cise fol­lows the Sin­ga­pore Armed Forces host­ed Pacif­ic Endeav­our 2012 on the Chan­gi Naval Base which linked Nepal author­i­ties through Ama­teur Radio.

Emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tion mea­sures involv­ing Ama­teur Radio are in place should a pre­dict­ed earth­quake occur in the future with­in the vicin­i­ty of Nepal’s cap­i­tal, Kathmandu.

- Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.