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All last night I was listening on 14.210Mhz and other channels to the emergency Comms out of Nepal. Horrific tragedy.
And it gets worst by the hour. One of our radio operators has now gone missing and comms are very far and few between.

On the up side: A massive surge of equipment is now being carried from India (from donors around the world) to the region in Nepal worst hit. And by end of day, more traffic should flow.

Volunteer - GET active:
It is not difficult or time consuming to get certified, so please consider Amateur Radio if yuh live in the hurricane belt of the Caribbean. It saves lives, and relying on Cell phones and TV for Comms in disaster is very risky business .
Just Last year I was "active" working Bermuda (even posted here about it) - sent messages back and forth when the grid went down.

Anyone interested? Don't wait until the hurricane hit.

If yuh still reading....

LINK

That is the spirit of the volunteer.
Audio Sample from a guy in Israel working all night

CW - CW is morse code. Can you imagine this century old "code" is still the SURE way to get your message out in a disaster!

In reply to pelon

Great post.

I was asked to recommend a system for Disaster Recovery and indeed I recommended LOW TECH UHF-CB. In a serious disaster all high tech systems are the first to fall, given the fragility of high tech networks.

Will pull up the info on the people I recommended, but amateur radio is key. Some training going on in my part of the woods. Unfortunately I havent been involved in getting retrained but I have done some funding. Its been years upon years.

In reply to Commie

ham radio is an interesting thing to get involved with at a youth level

it definitely broadens your horizons and exposes you to a wealth of local information

In reply to eXodus

Local and International info.

A quick breakdown
CB Radio - mostly local, free, unregulated. You get a bunch of CRAZY in CB radio. [I never use CB, don't recommend you waste your time with CB]
UHF/VHF - regulated, need license, local signals
HF - regulated, need advance license (at least a General) - allows global contact.

Because CB is unregulated you get a lot of crazy there!

In HF that is frequencies below 50MHZ and typically around 7.2MHZ - 28.6MHZ an Amateur Station can transmit around the globe with right antenna and enough power. (Atmospheric Conditions play a big role too)

One of my stations is a portable rig: transmits max of 100 Watts of power into homemade antennas. I can work the world with it.

As low as 20 Watts of power and I have worked Saudi Arabia from Caribbean islands.

Many here know I also run a weather net. I use the same FCC license to send/receive Weather images. No matter what age, or what goal, my aim is to get ONE of you posters to volunteer and/or get certified, esp. if you live in the region.

@commie: it's not too late bro, and thanks.

In reply to pelon

incorrectly expressed

but you got the gist...meant international...local to the operator doing the tx part

have been toying with the idea of going through the Industry Canada's certification process recently

In reply to pelon

Yes this is a huge disaster - indeed when the dust settles, expect way more than 20,000 deaths.

In reply to eXodus

excellent. and as a bonus, all your electronics experience will quickly come into play. Not difficult to pass.

You can get ALL of the Canadian exam questions here: IC Certification

@Chrissy: really is. the infrastructure has been severely damaged/destroyed. Death tool is ever climbing.

Before and After images.

Just heard on the HF radio that a Belgium has sent a rescue team, and has landed with specialized SAR (search and rescue) dogs. Indian teams were first to arrive on scene to assist
Also, the UK has limited success with airlift due to the airport damage. A major supplies airlift is due out tomorrow (from UK).

Will keep u posted.