THE INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO DIGEST INTERNATIONAL AMATEUR RADIO NETWORK NEWSLETTER - AUGUST 1991 IARN ACTIVATES FOR HURRICANE BOB As we go to press, hurricane Bob was just beginning to pound Maine. IARN activated into Mode 3 at 1640 UTC on August 19, 1991. Traffic at press time was light. IARN ASSISTS IN CHINA The IARN emergency amateur radio jump team, consisting of Sam Voron, VK2BVS; Ken Fuhrmeister, VK3MDB, and Peter Broughan, VK3JPD, finally got off to Nanjing China, on August 17, 1991, from Sydney, Australia, loaded with radio equipment, to assist Chinese IARN with setting up emergency amateur radio communications links to the flood disaster area in the Jiangsu province and 96,599 doses of 94 different kinds of medicine, mostly antibiotics, plus two first aid kits. The radio equipment, most of which is being donated for permanent use by Chinese IARN, consists of 1 Honda emergency generator, 3 hf transceivers, 5 two meter radios, two 2 meter mag mount antennas, one two meter ringo ranger base station antenna, five power supplies, and one ten meter ssb base station transceiver. All these donated items were accumulated by IARN members in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The medical supplies were donated by St. Vincent Hospital, Schering-Plough Corporation, Commonwealth Serum Labor- atories, Queensland Red Cross, Dr. Paul Lai, Dr. Pauling, Dr. Silas Lau, Dr. Paul Lam, Dr. Francis Chung, Dr. Ian Lee, Dr. Teh, Dr. Yap, Dr. Lou in Australia; Douglas Pharmaceuticals, and Beecham Research in New Zealand, and the United States firms Upjohn, and Welcome. Also, large additional amounts medical supplies are available from firms in Germany and the United states as soon as tricky customs and delivery problems are worked out. Civil Aviation Administration of China, (known as CAAC) have made provisions for free air transport of these supplies over the national Chinese airline system. The IARN radio Jump Team will assist and offer trailing to Chinese IARN members in setting up emergency amateur radio communications links to the flood disaster area in the Jiangsu province. These floods are the worst ever to devastate China, and for the first time ever, China requested international assistance. IARN volunteers have been working around the clock with our International Amateur Radio Club in Nanjing, Wang Long, BZ4RBX, coordinator, Telephone 300 495 in Nanjing) in cooperation with the Jaingsu Radio Sports Federation, Wang Wenyu, Foreign Affairs Secretary (Tel. 011 86 25 303 228). The team will be in China for three to four weeks, is being met at the airport by the Governor of the affected Jaingsu Province, and the group will be hosted by various International Amateur Radio Club members in Nanjing. Wang Long, BZ4RBX, know by the handle of "Dragon" can be heard on the IARN net every day at 10:45 UTC on 14.275 MHz. and the team's daily progress will be reported at these times from the club station there. Dragon teaches physics at the # 22 Middle School in Nanjing, a city with well over one million citizens, and about 150 miles North West of Shanghai. IARN Headquarters has received all the United Nations Disaster Response Organization's situation reports by FAX from Geneva, Switzer- land, and these reports, together with on site reports by IARN members in China, spell out the worst flood disaster in history with 18 provinces affected (over 50 percent of the total of 30 Chinese provinces) with 1,729 dead, 32,227 injured (affecting a population of 206 million), 13.9 million people threatened by flood waters, 2,109, 000 houses collapsed, and 4,148,000 houses damaged. In addition to IARN, the following have provided substantial assistance to China regarding the present flood disaster: Swiss Red Cross, German Red Cross, Church World Service, the United States, Norway, Myanmar, Italy, Germany, Hong Kong, UNHCR (United Nations), World Vision, United Kingdom Red Cross, Korean Red Cross, Japanese Red Cross, Finnish Red Cross, Austrian Red Cross, Australian Red Cross, United Kingdom, Thailand, Spain, Pakistan, Finland, Canada, World Health Organization, FAO, Norwegian Red Cross, Japanese Red Cross, Canadian Red Cross, New Zealand, Netherlands, Japan, Denmark, Australia, UNICEF, and UNDP, whose personal representative, representing UNDRO, the United Nations Disaster Response Organization, has just returned from assessing the affected area. In addition to the three IARN delegates, LRCS has sent three people and MSF (Belgium and France) have sent also sent an exploratory mission to the Anhui Province. More help is needed. If you can assist, or if you want to join the IARN Radio Jump Team in China, contact IARN Headquarters as soon as possible before September 15, 1991. Telephone 207 495 2215 or FAX 207 495 2069. DAVE PORTER. K2BPP, A SILENT KEY It is with deep regret that we must report that Dave Porter, K2BPP became a Silent Key on Saturday, July 13, 1991. Dave's passing resulted from complications subsequent to his injury on Ascension Island. Dave first became involved with IARN during Hurricane Gilbert which slammed into the Island of Jamaica in 1988. Dave was doing a satellite installation on Jamaica at the time and quickly became a focal point of IARN emergency operations on the island during and after the very destructive storm. Our first job was to assess the situation with regard to re- establishing telephone communications on the island and we worked with AT&T engineers via amateur radio and phone patching to get all this done. We also patched Dave to CBS in New York for a chilling eyewitness report which was carried nationally over the evening news. Next Dave worked all night to bring up the telephone satellite system, using ham radio back to the Unites States for two way communications while engineers and technicians on both ends got things going. Then there was a true a stroke of ham radio genius. Dave set up a ham station at the Montego Bay airport and IARN coordinated all evacuation aircraft for over 50,000 people on ham radio, on 14.275 MHz. in cooperation with the FAA. We then set up the normal IARN emergency traffic network operations, radio jump teams deployed to the island, and, of course, the usual health and welfare traffic. It was a big IARN operation, and Dave played a very important part. Highlights of Dave's ham career are over 50,000 phone patches he ran for the Navy to Antarctica, and his subsequent trip to the South Pole as a guest of the Navy, and then a ham radio expedition to the North Pole that he organized. Regarding third trip, Dave appears on the cover of April, 1971 QST Magazine. A short article about Dave and a picture of him in his shack appears in this issue on page 87. During the IARN activation for Hurricane Hugo, Dave operated from K1MAN as Senior Net Control for over two weeks, putting in long 19 hour days. This was the biggest IARN operation to date, and we had many volunteers at IARN Headquarters working on that one. Again, Dave was a very important contributor. Dave has also served as an IARN Director. Ham Radio has lost a truly dedicated and talented radio amateur. IARN AMATEUR INFORMATION BULLETIN SERVICE Every day on 3.975, 14.275, and 28.475 MHz. at 1000, 1100, 1300, 1700, 2100, and 0000 UTC. Also special high fidelity AM transmissions Sunday evenings on 3.890 MHz. at 2200 and 7.290 MHz. at 2300 UTC. In an emergency activation, the 14.275 MHz. bulletins are moved down either 2 1/2 or 5 KHz., depending on the conditions. Address: IARN, 1 Long Point Road, Belgrade Lakes, Maine 04918 U.S.A. TEL 207 495 2215 FAX 207 495 2069 BBS 207 495 2490 MCI: K1MAN Packet Address: K1MAN @ WA1IIE.ME.USA.NA TELEX 697 6213 IARN njing. Wang Long, BZ4RBX, know by the handle of "Dragon" can be heard on the IARN net every day at