Amateur radio is a scientific hobby that can be cultivated by individuals of all age groups and professions. In an emergency like a natural disaster, two main activities by amateur radio operators can prevent loss of lives. First is to forewarn about a possible emergency so that people can precaution and take such measures that will not endanger their lives. And the other is to pass messages, images and other info to aid agencies to help the survivors and injured as soon as possible in an emergency situation. Tele-communication of messages or other information can be sent in analog or digital mode. Some of the different modes include voice also called as radio telephony, Rtty – radioteletype, continuous wave – cw for Morse Code, FM, AM, television and digital.

When communication infrastructure breaks down due to natural disaster, amateur radio operators transmit emergency traffic on voice mode about the well being of survivors to friends, families and relatives or about causalities. Besides passing of messages, hams through their radio equipment can also transmit in digital mode that includes RTTY - radio teletype, TOR – tele-printing over radio, packet radio transmission and the recent PSK31 – a type of modulation.


Image Courtesy: Karthikeya Acharya

Satellite images or video pictures of the affected area can be transmitted without delay as soon as amateur radio operators reach the site or by those who were already present. This information and knowledge can facilitate speedy decision making when it comes to providing basic aid to the affected survivors and injured. Generally the aid from government comes in only after the assessment is done by government representatives. And when the aid arrives, it is too late.

This article explores everything about amateur radio; How to become an amateur radio operator? What they generally do? How content can be transmitted by amateur radio operators and how can they contribute in an emergency operation? By popularising amateur radio among general public, relief and rescue can become easy. Voluntary organisations and government can play a very important role to achieve this. A national amateur radio operator’s guild can coordinate for the resources in emergency. Government and other organisations can benefit from this potential human resource that will provide speedy consultation supported by facts, images and other relevant information.

In the beginning
To become an amateur radio operator, one has to pass different levels of Radio Amateur Station Operator’s Certificate Examination conducted by Government. Working

Ham Radio connects tsunami survivors in no time

S. B. Ram National Institute of Amateur Radio, Hyderabad sbram_lic@yahoo.com

The National Institute of Amateur Radio (N.I.A.R) is Hyderabad (India) based NGO that promotes ‘Amateur Radio’ or ‘Ham Radio’ in the country as a scientific and socially useful activity. As part of promotion of Amateur Radio and Radio sport, our Ham Radio teams went to Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar Islands) on 1st December, 2004 on a Dx-pedition (‘D’ for Distance, ‘X’ for Unknown stations contacting through Amateur Radio with fellow Radio Hams across the world known as DX-pedition). On 26thDecember, 2004, our DX-pediton team members - Ms.D.Bharathi Prasad, S.Ram Mohan, and R.Sarath Babu, were busy in communicating with fellow hams across the world at different frequencies. Suddenly their radio sets started shaking heavily. Within no time they realised that it was a major earth quake and communicated this to the fellow hams across the world. “We are in Danger .. Our Radio’s are heavily shaking.. Quake .. Earth Quake.. Earth Quake…it is a major Earth quake… We are running down from the 5th floor, Hotel Sinclair, Portblair”. This is the first message, which was sent by our teams. After few minutes power went off. Our Hams were back on Radio Frequency after half an hour with the help of generators. As soon as link was restored, our fellow hams across the country particularly from Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Calcutta started enquiring about the team members. In a desperate tone they asked Bharathi… Are you safe ? Rammohan, Sarath….Are you safe? Around 7.00 A.M, the sea water started pouring into the Portblair. People on the bay and surrounding areas started running to the nearby hills. Our team was confused and panicked. Around 10.30 AM they came to know that it was a killer ‘Tsunami’ that had struck many parts of the islands such as Car Nicobar, Hutbay, Kachal, Cambel Bay etc. Immediately our Radio operators approached the government officials and offered their voluntary services to connect the area to rest of the world through amateur radio. Puneet Kumar Goel, Secretary Cum Relief Commissioner, Andaman & Nicobar Administration agreed to use our system. Immediately, a control station was set up by Ms.Bharathi & Sarath Babu at Deputy Commissioner’s office. On 26th December, 2004 another team headed by S.Ram Mohan & D.V.R.K.Murty was air dropped at Car Nicobar. Jose Jacob was dropped at Hutbay.. D.V. Satyanarayana & M. Chaitanyamumar droped at Mus. As soon as they reached the respective islands, Amateur Radio stations were setup by using car batteries as there was no power supply. I along with my colleagues, are still operating everyday from the Control room at D.C office. Subsequently some more Ham Radio members from Gujarat have flown to Portblair. Very few people were able to escape from the killer Tsunami. And for the survivors Ham is the only the link to the main land, India, to get help. Many hams across the country Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi have kept open their stations and thousands of messages to the kith and kin of the Island people was conveyed besides official traffic. Thanks to Suri, Chairman and Director, National Institute of Amateur Radio for providing logistic suport to the teams who are working 24 hours. We also thank our volunteers who have offered their services.

knowledge of radio communication principles, procedures, techniques, technology and communication phraseology is essential to pass the exams. At advanced level, person’s skill in being able to send and receive Morse code is tested. There are four levels of examination and each level allows the operator to transmit from a transceiver, a single unit capable of transmission and reception of HF, VHF or UHF bands. After applying and passing the exams, the government agency issues license with a call sign. A call sign is an alphanumeric code, the prefix denotes country and suffix gives the identity of the person that is combination of three alphabets except SOS, TTT and XXX as they are used to transmit actual emergency situations. An example of call sign is VU3MBV. VU3 denotes location that is India and MBV is identity of the license holder.

Amateur radio operators talk to friends in the city by their transceiver, establish long- distance contacts with other amateur operators around the world through DXing (D – distance, X – unknown), locate a hidden transmitter popularly called as ‘fox hunt’, experiment with radio, pass emergency traffic especially during an emergency like cyclone, earthquake, flood etc by setting up communication posts.

Amateur radio operator’s license is also called as ‘Ham’ license and the license holders are referred as ham operators. Ham is a poor operator as defined in G. M. Dodge’s The Telegraph Instructor. To

What can a small radio do in the face of disasters? The role of community radio in disaster warning, disaster preparedness and rescue and relief operations has been well documented. Perhaps it is time for our community radio group to do some introspection. Why have we failed so comprehensively in pushing through our agenda? What if the MS Swaminathan Foundation had been allowed to set up CR stations along the Pondicherry coast? 400 lives were lost there. 4000 lives were lost along the Tamil Nadu coast. 10,000 lives have been lost in the Nicobar Islands. Perhaps we could have saved many of them with a little prior precautions. In the entire Nicobar group, from Car Nicobar to Grand Nicobar, there is not a single radio station. On the morning of that ill-fated day all our connections with those islands were completely destructed after tsunami. For the first 48 hours of the disaster, there was no communication to or from these islands. For all we know, the smaller inhabited islands like Katchall, Nancowrie, Teresa, Bompoka and Little Andaman may well have been engulfed and all lives lost. These islands could not be contacted for days after tsunami. When disaster strikes, telephones and TV are the first to die. The islanders’ main link with the outside world is the short wave AIR station at Port Blair, hundreds of miles away. At the best of times, very little information comes out of these remote island communities. In the 3 years that I worked at AIR Port Blair, we toured the Nicobar Islands only once, for recording programmes. What if there had been community stations in CarNic, Katchall, Teresa, Campbell Bay? Would they have been more attuned to the perils of the sea and acted in time? Could more life have been saved then? Would the local administration have been better prepared to help the islanders in the aftermath of the tsunami? How could CR have helped in rescue and relief operations? When everything else failed them, what if the islanders had the humble FM transistor radio to tell them where to go, what to do, how to survive? Would the relief operations be more properly arranged and better disseminated? Opinion by Sajan Venniyoor (venniyoor@rediffmail.com). Taken from cr-india mailing list (a discussion list on community radio) http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india

Figure 1
some, ham is abbreviation of Hertz Armstrong and Marconi, while to others it is Home Amateur Mechanic.

And thereafter
There are many modes of operation used by ham operators to communicate. Continuous Wave, Frequency Modulation, Amplitude Modulation, Single Side Band, Digital mode that includes RTTY, TOR, PSK31 and Packet transmission, Fast and Slow Scan Television and Internet Radio Linking. In an emergency operation, these modes can be used to transmit different information depending upon the urgency and importance. Timely action can be taken accordingly by the authorities to send aid. The table above describes the mode, transmission type and what can be sent on the mode. The information can be extremely useful to aid agencies.

Band of Brothers
Ham operators could be anybody; doctors, nurses, paramedics, engineers, technicians, students, employed or unemployed, literate or illiterate as no qualification is needed to be eligible to apply for a license. This diversity makes ham operators a unique human resource who by virtue of their profession and ham license can contribute to a cause in disaster struck area and some of them have been doing it. For example, a doctor can request medicines from relief agencies that are specific to the nature of the disaster. Engineers can gauge the type and quantity of equipment and manpower needed to remove debris, build temporary shelters or request inflatable rafts or pontoon bridges in flood or cyclone affected region.

Digital Communication Vs Analog Transmission
Digital transmission can send more data within the available bandwidth on Upper Side Band and Lower Side Band used by operators. The mode is transmission type. Digital mode includes RTTY, TOR, PSK-31, Packet or Internet Linking Radio. VE7LTD- a project developed by Dave Cameron, enables a hand held amateur radio to be connected to other hams around the world via Internet. It may be possible only via a low orbiting satellite that provides a small time window when the satellite is overhead for some time over the disaster struck area.

To be able to transmit digital mode, it is necessary to interface the radio with a computer that could be laptop or a handheld device. The interface is achieved by a terminal node controller; some software to code data before transmitting is available from the Internet. This is explained in figure 1.

Ham operators can transmit voice and data from a disaster prone area if they observe early patterns of a calamity like pre-earthquake


tremors thereby warning people who can take necessary steps like rationing of food and securing safe place. This information can be transmitted over short or very long distances to government agencies so that they can prepare in advance. Ideal mode Packet is computer to computer error free communications, SSTV (slow scan television) and FSTV (fast scan television like normal TV). There are handheld radio in the market that have inbuilt camera and screens that can operate in SSTV and FSTV capable of capturing and transmitting images and pictures of emergency situation to authorities for speedy aid. Amateurs have also built amateur satellites capable of extremely long distance communications even on VHF and UHF bands.

Interestingly, CW – Continuous Wave, considered the best form of communication and information can be sent through Morse code.

Riding on Radio Waves
Hams are authorised to communicate on HF, VHF, UHF or all three bands of the radio spectrum in specific mode described below by the licensing authority to ensure that only competent operators use their skills.

Using one or more bands, messages can be passed. HF travel long distances, while VHF and UHF waves travel very short distances as these are line of sight propagation. However, repeaters increase the communication range and temporary repeaters can be set up in an emergency so that messages can reach the nearest town or city. Hams and Ham radio equipment can do a tremendous favor in emergency like natural disasters quickly, efficiently and without personal benefit gained. Long live Ham Radio!

How to listen to Ham radio

• Two good quality domestic analog radios with SW band.
• Tune in to any HF Ham frequency mentioned in the text.
• While tuning on these frequencies you would hear unintelligent talk. This is due to modulation. To demodulate follow the next step.
• Turn on the other radio, place it close to the radio tuned to ham frequency. Reduce the volume to absolute minimum and start turning the tuning knob very gently on SW band. At a point you would be able to hear the ham communication very clearly.