The ben­e­fits of bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tions dur­ing dis­as­ters has been high­light­ed at the Inter­na­tion­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Union (ITU) Tele­com World ’14 held in Doha, Qatar. 

Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Union (IARU) Pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Ellam VE6SH/G4HUA, told those attend­ing of the vital role of radio ama­teurs dur­ing disasters. 

At the 4‑day inter­na­tion­al gath­er­ing that attract­ed some 3500 par­tic­i­pants, he told how Ama­teur Radio does not rely on com­mer­cial net­works, and that hams have the tech­ni­cal know-how to send infor­ma­tion dur­ing disasters. 

Recent­ly the vol­un­teer radio ama­teur response to Typhoon Hagupit was through the HERO (Ham Radio Emer­gency Oper­a­tion) net­work of the IARU mem­ber soci­ety, Philip­pines Ama­teur Radio Association. 

Those attend­ing Tele­com World ’14 are involved in infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions technology. 

In open­ing, the Direc­tor of ITU Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion Devel­op­ment Bureau, Brahi­ma Sanou, includ­ed sta­tis­tics of 2010–2012 where nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, took than 1.2 mil­lion lives and 40 per cent of the world’s pop­u­la­tion was affected. 

Oth­er speak­ers showed how their tech­nol­o­gy is help­ing to mit­i­gate the effects of nat­ur­al dis­as­ters and cli­mate change. 

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