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Delhi woman is Andaman's 'Angel of the Seas' [hams banned in '87, help reunite kin, relief, rescue]
Sify News [India] ^ | Dec 31, 2004 | Pratap Chakravarty

Posted on 12/31/2004 2:19:55 PM PST by Mike Fieschko

A Delhi woman in the Andaman islands has become the centre of a multi-nation effort by ham operators to unite thousands of families separated by the killer waves.

The Andamans account for about a third of India's reported death toll of 11,330 but thousands more are missing or have been separated from families in the archipelago's 572 islands because of massive damage to harbours, bridges and local ferry services.

A grateful Indian army is supporting 46-year-old Bharti Prasad with gear and batteries as the Delhi-based housewife has networked ham operators across the nations to reunite families and help in relief and rescue operations.

Ham radio buffs had not been permitted to operate in the Andamans since 1987 but the ban was lifted in November. Prasad was among the first to arrive to help establish a radio footrprint in the string of islands near Thailand.

"We arrived here on December 15 to support Andamans as a radio country ... Amatuer stations across the world wanted a footprint in these beautiful islands," Prasad told AFP in the capital of Port Blair.

"I did not expect a disaster like this. It is no longer a game and now we must help," Prasad said as her headset crackled with tsunami-related traffic from a high-frequency radio band spanning three megahertz to 30 megahertz.

"When the tidal waves struck, we just turned the beacon towards India and since then, we have been flooded with messages which we relay on local telephone lines," she said.

"Hams have also advertised in newspapers asking people to get in touch with us, and in that way, we are uniting families broken up by Sunday's waves," added Prasad. She has already handled around 30,000 emergency calls since disaster struck the tropical paradise.

"The only thing I am now afraid of is our telephone bill," said Prasad.

Mothers were separated from their children and husbands from their wives in the desperate scramble to escape the killer waves. Further chaos ensued when rescuers randomly plucked survivors from islands and sent them to special shelters.

"I thought I had lost my family but soon an official told me that he had received messages from a 'radio station' that all my relatives were safe in Port Blair," said survivor Roby Dey in the devastated island of Car Nicobar.

The "radio station" was none other than Prasad, a military rescuer said in Car Nicobar. Amateur stations in Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai are now linked with Prasad and the network is growing beyond Indian territory, said Suresh Babu, one of her five co-volunteers.

"Bharti, we are now on airnet. You take care. You are the Angel of the Seas. Without you out there, rescue will halt," a voice from Indonesia crackled in her hotel room, badly-damaged by Sunday's devastation.

Prasad and the other five ham operators now work round-the-clock from the hotel room where erratic power and water supplies have added to their difficulties.

"We are also helping the administration to streamline relief in Andamans as well as serving as a broadband listening post for stray SOS signals," said Prasad, a prominent member of the National Institute of Amateur Radio.



TOPICS: News/Current Events
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1 posted on 12/31/2004 2:19:56 PM PST by Mike Fieschko
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To: Mike Fieschko

I made my QSO with her on Christmas Eve! That was 2 days before the earthquake. Signal was 55 on USB, but lots of QSB since it was coming over the north pole. Who could have imagined that a DXPedition would turn into a means to help the injured.


2 posted on 12/31/2004 2:24:11 PM PST by Voltage
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To: Mike Fieschko

How fortuitous was it that there was a DXpedition in the islands when this disaster happened?

Oh, but according to some snarky Time writer, ham radio is a "slightly embarassing hobby." Idiot.

}:-)4


3 posted on 12/31/2004 2:29:27 PM PST by Moose4 (I bit your sister once.)
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To: Voltage

I wonder why ham radios were banned in '87.


4 posted on 12/31/2004 2:35:21 PM PST by EggsAckley (..............blog pimping is impolite..................)
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To: EggsAckley
Both VU4 (Andaman and Nicobar Islands) and VU7 (Laccadive Islands) have been no ham radio areas for quite some time. It's a mystery what only someone in the Indian gov't could explain, and they probably couldn't give a reasonable explanation either.

It's probably in the same category as those labels on mattresses that you can't remove under penalty of law.

5 posted on 12/31/2004 2:43:07 PM PST by Voltage
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To: Voltage

Odd.


6 posted on 12/31/2004 2:52:08 PM PST by EggsAckley (..............blog pimping is impolite..................)
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To: EggsAckley

Rajiv Gandhi was a ham, he promoted and supported ham radio in India. Islands have strange "native" people who are not very excited to have foreigners to come.
Good publicity for the expedition and use of ham radio in disasters. When everything fails, hams are still left standing and communicating!!!
Become a ham, join the wonderfull fraternity of devoted radio aficionados.


7 posted on 12/31/2004 3:32:02 PM PST by Leo Carpathian (Slava Ukraini!)
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To: Leo Carpathian

My Dad was a ham operator back in the late 20s, back when all communication was through Morse Code. He built what he called "crystal sets." Somehow, I never developed an interest in it. Wish I had.


8 posted on 12/31/2004 3:43:45 PM PST by EggsAckley (..............blog pimping is impolite..................)
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To: EggsAckley
I picked up from another source that Andaman and Nicobar Islands host a large Indian Military Installation and that no foreign people have been permitted on the islands for many years because of that. Some of the DXpedition members were foreign to India. It is ironic that the team leader, Barhti?, was only able to get permission to set up the DXpedition radios after convincing the Prime Minister of the value of such radio services for use during emergency situations. The DXpedition had been operating for two weeks prior to the earthquake. The publicity gained was to have highlighted amateur radio as a valued, alternative communication channel for emergency operations. Guess they made their point! God Bless them and the whole region.
9 posted on 01/01/2005 2:13:09 AM PST by w8isc (More on Andaman and Ham Radio)
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To: EggsAckley

The only thing I can think of is that Nicobar has--well, *had*--a large Indian Air Force installation. Other than that, I have no clue. It's just very fortunate for them that they lifted that ban when they did.

}:-)4


10 posted on 01/01/2005 8:12:53 AM PST by Moose4 (I bit your sister once.)
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