More than a week after being hit by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolan­da) in one of the
worst nat­ur­al dis­as­ters in recent his­to­ry, sur­vivors of the cen­tral Philippines
have basic needs of food, water and med­i­cine, shel­ter, evac­u­a­tion, communication
and power.

The Philip­pines Ama­teur Radio Asso­ci­a­tion (PARA) and its Ham Emer­gency Radio
Oper­a­tion (HERO) net­work con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and
at the request of author­i­ties start­ing to expand its loca­tions and facilities.

Ramon Anquilan DU1UGZ, Vice Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer of PARA, con­firms that
HERO sta­tions are con­tin­u­ing to work. He thanks the world for keep­ing 7.095
MHz clear for urgent traffic.

Work­ing with the Nation­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mis­sion (NTC), the National
Dis­as­ter Risk Reduc­tion and Man­age­ment Coun­cil (NDRRMC), it is look­ing at
poten­tial sources for need­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tions equipment.

PARA had two rep­re­sen­ta­tives at a meet­ing chaired by the Com­mis­sion­er of
NTC, Gamaliel A. Cordoba.

Ramon DU1UGZ said, ?The NTC has request­ed that the cov­er­age from Borongan
be expand­ed, to the adja­cent town and so on. The idea is to set up an HF
sta­tion in the far­thest town that can be accessed.

“Giv­en the new task that NTC wants us to do, we will be need­ing stations
that can be deployed and dis­man­tled at a momen­t’s notice. On the excellent
offer of the ARRL, I have request­ed it to pro­vide at least four HF stations
and a repeater.”

He said, the offi­cial meet­ing talked about hav­ing assets on the ground in
the blindspots. “It seems only PARA has local sta­tion — Lester DV5PO in the
cap­i­tal town of Boron­gan, East of Samar.”

Lester DV5PO is expect­ed to be giv­en more diesel fuel for his gen­er­a­tor so
he can con­tin­ue sup­ply­ing vital infor­ma­tion. A request agreed to by the NTC
meet­ing, which will be fol­lowed up.

“This is going now to the dif­fi­cult phase. The oper­a­tors that are needed
should come from the out­side because our locals will not budge from their
loca­tions as they have to fend for them­selves and their fam­i­lies — they are
vic­tims too of this dis­as­ter. There are oth­er will­ing radio ama­teurs but
usu­al­ly they don’t have the prop­er equipment.”

He said in one of the worst hit areas of Tacloban that has lost 90 per cent
of its build­ings, the Negros Ori­en­tal Radio Assis­tance Dumaguete (NORAD7)
team is on its way to pro­vide an addi­tion­al HF station.

“The team is bring­ing much need­ed relief goods and Rey Boy Man­aay 4D7DSW
and Eric Mite DW7DTR who are trained in res­cue. I intend to replace the old
radio that Nathan DU5AOK is using from one of the units that ARRL is sending,”
said Ramon DU1UGZ.

“Very expe­ri­enced Dar­win Tor­res 4F1FZE is join­ing the efforts at Tacloban.
A tech­ni­cal per­son expect­ed to improve VHF cov­er­age in the area, and HF,
with him being a crit­i­cal com­po­nent to the efforts. Dar­win 4F1FZE is embedded
in a relief team from Manila.”

There are two repeaters in Tacloban with no pow­er, so we need alternative
ener­gy — bat­ter­ies and solar power.

“A team can be deployed to Samar per­haps Guiuan or fur­ther west. We need
equip­ment to link Samar to Tacloban. This will mean a VHF repeater is available
to a large por­tion of the affect­ed site of Samar,” he said.

The far­thest affect­ed place is Coron in Palawan, a famous tourist spot. Clifford
Certeza DU1CC is going there this week­end to set up an HF station.

Ramon DU1UGZ said there was no relay sta­tion from Palo down the coastal municipalities
in the east­ern seaboard of Leyte. A HERO sta­tion, part of the club ACCESS
5 in that area, has not been heard from since the typhoon hit. Anoth­er station
is need­ed to pro­vide the link.

PARA and its HERO net­work have a long task ahead as it slow­ly gains the necessary
resources and recog­ni­tion for the emer­gency communications.

In some good news, Trent Hays DW5HT who has rel­a­tives in the US has been
found safe and well, by RADNET 5, in Palo, Leyte. The US Embassy has been
advised, and with vehi­cle packed is due head­ed to Manila.

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