Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Ham radio attempts to fill communication gaps in Nepal rescue effort

A nice write-up outlining how Ham Radio has once again provided vital lifelines of communication to the people of Nepal.

Amateur radio has stepped in to fill communication gaps in Nepal, which is struggling with power outages and a flaky Internet after a devastating earthquake on Saturday killed over 5,000 people. Though 99 persons have ham licenses in Kathmandu, about eight use high-frequency (HF) radios that can transmit long distances, while another 30 have very high frequency and ultra high frequency sets for local traffic, said Satish Kharel, a lawyer in Kathmandu, who uses the ham call signal 9N1AA. The hobbyist radio operators are working round-the-clock to help people get in touch with relatives, pass on information and alert about developing crises.


If you have 8 minutes, take a look at the video below from MikesMovies. This shows the real life emergency net that was developed to help with Nepalese communications.