[KCDXC] Ham Radio Operators Become Lifeline for Tsunami-Stricken Indian Islands

[Ken Kopp - KKØHF]

By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
5 January 2005

[Source (with real audio links) - 
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-01-05-voa24.cfm]

Ham radio operators all over India are helping to reunite families and 
assist in relief operations in the wake of the tsunami disaster. The work 
is especially vital in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which 
suffered widespread devastation, and where as many as five thousand people 
are still missing.

On December 26 , the world collapsed for Calcutta resident, Sanchita Saha, 
whose husband runs a tiny cloth shop in India's distant Andaman and Nicobar 
Islands.

The tsunami had struck, and communication links with the islands had snapped.

Mrs. Saha imagined the worst. She says for days her desperate household did 
not eat, did not sleep, and did not know what to do.

Then her brother-in-law read in the newspaper that ham radio operators had 
linked up all over India to provide information about missing or separated 
families. He went to a ham operator in Calcutta and within a day the 
household was smiling again. Mrs. Saha learned her husband was well and 
living in a camp, although his shop on Port Blair was destroyed.

In the days after the disaster, for countless families, ham radio operators 
became a lifeline as they helped locate hundreds of people separated from 
their families.

There effort was particularly important for the Andaman and Nicobar 
Islands, where telephone links are still not working properly. The 
low-lying islands, 1,500 kilometers from the Indian mainland, were right in 
the path of the massive waves triggered by an earthquake near Indonesia.

The effort to reunite families on the islands was led by a New Delhi 
housewife, Bharati Prasad. She was visiting the islands' capital, Port 
Blair to set up its first ham radio station when the disaster struck, and 
the chain of 570 islands was cut off from the world.

But within hours, Bharti Prasad put up her radio with the use of a hotel 
generator, and reached out to other ham operators.

Soon she and six colleagues were conveying thousands of messages to and 
from the islands.

"We have collected all the messages from the mainland, and we have made a 
big list with the telephone numbers of the local people and then we have 
conveyed their messages to the local people, what is their welfare, what 
are they doing, and is there any help required from the mainland," she 
said. "When I am giving a call to a local man, they felt so happy."

The army and government have stepped in to help the ham operators with 
batteries and other gear. They have now established seven radio stations on 
the islands.

For people scattered on the three dozen inhabited islands, the radio has 
become the only hope for tracing relatives. Many families were separated 
after the disaster as rescued people ended up in separate shelters. And 
many people had friends or relatives living on separate islands.

Taking a cue from the ham operators, the state radio in Port Blair also is 
using the airwaves to convey messages from a steady stream of people who 
turn up everyday, desperately trying to reach their loved ones.

The station director at Port Blair's All India Radio, K. Rajan, says they 
have cancelled all regular programming and are focusing on helping families 
communicate.

"By broadcasting the SOS we are helping all the people, people are very 
anxious to know the whereabouts of their relatives, who are either employed 
or living in far-flung islands," he said.

Hundreds of messages go out everyday - a school boy tells a father he will 
take the first boat to fetch him, a Catholic priest urges his family to 
leave a devastated island as soon as possible.

Hams are also helping out in other parts of India stricken by the tsunami. 
In the hours after the disaster, Sandeep Shah and a group of volunteers in 
Bangalore packed their radio equipment, pooled some money, and came to the 
southeastern coast where thousands of families are homeless.

Mr. Shah is helping local authorities streamline relief operations in 
Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu state.

Mr. Shah says with telephone landlines down in remote areas and mobile 
phones often jammed by heavy traffic, it is not always possible to know 
what is needed where. He and other ham radio operators try to help.

"We see to it that it reaches the required area. We have two thousand food 
packets required in certain places," he said. "We have messages of missing 
child found, three new bodies found, number of damaged boats, all types of 
messages we pass across both ways from many, many locations."

It is not the first time ham operators are putting their hobby to use in an 
hour of need. Four years ago, when Gujarat state was devastated by an 
earthquake, they also reached to help - but the scale of the operation is 
much bigger this time because people are affected in remote regions.








_____________________________________________

Ken Kopp
Amateur Radio - KKØHF
http://www.qsl.net/kk0hf