How amateur radio is assisting in Uttarakhand rescue efforts

“Help us”, “Can you find my aged parents” — distress messages like these are flooding ham radio operators assisting in efforts to reunite families in disaster—hit Uttarakhand.Immediately after the mayhem, some ham radio volunteers rushed to the affected areas and were supported by fellow operators across the country. Soon this mode became an important lifeline of communication in the disaster-affected areas where telecommunication networks were extensively damaged during the rains.Radio amateurs use a variety of voice, text, image and data communication modes and have access to frequency allocations throughout the radio frequency spectrum to enable communication across a city, region, country, continent, the world, or even into space.[caption id="attachment_909243" align="alignleft" width="380"] Army carrying out relief operations. Smita Sharma/IBN7[/caption]National Institute of Amateur Radio, Hyderabad, has sent a team with radio equipment to the hill state and is operating in co-ordination with Bharat Scouts and Guides, Dehradun.Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, is operating from Dehradun as the emergency communication base station.“We are flooded with distress messages of relatives of those who are missing in Uttarakhand. We are daily getting calls from Kolkata, Delhi, Kerala, Rajkot,” Jacob told PTI.“We pass on the missing list received to the state secretariat,” he said.Another ham station has been set up in Barkot in Uttarkashi where Mukesh Gola, VU2MCW, is being assisted by three more ham operators collecting information about missing persons through local ham radio VHF network.“Usually, we establish two-three master control rooms linking the entire country and have local network for relief operations like providing assistance for medical camps, movement of food and other requirements. And also getting and passing on information to their relatives, providing communication for district administration to monitor smooth movement of relief operations,” S. Sathyapal, Director, Indian Institute of Hams, told PTI.PTI