Earthquake in Taiwan An earthquake measuring 6.4 has hit Taiwan, and caused buildings to collapse. HARTS (Hong Kong Amateur Radio Transmitting Society) has received a weak voice signal from the CTARL Taiwan (Chinese Taipei Amateur Radio League) that asks that the following frequencies be kept clear. HF frequencies used in Taiwan are voice: Main is 7.060 MHz with backup 7.050 MHz and 3.560 MHz. Short range frequencies are on VHF and UHF. At least four buildings have collapsed in the south of the island. Dozens of residents are reported to be trapped in the city of Tainan, those houses nearly two million people. Tremors were felt in the capital Taipei, on the other side of the island, and aftershocks were felt. Taiwan lies in the 'Pacific Ring of Fire' and in 2013, four people were killed in a 6.3-magnitude quake. Jim Linton VK3PC IARU Chairman Disaster Communications Committee. http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2016/february/earthquake_in_taiwan.htm
HARTS (Hong Kong Amateur Radio Transmitting Society) has received a weak voice signal from the CTARL Taiwan (Chinese Taipei Amateur Radio League) -- about says it all. Why not use CW to convey a simple message fast and accurately. I hear so many Russians and Europeans, Americans, on good CW, but China and Taiwan it's mostly DCW decoders and keyboards, and, usually deaf.
Gee whiz mate! Their buildings collapsed in an earthquake and you're picking nits about which mode they used to ask for help?
Gee whiz mate! One of the basic ideas of Amateur Radio, and one of the few saving graces for governments to tolerate us, is disaster PREPAREDNESS. And many societies (ARRL isn't one of them) don't have ANY CW traffic nets. They should.
The whole island of Taiwan isn't cut off from the world due to this earthquake... The internet, landlines, cellphones, TV, satellites, undersea cables, and broadcast radio still work there! Forget CW. It isn't relevant in this case. That's because they only need localized tactical communications in the areas hit by the quake where cellular is down. CW is very poor for tactical comms because it is no longer known by all hams. Voice is fast, natural, and efficient. Tactical comms in emergencies must provide fast and easy transfer of information between everyone. There is a 24/7 active ham operator in Taiwan on the ALE Global High Frequency Network. He's using one of the new Icom IC-F8101 radios with built-in ALE, and is currently in constant contact with USA, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, and Europe. That radio can send and receive texting messages direct from the front panel keypad. However, he is in an area of Taiwan where there isn't any communications emergency. It is a big island!
Hi This is BV2FB Thanks for all your concern and condolences 。 Besides 24 confirm dead,there are still 120 person under rubble and can not be rescue immediately. Chance of survival is minimal, but we all hope miracle can happen in next few hours. Golden 72 hours is expiring. I am located in Taipei which is 200Km from epic center of this earthquake。 Fortunately the trumble only knock my alarm clock down to floor and dishes all over. No other big damage. Please understand Taiwan is a fairly small island of 400KM long and 200KM wide, the island is packed with all kind of communication mean. In the town that big building down, all damage are with circle of 5km diameter, next big city is only 10 minutes drive, mobile phone land line VHF UHF were still robustly working. All civil communication damaged in the area get repaired in few hours by very efficient engineers. the area is now jam packed with police army doctor and all kind of rescue person and equipment. Additional communication mean is helpful but not essential. Hot bloodedly Local Amateur operator and ARES still decide to throw their time and energy to try to be contributable, and take this opportunity to drill low frequence NVIS communication skill, and to be prepared for real one to come. The weak signal must be from one of the temperley simple antenna. So please relax and take this request of clear frequency as a drill, take it seriously but no panic. Thanks again for all you that pay attention to this events, appreciate your good word and and good faith. I remain appreciate. Ralph Yang BV2FB Liason officer CTARL
Thank you Ralph BV2FB and very sorry for the loss of lives and hope that more were saved and not lost under the rubble. Life isn't easy. Our thoughts and prayers with you. As you said, it is likely to get worse in future, in many if not all places in the world. Being prepared for back up communications is good. We have this page www.vkcw.net/emcomms in the hope it will help some to think about this, I too am not prepared. Bonnie KQ6XA of course you are right, that's not what I'm saying. On the above link at VKCW.net is a link to the IARU emergency manual and it correctly states (2015 edition, it is recent, current and comprehensive, I recommend everyone should have a full print out for keeping to hand in case of emergency) that CW is way more efficient than voice communications for TRAFFIC handling. So, while the guys with HT need to be on the scene, and voice plays its tactical part, when conveying messages between one area and another eg regional or international, CW is the good back bone, naturally Pactor especially (rather than pretty useless and over-hyped free amateur digital modes -- I tried "WINMOR" and it was hopeless) -- is an essential mode for transfer of very high volumes of information and/or files etc. CW is suited to rapid reliable transfer of general text messages. We should all ask ourselves, what will we do in communications emergency? Which frequencies will we be listening on? Which nets exist? Do we have redundancy? Who will we liaison with? I think most all including myself still fall woefully short on these matters.
I have been conducting privately funded earthquake research since 1982. As a southern Arizona AUXCOM person, this event, the Nepal and Japan events, and a few hurricanes have peeked my emergency management interests in global responses. This includes Space Weather radio frequency disturbances. Below is a timeline of this earthquake event and how the notification was received at my end: 1. Friday 2-5-16 19:57:27 UTC Event occurs 28 km (17 miles) NE of Pingtung, Taiwan 2. Friday 2-5-16 20:22 UTC <event + 25 minutes> I receive National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) Earthquake Notification Service (ENS) cell phone page of the event details. 3. Saturday 2-6-16 14:09 UTC <event + 18 hours> IARU posts request on their website to clear emergency frequencies. 4. Saturday 2-6-16 <exact time not determined> Southgate posts IARU request on their website. 5. Saturday 2-6-16 16:19 UTC <event + 20 hours> G4TUT posts same IARU message and starts thread on QRZ.com. 6. Sunday 2-7-16 21:14 UTC <event + 47 hours> ARES Section Emergency Coordinator emails partial IARU message to ARES team members. 7. Monday 2-8-16 04:55 UTC <event + 54 hours> ARES message forwarded to southern Arizona OEM Communication members. I receive official notice. My feeling is the IARU should have a notification service that can reach those of us in the trenches that have access to a state wide notification service. May be this already exists. This event occurred on a weekend which may explain some of the time intervals.
Judging from my correspondence with some IARU officials, national societies aren't always putting the best people into the job. And sometimes people who shouldn't be anywhere near the positions they hold. Poor show.
