[South Florida DX Association] FW: [The Weekly DX] All OK in VU4 land !!!

[Esteban Romagni]

I just rx the following message from Bernie...
-----Original Message-----
From: weeklydx-bounces at kkn.net [mailto:weeklydx-bounces at kkn.net]On
Behalf Of Bernie McClenny
Sent: Monday, December 27, 2004 8:00 PM
To: 'The Daily DX mailing List'; 'The Weekly DX mailing List'
Subject: [The Weekly DX] All OK in VU4 land !!!



Below is an update from K4VUD, Charley, who is now in Bangkok, Thailand.
For those of you in the United States you will get an opportunity to see and
hear a first hand account of Charley's story of the VU4 DXpedition Tuesday
December 28th between 7:00 and 8:00 AM EST.  Yes Charley will be interviewed
by NBC and shown on the Today Show.  Once we have the exact times from
producer Sandy Rivera I will post them.  Feel free to pass this on to your
Amateur Radio friends.  This should be great exposure as to the benefits of
Amateur Radio!  Find a blank video tape and be ready.

73
Bernie, W3UR


Hello DXers...

Dec. 27 at 2300 Z

Hey, a whole lotta shakin' goin' on.  Sorry to be out of touch for a while,
but the phone service and thus email service went out with the first quake
on Andaman, VU4.  This is my first minute to get to a reliable email
service.

1.  Morning after Xmas, I was resting from sleep and thinking about what to
do that coming day when my bed started to quiver like a large train was
coming by.  Then, the room started to rock about when I stood up.  Walking
and standing were difficult,bottles were faling off the shelves, and my
fifth floor room floor felt like rubber.  I got braced within the bathroom
door until things settled down.  Then, I found my pants and shirt and ran,
shoes in hand, down the stairs and joined everyone else from the hotel in
the open out front.  Bharathi was already safely outside there.  She was on
the air at the time, but quickly figured out what was hapening and got out.

2.  There were extra holiday guests at the hotel.  Various groups formed,
and I sat with some English speakers at a table in the hotel garden.  I
noted to all who would listen that a BIG WAVE would come with an ocean
quake.  We were, by then, drinking tea and looking down on the ocean from
about 80 feet above high tide.  The sea rapidly turned brown near us, but
there was no real surge.  As the day went on and 8 to 10 more small tremors
came and went, several of us took quick runs to our rooms to get
necessities.  The radios were left in the room.  The roof antennas showed no

signs of damage at all.

3.  As the other team members came to our hotel, we learned of the big wave
that hit the water front in Port Blair.  Saraha had taken some videos there
with the water still about a foot deep over the street that fronted the
ocean.  All team members were very OK.

4.  In the immediate Port Blair area, four people died (one from landing on
his head as he dove out his home window seeking escape), the local newspaper

reported.

5.  Port Blair and all but 4 of its citizens escaped serious damage.  Most
of you have now seen the video of the real damage that occurred in other
places around the Indian Ocean rim... very bad for people and property.

6.  By that afternoon, the team had set up one rig outside with a mobile
whip and tuner...powered by the Hotel generator... and Bharathi was taking
health and welfare messages from the people standing around there.  Many
wanted to tell relatives on the Indian mainland that they were ok, and
Bharathi established contact with many India ham stations in various cities
as needed.  Traffic was being passed.  She told my wife in Thailand that I
was ok via contact with an HS station who passed the message by telephone in

Thailand.... very nice to be a ham !

7. The team got cots from the hotel and, along with most others, slept out
in the open that night.  I slept fitfully near the lobby door on a couch
inside, reasoning rightly this time, that the worst was over.

8.  I will have more reports later, but the main news for ham radio is THE
TEAM IS COMPLETELY OK AND SAFE.  They have suspended normal DXpedition
operations while helping out with health and welfare messages and whatever
other duties may have come to them after I departed Port Blair vy early this

morning (as I was originally scheduled to do).  I suspect they will go back
to DXpedition work soon because Port Blair escaped the worst damage and the
after shocks apparantly have also stopped.

Thanks for all the good wishes.  73 for now,

Charles Harpole
k4vud at hotmail.com



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