Dear Friends,

From mid December 2004, I was in the Andamans and
returned only yesterday to Hyderabad. Although I went
there for logistic support for the VU4 Dxpedition
conducted by our National Institute of Amateur Radio,
I ended up by providing emergency communications for
those affected by the earth quake and tsunami. I could
not get in touch via email from there as it was not
easily available.

All our 6 members who were in the capital Port Blair
escaped unhurt. Soon after the casastrophe, I had the
opportunity to operate Ham Radio from Port Blair and a
couple of days later from Rama Krishna Pur and Hut Bay
in Little Andamans Island which were badly affected. I
was mainly clearing health and welfare messages as
there were no telephones. We used generators and
batteries which were charged by solar power.

Several days before the earth quake / tsunami we had
given a lecture and demo of Ham Radio for the officals
of All India Radio and Doordarshan.

AIR Port Blair suspended most of it programs and were
giving live phone in programs where listeners could
send messages to their relatives / friends.

This was broadcast on MW, SW and on the newly
installed 10 kw FM transmitter on 100.9 MHZ.

Some photes of my vist to AIR Port Blair etc.can be
seen at

http://www.geocities.com/vu2jos/vu4

The AIR web site also gives lot of info in the
following site:

http://www.allindiaradio.org/Tsunami.htm

(More details later)

Yours sincerely,

Jose
(Jose Jacob via dx_india)

====================================

dxAce
Michigan
USA