The Malaysian Ama­teur Radio Trans­mit­ters’ Soci­ety (MARTS) on Sat­ur­day May 10, held an ‘Emcomm GoB­ox’ con­test to show how to pack the min­i­mum essen­tial equip­ment need­ed to enable a light-weight, rugged, yet portable emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions station. 

MARTS want­ed local radio ama­teurs in West Malaysia to pro­duce a com­plete, com­pact sta­tion, to pro­vide the com­mu­ni­ca­tions sup­port, if request­ed by the authorities. 

There was a talk by John­ny Tan 9M8DB on the use of the IARU mes­sage form by radio ama­teurs, as a means to bet­ter emer­gency mes­sage han­dling, espe­cial­ly dur­ing large scale dis­as­ter events with vol­un­teers from oth­er regions and countries. 

The com­pe­ti­tion judges used a school ground at Kuala Lumpur were Deen Attan 9M2DA and John­ny Tan 9M8DB, both being very impressed with the lev­el of inter­est and coop­er­a­tion. In all 12 teams entered with cat­e­gories cov­er­ing HF and UHF, and VHF only. 

All were required to demon­strate the ease of set­ting up a sta­tion. This set­up was timed with points giv­en in addi­tion to those for the design and com­mu­ni­ca­tion facil­i­ties provided. 

Each Emcomm GoB­ox was judged on its mer­its. John­ny 9M8DB said all entrants are con­grat­u­lat­ed on their abil­i­ty to come up with solutions. 

 

While some had a dif­fer­ent approach, it was a good learn­ing expe­ri­ence by the entrants and the observ­ing pub­lic who saw the vol­un­teer skills and time avail­able from radio ama­teurs in times of emergency.