Gopal Madhavan, VU2GMN, the president of the Amateur Radio Society of India (ARSI) — India’s International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) member-society — has told ARRL that Amateur Radio is assisting with communication in the wake of severe flooding in and around India’s fourth-largest city, Chennai. A net has been established on 7.070 MHz, and repeaters are also operational, he said. A lack of electrical power in most areas has hampered the Amateur Radio response, as batteries in portable gear already have discharged. Madhavan said many areas were cut off, and some hams have not been able to evacuate. Mobile telephone service was out for a time but is slowly being restored. Travel by motor vehicle is impossible, Madhavan said, and three main bridges separating the north and south sides of the city were closed, making movement impossible on those routes.
“Efforts are being made to garner more hams into relief activity as soon as they are able to move out of their locales,” Madhavan told ARRL yesterday evening. “The situation is grim.”
According to news reports from India, flood victims are being evacuated by watercraft — some with the help of the Indian Navy or government relief agencies — or are simply walking through the deep floodwaters, sometimes holding belongings or small children.
In a subsequent update, Madhavan said he anticipates a more coordinated Amateur Radio response soon. He said a control center for Amateur Radio operations will be set up, as soon as hams are able to move out.
“Since water is receding slowly, we will be able to do more,” he added.
News media reports in India indicate that although the rain has stopped, many parts of Chennai remain underwater and it is difficult to obtain food and necessary supplies. Passenger rail service is being routed to take flood victims to other locations, and the airport in Chennai is expected to be back in operation on Saturday, according to news accounts.
Source:ARRL
Following on from our initial ‘Introduction to the IC-9700 VHF/UHF/1200 MHz Base Station SDR Transceiver’ video, we have put together a more in-depth,... Read more
Ham Radio Field Day Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 41 Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman of NASA discussed life in space during an in-fl... Read more
“On Sunday the 5th of August 2018, Mark Turner EI3KD managed to work D4Z on the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of of Africa on 144 MHz, a dist... Read more
The TEN-TEC Rebel model 506 transceiver is designed with the purpose of providing Ham Radio operators a platform for developing and writing code using... Read more
NOISE CANCELLING SPEAKERS The bhi DESKTOP 10 watt DSP noise cancelling base station speaker will work with most radios, transceivers, receivers, and S... Read more
ARRL’s newest podcast! The first issue of On the Air magazine has been released and Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY, provides an overview of what’... Read more
This release completes the work related to the callsign lookup re-write, slow QRZ lookups, and an “Encountered an unspecified error” in DM... Read more
The Logbook of The World (LoTW) Committee worked with WSJT-X developer Joe Taylor, K1JT, to harmonize the designation of FST4 among WSJT-X, the ADIF s... Read more
What is believed to be the Japan’s first contact between two unlicensed people using amateur radio took place on October 11 between Experience S... Read more
The FCC is accepting comments on a Petition for Rule Making (RM-11831) seeking to amend FCC Part 97 rules that require all ham radio digital transmiss... Read more
More
Overview of the Icom IC-9700 SDR VHF/UHF Transceiver
Ham Radio Field Day from Space
EI3KD works Cape Verde on 144 MHz to set new Region 1 DX record
TEN-TEC Rebel Model 506 Open Source QRP CW Transceiver
DSP Noise Cancelling Speakers
ARRL’s newest podcast!
Ham Radio Deluxe 6.7.0.262 release
ARRL Logbook of The World Harmonizes Designation of FST4 Protocol
Contact between Japanese ham radio experience stations
Petition for Rule Making Calls for “Amateur Digital Mode Transparency”
Warning: file_get_contents(https://plusone.google.com/_/+1/fastbutton?url=https%3A%2F%2Fqrznow.com%2Fradio-amateurs-respond-to-grim-flood-situation-in-southern-india%2F): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found in /home/qrznow/public_html/wp-content/themes/goodnews5/framework/functions/posts_share.php on line 151