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TARES
is a plan to establish a nonprofit amateur radio organization to that
work in response to
the emergencies. The service will include to both domestic and
international. As of December 2006, there are approximate 250,000
licensed amateur radio operators in Thailand. From this number, there
are about 10,000 people active in daily operation. They are spread
through the country and use radios or personal computer in conducting
contacts. Thanks to Internet technology, the amateur radio can now use
Internet beside the radio waves as before, this enable the small
handheld VHF radios to contact with the amateur radio stations over the
world.
People who want to be an amateur radio need to pass an examination. The
levels of license to operate are separated by classes. In Thailand, a
novice class can operate only VHF band, while the General and the Extra
classes can work on HF bands for direct international contact with their
radios. The modes of operation that permitted in Thailand are Phone, CW,
Digital, Satellite, Repeater and Internet Radio Link (IRL or RoIP).
The Citizen Band
(CB) radio is some time mislead as amateur radio service. For Thailand,
the famous 245 MHz red-radio (picture on the left) is well-known among
the businesses and security guard service. In fact, the CB can be used
by anyone without a license. The CB radio therefore, wide spread used in
the cities. Beside the businesses; search and rescue organizations and
general people are widely used this radio for their interest. The
estimate total number of the red-CB-radio is about one million units in
total. Anyhow, the rules and procedure of operating are much different.
The amateur radio must strictly obey the rules designated by the
regulator and follow the regulations of
ITU/IARU for
international contact, while the red-CB-radio is free to use, either for
business or recreation. The amateur radio is only
permitted for recreation but under the strictly rules
as explained, experimental, education and emergency services are the
main purposes. The international amateur radio service is under
supervised by IARU, an organization under ITU. Each country should have
one national amateur radio society that coordinates with IARU as a
member. The Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (R.A.S.T) is a member of
IARU Region 3 on behalf of Thailand.
The lesson learnt from Indian Ocean Tsunami tragedy taught us to be
prepared for the unforeseen disasters. The education is also the key to
save-lives in the emergency. From the experiences that shared among the
countries representative that went though the disasters concluded that
communication is very vital, but the services were lost soon as the
disaster arrived. Thailand was the same, all communications and public
utilities lost soon as the Tsunamis hit the shores. There was no TV
network could access to the disaster areas in the first 24 hours. The
only working was amateur radio network.
Click for larger view
Emergency plan, proposed in
TARNS workshop in Thailand,
Surprisingly, the situation report live from by the amateur radio could
listen not only in Thailand but from any country in the world via
Internet and Radios. Although the disaster areas were lost Internet
connection, but the radio wave came from the sites went was relayed to
the distance stations that link or repeat the signal. The amateur radio
therefore, the only network that gave fastest reports to the outside
world. From the previous version of standard operating procedure, the
communication and cooperation among government organizations were not
efficient enough. The amateur radio network was a help for this case.
Without the regulation overruled, the licensed amateur radio operators
who work in the organizations gained benefit of using the network. The
cooperation among different units such as Department of Disaster
Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), the Royal Thai Air force, Navy and
Army, the National Red Cross, The Tourist Authority of Thailand, The
Modern 9 TV etc were made with help from the amateur radio network.
The amateur radio is well accepted as an important relief effort
mechanism in many countries. The word
“Amateur” has misled people in general. In fact they are nothing less
than professional, and they are not paid for their effort. From the
resolution of ITU/ESCAP Regional Workshop on Disaster Communications,
December 12th-15th: 2006, Bangkok, Thailand. Telecommunication is
recognized as a key component to facilitate disaster management. That
includes “Amateur Radio” among the other mean of Telecommunication
services.
Anyhow, there is a challenge in using this resource. The amateur radio
is not hired by an organization; they work on their own interest. The
help and relief effort from them are shared from the time use by their
career. The voluntary working basis is not suitable for the long hours
of work with routines. We often found that the amateur radio operators
gathered during the emergencies without an order from the authority.
Anyhow, sometime their effort caused misunderstanding and improper
operation, sometime lost of lives was the result. The effort from
hundred of people wasted from unorganized move, unplanned and
misunderstood. This was complained from the authorities and public,
worst of all; it reflected the waste of valued resources instead of
achievement from the jobs from good intention.
The most important factor
to save people from disasters is the early warning and communication.
The amateur radio network that spread over the country, therefore the
perfectly help for this purpose. It is a resource of nation that is
ready for service without an investment from the government. A roughly
calculation shows that with a proper training and appropriate procedure,
the amateur radio network can give warning dissemination to about 1.2
million people within 15 minutes. This doesn’t count the collaborative
with the red-CB radio network that mentioned earlier. Anyhow, as
mentioned, we should provide a proper training and regular practice to
obtain this target achievement.
 From these two
challenges, we need TARES organization to solve the problems. After
establishing TARES, the priority is to establish a connection and
appoint a representative in each province. These representatives are the
amateur radio who owned and operate their station that can cover the
target area. These stations will work as nodes that connect by radio,
internet beside the telephone and Fax. These nodes will connect with
TARES headquarter by radio, Internet Radio Link and website as the main
communication. As a 24/7 operation, TARES will always available for
contact by the nodes or directly from the other amateur radio station.
The representatives are invited as volunteer for the safety of their
communities. Anyhow, in some case TARES may support the necessary
equipment as appropriate. TARES organization will work closely with RAST
to promotes the activities and educates to its member including other
amateur radio as the whole. Therefore, the education about disasters,
warning
dissemination process, practicing and expanding the operating network
are the important roles. In the future plan, TARES will seek help in
coordination with the existing radio broadcasting network that can
expand this purpose to reach wider group of target. For Bangkok city,
the TARES has planned for a facility to provide two way traffic report
between amateur radio traveling in the city and the TARES operating
center, this work will coordinate with the traffic police division which
will give better coverage in the Bangkok area and near by cities.
During the disasters, TARES will work as the focal point of contact for
coordination among the amateur radio operators in more proper and
efficient way. TARES will work as the control and command center for the
amateur radio groups and will coordinate the relief effort to the
related organizations. For the normal situation, TARES can help in
educating people about disasters preparedness and practicing. The works
for this purpose can be specific to a single province or large coverage
for the region countries as the whole.
Once TARES established and
works with other organizations for the disaster management, it will give
a strong working model to save lives in the tragedies. Unlike the other
organizations, TARES can provide the skill and interest of the amateur
radio services to apply which can give an outstanding result.
It is normal that amateur radio always interest to contact the distance
stations in their daily operation. Therefore, the regional cooperation
among the counties in the region can easily establish. Anyhow, it is
unlikely that the same contacts between the countries can be made
without an appointment. Due to the different of time zone and there is
no organization that will stand by for the contact. Therefore, TARES can
help establish a 24/7 availability of contact. This will beneficial to
Thailand and the countries in the region.
Soon after the Tsunami, RAST presented TARES plan to the
National
Telecommunications Commission – NTC including a request for funding
support. Anyhow, the commission does not response to the plan until
today.
In order to understand the roles that RAST is involved, we were invited
to join the establishment of the National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC)
as an expert. The members of RAST help designed the parallel emergency
communication network plan and presented during the TARNS workshop. RAST
was invited to join the Tsunami Alert Rapid Notification System (TARNS)
workshops that supported the program by USAID-NOAA-USFS. In May 2006,
RAST established collaborations with the National Electronics and
Computer Technology – NECTEC to create and expand OpenCARE network as a
support system for the warning and dissemination. With the effort from
RAST, OpenCARE has been introduced and accepted in principle from DDPM,
NDWC and the Ministry of Foreign Affair. The implementation for this
project has schedule in the early of 2007.
RAST is the dominant
participant and it is only the non-government organization that
continues to give contribution. During the year 2006, there are four
major events that we were invited to join as an expert, which they are:
• May 2006: Collaborated with NECTEC to promote OpenCARE project in
order to response to the emergencies.
• July 12th, 2006 : Thailand Industrial Standard Institute: Societal
Security ISO/TC223
• August 25th, 2006 : ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and
Emergency Response by Ministry of Foreign Affair
• December 12th-15th: 2006 ITU/ESCAP Regional Workshop on Disaster
Communications, Bangkok, Thailand
The roles we play in these workshops were fully participating, shared
experiences and advising. This created tremendous workload for the
representative from RAST which works as a volunteer. All of these works
need continue contribution as most of them are the long term projects.
From the experiences, RAST strongly believe that will be able to mange
TARES project for the success result once received funding support. |
