At 0705UTC this morning Nepal was hit by a new earthquake of magnitude 7.4. The planned response from the American MARS service with 9N1SP is now in place should support be required. However there is still a large international disaster response structure in the country from the earlier event.

More information when I get it.

73,
Greg, G0DUB
IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Co-Ordinator

The final update was received today from Jayu VU2JAU who has been keeping in daily contact with Satish 9N1AA on 20m. Their scheduled contacts have decreased in frequency over the last few days and closed at 02:30UTC today. This is the last known formal international link to stop operating following the ending of MARS communications support at 1100z 05 May 15 between T6TM in Afghanistan and Dr. Panday, 9N1SP.

Aftershocks continue in the area but the frequency of those events has reduced quicker than expected, however there are still vulnerable structures which are being worked on and the terrain means landslides remain a possibility.

There are still Radio Amateurs in the country for example Dale, BA4TB and Mi, BD4TR are part of the Chinese rescue team assisting in the
aftermath of the earthquake. Their activity though is in their spare time on the HF bands and is being well advertised through the Dx lists.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and support during the radio amateur activities associated with this disaster. Individual organisations are now commencing their Debriefing process to see what can be done to improve the response next time.

Sources: VU2JAU, ARRL, USGS

Radio Amateurs continue to provide communications services in the aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal. While the pace of communications has slowed the international links which have functioned since the first hours of the disaster are still working though on a reduced schedule.

The ARSI Co-Ordinator for Disaster Communications in India VU2JAU praised operators Paddy VU2PEP, Sarath VU2SCV, Sanil VU3SIO, Dorrai VU2DVG,  Tapas operating VU2IWA and Walidbhai A41LD for the time given for this operation and supporting him through into the night. He is now maintaining a schedule with 9N1AA every two hours should the needs change.

The Nepal – American link supported by the the MARS organisation in America with Ajay 9N1AJ providing the Nepal end of the link reported on 5th May. It is expected though that this link will reduce to a periodic schedule to keep the lines of communication open.

Within the country a repeater donated by CAN-USA which had been held up at customs is now reported by 9N1SP as released and now at Kathmandu University ready for deployment. While sad that this repeater was held up when it could have been useful with the current disaster, Nepal suffers a monsoon season starting in June and it is hoped that it will help the preparedness for future events.

Sources: VU2JAU, MARS, ARRL, CAN-USA

In all disasters there is a sad shift from search and rescue activities to one of recovery. In Nepal this transition is beginning with no further Search and Rescue or Medical teams being required to enter the country and those who are in already reaching the end of their normal planned 10 day period in the area. The situation in Nepal remains difficult but as international resources have been deployed, such as extra equipment from the ITU and the power situation in the country improving then the telecommunications needs change.

An example of this is the closure of the nets on 20m which had been focused on Kathmandu Radio Amateur Satish Kharel 9N1AA today. The situation having improved enough for him to have been interviewed in TV in the USA via a Skype Link ( Video available here ).

Other radio amateurs from India, China and Turkey amongst other countries remain in Nepal until their deployments end and the public communications systems are improving with efforts by the Nepal Police and other agencies to deploy solar chargers so the public can start using their mobile phones again.

The Nepalese authorities are reported to be offering licenses to visiting Radio Amateurs but they are taking a little time to process and the operators are given a specific Nepal callsign and are not allowed to use their home callsigns.

Dr Sanjeeb Panday 9N1SP has also been operating throughout the emergency following the protocols set in previous exercises with the MARS organisation in the Unites States and these operations have included the use of SSTV to pass pictures back to the US to assist the disaster response. Dr Panday’s operations continue to the best of our knowledge.

Any further missing person enquiries should be submitted via the Red Cross at;

http://familylinks.icrc.org/nepal-earthquake/en/pages/home.aspx

This disaster has generated a large amount of positive publicity for amateur radio externally and hopefully interested more Radio Amateurs in preparedness and participation in Emergency Communications Programmes. The IARU Emergency Centre of Activity Frequencies have also been extensively used which is another positive feature.

More information may be found in the IARU Emergency Telecommunications Guide at http://www.iaru.org/emergency-telecommunications-guide.html or via your IARU Regional Emergency Communications Co-Ordinator