Tsunami arrives after 7,8 Earthquake South Island, New Zealand. Radio Amateur Emergency Network start operation on 14300. Please keep this freq clear. Thanks http://dxnews.com/earthquake-new-zealand/
I heard it while lying in bed listening to BBC radio on my internet radio this morning so I switched to a local NZ station. It's serious with two people dead but it could have been very much worse if it had been closer to one of the bigger cities. It seems like aftershocks have been happening every few minutes for hours. A few towns are cut off because of road and bridge damage. There's some damage to highrise buildings and roads in Wellington, the capital. It looks to be mostly cosmetic damage, broken windows etc. People are being told to stay away from the central city today but Wellington is expected to be pretty much back to normal tomorrow. The tsunami didn't really eventuate. There were some bigger than normal waves but the threat warning has been lifted. So ... it's bad enough but they're very lucky it wasn't worse. Ross (Ex ZL1BNV)
here's the details and technical analysis http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/poster/2016/20161113.php and USGS already made a poster for download http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/poster/2016/20161113.pdf
It's very hard! I hope everyone is alright. Just like many other hams around the globe, my thoughts are with our newzealander friends as well as their families.
Heard on our local midday news that there has been a lot of infrastructure damage, roads, communications. Some remote areas are out of contact and the NZ Army has been mobilised to take communications equipment to those areas. Pretty bad scene. There is no news on the NZ Amateur radio site of any radio amateur involvement as yet. Have not heard any ZL's this morning but then I cannot listen to every band.
Just heard 0317Z 14.300MHz a ZL amateur give a position report to the maritime net. The earthquake has pretty well isolated the S. island with damage to infrastructure. Wellington city is a no go zone with damage to buildings until all is assesed by authorities. Many roads are in the centre of the S. Island are damaged and impassable. The main rail line is cut. Mains power has been cut to many areas. Many horror stories with injuries and sadly two persons deceased. 14.300MHz is being used for emergency traffic and request to all non essential callers to stay clear.
Hi It was a heavy and long main quake and could be felt many hundred km/miles away. Since then we had hundreds of aftershocks (http://www.geonet.org.nz/quakes/felt) with a heavy 6.3 one about 4 hours ago. In a 150 km radius (~100 miles) of the epi centre is also structural damage and power outages were in a 50 km radius with most of it already back to the grid. It seems that structural damage was bigger to the North --> Wellington on the North Island got hit very bad as well and CBD of the capital was to be investigated first to determine if buildings are safe. Therefore people were asked not to come to work into the CBD today. That was to prevent traffic chaos and keep people out of the way as no access to buildings was allowed before being accessed. The communication (phones/cellphone etc.) was operational most of the time with only minor impact (mainly phone lines cut). New Zealand (unfortunately or luckily?) has extensive experience in disaster management and in general the situation was managed very professional and always under control. I haven't heard of any Tsunami damage and waves at our place were only between 1-2 m. The radio folks from our local DXing reflector seem all to be okay but surely have other problems than radioing now. The big quake was around midnight, so plenty of us had a sleepless night and the shakes created a lot of mess that needs to be cleaned up now. My tower was dancing like snake trying to balance the beam and it looked really frightening. 73 Holger, ZL3IO/ZM4T
