[amsat-bb] Fw: Amateur Satellites and the emergency

[i8cvs]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Raydel Abreu Espinet" <cm2esp at frcuba.co.cu>
To: "Jeff Griffin" <kb2m at comcast.net>
Cc: "'i8cvs'" <domenico.i8cvs at tin.it>; "'AMSAT-BB'" <amsat-bb at amsat.org>;
"'M5AKA'" <m5aka at yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: Amateur Satellites and the emergency


> Hello,
>
> About the topic of satellites and emergencies I think satellites are an
option very important to consider when there is no more available. In case
of HF propagation blackouts or poor conditions and when local VHF and UHF
repeaters fails, satellites can bring help, specially from light weight
battery run portable stations.
>
> Here in Cuba we do every year an emergency rehearsal exercise named
"Meteoro" which is organized by Cuba's Civil Defense to simulate
catastrophes and other actions relevant to the upcoming hurricane season.
>
> This weekend (May 18th and 19th) was held the 2013 Exercise, like always
Cuban Ham Radio Operators are invited to participate as an important asset
during emergencies. But by first time ever on the Civil Defense National
Headquarters were is installed amateur station CO9DCN we do a short and
simple satellite demonstration to the Civil Defense authorities.
>
> The short demo was just a simple "hello" exchanged between CO6CBF (Hector)
in Cienfuegos Province and CM2ESP/Portable (Raydel) in the Headquarter's
backyard. Hector had done previous years demos for his province's civil
defense authorities, but this was the first time a demo was done at the
National Civil Defense Headquarters. As HF propagation was terribly bad that
day due to the recent solar flares the Civil Defense Authorities were very
pleased with our short demo proving that satellites can be an alternative
when ground and ionospheric propagation are disrupted.
>
> The Press publish a short report about the amateur radio importance on
emergencies and there is also a short mention in paragraph three of the very
first satellite contact.
>
> The news report can be found here:
> http://www.ain.cu/2013/mayo/19ya-meteoro_reduccion_desastres.htm
>
> It is in spanish only, but google translator works fine:
>
http://translate.google.com.cu/translate?hl=es&sl=es&tl=en&u=www.ain.cu%2F20
13%2Fmayo%2F19ya-meteoro_reduccion_desastres.htm
>
> On the picture featured on the news report from the Cuban News Agency you
can see CO9DCN Club Station (Defensa Civil Nacional - National Civil
Defense) being operated by CO2OT in digital modes and CO2JC in voice
communications. The satellite demo was done portable on the backyard on
Sunday at 14:10 UTC during a SO-50 pass, the press arrived one hour after
the satellite pass so unfortunately there is no photo available.
>
> 73,
>
> Raydel, CM2ESP
> GROS Coordinator
>
> ---
> PS: GROS is the Cuban Satellite Group.
>
> ----- Mensaje original -----
> De: Jeff Griffin <kb2m at comcast.net>
> Para: 'i8cvs' <domenico.i8cvs at tin.it>, 'AMSAT-BB' <amsat-bb at amsat.org>,
'M5AKA' <m5aka at yahoo.co.uk>
> Enviado: Wed, 22 May 2013 08:36:36 -0400 (CDT)
> Asunto: [amsat-bb] Re: Amateur Satellites and the emergency on tornado in
Oklahoma and Texas
>
>  I remember at least two times the LEO's were used for emergencies, on one
> occasion, I actually transferred some health and welfare traffic. The one
I
> participated in was during the bad ice storms along the northeast coast
> during the winter of (1998 ?). I personally forwarded health and welfare
> traffic from two Canadian satellite stations who were in an area where
there
> was no electricity for over a month. As poor HF propagation and marginal
> portable antennas weren't getting out the only way to communicate was via
> the LEO FM birds. I remember passing information via AO-27 at least twice.
I
> also remember the difficulty of getting out the information that the
> satellite was being used for an emergency :-) . The second occasion(as
> noted, in another post) was during the Pacific Tsunami disaster (around
> 2004?) it was proposed that the store and forward digital PACSAT's were to
> be used to pass health and welfare traffic out of some islands in the
> Pacific Ocean that were devastated by the Tsunami. If one was to search
the
> AMSAT archives there were threads started both times.
>
> 73 Jeff kb2m
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org [mailto:amsat-bb-bounces at amsat.org] On
> Behalf Of i8cvs
> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 8:02 PM
> To: AMSAT-BB; M5AKA
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Amateur Satellites and the emergency on tornado in
> Oklahoma and Texas
>
> Hi Trevor, M5AKA
>
> I agree with you.
>
> I remember that only the HEO satellites OSCAR-10,OSCAR-13 and AO40 were
used
> during the emergency when necessary.
>
> My opinion is that we satellite operators we are not actually organized to
> use the LEO Amateur Satellites during the emergencies so that we only
> collect grids and QSL's with them as well we receive only telemetry.
>
> I'm also not aware of any LEO amateur satellite having ever been used for
> Emergency Communications but read please the following address of AMSAT
and
> you will surprised to read that even the LEO Amateur Satellites are built
by
> AMSAT to provide communications during emergencies and calamities.
>
> http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/sat_summary/hamsat.php
>
> VO-52 is India's contribution to the international community of Amateur
> Radio Operators.
> This satellite will play a valuable role in the national and international
> scenario by providing a low cost readily accessible and reliable means of
> communications during emergencies and calamities like floods , earthquakes
> etc.
>
> 73" de
>
> i8CVS Domenico
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "M5AKA" <m5aka at yahoo.co.uk>
> To: "i8cvs" <domenico.i8cvs at tin.it>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 10:14 AM
> Subject: Re: Amateur Satellites and the emergency on tornado in Oklahoma
and
> Texas
>
>
> Hi Dominic,
>
> An interesting question. I'm not aware of any amateur satellite having
ever
> been used for Emergency Communications, do you know of any ?
>
> Yes announcements were made that amateur satellites were available for
> emergency communications in both the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the
2011
> Japanese Tsunami but as far as I'm aware they were never actually used.
>
> I think the problem is two fold:
> 1) The lack of satellite operators, only one to two thousand world-wide
> 2) The initial complexity of satellite operating e.g. Doppler, Tracking,
> which means those without satellite experience cannot rapidly pick it up
> when an emergency strikes.
>
> A 100 watt HF station with a dipole on 40m is far easier to set up in an
> emergency and will give you a range comparable with satellites and freedom
> from the restriction of a 15 minute pass time.
>
> 73 Trevor M5AKA
>
> --- On Tue, 21/5/13, i8cvs <domenico.i8cvs at tin.it> wrote:
> > Date: Tuesday, 21 May, 2013, 4:35
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I am interested to know if someone in BB has used or is using the
> > actual Amateur Satellites during the emergency occurred in Oklahoma
> > and Texas because of the actual tornado's.
> >
> > We know from TV that almost 50 peoples died and if the Amateur
> > Satellites were used with success that will be a useful opportunity to
> > demonstrate worldwide to the autorities that our satellites are useful
> > and necessary during the emergency.
> >
> > The call letters of the Amateurs partecipating as well the FM and
> > linear Amateur Satellites used to help into the emergency will be
> > appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks for any info.
> >
> > 73" de
> >
> > i8CVS Domenico
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Opinions expressed are those of the author.
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> >
>
> _______________________________________________
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> _______________________________________________
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