THIS N THAT PAGE
|
|
|
Amateur Radio "Saved Lives" in South AsiaNEWINGTON, CT, Dec 29, 2004--As governments and relief organizations attempt to gauge the scale of death and devastation from the December 26 South Asia earthquake and tsunami and to aid the victims, Amateur Radio operators throughout the stricken region are offering their services as emergency communicators. The death toll from the disaster now is being estimated at upward of 60,000. Thousand remain unaccounted for, millions have been left homeless and many are without food or water. Victor Goonetilleke, 4S7VK, president of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka (RSSL), reports that "uncomplicated short wave" radio saved lives. "Ham radio played an important part and will continue to do so," he said in an e-mail relayed to ARRL. Goonetilleke said that even Sri Lanka's prime minister had no contact with the outside world until Amateur Radio operators stepped in. "Our control center was inside the prime minister's official house in his operational room," he recounted. "[This] will show how they valued our services." Goonetilleke reports that even satellite phones failed, and only the Amateur Radio HF link remained open. One problem: Batteries were running out, and there are no generators to recharge them. Charly Harpole, K4VUD/HS0ZCW, now in Bangkok, Thailand, reports he's been helping to handle emergency traffic to India on 20 meters. Harpole's scheduled appearance this week on NBC's Today show apparently was scratched, although he has told ARRL that CNN has contacted him about an interview. Harpole had been visiting the VU4RBI/VU4NRO DXpedition in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands when the earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck. The DXpedition's sponsor, the National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR) in India, told ARRL that the DXpedition team is continuing its communication efforts at the government's request on behalf of rescue and relief operations in that region. "Ham radio is the main link from the people of Andaman Island to people all over," said S. Suri, VU2MY, the NIAR's chairman and director. Many radio amateurs on the Indian mainland are said to be pitching in to handle emergency and health-and-welfare traffic. Some communication has been on CW and PSK31 to overcome poor conditions and interference. Wyn Purwinto, AB2QV, relayed information he received via the Indonesia Amateur Radio Organization (ORARI). He notes that the government of Indonesia's Aceh province has banned Amateur Radio since the rebel uprising in that region, and he's asked the Aceh government to lift the ban so Indonesian amateurs can handle emergency traffic. Aceh was among the most severely affected regions in Indonesia. Some emergency communication between amateurs in the North Sumatra capital of Medan has been established with the Aceh provincial capital of Banda Aceh on 80 meters and with the east coast city of Lhokseumawe through a linked VHF repeater. Purwinto says YB6ZZ or YB6ZES are serving as net control stations of a national emergency net using 7.055 and 21.300 MHz as well as several linked VHF repeaters throughout northern Sumatra and along the west coast of Malaysia. He reports Anto, YD6AT, is standing by on 3.815 MHz in Banda Aceh. He reports several cities in coastal areas of Sumatra experienced power, telecommunication and water outages. The Wireless Institute of Australia has asked its members to monitor HF frequencies and report any requests for assistance. view entire article>>> MEDIUM WAVE DX & PRAYER HELP CATCH
SNIPERS
|
Africa | David L. Gordon | South Africa |
Americas | Ruben G. Margenet | Argentina |
Asia | Nobuya Kato | Japan |
Europe | Gunter Jacob | Germany |
Pacific | Peter Grenfell | New Zealand |
North America | Matthew Weitendorf | USA |
ENTRIES OF MERIT
In addition, a new category was established and this is listed as
"Entries of Merit" and each will receive an AWR Souvenir. The Merit
Winners this year are:-
Africa | Ghana | Charles Wompiah |
Tunisia | Achraf Chaabane | |
Asia | China | Dong Haojun |
India | Santosh Kumar Biswas | |
Indonesia | M. D. Jayadi | |
Japan | Iwao Nagatani | |
The Americas | Mexico | Ivan Lopez Alegria |
Trinidad | Richard Chen | |
Europe | Austria | Heinz Haring |
Bulgaria | Rumen Pankov | |
Denmark | Hans Verner Lollike | |
England | Patrick Jeffers | |
France | Christian Ghibaudo | |
Germany | Dieter Kraus | |
Ireland | Jonathan Murphy | |
Italy | Regolatto Bruno | |
Lithuania | Robertas Petraitis | |
Russia | Feodor Brazhnikov | |
Sweden | Bjorn Fransson | |
Ukraine | Sergey Kolesov | |
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Y. V. Nizar |
North America | Canada | Wade Smith |
USA | A. Lisowski | |
USA | Gordon Blom | |
Pacific | Australia | Hans Klesinger |
* PART A in this year's DX contest invited listeners to submit the details of their first shortwave QSL. Among the shortwave stations that featured frequently in this category were:- Radio Netherlands, HCJB Quito Ecuador, Radio Australia, Voice of America, Radio Sweden, Radio Canada International and Adventist World Radio.
* PART B of the contest invited listener's to submit the details of their first AWR QSL. Details of a wide variety of cards and a wide dispersion of dates were presented, and the earliest was submitted by Peter Grenfell in New Zealand. His first AWR QSL card was for a reception report dated November 14, 1971 for a transmission from Sines in Portugal on 9670 kHz. This verification confirms reception just 45 days after the inaugural broadcast from Adventist World Radio. The earliest AWR QSL we have seen was issued to Barry Riddiford in Australia for reception on October 31, 1971, just 31 days after the inaugural broadcast. Details of this card were submitted in an earlier Wavescan contest.
* PART C in the contest required three reception reports on AWR broadcasts and each of these will be verified with standard AWR QSL cards, as well as the new card and the special limited edition cards that were announced earlier. Each card wll be endorsed for the 2002 contest and similar QSL stamps will also be issued.
* PART D invited listeners to submit three radio cards for the AWR Historic Collection and the variety of these cards is quite remarkable. Albums containing these cards are demonstrated at radio conventions in various countries.
* PART E requested a recording of a local shortwave station and a large number of these were submitted from many different countries. Beginning in the New Year, we are planning to introduce these recordings on air in Wavescan.
Adventist World Radio would like to thank each Wavescanner who entered the 2002 contest and we express appreciation for the radio cards that were sublmitted, and also for the recordings for use in Wavescan. We would like to invite you to enter the 2003 contest which is scheduled to run during the month of September and it will invite listeners to submIt a list of unique QSLs; that is, QSLs that you own that you consider no one else in the world has. Once in a lifetime frequency usage, emergency broadcasts, emergency transmitters, transmitter on wrong frequency, mistaken frequency entry, harmonic radiations, etc, etc?
AWR DX CONTESTS - PARADE OF PREVIOUS WINNERS |
||||
Year | World Winner | City | Country | Name of Contest |
2003 | Who? | Which? | Where? | Unique QSLs |
2002 | Peter Boeck | Offenbach | Germany | My First QSL |
2001 | Achraf Chaabane | Sfax | Tunisia | Most Beautiful QSL Cards |
2000 | Jose Jacob | Hyderabad | India | AWR QSL Stamps |
Thomas Drescher | Rosrath | Germany | AWR QSL Stamps | |
1999 | Ron Killick | Christchurch | N Zealand | Largest QSL Collections |
1998 | Hans Gosdschan | Cottbus | Germany | World's Largest QSL Cards |
1997 | John Wilkins | Denver | USA | World's Smallest QSL Cards |
1996 | William Matthews | Columbus | USA | AWR QSLs |
1995 | Arthur Cushen | Invercargill | N Zealand | Five Best QSLs |
1984 | Salvatore Placanica | Cairo | Italy | RMI Program Content |
Johannes Weidlein | Schorndorff | Germany | RMI Program Content | |
1983 | Andrew Ellwell | Sydney | Australia | DX Club Programs |
1982 | Andrew Ellwell | Sydney | Australia | Logging DX Programs |
1981 | Bryan Marsh | Auckland | N Zealand | Answer Ten Questions |
1980 | Bryan Marsh | Auckland | N Zealand | Identify SW Stations |
Gordon Darling | Caversham | England | Identify SW Stations | |
1979 | Ashok Kumar Bose | Kolkata | India | Spot the Mistake |
1978 | Douglas Doull | Auckland | N Zealand | Identify ID Signals |
1977 | Victor Goonetilleke | Colombo | Sri Lanka | AWR Program Outlets |
Adran Petersen.
From AWR website http://www.awr.org |
copyright © 2002, 2005 VE9WGS