NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 4, 2005--News coverage about Amateur Radio's role in the tsunami relief effort have been widespread and positive. High-profile articles in the past few days have appeared in The Washington Post and the Orlando Sentinel in the US as well as in several South Asian news sources, including The Times of India and The Hindu. Other media, including Agence France Presse, the Wall Street Journal and MSNBC, also have run reports on the value of Amateur Radio in helping to open lines of communication cut off when the earthquake and tsunami struck December 26.
"Once again Amateur Radio operators have proven the value of the service by providing critical communications when other systems were disabled or overwhelmed," observed ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP. "The immediate, organized and heroic response of the ham community in the Indian Ocean rim not only alerted the world of the seriousness of the situation, but saved lives by allowing responding agencies to coordinate early efforts to minimize further casualties and damage."
 Before the earthquake: "Angel of the Seas" Bharati Prasad, VU4RBI, operates a ham radio demonstration at the Science Center near Port Blair, Andaman Island, on December 22 to introduce Amateur Radio to local navy cadets. Post-quake contact between Andaman and Nicobar islands is maintained by two groups of hams who participated in the DXpedition, who are relaying traffic to and from respective authorities and relief groups. [Henryk Kotowski, SM0JHF/VU3HKE, Photo--used by permission] |
A Sify News article December 31 referred to Andaman and Nicobar Islands DXpedition team leader Bharathi Prasad, VU2RBI/VU4RBI, as "Angel of the Seas" for her team's efforts in the disaster's immediate. The VU4RBI/VU4NRO DXpedition team in Port Blair on Andaman Island immediately shifted into emergency communication mode. Re-establishing an emergency-powered station outside their hotel, Prasad and others diligently operated around the clock to pass health-and-welfare messages from panicked residents and visitors in Port Blair. At times they even had to dodge pieces of falling concrete to get the message through to the outside world.
"I did not expect a disaster like this," Sify News quoted the 46-year-old Prasad, a housewife and mother of two from New Delhi. "It is no longer a game, and now we must help." Although she has since returned to the Indian mainland, other Indian amateurs have traveled to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to carry on.
Pitts says Prasad's experience "is a true story that needs telling." Prasad was on the air from VU4RBI running DXpedition contacts when the earthquake struck. "Tremors!" she reportedly shrieked into the microphone before abruptly leaving the air and her fifth-floor hotel room.
"Many government agencies' past relationships with hams were swept aside when the Amateur Radio operators came to their aid," Pitts said. As several news reports noted, it took some convincing on the part of the Amateur Radio community before the Indian government agreed to let the National Institute of Amateur Radio-sponsored team operate in the Andamans. After the earthquake and tsunami, AFP said, "a grateful Indian army" supported Prasad's team with equipment and batteries.
The Washington Post article, "Wave of Destruction, Wave of Salvation," by correspondent Rama Lakshmi, told how Prasad reestablished contact with Indian mainland amateurs to let them--and the world--know what had happened and that the team members were all okay. "I immediately abandoned my expedition and told all radio operators [presumably those still trying to log VU4] to stop disturbing me," the Post account quotes her as saying. "I was only on emergency communication from then on." She subsequently offered her team's expertise to local government officials, some of whom didn't even know what ham radio was.
As a result, the Post reported, Prasad became so popular in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that she was nicknamed the "Teresa of the Bay of Bengal," an oblique reference to the late Mother Teresa, a nun who devoted her life to aiding and comforting the poor of Calcutta.
DXpedition visitor Charly Harpole, K4VUD, was the focus of an Orlando Sentinel article January 1. While not a participant in the DXpedition nor in the subsequent emergency operation from the Andamans, Harpole was instrumental in filing e-mail reports to the worldwide amateur community--many via The Daily DX newsletter.
The Sentinel story recounts Harpole's experiences when the earthquake first hit. It later tells how the DXpedition's emergency radio setup allowed a waiter at the hotel to let his mother in Hyderabad know he was okay. "He told us the mother was crying with joy," the paper quoted Harpole as saying.
Harpole left Andaman Islands for Thailand, where his wife and her family were, and from there, as HS0ZCW, he has been relaying disaster-related traffic throughout Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. He's also continued to file reports via e-mail.
"Many islands were washed completely over from one side to the other," the Sentinel quoted Harpole. "I've seen horrible, horrible destruction. It's shocking beyond the telling." MSNBC carried a five-minute live audio interview with Harpole on January 3.
A December 30 article in The Hindu, "Hams Lend a Helping Hand," quotes Gopal Madhavan, VU3GMN, who told the paper that ham radio operators "were the only link from the Andamans to the mainland for several hours after the disaster."
Gopal said the DXpedition team--and amateurs in India--were "getting calls from all over the world from people who are worried about friends and relatives." The article also noted that hams in Sri Lanka have been assisting in that country's devastated east coast, with help from Indian hams. "Hams worldwide are getting involved," The Hindu quotes Gopal. "Everybody's offering aid. Everybody wants to help."
In Sri Lanka, Lanka Business Online reported December 29 in an article, "Sri Lanka Tsunami--Amateur Call," on Amateur Radio activities in that hard-hit nation, which also has been struggling with a civil war. Quoting Victor Goonetilleke, 4S7VK, president of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka (RSSL), the article noted how RSSL members Asantha Illesinghe, 4S7AK, Dimuthu Wickremesinghe, 4S7DZ and Kusal Epa, 4S7KE, operated a ham radio link between Hambantota and the prime minister's disaster management office and government offices in the stricken area.
The link was shut down after authorities managed to establish their own radio system. The article noted that a ham radio team was being sent to Tangalle to relay health-and-welfare traffic. "We can establish links," the article quotes Goonetilleke, "especially government offices do not have proper communications facilities.
In a message filed December 31 via The Daily DX, Harpole reflected similar observations. "Hams all over the affected area in multiple countries are stepping in and helping," he said. "It is a very gratifying international effort by hundreds of volunteer hams. I am proud of ham radio again today."
Other Media Reports Mentioning Ham Radio's Post-Tsunami Assistance (not a comprehensive list; URLs may change or disappear)
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