Public Variety News Post By Roland - Whats happening now? - Ham Radio - http://maxpages.com/hamradio4usall/Misc_News

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Hams in India were able to play a critical role in providing emergency communication from the eastern state of Orissa, struck by a destructive "super cyclone" in late October. The storm resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, left many more homeless, and created food and water shortages. Troops have been sent into the affection regions, and the US has pledged $2.1 million in emergency food and shelter aid.

Calcutta VHF Amateur Radio Society Secretary Indranil Majumdar, VU2KFR, an ARRL member, reports teams of amateurs from all over India responded to the disaster. The Calcutta club set up an Amateur Radio Control Room at the shack he shares with his brother, Horey, VU2HFR, running a Drake TR4 transceiver into a three-element beam on 20 and 40 meters. At one point, a dozen Calcutta hams were staffing the facility around the clock.

"This is the first time the whole of India has to come to know and appreciate ham radio," VU2KFR said. He said ham radio provided the initial communication link between the stricken state and the rest of the country.

On November 7, a group of five Calcutta hams took off for the Jajpur District in Orissa in a Land Rover-type vehicle equipped with HF mobile equipment. "The communication was done from the mobile with a dipole fitted like an inverted Vee on the car roof," Majumdar said. The transceiver in the car was a 15-W homebrew SSB rig that the club had put together.

"The entire communication in the state is being maintained by hams--except for some satellite phones that are operating now and then and facing battery problems," Majumdar said. The disaster communications team has since returned from Orissa as telephone and satellite phone service became available.

Majumdar said the teams handled message traffic relating to emergency food, clothing, and medical needs, road conditions, and health-and-welfare. Similar fixed facilities were set up in other Indian cities--including New Delhi and Hyderabad--and linked via HF.

Majumdar says a group of hams from the National Institute of Amateur Radio in Hyderabad also went to Orissa and set up emergency control rooms in Bhubhaneswar, Jajpur and Paradip. Other stations subsequently were set up in other affected cities with VHF and HF capabilities. VU2KFR says VHF links were being used to handle regional traffic within and between states. There are no repeaters. The hams are using what he called "human relay."

Majumdar estimated that 50 hams in all were participating in the disaster communication effort using their own or borrowed equipment.

One Jajpur official praised the Amateur Radio efforts. In a letter to Calcutta VHF ARS President Dipak Mitra, VU2DPM, District Magistrate R. Balakrishnan said the radio links were helpful in monitoring the spread of disease and in damage assessment efforts. "I am of the view that the concept of ham radio should be popularized and more and more such groups need to be encouraged," he wrote.

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