China Amateur Radio Disaster
Communication Review
For GAREC-2009
CRSA, 2009/08, Tokyo
Composed by BA1RB, CRSA representative
in IARU R3 Disaster Communications Committee
Agenda
Brief Recall of the big disaster
Current situation
Next action
14:28 BJT, 12 May 2008, A magnitude-8.0 earthquake hit
China’s Sichuan area.
Wenchuan City, Center of quake
31d28.7’N 103d34.8’E
Chengdu City, Capital of Suchuan
103 km from quake
Province
center
69,227 died and 374,643 injured in the disaster
80-90% of
houses were
crashed.
Amateur radio operators help to provide
emergency communication
Important actions immediately taken by
amateur radio operators
Date
Time
Place
2008.5.12 14:28
Chengdu
City
2008.5.12
14:45 Chengdu
City
2008.5.12 Aftern Chengdu
oon
City
Actions
The earthquake hits Sichuan, 2-3 minutes later, the
amateur radio network turned to emergency
communication status. Some part of the repeater system
damaged but still working. 439.225MHz and
439.800MHz was used for emergency communication.
BG8AAS, BG8AAK, BG8BX worked as network
controller. The repeater covered 100Km radius.
Amateur radio operators used HF to communicated with
other amateur radio operators outside Sichuan, gathering
information from internet to locate the center of the
earthquake area.
Xiang Yong, BG8CVE drove from Chengdu to the
center of earthquake area immediately.
Zhang Zhen, BG8DOU also reported, 2 amateur radio
operators drove to center of earthquake area.
Important actions immediately taken by
amateur radio operators (Cont.)
Date
Time
Place
2008.5.12 Eveni
ng
Chengdu
City
2008.5.12 Evenin Mianzhu
g
City
2008.5.12 Evenin Mianzhu
g
City
Actions
Liu Xu, BG8AAS reported to Sichuan radio
administration bureau, setup “Sichuan amateur radio
emergency communication network command
center”. Pei Dan, BG8DG and He Chang,
BG8BXcontrolled the network.
The Hanwang town has no message sent out. BD8AAI,
BG8BES led a team to help build the communication. At
evening, more operators came, setup a repeater and
give several handheld V/U transceivers there.
Heavy rain. Amateur radio communication vehicle
parked in front of government disaster relief center, The
Mayor of Mianzhu used amateur radio equipment to
communicate with vice Mayor and secretary, who was
in front line.
Important actions immediately taken by
amateur radio operators (Cont.)
Date
Time
Place
2008.5.13
Chengdu
City
2008.5.13
Mianzhu
City
After
2008.5.14
Sichuan
Actions
The emergency repeater in Mianzhu city continuously
provide communication for the Mayor, and report
status.
The repeater in Chengdu kept busy for traffic
handling, guide to transport injured people. Another
repeater was setup in Mianzhu, but finally retired because
of short of gasoline.
The “Sichuan amateur radio emergency communication
network command center” act as communication hub to
connect local V/UHF network, and report status in HF
band. The command center also coordinate the
instructions for CRSA, CRCF etc. Amateur radio
operators came from Chengdu, Beijing, Shenzhen,
Zhengzhou and Nanjing etc. provided equipments and
facilities to help build communication and transport
goods, medicines and injured people.
IARU R3 Chairman Michael Owen VK3KI introduced
Sichuan earthquake and Chinese amateur radio disaster
communication in 2008 GAREC
Proposed by Bob, W6RGG, ARRL awarded the 2008 humanitarian
award to CRSA member and Sichuan amateur radio operators
Bob Vallio, W6RGG, Director,
Pacific Division,ARRL
David Patton, NN1N, Award
Manager, ARRL
ARRL awarded 2008 International Humanitarian Award to CRSA
The amateur radio in Sichuan province are also awarded
CRSA held the 2009 annual member meeting in
Sichuan to commemorate the big disaster
Agenda
Brief Recall of the big disaster
Current situation
Next action
China issued the “Emergency Response Law of the
People's Republic of China” in 2007
The Law was issued in 30 Aug 2007 and effective from 1st
Nov 2007.
Table of Content
Chapter 1 General provisions
Chapter 2 Prevention and preparation
Chapter 3 Monitor and alert
Chapter 4 Emergency disposal and rescue
Chapter 5 Relief and rebuild
Chapter 6 Law responsibilities
Chapter 7 Appendix
The emergency situation consist of Nature disaster, Accident,
Public health disaster, Social security disaster.
Other emergency communication trends
 International Telecommunication Union
 Mobile public communication services
 Professional Emcom network
 Satellite communication network
 Future system
ITU
（International Telecommunication Union）
191 Member States
+700 Sector Members
ITU
Helping the World Communicate
ITU-D
ITU-T
Assisting implementation
and operation of
telecommunications in
developing countries
Telecommunication
standardization of
network and service
aspects
ITU-R
Radiocommunication
standardization and
global radio spectrum
management
Disaster phases and
the radio services involved



Disaster prediction and detection –
meteorological and Earth exploration
satellite services
Disaster alerting – broadcasting, fixed,
mobile and related satellite services
Disaster relief – Amateur, broadcasting,
fixed, mobile and related satellite services
Status of studies – needs of future
systems
Report ITU-R M.2033
“Radiocommunication objectives and
requirements for public protection and
disaster relief (PPDR)”


Defines objectives and needs for the
implementation of future PPDR solutions
Focuses on operational needs around 2010
Resolution 646 (WRC-03)
Recommends use of regionally harmonized bands :




Region 1: 380-470 MHz as the frequency range
within which the band 380-385/390-395 MHz is a
preferred core harmonized band for permanent
public protection activities within certain
countries of Region 1;
Region 2: 746-806 MHz, 806-869 MHz, 4 9404 990 MHz;
Region 3: 406.1-430 MHz, 440-470 MHz, 806824/851-869 MHz, 4 940-4 990 MHz and 5 8505 925 MHz.
Encourages administrations to facilitate crossborder circulation of radio equipment intended for
use in disaster relief situations
Status of studies – Amateur
involvement
Recommendation ITU-R M.1042-2
“Disaster communications in the amateur
and amateur-satellite services”

Encourages the development of robust,
flexible and independent amateur service
and amateur-satellite service networks,
capable of providing communications
during disasters and relief operations
Public Mobile communication network
emergency communication solution
Contingency Plan
Contingency base station
Super base station
Group business
News broadcasting
 Space-Ground integration
Satellite emergency communication network
Space – Ground
integration mobile
network
LEO constellation
(Orbcomm……)
New developing / Future Technologies
AVCS(Aerial Vehicles Comm Sys)
HALO-Proteus（US）
New developing / Future Technologies(Cont.)
HAPS (High Altitude Platform Station)
HAPS
Sky Station（US）
Capanina （EU）
StratSat（UK）
Stratpspheric PL.（JP）
SkyTower（US）
Heliplat（I）
The position of amateur radio emergency
communication in disaster relief
1，Part of the disaster relief system;
2，A supplemental of national emergency communication;
3，The prerequisite to function well:
Available Non-Governmental communication resources
Popularizing communication technology
The amateur spirit
4，The most valuable things can provide:
In very short time to report disaster situation
In very short time provide self relief communication
Agenda
Brief Recall of the big disaster
Current situation
Next action
Action 1 – make amateur radio activity popular
This is the basic factor that amateur radio
operators can serve for disaster relief.
In the Sichuan earthquake there was a hamradio
operator (Mr. Tian, BG8FA) in Hanwang town – one
of the center area – his equipments was entirely
damaged – fortunately, his family were all
survived in the big disaster.
Mr. Tian, BG8FA lived in the ground floor of this building,
his equipment was entirely damaged by the big earthquake
内容
Action 2 – Setup practice standard for amateur radio
emergency operation
Enhance CRSA emergency communication exercises.
Setup operation standard for emergency
communication, Jiangsu province has the first step
Corporate with government and social disaster
relief forces.
International experience sharing.
CRSA participated all SET proposed by IARU R1
Actively involve in GAREC meeting
Practice on standard emergency communication
frequencies
Action 3 – Focus on normal preparation
Basic communication skills education
Enhance corporation with government disaster
relief department
Local communication self training
Building VHF/UHF emergency networking skills
Research amateur radio emergency repeater
technology
Research amateur radio direction finding rescue
technology
Action 4 – Develop technologies and solve problems
200Km stable communication
Solve skip problem
Stable reporting to command center
Digital signal alert
Weak signal / Low power communication
200Km stable communication
With “Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of
China”, when disaster occurs, the situation should report to
provincial center which normally about 100-200Km far away
Develop VHF/UHF repeater system to cover these areas in east
developed region.
By using HF, need high angle radiation antenna while to
consider HF absorb by D and E layer.
Loop antenna and high angle antenna
Solve skip problem
Relayed by remote station, the 100-200Km
station can use HF to communicate
Solve skip problem (Cont.)
Stable reporting to command center
By setup about 5 stations national wide, and
link them by VOIP technology such as Echo
Link, the command center can easily
communicate to the stations in the disaster
center.
Stable reporting to command center(Cont.)
Interface
XCVR
XCVR Control
Link to internet
Station 1
PC
PC
Station X
Sound card
（Audio）
XCVR
XCVR
Internet
XCVR
Stations in
disaster
center
PC
Station 3
PC
PC
Listener
XCVR
PC
Station 2
Server
System admin
System admin
Digital signal alert
The digital signal such as RTTY or PSK can
transmit characters (including Chinese double
byte characters), make the message less
distortion.
To setup national wide monitoring system
under certain protocol, the digital HF/VHF alert
system even can be observed from internet!
Digital signal alert(Cont.)
The Warbler 80m PSK transceiver. BA5AG has modified
the schematic diagram to easily fit in China.
Digital signal alert(Cont.)
The KN-Q8 made by BA6BF. It is a very small
yet full function rig for 40-20m, convenient for
field use.
Digital signal alert(Cont.)
By using pocketDigi, integrate with KN-Q8, it’s
easy to transmit Chinese Characters by using
PSK31.
Weak signal / Low power communication
Given the power limit and antenna status, low
power stations should be took into
consideration. Weak signal processing is of
vital importance in disaster communication.
JT65/FSK144/QRSS technology are worth to
apply in this area.
Weak signal / Low power communication(Cont.)
We gain the experiences from LF and EME practices
Spectogram
Argo I2PHD IK2CZL
QRS ON7YD
Spectran I2PHD IK2CZL
Spectrum Lab DL4YHF
Jason I2PHD
EasyGram OK1FIG
Crunch VE2IQ
WOLF/GUI KK7KA DL4YHF
谢谢各位！
Thanks
Produced by CRSA