FW: [VOIP-WXNET] Haiti Earthquake Situation Report #3

Sat Jan 16 15:20:32 PST 2010

SITREP 3

Evans F. Mitchell
KD4EFM / WQFK-894

 Fla. D-Star Tech Support Group
 http://www.florida-dstar.info <http://www.florida-dstar.info/> 

 Polk ARES A.E.C.
 http://www.polkemcomm.org <http://www.polkemcomm.org/> 

BB8330 PIN: 30965B58

  _____  

From: VOIP-WXNET at yahoogroups.com [mailto:VOIP-WXNET at yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of rmacedo at rcn.com
Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 5:44 PM
To: VoIP-WX at yahoogroups.com; VoIP-WXNet at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [VOIP-WXNET] Haiti Earthquake Situation Report #3

Hello to all.. 

The following is a situation report on the Amateur Radio response to the
Haiti Earthquake. Please note that the situation report was not updated on
Friday Evening as there was little new information. Today, new information
was received warranting a new situation report update. 

ARES/RACES/MARS groups across the country and globally have received
requests for Health and Welfare traffic. All stations that have HF
capability should monitor HF frequencies listed in the sitrep below or scan
20/40/80 Meter bands for any Haitian stations and if any are heard and they
have a capability to assist with Emergency/Priority traffic and health and
welfare traffic, relay that information to SATERN (Salvation Army Team
Emergency Response Network) and IRESC (International Radio Emergency Support
Coalition). There has been more steady contact with 2 Amateur Radio
Operators via the HF Nets over the past 2 days however it is noted that
HH2JR, Jean Richard is currently running with an Icom IC-706 HF Radio with a
faulty display and is running out of fuel for his neighbor's generator which
he has been using to maintain power for his radio per family members who
were in contact with several Amateurs who made first contact with HH2JR on
January 13th. An Amateur Radio strike team from the Dominican Republic has
arrived in Haiti on Friday January 15th. There has been word that HI8RCD/HH
has attempted to contact the SATERN Net on 14.265 but has been unsucessful.
This is per traffic monitored on the 7265 40 meter SATERN Net at
approximately 430 PM ET/2130 UTC. 

The following information was relayed by Public Relations Manager at ARRL
HQ, Allen Pitts-W1AGP concerning operations and the public information
aspect of the Amateur Radio response. Please also note the comments on
deployment to the affected area: 

If you are aware of people considering volunteering for a deployment, please
make sure they contact your SEC and the SEC is aware of that, the
capabilities and experience. I do not know just what will happen - no one
does. But anything we do with ARES deployments supporting our served
agencies will go through the SECs. 

As you may know (or surely guessed) , there is a LOT going on at ARRL HQ,
IARU and in other Amateur Radio groups as we address the Haitian disaster.
This is truly an international response, and many countries are involved,
not just the USA. In these first days, there were very few Amateur Radio
operators operating in Haiti. In the coming week there will be more as
international assessment teams are expected to arrive from several countries
and will have embedded hams with them. There will be even more in the weeks
after that as recovery groups arrive. This will not be a short campaign and
it is still unclear what may be the situation outside of metropolitan areas
in the hill and mountain country. 

While there is little coming out of Haiti so far, the country is ringed by
many excellent AR stations of many nationalities who will hear anything that
might come up on the air. I know that you are getting requests for
information regarding relatives and friends in Haiti. These can be
heartbreaking.... I am getting them too and it can be really rough
emotionally. The best I have at this point is the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Salvation Army's websites. H&W going OUT of
Haiti can be channeled through several programs. (Yes, I know from Katrina a
lot of hams like to make THOSE calls themselves - that's also emotional but
on the good side - but do it right) 

I note the posts on the reflector to be careful not to "oversell" things -
they are correct. This one is different from Katrina. It will take more
time, different problems (hard to believe things could be worse, but they
are), and is international in scope. I expect Amateur Radio related issues,
activities and events to grow in the coming weeks and we're working hard to
get out the best, VERIFIED information on the main ARRL website. We may not
be the fastest ones with a headline, but we're going to be sure of things to
prevent rumor and speculation. I have spoken to most of the other major
Amateur Radio related publications people and we're all in this together. 

Thanks for all you are doing. 

The remainder below is unchanged from the Thursday Evening Update: 

An updated ARRL Web Story is listed below: 

http://www.arrl. <http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/14/11290/?nc=1>
org/news/stories/2010/01/14/11290/?nc=1 

A recording of phone patches was provided by K1VR-Brian Crow of Boynton
Beach Florida between HH2JR-Jean Robert Gaillard and W3UZ is widely
available over the Internet and is 26 minutes long. You can hear his
nervousness and tenseness as the phone patches are made and the audio is at
the link below: 

http://d.yimg.
<http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/12397727/1885578730/name/Haiti%2Emp3>
com/kq/groups/12397727/1885578730/name/Haiti%2Emp3 

The edit clips from Amateur Radio Newsline and the text transcript can be
heard at the following link: 

http://www.arnewsli <http://www.arnewsline.org> ne.org 

Some interesting information has been made available via the stormcarib.com
storm blog concerning relief operations. This can be seen via the following
link: 

http://stormcarib. <http://stormcarib.com/reports/current/haiti.shtml>
com/reports/current/haiti.shtml 

The following is from Julio Ripoll-WD4R, Assistant WX4NHC Coordinator, who
received data on a jump team heading into Haiti for Amateur Radio support
per the data below: 

Haiti Update 
http://aren. <http://aren.ie/news/2010/01/14/haiti-update-2/>
ie/news/2010/01/14/haiti-update-2/ 
The following update was received from Cesar Pio Santos, HR2P. By Greg
Mossop, IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Co-Ordinator 

RCD and URDA en route to Haiti 

Victor Baez, HI8VB, Secretary of the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) reports
that the RCD with UDRA, Unión Dominicana de Radio Aficionados, are preparing
to go to Port au Prince early morning of Friday January 15 to install an
emergency radio Communications station, HI8RCD/HH, and a mobile station. 

Victor has a blog which hopefully he will update with more news from Haiti:
www.hi8vb.tk 