Unprecedented heavy rain caused widespread flooding in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands with over 120 deaths and hundreds more people unaccounted for. The rains which started on Wednesday caused rivers to burst their banks and the water converged into major rivers like the Meuse, Mosel and Rhine causing damage to bridges and other infrastructure such as power and telecommunications networks.

The Dutch Amateur Radio Emergency Service ( DARES ) was on standby from Wednesday evening as the first reports of flooding came in, with an initial attempt to establish a point to point link from the Provincial capital of Maastricht to the north of Limburg province, this was halted due to heavy traffic as citizens followed calls to evacuate low lying areas. DARES members were in contact with members of the Belgian Emergency Amateur Radio Service ( B‑EARS ) to co-operate and co-ordinate their work.

The European Civil Protection mechanism was activated and emergency groups across the region reported their Governments sending extra assistance and supplies to the areas where damage was worst. The surge in flood water was continuing to make its way North leading to further evacuations and the Radio Amateur Emergency groups started to get more focused requests with B‑EARS being asked to provide a backup VHF link between the emergency call centre in Brussels and the province of Hainaut through Friday while DARES had four stations active in the Limburg area ready to respond if an issue occurred.

The most loss of life and damage has occurred in Germany where over 1000 people remain unaccounted for and the loss of mobile networks has slowed the effort to locate people while many others are without power or homes. The emergency communications unit of the DARC is handling enquiries for amateur radio support in the worst hit areas but this is not always easy to achieve as members in the area have been directly affected losing equipment or their homes.

Emergency communications groups in the affected, and surrounding countries, are ready to respond to requests made and are working well together, co-ordinating their response as needed. This emergency will last for some time as infrastructure is repaired and the threat from damaged dams and more rainfall is reduced.

Cesar Pio Santos HR2P relayed news from the FRC of Cuba that they will be activating their emergency communications networks ready for the arrival of Tropical Storm ‘Delta’. The networks will be active from 1400UTC listening on the frequencies: 7110 kHz and 7120 kHz day and night; as well as at frequencies 3720 kHz and 3740 kHz at night. Clear frequencies would be appreciated to allow any emergency traffic.

Info HR2P and CO2JC.

[Picture: Wikipedia]

The 44^th HamRadio Exhibition at Friedrichshafen attracted 14300 visitors, among them around 27 Emergency Communicators from 14 countries who attended the IARU meeting for Emergency Communicators on Friday 21^st June.

After the introduction and Region 1 report, there were interesting presentations followed by a good exchange of information in an Open Forum session which carried on beyond the official closing time of the meeting.

Mike SP9XWM and Cris SP7WME spoke about the use of new technology in exercises in Poland. There was then an Open Discussion on what use we could make of Satellites and other new modes for Emergency Communications. Discussing Low Earth Orbit as well as Geostationary satellites, HF conditions and weak signal message modes ( e.g. JS8call ).

Alberto IK1YLO spoke about the NEIFLEX ( North East Italian Flood Exercise ) European Exercise of ⁵⁄₉ June 2018 followed by an update on their national DMR project. Ron 4X1IG presented on how emergency communications as being grown in Israel by using a ‘Contest as a drill’.

Oliver DL7TNY provided an introduction to AREDN data networks which got many attendees to look at the networks in practice on the DARC stand in the main hall.

An Open Forum was then followed by a short exercise on how we may respond to a power grid failure. 

The presentations where possible are available at the bottom of this page with the content being the opinion of the presenters.

The next Ham Radio on the Bodensee is on June 26 – 28 2020 and will include another emergency comms meeting.

As hurricane Lorenzo approaches the Azores the emergency network has been activated.
Amateur Radios will be active with the Government and emergency response teams.
Local analog and DMR repeaters, both in VHF and UHF, satellites and HF.
We ask all stations to give way for emergency traffic coming in and out of the Azores islands (CU, CQ8, CR8, CS8 and CT8 prefixes).

WORKING FREQUENCIES:

VHF – Priority Communication Systems (Repeaters) – Faial Island
1 – VHF Repeater (R0) (Cabeço Gordo): 145,600; Shift: ‑600KHz; Tone: 123hz (coverage Faial Island, Pico and S.Jorge)
2 – VHF (R7) repeater (Pico Verde): 145,775; Shift: ‑600KHz; Tone: 123hz (west side cover Faial island)
3 – UHF Repeater (Cabeço Gordo): 438,800; Shift: ‑7.6MHz; Tone: 123hz
4 – Alternative: direct frequency 145,500

UHF – DMR Digital Repeater
DMR Repeater – Faial Island (east side coverage of Faial Island and west of Pico Island)
RX Frequency: 438.300 TX Frequency: 430.700MHz
Slot2 – TG 26867 (Faial)
Slot1 – TG268 for outdoor communications

HF – Inter-Island Links
1 – 80 meters – 3,760.00 Mhz. – 3,770.00 Mhz. – 3,750.00 Mhz. (Inter-islands)
2 – 40 meters – 7,110.00 Mhz. – 7,100.00 Mhz. – 7,060.00 Mhz. (Inter-island)
3 – 20 meters – 14,300.00 Mhz. – 14,310.00 Mhz. – 14,320.00 Mhz. (Communications with the outside)