[NCARC] Australia fires update from VK2ZHE

[W7RF Dan]

I received this detailed update from a Ham I know in Australia, see 
below. This is more detail than I have seen in news reporting.
We all hope for the best for our Ham brothers and sisters down under.

73, Dan W7RF

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The fire situation is pretty grim here in Australia. The rainfall in 
2019 was well below average so the country is very dry. Strong winds 
with higher than normal temperatures and low humidity started as early 
as July which was during our winter. As we moved into our summer the low 
humidity and strong winds fanned numerous fires that were started  by 
dry lightning strikes. With fierce fires covering  large areas those 
fires created their own weather which resulted in more dry lightning 
strikes. The fires spread very quickly with burning embers blown by the 
wind often starting more fires up to 10 miles ahead of the main fires. 
The forests that have burned are in steep and inaccessible country. Lots 
of both fixed wing and rotary wing water bombing aircraft have helped to 
slow the spread of fires into populated areas but so far over 500 houses 
and large numbers of cattle have been lost. Boeing 737 jet aircraft have 
been dropping vast quantities of fire retardant. It’s quite impressive 
watching a full size jet airliner dumping retardant at low altitude. The 
fires have taken down a lot of infrastructure and some areas have been 
without electric power for a month or more. My local radio club’s 
repeater site to the north of Port Macquarie was without power for over 
10 days. The fire went through the area but the site was lucky to be 
spared. Some nearby houses were lost though so were very fortunate. The 
VHF and UHF  voice repeaters ran for 3 days on their back up batteries. 
The site was inaccessible due to road closures because of fallen trees 
and power lines. The 2 metre APRS digipeater ran the whole 10 days with 
a little supplemental generator charging. Our other repeater site at the 
TV transmitter site south of Port Macquarie was very lucky to escape 
being burnt. The fires went to the base of the mountain on 2 sides but 
intensive water and fire retardant bombing prevented the forest on the 
mountain from burning. Telecommunications have been badly hit by the 
fires. I volunteer with the NSW Emergency Service so have been very busy 
with communications and welfare support.  I spent one night on Middle 
Brother Mountain helping to install a temporary airconditioner in the 
COW (Cell on Wheels” which had been deployed to provide trunked UHF 
radio coverage for the firefighters in rugged terrain not served by 
other means. The airconditioner fitted to the containerised COW failed 
in the extreme heat of the day. Being a piece of critical infrastructure 
we had to make sure that the radio equipment continued to work reliably. 
I am also a member of WICEN which is the Amateur Civil Emergency Network 
here in Australia. WICEN volunteers have been stretched to the limit in 
providing radio operators for the fire control centres. By the way, the 
fire that burnt a swathe over 10 miles long down the coast to the south 
of me started less than a mile from my QTH so I have been able to watch 
the flames from my front door. The smoke has been incredible. One 
afternoon at 2 pm it got so dark that my TomTom GPS navigator switched 
to night mode while I was driving home from the Emergency Service 
Headquarters in Port Macquarie a couple of weeks ago. Unusual times! 
Interestingly the last big drought we had here was 11 years ago in the 
previous sunspot minimum. Nowhere as bad as this one though.

I am looking forward to some prolonged heavy rain so that things get 
back to normal. However, the immediate forecast is not good.

73

Henry

VK2ZHE

Henry Lundell VK2ZHE

2 Livingstone Road

PO Box 134

Port Macquarie NSW 2444

Australia

Home Phone      +61265820534

Mobile +61427947921

-- 
73, Dan Magro W7RF
Amplifier keying interfaces, repeater controllers, CW keyers
Lots of neat products!
Radiodan.com, Hamgadgets.com
RFpower at radiodan.com