Fol­low­ing the 7.5 mag­ni­tude earth­quake cen­tred near the coast of Ecuador that has claimed more than 400 lives so far, and the fre­quen­cy 7.060 MHz is being used as radio ama­teurs han­dle emer­gency traffic.

The earth­quake on April 16 caused wide­spread destruc­tion. Most dam­age was in the Guayaquil and Portoviejo/Manta areas, and the res­cue and recovery
continues.

Hit areas have been with­out elec­tric pow­er, and seri­ous prob­lems have occurred with nor­mal communications.

A report received is that elec­tri­cal pow­er and telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems have been affect­ed, and hams in the HC4 dis­trict have used their mobile sta­tions or bat­tery power.

Moves to get gen­er­a­tors and solar pan­els to them is affect­ed by dis­rup­tion of roads some made impass­able by the earthquake.

Relief groups and the army had moved to pro­vide human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance, as after­shocks con­tin­ues to be felt.

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