From: Jim Lin­ton, VK3PC
Sent: Sun­day, Jan­u­ary 17, 2010 4:28 PM
Sub­ject: Ham team pulls out of Haiti

Radio ama­teurs from the Domini­can Repub­lic have installed an ama­teur voice repeater link between their coun­try and earth­quake hit Haiti, but their plan to do much more in terms of emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions had to be cut short due to civ­il unrest. 

The repeater is pro­vid­ing the only com­mu­ni­ca­tions for the Red Cross and Civ­il Defence. 

Ramon San­toyo XE1KK, Sec­re­tary IARU Region 2 advis­es that the HI8RCD (Radio Club Domini­cano) team of eight radio ama­teurs had to flee the area after gun­fire and were unable to stay and pro­vide oper­a­tors to acti­vate a ham radio sta­tion Haiti. 

He said that this turn of events became known dur­ing a long tele­phone con­ser­va­tion with Hugo Ramon HI8VR, Pres­i­dent of Radio Club Domini­cano (RCD) described the sit­u­a­tion as extreme­ly unsafe and scray. 

The HI8RCD team was embed­ded in a con­voy when shots rang out result­ing in sev­er­al peo­ple being injured and one report­ed dead. The radio ama­teurs was not injured but decid­ed to leave unescort­ed to reach safe­ty at Jiman­ji in the Domini­can Republic. 

Media reports indi­cate that the sit­u­a­tion four days after the mas­sive earth­quake that has killed some 50,000 and caused wide­spread dam­age, is now chaot­ic as des­per­ate peo­ple seek to secure their own survival. 

Ear­li­er Rev­erend John Henault HH6JH was able to make a cou­ple of phone-patch calls on the 20m band Fred Moore W3ZU dur­ing which he described how there had been 30 after-shocks fol­low­ing the earthquake. 

John HH6JH in Port-au-Prince is doing mis­sion­ary work with home­less chil­dren said, “It’s bad, it lit­er­al­ly is bad. We don’t know how many peo­ple are dead. We do not know what to expect. It’s chaos, I’m telling you, it’s real chaos.” 

Admit­ting he was con­cerned as after-shocks con­tin­ues, he said “Many, many build­ings in the down­town area are stripped from the ground with many peo­ple buried under­neath them. 

“I’m okay, my house is okay,” said John HH6JH, adding “We have had 30 after­shocks. We are expect­ing some more shocks, so I’m a bit ner­vous to be inside the house.” 

He was using pow­er from a neigh­bour’s gen­er­a­tor and very pleased that ama­teur radio enabled him to let his friends in the USA know he was alive. 

Anoth­er radio ama­teur in the coun­try, Pierre Petry HH2/HB9AMO who works for the UN food pro­gram is also safe. How­ev­er noth­ing is known at this stage of about anoth­er ten hams in Haiti. 

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

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From: Jim Lin­ton, VK3PC
Sent: Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 14, 2010 3:01 PM
Sub­ject: RCD and URDA en route to Haiti

RCD and URDA en route to Haiti 

Vic­tor Baez, HI8VB, Sec­re­tary of the Radio Club Domini­cano (RCD) reports that the RCD with UDRA, Union Domini­cana de Radio Afi­ciona­dos, are prepar­ing to go to Port au Prince ear­ly morn­ing of Fri­day Jan­u­ary 15 to install an emer­gency radio Com­mu­ni­ca­tions stas­tion, HI8RCD/HH, and a mobile station. 

— IARU R3 Chair­man of the Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee, Jim Lin­ton VK3PC. 

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From: Jim Lin­ton, VK3PC
Sent: Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 14, 2010 7:02 AM
Sub­ject: Rev John Henault HH6JH reports from earth­quake hit Haiti

One ham in Haiti makes con­tact with out­side world 

Rev­erend John Henault HH6JH amid the earth­quake dev­as­tat­ed Haiti has been on the 20m band IARU Cen­tre of Activ­i­ty fre­quen­cy for emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions 14.300 MHz. 

While not in the worst hit area around the cap­i­tal of Port-Au-Prince he report­ed that he and those with him are safe. 

Oper­at­ing via bat­tery pow­er Rev John Henault HH6JH was hope­ful of get­ting a gen­er­a­tor oper­at­ing. In con­tact with William Stur­ridge KI4MMZ in Flori­da he was able to pass a mes­sage to his rel­a­tives and his reli­gious mis­sion that he was okay. 

A lis­ten­ing watch is being main­tained for two emer­gency sta­tions in Port-Au-Prince that have not been activated. 

It is also known, that in addi­tion to 14.300, the Sal­va­tion Army Team Emer­gency Net is 14.265 is in use. An IARU request remains cur­rent to keep 7.045 and 3.720 clear. 

Author­i­ties pre­dict that the worst earth­quake in 200 years to hit Haiti could result in a death roll of 100,000.

Haiti was only just begin­ning to show signs of recov­ery from a series of hur­ri­canes in 2008 that killed hun­dreds and left up to a mil­lion homeless. 

Rev John Henault OMI, is from the Mis­sion­ary Oblates of Mary Immac­u­late and works in Haiti help­ing to pro­vide care for home­less and orphaned children. 

— IARU R3 Chair­man of the Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee, Jim Lin­ton VK3PC. 

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From: Jim Lin­ton, VK3PC
Sent: Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 13, 2010 9:12 PM
Sub­ject: Haiti earth­quake — lis­ten­ing watch 80m and 40m 

Mas­sive earth­quake hits Haiti 

Fol­low­ing the dev­as­ta­tion to Haiti caused by an earth­quake, noth­ing has been heard from radio ama­teurs in that Caribbean nation. 

The IARU has ini­ti­at­ed a lis­ten­ing watch for them on 7045kKz and 3720kHz, and ask that those fre­quen­cies be keep clear. 

The earth­quake mea­sur­ing 7 on the Ritch­er scale hit the area 15km south­west of the cap­i­tal Port-au-Prince, destroy­ing homes and pub­lic build­ings, and vir­tu­al­ly all com­mu­ni­ca­tions have been cut. 

Hun­dreds of peo­ple have been killed or injured as emer­gency crews and med­ical aid is being provded. 

The IARU Region 2 Area Emer­gency Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Coor­di­na­tor, Arnie Coro CO2KK advis­es that while no sig­nals have been heard a lis­ten­ing watch is being main­tained on in case any man­age to get on air. 

While radio ama­teurs in the Domini­can Repub­lic, Puer­to Rico and Venezuela are also mon­i­tor­ing 7045 kHz for any con­tact with Haiti. 

East­ern cities in Cuba also felt the quake and the Cuban Fed­er­a­tion of Radio Ama­teurs Emer­gency Net was acti­vat­ed, oper­at­ing on 40m, 80m and 2m bands. 

— IARU R3 Chair­man of the Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Com­mit­tee, Jim Lin­ton VK3PC.