Amateur Radio Emergency Communication In Action -- Amateur Radio in 12 May SiChuan Earthquake Chinese Radio Sports Association June, 2008

14:28 BJT, 12 May 2008, A magnitude-8.0 earthquake hit China’s Sichuan area. Wenchuan City, Center of quake 31d28.7’N 103d34.8’E Chengdu City, Capital of Suchuan Province 103 km from quake center

69,180 died and 374,008 injured in the disaster as of 1200 BJT, June 19, 2008.

80-90% of houses were crashed.

The central government responded quickly. The prime minister took off from Beijing within 2 hours after the quake heading for Chengdu. Army rescue forces had to rush into the epicenter area by foot due to road cut off.

Ham radio operators around Chengdu, Mianyang area setup their gears at earliest time. All other communication means failed in the center area and one amateur repeater was setup at 13 May morning, to pass command for government instruction.

Chengdu is about 100km from the epicenter and was affected. Its main repeater survived and more were put up soon to provide Km communication on flat area.

Right on May12, the day that quake happened, CRSA called for emergency communication aids and organized the national emergency networks on 7050KHz, 7060KHz and 14270KHz. Many amateur radio operators kept hourly monitoring to check what can help in the disaster relief. The emergency net frequencies were released on 27 May 2008.

The message was soon spread in the whole amateur radio community

JARL put the messages on JARL website to help to clear frequencies for the emergency communication

IARU R3 CRSA disaster communication liasion BA1RB Fan Bin reported to R3 disaster communication committee president VK3PC Jim in 3 times  First report sent on 15 th, May  Second report sent on 20 th, May  The third report sent on 27 th, May The report is listed on: r3/dcom/200805china.htm

IARU web site also reported this event very quickly

Emergency communication service after the quake became the hottest topic among BY hams, resulting more than 5000 posts in a popular Chinese amateur radio forum on this issue.

Radio amateurs in action Amateur radio was used to organize the car owners in transportation of supplies and wounded immediately after the quake

An ARES command center was established in Chengdu

Amateur radio was helping the relief efforts in Zhaogongshan

BD8ABM operated HF from his vehicle in epicenter area, keeping communications with Chengdu

Amateur radio repeater was setup at the sheltering site in Hanwang

Radio amateurs fought their ways into the epicenter area and helped to set up communications there How the highway to Beichuan looked like

BY8AA, club station in Chengdu, facilitated emergency communication both on HF and U/VHF

CRSA team set up BT8RC in Chengdu to help Chinese Red Cross Foundation in HF communications

BY8AA reported to BY1PK on 7050 KHZ

Team of BY4RSA kept 24*7 operation in Nanjing as HF emergency network control and helped to QSP information between Chengdu and Beijing

Local amateur radio operators in quake area provided communication and transportation for disaster relief On the white banner: Amateur Radio Relief Team from Mianyang

Ham radio operators from Beijing, Hebei, Wuhan, Nanjing etc. went to Sichuan to help disaster relief

The most needed materials are tent and medicines. Amateur radio operators across the country contributed donations through various channels.

Amateur radio operators continue to do disaster relief in many ways

CCTV, Beijing TV, and newspapers reported amateur radio disaster relief

CRSA, China amateur radio clubs have been considering future actions for emergency communication

Action 1: Assist to setup school club stations in Sichuan Area Make awareness of amateur radio and train more people gaining amateur radio communication skills.

Action 2: Enforce regular SET  CRSA has annual disaster communication SET in July.  Encourage to participate SET held by IARU.  Encourage field day operation.  Enforce simple antenna and other equipments setup skills.

Action 3: Establish disaster communication standard procedure and organization – combine the domestic and international experiences and documents  Acquire international experiences.  Come out documentation materials.  Establish Chinese disaster communication procedure.  Education to amateur radio operators.  Cooperate with CRCF and other government organizations in disaster relief.

CRSA would like to thank the following organizations and individuals for providing support of this presentation  Sichuan radio sports association  BG8AAS  BG8BES  BD8ATD  BD8ABM  BA1AA  BD1PTA  BA1HAM  BD5RV  BG1LLB  BA1RB Thanks for all international societies and individuals for the kindness support of emergency frequencies, encourages, and helps to Sichuan earthquake disaster relief.

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