Ham Radio Emergency Preparedness for Cyclone Biporjoy

Ham Radio Emergency Preparedness for Cyclone Biporjoy

Natural disasters are situations in which communication grids can be down due to disruption of power supply and destruction of grid structures. As in many previous instances, Amateur Radio community is getting prepared to deal with emergency situations if the need arises in view the threat of Cyclone Biporjoy which is expected to make landfall today in Saurashtra-Kutch region. Ham Radio Team has been allocated to Jamnagar district in the region for standby at the Collector’s office, in case of disruption of communications in the district, by GSDMA (Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority), Gandhinagar. Amateur Radio or Ham Radio operators in India are individuals with license from the Department of Telecom who are perimitted to operate wireless equipment on specified frequencies, as a hobby. License is obtained after passing an Amateur Station Operator’s Certificate Examination.

Though usually Amateur Radio operators in this region are not permitted to handle third party messages, in case of emergency situations like natural disasters, they can assist the authorities in case of disruption of usual communication links. As most of you may be aware, portable operation with automobile batteries, portable ham radio equipment including make shift antennas are used in such situations. In the past, some have even used hand operated dynamos or small generators for working amateur radio in such situations! Participation in programs like Parks on the Air, with portable  amateur radio operations, which was discussed earlier, gives emergency preparedness for ham radio operators.

Gujarat amateur radio operators are using 7045 kHz on lower side band (LSB) for Cyclone Biporjoy emergency communications. So other amateur radio operators are requested to avoid that frequency for routine conversations to keep the frequency exclusively for emergency communications. Those who do not have a ham radio equipment can monitor the frequency using WebSDR at: http://182.237.12.150:8073/ which is the GRMS VADODRA URL. List of all WebSDRs operating in India has been compiled by veteran Amateur Radio operator Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, at: https://qsl.net/vu2jos/. Global list of WebSDRs is available at: http://www.websdr.org/. WebSDR is software defined radio which can be accessed from the internet.