Tsunami Relief Work
A team of 5 hams of NIAR got special permission for dxpedition to Andaman & Nicobar Islands after 17 years from the Govt. of India.
Event was flagged off by the Governor of Andhra Pradesh State (for which Hyderabad is the capital city with about 5 million population) on 26.11.04.
Dxpedition was sponsored by NIAR & supported by MIT, GOI.
International support, particularly from the USA & German hams, has also made the event successful.
The Dxpedition was suspended and switched over to emergency communication in the early morning of 26.12.04 after Tsunami struck the islands at 6.29 am - a sheer coincidence
This was the main means of communication with main land thereafter. Station was operated with generator/batteries. Our services were offered for helping local administration
Emergency Communications were held on 7090 khz & 14195 khz in HF and 14500 mhz in VHF Relief Operations from Hotel Sinclair by VU2RBI
Hundreds of messages were handled on behalf of administration from different islands. Messages of health & welfare of individuals from mainland and islands were handled. Whereabouts of 15 foreign tourists were conveyed.
Hams from main land acted as relay stations and handled a number of messages. Ham stations continued till 15th of Jan ’05 when telecom was mostly restored in different islands.
Our team members were air lifted for Carnicobar Island on 27th and for Hutbay Island on 28th Dec by ship. VU2MYH, VU2DVO & VU2JOS moved to affected areas.
Stations at Carnicobar, Cambelbay & Teresa Islands were established. 3 stations in Port Blair, 2 stations in Carnicobar, one each at Cambelbay and Teresa Island were operating.
On arrival of few more members of NIAR, I left Andamans on 1st January 2005. I enrolled my self with ARICC group organizers of Tsunami relief net for emergency communications and provided them with the latest information about relief activities in A&N Islands.
Ham communication has once again proved its importance in the hour of need Ham’s services recognized worldwide
for more images, check the gallery
