Disaster Preparedness & Training Report from India

Disaster Communication Exercise carried out by Ham Radio Operators in the Mock Drill simulating an Earthquake at North East District of Delhi on August 04, 2004

Immediately after receiving the information from Delhi Disaster Management Authority (Govt of NCT of Delhi) about an earthquake (mock) hitting the North East District of Delhi on August 4, 2004, Vigyan Prasar (Department of Science & Technology) coordinated establishing a ham radio emergency wireless communication network. Assuming that all other conventional modes of communications were either clogged or completely disrupted, four (4) ham radio stations were activated at various critical locations in the area where the mock earthquake drill was carried out. The stations were established at the Office of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, Divisional Commissioner�s office (VU2UKR, VU3FUN and VU2OB), Police HQ (VU3BPA and VU3AKW), Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP)-North East district (VU2VTH) and the Deputy Commissioner (North East District)�s office (VU2MUE & VU3POF at Nand Nagri).

The station VU2MUE was activated as a Control Station from DC�s (North East district) office, which was the Command Center of the mock exercise and also the first site reported to be severely affected (mock). A digital communication setup was also installed by Shri Sunil U.K., VU2UKR at the Divisional Commissioner�s Office (Government of NCT of Delhi) for receiving of pictures from the disaster site.

To provide assistance to the ham radio operators carrying small hand-held walkie-talkies, a Relay Station was activated by Shri Raman C.K., VU3DJQ, whose residence was very near to the mock disaster site. He was assisted by Shri T.M. Jaison, VU2JIO during the mock emergency operation. Pictures (dummy digital photographs) of the mock disaster site were transmitted by Shri Raman CK on 144.800 MHz and successfully received by Shri Sunil U.K., VU2UKR at the Divisional Commissioner�s Office (Government of NCT of Delhi). The Vigyan Prasar VHF Repeater Station (VU2DLR) was assumed to be collapsed, but to see its accessibility it was employed from time to time when direct contact was not possible. Shri Karan Bakshi, VU3GTF handled traffics coming through the repeater.

The first message related to the mock disaster was originated from Control Station VU2MUE at DC�s (North East district) office at 14:40 hrs. A message on behalf of Shri Deepak Mishra, Joint Commissioner of Police, Anti Terrorist Wing (who was present at the mock disaster site) was conveyed to the ham radio station at Police HQ. The message was an enquiry about the dispatch of two battalions of CRPF from the sector HQ. Then another message originated from the ham radio station VU2OB (Sreekumar T.K.) at the Divisional Commissioners Office. This was an inquiry from a Fire Department official present at the Divisional Commissioners Office for an update on the arrival of rescue vehicles. Immediately after receiving the query, Shri Kapil Tripathi (VU3POF, who was also positioned at the DC�s office) went to the mock disaster site and reported to the Control Station VU2MUE that two Fire Department vehicles (one Hazardous Material handling vehicle) were reaching the mock disaster site. This message about the arrival of two rescue vehicles was conveyed by VU2MUE to the Fire Department Official at the Divisional Commissioner�s Office.

Demonstration of ham radio to Govt. Officials:


Shri R. Narayanaswami, Principal Secretary (Home Ministry, Govt. of India) came to the mock disaster site to take an account of the situation. While visiting the ham radio station VU2MUE at the DC�s office, Shri R. Narayanaswami expressed his feeling that ham radio operators can play a very important role in disaster communication. He wished that the concerned authorities should have the names & addresses of all the active ham radio operators in Delhi, so that they can be contacted in the event of a real disaster. Shri S.K. Jha, ADM from the Divisional Commissioner�s Office also visited the ham radio facility at DC�s office and expressed his satisfaction at the functioning of the radio amateur�s wireless emergency communication system in the mock disaster exercise on August 04, 2004.

A demonstration of Echolink (a system of hooking a terrestrial VHF HAM repeater station to the Internet for transmission of VHF radio messages over the Internet using VoIP technology) was also given to Shri S.K. Jha, ADM. Shri Rahul Srivastava, VU3WJM replied back from Lucknow to the team of emergency ham stations at Delhi via Echolink. Shri Rajesh Bakshi, VU3FUN demonstrated the potentiality of Echotime in retrieving weather information through the VHF repeater. The weather forecast of Delhi was retrieved through an automated system by sending DTMF commands via the VHF repeater (which was hooked to the Internet for the demonstration) and made audible at the disaster site.

A team of MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited was the Emergency Support Function �ESF� #1 Team Leader for the �Communication Exercise� in the mock drill) officials and representatives from Mobile telephone companies also visited the temporary ham radio setup at DC (North East District)�s office. Capt. Rakesh Bakshi, Senior Manager with AIRTEL also visited the ham radio control station and appreciated the ham radio hobbyists.

After the completion of the mock exercise, a demonstration of ham radio was given to the UNDP officials coming from different districts of Delhi to observe the mock exercise.



A building that survived the quake was used to install a mobile antenna mounted on a magnetic mount. A metallic table drawer worked as the base to hold it.

A volunteer reaching the roof...



A volunteer with the antenna (Diamond SG2000)

VU2MUE setting up the Control Station at Command Center.
QTH: Deputy Commissioner's Office (North West District of Delhi)



Collecting information from the 'ground zero'



Demonstration of Ham Radio to the Principal Secretary (Home) Shri R. Narayanaswami



Demonstration of Ham Radio to Shri S.K. Jha, ADM,
Delhi Disaster Management Authority (Govt. of NCT of Delhi)




Demonstration of Ham Radio to the MTNL officials and representative of
Mobile Telephone Companies at the Control Room



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State Level Ham Radio Training Programme at Uttaranchal

 A state level ham radio training programme was organized by Vigyan Prasar at Dehra Dun jointly with the State Council for Science & Technology (U-COST, DST, Uttaranchal) and National Service Scheme, Govt of Uttaranchal from June 07 to June 29, 2006. Uttaranchal being in a highly seismic zone, this effort was initiated to impart wireless communication skills to the NSS volunteers and to setup an alternative wireless communication network for emergency communication.

Fifty two (52) Programme Officers and Volunteers of the National Service Scheme (NSS) from thirteen (13) different districts of Uttaranchal were trained for the Amateur Radio Licencing examination.  The Amateur Radio Operators Licencing Examination was conducted by the officials from the Northern Regional Monitoring HQ (International Monitoring Station, Ghitorni, New Delhi) on June 28 & 29, 2006 at Rajiv Gandhi Navodaya Vidyalaya, Dehra Dun. The training programme was inaugurated on June 7 by Dr. Rajendra Dobhal, Director, U-COST. Dr. V.B. Kamble, Director, Vigyan Prasar and Shri B.K. Tyagi, Scientist �D�, Vigyan Prasar attended the inaugural ceremony as the special guests.  State Council for Science & Technology (U-COST, DST, Uttaranchal) would help establishing Ham Radio resource centers in different parts of Uttaranchal. Initially a ham radio club station would be established at Rajiv Gandhi Navodaya School. These ham radio club stations would fulfill the alternative communication requirement of the local people during natural calamities.

Shri R.L. Ram (Engineer, IMS) and Shri R. Srivastava (Engineer, IMS) while conducting the ham radio licencing examination appreciated the efforts of the trainees for their sincere effort in acquiring the radio communication skills within a short span of time. They also appreciated the pace at which the trainees acquired the Morse Code communication skill. Training sessions were conducted by Shri Sandeep Baruah, VU2MUE from Vigyan Prasar. The smooth conducting of the training programme was possible due to the support provided by the local hams in Dehra Dun, namely Shri B.P. Semwal, VU3BPZ (Defence Electronics Analytical Laboratory), Shri Rajendra Pal, VU3RPC (DEAL), Shri K. Ram, Scientist (DEAL) and Shri C.K. Dixit, VU2CKD (Doon Public School). The event was coordinated by Dr. Prashant Singh (DAV College), NSS coordinator at Dehra Dun.

The valedictory function of the training programme was held on June 26, which was chaired by Dr. Ashok Sen, Director, Defence Electronics Analytical Laboratory (DEAL). Dr. Rajendra Dobhal, Director, U-COST, Dr. Subodh Mahanti, Scientist �F�, Vigyan Prasar, Dr. Satpal Singh Sahni, State Liaison Officer, National Service Scheme, Govt. of Uttaranchal and Dr. G.C. Badoni, Principal, Rajiv Gandhi Navodaya Vidyalaya also attended the valedictory programme.

The training programme was an enriching experience for Vigyan Prasar, where the participants from diversified educational background, different age groups and different areas of Uttaranchal joined enthusiastically. Most of the senior participants in the training programme were college and school teachers along with their students. They were overwhelmed to learn about the ham radio communication system, which was entirely new to them. They expressed their desire to further promote it in the remote areas of Uttaranchal from where they came as they felt that it would be the best alternative way of radio communication for them during the natural calamities which they face very frequently. They felt that not only in the event of earthquakes, but also during other recurring natural calamities like landslides, ham radio could be a boon to them.

During a demonstration programme, hams from different parts of India and outside India (Shri Dattatry, VU2DSI, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Shri Pradip Bakshi, VU2PCD, Vadodara, Gujarat, Shri Sangeeth, A45WH, Muscat, Oman) shared pleasantries with the participants via the temporary demo station VU2MUE.


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