Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1754 - March 25 2011

(Please note that this is an extended Newsline report running 33 min,
11 seconds and containing 3 breaks.)

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1754 with a release date of
Friday, March 25, 2011 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T. The FCC offers its support to Japan in its
recovery from the March 11th earthquake and tsunami; the story of
Hawaii's ham radio activation as the tsunami headed its way, ARISS
celebrates its 600th school contact and more radar and G-P-S jamming
exercised are announced in the U-K. Find out the details are on
Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) report number 1754 coming your way right
now.


(Billboard Cart Here)


**

RESCUE RADIO: FCC OFFERS TECHNICAL EXPERTISE TO JAPAN

The FCC has offered its counterpart in Japan any assistance that it
might be able to render. This, as recovery efforts continue in the
wake of the March 11th earthquake and Tsunami. Bill Pasternak,
WA6ITF, is in the newsroom with mo

--

According to the trade publication Radio World, soon after the
devastating events occurred, the FCC made contact with officials in
Japan. This, to offer any help on the telecommunications front that it
might be able to supply.

Tom Sullivan is the spokesperson for the FCC International Bureau. He
is quoted as saying that his agency has reached out to its regulatory
contacts in Japan and is also working with the State Department and the
National Telecommunications & Information Administration to consider
what assistance the FCC might be able to provide.

According to Sullivan, soon after the massive earthquake that hit
Haiti, the FCC took a proactive role. This included providing
technical assistance on emergency communications as well as passing
along offers of help from private industry.

But Sullivan also notes that Japan is a different situation. It's a
nation with its own very robust communications system. He says that on
the telecommunications front Japan is very well prepared for a
situations like this. Nevertheless, Sullivan says that the FCC will be
able to offer its expertise should it be asked.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, in the
Newsroom in Los Angeles.

--

In the article, Tom Sullivan noted that the FCC International Bureau
could serve as a contact point for anyone in industry seeking
information on whether and how they might be able to help but at this
point in time no telecommunications assistance requests have been
received. You can read more at tinyurl.com/fccjapan. (RW, B&C)

**

RESCUE RADIO: HAWAII RACES WAS READY FOR THE MARCH 11th TSUNAMI

As Japan begins its slow journey back from the March 11th earthquake
and tsunami that devastated a part of that Pacific Rim nation, and the
continuing story of the reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear
power plant, lost in the news coverage has been the story of ham radio
emergency preparedness across the Pacific. This as the tsunami hurled
itself eastward.

One of the first major population centers to begin preparing for the
unknown was the state of Hawaii where Ron Hashiro, AH6RH, is the State
Civil Defense RACES Coordinator. He says that he learned about the
approaching sea disturbance by e-mail and that triggered the alerting
system that gets the trained emergency communicators ready for whatever
they may soon face:

--

AH6RH: "At that point we started the notification system of phone
calls and other means of activating all of the other hams. In the
meantime the radio started to get busy because other people had found
out through TV, radio and other forums that there was a tsunami watch
in effect and they were quite concerned."

--

Hashiro tells Newsline that the system worked flawlessly and soon the
needed emergency communications nets were in operation:

--

AH6RH: "We placed phone calls to the different Amateur Radio Civil
Defense coordinators on the various islands, they in turn placed phone
calls and notified their people and got nets running on the different
repeaters.

"On Oahu, W6BJF, Tom, ran the net, kept it active and passed messages
between our Department of Emergency Management and our amateur radio
community, keeping them both informed."

--

By the time the tsunami approached Hawaiian shores all was in
readiness, but thankfully Mother Nature spared Hawaii from the kind of
devastation seen on the Japanese mainland:

--

AH6RH: "We are fortunate that while we were waiting for the tsunami to
come, it did not pose as great a (potential) for damage as it did in
Japan. Some of the islands did pick up some damage on their west
facing side but it was more localized as compared to what was on
Japan."

--

The bottom line is that while there was not the need for ham radio to
any great extent as the tidal wave passed Hawaii, the hams of the
Island state were ready if it had been a far more serious event.

Also, you can hear more with Ron Hashiro, AH6RH, about Hawaii's state
wide ham radio ARES, RACES and CD preparedness system on this weeks
Rain Report. Its on line right now at www.therainreport.com.
(ARNewsline(tm))

**

RESCUE RADIO: THE TSUNAMI HEADS TO THE AMERICAS

After passing Hawaii the giant wave front continued its trek eastward
toward the Americas. Soon nations bordering on the Pacific began to
issue warnings to their populations located near the coastline. Then
reports started trickling in as we hear from Amateur Radio Newsline's
Bruce Tennant, K6PZW:

--

Marco Loarca, TG9ANM, is the Emergency Coordinator for Area D of the
IARU's Region 2. He reports that the Club de Radio Aficionados de
Guatemala was able to maintain communication via VHF and UHF with radio
operators located near the nations coastline. Meantime, Jorge Sierra,
LU1AS, his counterpart in Area G of reported that the Red Chilena Nor
Austral monitored the frequency 7.070 MHz and beginning at 17:00 local
time while the VHF and UHF emergency communications network was also
activated.

In the United States, the Amateur Radio Emergency Services of
California's Santa Cruz County was activated at approximately 08:00
a.m. local time. More than 30 local A.R.E.S. radio operators were made
available to served agencies. These included the Santa Cruz County
Emergency Operations Center, area evacuation centers, the Red Cross, a
Salvation Army canteen truck, the Santa Cruz County Harbor Coast Guard
Auxiliary and a number of local Fire Departments. Also on Friday
morning the Santa Cruz County A.R.E.S. Team activated the Tsunami
Resource Net in advance of the anticipated 5 to 7 foot wave that was
expected to reach the coastline around 8:00 AM local time.

As expected, the tsunami did impact the Pacific coast. They caused an
estimated 15 million dollars of damage to Santa Cruz Harbor. More that
100 boats were either damaged or sunk as a result of the waves.

Santa Cruz was not alone in receiving significant damage as a result of
the powerful tidal surge. Crescent City, located approximately 500
miles North of Santa Cruz, also received heavy damage. This lead to
newly elected Governor Jerry Brown declaring these areas disaster
zones. News reports say that one person died as a result of being
swept out to sea with the high waves.

Lastly, on the other side of the United States northern border, Daniel
Lamoureux VE2KA, reported that there was no damage from the tsunami on
Canada's west coast.

That's whats known as we go to air.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, in Los
Angeles.

--

Our thanks to the International Amateur Radio Union for much of the
information in Bruce's report. (IARU - R2 Report)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: ARISS CELEBRATES 600th SCHOOL CONTACT

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, better known by the
acronym ARISS, reached a milestone on Thursday, March 17th. This,
when it held its 600th space to ground contact between astronaut Cady
Coleman, KC5ZTH on board the International Space Station and students
from several schools in Plock and Liszyno, Poland.

The contact supported lessons about space and space exploration,
communication and technology. Scout Amateur Radio Club S-P-5-Zed-B-A
handled the radio connection during which the astronaut Coleman fielded
19 space related questions from the students at the two schools.

Nearly 120 people were in the audience and there was also extensive
media coverage. This included newspapers, four scientific magazines,
one radio magazine, a television station, national radio and two
internet portals.

And less we forget, we will have more ham radio space related news
later on in this weeks Amateur Radio Newsline report. (Southgate)

**

BREAK 1

From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world including the JR6YQF
Amateur Radio Society on Okinawa in the Pacific.

(5 sec pause here)


**

RESCUE RADIO: HAM RADIO REPLACES PHONES DURING HOSPITAL OUTAGE

When nurses and other caregivers picked up their phones at Childrens
Hospital of Orange County at 5:30 AM on March 21, there was no dial
tone. A power surge, probably from lightning, had caused failure of
the central processor in the hospital's phone switch. How would they
make contact with physicians and patient transport companies?

Fortunately, the lead operator at the switchboard knew just what to do.
She opened her disaster book to the Amateur Radio support page and
followed the established procedure for activating the Hospital Disaster
Support Communications System, or HDSCS. She had several options, but
this time she used an emergency tie-line to reach April Moell WA6OPS,
who is head of this ARES group that specializes in helping hospitals
when communications fail.

April established an on-air network and initiated a callout of HDSCS
communicators by telephone and pager. Ken Simpson W6KOS and Clay
Stearns KE6TZR arrived at the hospital shortly to establish a link with
the outside world. More operators followed to communicate between the
most important units within the hospital including the Emergency
Department, Neonatal Intensive Care, Pediatric Intensive Care, and
Pharmacy.

April had given her home telephone number to the Supervisor

at Orange County Communications for incoming call relay.

This resulted in several urgent messages for the hospital,

including one regarding transport of a young patient coming

in for an appendectomy.

--

(Audio from HDSCS net)

--

By 10:45 AM, some phones were working but additional repair components
were being awaited from a supplier. HDSCS continued to provide
unit-to-unit and hospital-to-community messaging as needed, including
coordination of patient treatments and a request for blood. At 1:02
PM, the repair crew announced that the phone system was back to normal
except for some voicemail functions. HDSCS members remained on station
for 30 more minutes as they always do to insure that phone systems are
stable.


There's lightning here in southern California only a few days a year,
but it's a definite danger to our hospital phone systems. During an
intense thunderstorm last October, HDSCS members responded to St. Jude
Hospital in Fullerton when a power outage caused overloading of the
telephone system there.


A total of eleven HDSCS members participated in this [latest]
communications emergency. They were familiar with this hospital
because HDSCS has helped in communications emergencies there before,
including a 22-hour external phone outage when a construction accident
severed fiber optic cables in August 2006.


This is the 31st year of HDSCS service to medical facilities in Orange
County and this was the 114th activation to provide support when
telephones have failed or overloaded. The reasons have ranged from
equipment failure, to cut cables, to natural disasters such as
earthquakes, floods, and wildfires. Each member has his or her own
Go-Kit, ready to take to any of the 36 supported hospitals to establish
communications.


For more information on HDSCS -- and how hams in your community can
organize to provide rapid response like this to hospitals -- point your
Web browser to www.hdscs.org. Those are the initials for Hospital
Disaster Support Communications System, followed by dot-org.


For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Joe Moell. K0OV. (K0OV)


**


RESCUE RADIO: VK RADIO OPERATOR HONORED FOR HELPING SAVE SIX LIVES

The Australian MySailing dot com website reports that Marine Rescue
Terrey Hills radio operator Ian Murdoch has been awarded the Region
Commander's Certificate of Appreciation from New South Wales Police
Assistant Commissioner Ken McKay. According to the report, Murdoch
along with four members of Broken Bay Water Police, received awards for
their part in the rescue of six people on board the stricken yacht
Encore which foundered in gale force conditions off Broken Bay on the
afternoon of October 23rd, 2008.

On that day Murdoch was sole radio operator at the Marine Rescue Sydney
radio base and although alone, he managed 75 minutes of non-stop
intense pressures in response to a Mayday call for help. He relayed
the distressed vessel's position to other vessels in the area, informed
Water Police, and coordinated a veritable fleet of responding vessels.
These included a police launch, a passenger ferry, a bulk carrier and a
training yacht. At the same time he maintained contact with the
sinking vessel until Water Police were able to take rescue the six
passengers on-board and thereby saving their lives.

The account did not say whether or not Murdoch was an Australian ham
radio operator. You can read the full story in mysailing.com.au. (WIA
News)

**

RADIO STANDARDS: NIST CONDUCTING TIME AND FREQUENCY USER SURVEY

The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Time and Frequency
Division is conducting a survey to learn more about its users, and to
find out how the can make its services more useful in the future.

NIST services include stations WWV, WWVH, and WWVB, which provide
reference time and frequency signals by radio. NIST also operates its
Internet Time Service, which provides accurate time synchronization to
computer systems, and several other services that provide time
information via telephone or web pages.

John Lowe, the manager of National Institute of Standards and
Technology radio stations WWV, WWVH and WWVB in Ft. Collins, Colorado.
He says that the survey should take just a few minutes to complete, and
your input will be greatly appreciated.

If you use any of these services -- and what radio amateur doesn't
--please complete the survey which is on-line at
www.tf.nist.gov/survey. (NIST)

**

BREAK 2

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the United
States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline with links to the
world from our only official website at www.arnewsline.org and being
relayed by the volunteer services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS: SOUTHWEST 75 METER VHF/UHF NET TIME CHANGE

The Sunday evening Southwest 75 Meter VHF/UHF and Above Weak Signal Net
on 3 point 920 MHz has changed its operating schedule. According to a
note from K6STK and WI6M, the net now begins at 5:30 p.m. Pacific
Daylight Savings Time and ends one hour later at 6:30 p.m.. If you
live in the region covered by this net and are into VHF/UHF weak signal
work, give this group a try. (K6TSK and WI6M via the VHF Reflector)

**

HAM HAPPENINGS: AES SUPERFEST APRIL 1 - 2 IN MILWAUKEE

The annual Amateur Electronics Supply Superfest will take place on
Friday, April 1st from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Saturday, April
2nd from 8:30 a.m to 3:00 p.m. at the AES Milwaukee Warehouse. This
venue is located at 5710 West Good Hope Road in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Admission is free with many manufacturers' representatives present to
answer your questions about their latest gear. This year's special
guest is ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN. And late word that ham
radio's Mr. Audio, Bob Heil, K9EID, and Radio School's Gordon West,
WB6NOA will team up to conduct a ham radio oriented Audio Workshop.
More about this and the entire 2011 AES Superfest is on line at
www.aesham.com/superfest. (Press Release)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: NASA ASTRONAUT DOUG WHEELOCK, KB5BOC, TO HOST
HAMVENTION FORUM

Some names in the news. First up is NASA Astronaut Doug Wheelock,
KF5BOC , will be holding forth at his own forum at the 2011 Dayton
Hamvention. Wheelock returned to Earth in November of 2010 after
serving as Commander of the International Space Station will speak from
1:15 to 2:15 P.M. on Saturday, May 21st in Hara Arena Meeting Room 3.

During his stay on-orbit, KF5BOC along with fellow Astronaut Shannon
Walker, KD5DXB, regularly participated in the Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station program or ARISS program during which he
made some two dozen general contacts each day he was on the air.
Colonel Wheelock is expected to share his experiences about space
flight and using amateur radio in space. (Dayton Hamventionr)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: KI6ZMV ELECTED NEWS TREASURER OF ARNEWSLINE

Leslie Monzon, KI6ZMV, of Valencia, California, has been elected as the
new treasurer if the Amateur Radio Newsline. She replaces the late Andy
Jarema, N6TCQ, who passed way in November of 2009.

Re-elected to the Newsline Board of Directors were incumbents Bill
Pasternak, WA6ITF, as president; Davis Black, KB4KCH, as Vice
President, Joe Schrader, W9JUV, as Secretary, Mark Abramowicz, NT3V as
Chief Executive Officer and Don Wilkbnks, AE5DW, as Member-at Large.
Abramowicz will also continue as Chairman of the Young Ham of the Year
Judging Committee.

Elections were a part of the annual Amateur Radio Newsline Board of
Directors Meeting held by teleconference on Sunday, March 20th.
(ARNewsline(tm))

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: G4FSU APPOINTED AS RSGB HF MANAGER

The Radio Society of Great Britain Board of Directors has approved the
appointment of Ian Greenshields, G4FSU. This, following the decision
by John Gould, G3WKL to step down from this honorary position.

Apart from a having a very successful career as an RF and microwave
communications engineer, Greenshields is well versed in radio spectrum
matters. This based on his role of Secretary to the International
Amateur Radio Union Region One High Frequency Committee since 2005.
Recently, the IARU also appointed G4FSU as a Technical Consultant that
requires regular involvement in ITU and CEPT matters. (RSGB)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: NEW IARU REGION 3 SECRETARY

The Board of Directors of IARU Region 3 have announced the appointment
of Ken Yamamoto, JA1CJP, as the organizations new Secretary. Yamamoto
holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electronic engineering and has
worked in the satellite communications field for many years. He
replaces Jay Oka, JA1TRC, who has reportedly stepped down for personal
reasons on March 9th. WIA News

**

BREAK 3

This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the

United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline

with links to the world from our only official website at

www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer

services of the following radio amateur:

(5 sec pause here)

**

RADIO HISTORY: BBC TO CLOSE ORDFORDNESS TRANSMITTER SITE Another famed
radio transmitting site is being decommissioned. This one is owned by
the British Broadcasting Company and is not one very many on this side
of the Atlantic know about. Amateur Radio Newsline's Norm Seeley, has
the rest of the story:


--


Unless you live in Europe or are a truly devoted low frequency DX'er
here in the United States, you likely have never heard of the British
Broadcasting Company's transmitter site at Ordfordness. It's an
operation that sits on 648 KHz and has a five tower array beamed to
Europe with very little signal off the back toward the United States.
And that's what makes the signal from Ordfordness such a great catch
for medium wave D-X listeners on this side of the Atlantic pond.

But all that will end on March 27th. That's when the BBC switches off
this transmitter site for good.

But its demise will not go undocumented. As a historical note,
Jonathan Marks, G-8-W-G-N, has released a short documentary that traces
the history of the Ordfordness transmitter site from its inception
through 2003 when the video was made. Marks, who was the former
producer and host of the famed Radio Netherlands Media Network program
is joined by Ordfordness radio engineer Andy Matherson who explains the
way in which the site operates.

It's a great tour of a historic moment in European medium wave
broadcast radio. You can experience it for yourself on line at
vimeo.com/20996209

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, Norm Seeley, KI7UP, in Scottsdale,
Arizona.

--

Another sad moment in broadcast history, but one that Jonathan Marks,
G8WGN, has taken the time to preserve. (Via e-mail)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: TWO NEW ASTRO-HAMS

And a follow-up to last weeks story about a pair of Astronauts who had
been tested and had passed the Amateur Service exams. Since then, Luca
Parmitano has been issued the call sign KF5KDP and Chris Cassidy
received KF5KDR. Both passed their tests on March 8th are slated to fly
on future International Space Station expeditions. (ARISS)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: AO-51 ENTERS AN ECLIPSE PERIOD

Eclipses are back for AO-51, and the length is increasing every day.
According to AO-51 Command Station, Mark Hammond, N8MH, eclipses are
now lasting about 1 to 2 minutes per pass. They are expected to
increase in length pretty fast, gaining a minute every day or two over
the coming weeks and month.

AO-51 is still running under power management in single transmitter
mode on the 435.300 MHz downlink running approximately 1 point 3 watts.
The satellite will be off during eclipses and probably right before and
after. You'll probably still hear the transmitter cycling off and on
around eclipse times, but most voice users will appreciate the stronger
signals. AO-51 be in this mode until further notice. (ANS)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: BJ8TA AN EME AND SATELLITE DXPEDITION

AMSAT-China Chief Executive Officer Alan Kung, BA1DU reports that his
group is organizing an expedition to southwest China. This, for EME
experiments and amateur satellite communications. The expedition team
will use the special technology experiments amateur radio call sign
BJ8TA. The group will also be active on the available satellites
during the expedition period. The BJ8TA Amateur Radio EME and
Satellites Expedition is supported by the Bureau of Radio Regulation of
China and Yunnan Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences. (DX News)

**

WORLDBEAT - UK: MORE RADAR AND GPS JAMMING EXERCISES PLANNED

The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense has informed U-K
telecommunications regulator Ofcom that further Global Positioning
System jamming exercises will be. The dates announced are May 19th to
the 26th starting at 07:00 U-T-C each day.

Also, ground based radar jamming tests will take place in the South
West approaches against the remote radar head at Portreath on May 21st
and 22nd using F-18 Growler aircraft. There will also be radar jamming
against deployed targets in South West Wales thru from May 19th to the
26th.

Communications and airborne radar jamming will take place throughout
the same period on the East Coast with aircraft operating within the
North Sea Military Danger Areas. The Ministry of Defense adds that
safety of life operations will take precedence over these defense test
exercise activities at all times.

The purpose of these tests is to likely to determine the vulnerability
of U-K defenses to jamming of vital radio based defenses. (Southgate)

**

WORLDBEAT - NEW ZEALAND: HAM RADIO TO CELEBRATE THE 2011 RUGBY WORLD
CUP GAMES

The New Zealand Amateur Radio Transmitters or NZART Council has
declared the Rugby World Cup to be a Special Event and encourages you
to use the ZM prefix. According to the NZART, declaring this a special
event it allows New Zealand radio amateurs the use of this special
prefix during September and October. A Map of New Zealand has been
placed on the NZART website with game locations linked to contact
details of local branches, any planned special events, on air events,
and local repeater frequencies. NZART Branches are to be encouraged to
invite visiting hams to attend meetings and any special events. The
New Zealand Amateur Radio Transmitters is that nation's national
amateur radio society. (NZART)

**

ON THE AIR: CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA

On the air, keep an ear open for members of the Republic of China
Centenary Foundation who will be activating special event station BV100
during the CQ WW WPX SSB Contest on March 26th and 27th. The operators
from Taiwan will then be on the air from Shaio-Liu-Chiu Island until
the end of the year as a special event is to celebrate the 100th
anniversary of their homeland. Operations will be on all bands and
modes. Complete details along with an operating schedule and
information as to how to earn a BV100 award is available at
www.bv100.tw/en. QSL's go via BV2KI. (OPDX)

**

ON THE AIR: NEPAL COMING TO EME

The 9N7WL 2 meter EME operation will take place as part of the 9N7AN
DXpedition from Nepal's High View Resort which is located about 25
kilometers from the capital city of Kathmandu. This will be the first
time that the DXCC entity Nepal and the Maidenhead main locator NL is
activated on the 2 meter band via the moon.

E-M-E operation is scheduled to start on March 30th. Moonrise at 9N7WL
will be at 3.30 UTC. The most difficult part of the world to reach by
E-M-E will be to the southern part of the USA but there is no common
moon with the state of Texas until Sunday April 3rd. This expedition is
slated to end on April 7th. (K5WL, DL9GFB via MMMonVHF)

**

DX

In DX, ON4AEO will be active from Botswana as A25FC between April 14th
and the 18th. Operation will be on 160-10 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY
and PSK. QSL via ON4CJK.

LA8HGA will be operational as JW9HGA from the Longyearbyen Amateur
Radio Club station located on Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard between May
19th and the 23rd. Activity will be on the HF bands and CW only. QSL
is via LA8HGA via the bureau or direct.

VE3ZIK is active portable 9A from Croatia until March 30th. He also
plans to be active in the Russian DX Contest, the CQ WPX SSB Contest
and mentions that there is a good chance he will be on from Vrana Lake
as well. QSL via DK8ZZ, via the bureau, Logbook of the World, eQSL or
direct. E-mail Bureau requests for QSLs can go to ve3zik (at) gmail
(dot) com

The Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia are organizing a
DXpeditiion to Lord Howe Island for July. They will be using the club
call sign VK9HR and the organizers are looking for CW operators and
experienced SSB and digital modes operators who would be interested in
attending this operation. Any interested operators please contact
Tommy Horozakis, VK2IR, via e-mail to president (at) haraoa (dot) com.

Lastly, A group of Mexican operators will be on

the air from the Isla de Lobos in Veracruz State

between April 29th and May 1st. They will also

activate the Lobos Island lighthouse on all HF

bands, plus 6 meters and AO 27, AO 51 and SO 50

ham satellites. Modes used will include CW, SSB

and RTTY. QSL via XE1AY.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: EMCOMM - THE PARADIGM IS

CHANGING

And finally this week, a bit of an editorial comment. While ham radio
within Japan is playing a role in post quake and post tsunami recovery
efforts, there appears to be little if any international long haul
emergency communication on the High Frequency bands. Instead, it seems
that ham radio's traditional role in this area has largely been
replaced by the popular social networks. Amateur Radio Newsline's Don
Wilbanks, AE5DW, takes a look at the way these Twitter and Facebook are
changing the paradigm and starting to displace ham radios place in the
health and welfare information flow:


--


RESCUE RADIO: THE PARADIGM SHIFTS - NO NEED FOR LONG HAUL H&W TRAFFIC


So what about ham radios traditional role in post disaster relief as a
carrier of long distance health and welfare traffic in the wake of the
earthquake and tsunami? So far, there has not been very much of that
and here is likely the reason why.


While the earthquake did knock out a lot of local telephone service
across Japan, unaffected was the island nation's multi-redundant
broadband system. Indeed, within minutes of the quake hitting,
residents in Japan were texting and tweeting messages to their loved
ones as to what had transpired. News services were looking at these
tweets on Twitter and using them as a source of information for their
initial reports on the disaster. So for those living in or near any of
Japan's major population centers like Tokyo, there was little impact on
their personal communications with the outside world


Also unaffected was the redundant communications networks used by the
worlds various broadcast entities with news bureaus in Tokyo. And when
the first wave of the Tsunami came ashore the world watched it happen
live from an NHK news helicopter's camera whose signal was microwaved
back to Tokyo and then out around the globe.


The rural areas of Japan are a totally different matter. Some towns are
still without any form of utilities including water, gas, electrical
power, telephone or broadband service. And its likely to be that way
for some time. And sadly, there are those coastal towns in Northern
Japan that took the full brunt of the tidal waves. Most of these were
destroyed with little or nothing left to even say that only recently
they had existed. So, right now, trying to get health and welfare
messages into those towns still isolated is a difficult if not
impossible task. Messages addressed to residents of those towns wiped
away by the tsunami will likely never be delivered.


When one takes a step back and takes a look at the whole picture it's
easy to see and to hear why there are so few health and welfare
messages being handled on the long haul ham radio bands. In the more
populated areas, ham radio was replaced by Twitter and Facebook. In
rural Japan there's simply no way to get a message through.


Or to put it another way, as massive and devastating as this earthquake
was, its communications needs outside Japan do not fit any of the
traditional models that hams world wide are accustomed to dealing with.
It also says that as long as a nation's broadband infrastructure is not
severely damaged, ham radios role as the long haul carrier of health
and welfare traffic is being replace by a smart phone and an account on
Facebook or Twitter.

I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW.

--

The bottom line appears to be this. As long as a nation's broadband
infrastructure and its connections to the outside world are not
severely damaged, and its population is communications savvy, the
various social networks now provide a far faster way to pass health and
welfare messaging than ham radio can ever hope to supply. But in those
circumstances where there is no other means of long haul
communications, ham radio will always have a significant role to play.
(ARNewsline(tm))

**

NEWSCAST CLOSE

With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC Communicator, CQ
Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain,
the RSGB, the Southgate News and Australia's WIA News, that's all from
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For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm Jim
Damron, N8TMW, saying 73 and we thank you for listening.

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