Jim Linton VK3PC

Chairman IARU Region 3

Disaster Communications Committee

Presentation to GAREC-2009 Tokyo, Japan

Australian Bushfire Communications

Black Saturday 7 February 2009

Australia’s worst natural disaster 173 lives lost and many hundreds injured.

More than 2000 homes destroyed Township business centres, community

and other facilities lost. Record high temperatures, very low

humidity, winds up to 150 km/h, and 12 years of drought.

Marysville: the day after

Weather conditions On Black Saturday temperatures reached

46.4 degrees Celsius in Melbourne, higher in regional areas, low humidity and strong winds.

A record heatwave two weeks earlier had three days above 43C which was a weather record.

RECOM Before Black Saturday - in late January fires forced

hundreds of people to flee for safety and 30 homes were destroyed in Gippsland, eastern Victoria.

The emergency communications arm of the Australian

Red Cross, RECOM had units quickly deployed to mainly handle the registrations of displaced persons.

A few days after completing their duty in Gippsland, the

RECOM operators were then called out for the Black Saturday disaster. More about RECOM later.

WICEN

The Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network (WICEN), a traditional amateur radio emergency communications service was deployed for 28 days.

It had 52 radio amateurs involved with their role mainly as operators of fire service radio systems.

Their duties included being at vital Incident Control Centres (ICC) and a Municipal Emergency Coordination Centre (MECC).

WICEN Since 2003 WICEN operators have been

trained to use the fire service’s trunk radio system.

These radios are different to conventional transceivers as they require the pressing buttons to get the required station.

The failure of telephone services also saw WICEN provide vital link services using amateur radio between centres.

WICEN in a control centre

Support communications Another role of amateur radio is to provide third

party traffic at times of emergency. WICEN operators joined firefighters at a remote

location that had limited fire service radio coverage and no mobile phone service.

A communication link over amateur radio was set up for health and welfare reasons between firefighters and their families at home.

RECOM Emergency Recovery is heavily reliant on

having good Communications

Adequate Communications are often not available during major activations

Australian Red Cross is able to function effectively “when all community infrastructure fails”

The role of RECOM Provide the Red Cross with:

Transmission of NRIS data on displaced persons Situation reports and digital images First Aid treatment details Staff tracking, logistics, catering and other supply

requests General back-up communications for other

services if required

RECOM Volunteer prerequisites

Unconditional availability 24/7 Professional technical background Not a member of any other “agency” 4WD transport Weekly on-air training to maintain skills Members treat each other as equals

Emergency Operations Centre

It never stops. stops. Fully automated

Ex-military specification 486 computers

Screens turned on – only to do maintenance checks.

National NRIS coverage

Australia-wide coverage possible

RECOM Its membership includes a number of radio

amateurs who are scientists, engineers and IT specialists

The first emergency response agency to operate using totally digital technology

Financed by corporate sponsor donations Began in Victoria (VK3) but has developed to

provide Australia-wide coverage

RecomWin File transfer (up to 64K compressed file length) Messaging (similar to email) Position tracking of Remote Stations (GPS) Time synchronisation of all Networked Stations Capable of interfacing with a number of

communications platform types Military level security

Security/Reliability All transmitted data is fully error corrected All Messages are saved (archived after

activation is completed). All Communications activity is time/date

logged Network is time synchronised to within

1/1000 second. Network reliability so far is 100%

RECOM Field stations

Fully self-reliant stations in vehicles, with the operator able to operate indoors using a 100m range bluetooth link.

RECOM Field stations Transceivers are Yaesu FT897 or FT817,

driving a solid-state 400w linear amplifier. The linear runs at 50% duty cycle with

enhanced (water) cooling. A small generator float charges the vehicle’s

battery. The PC’s have 486 processors because they

run cool, a requirement in the field where the air temperature can be 47 Degrees.

RECOM Field stations Special Communications Systems of Germany

HF modems – a world leader RECOM passes useful data on HF even when

signals are -24 dB below the noise floor It uses a slightly modified form of Pactor The Australian Communications and Media

Authority, permits encryption for emergency communications – needed for privacy reasons

RECOM vehicles are GPS tracked for operator welfare and fully-equipped with online mapping

HF Data (Low band)

HF Data(High band)

PSTN Data

IRIDIUMData

RecomNet

Emergency Operations Centre

Network Station

Field Station Field Station Field Station

Red Cross HQ Melbourne

RECOM Data GatewayCitrix

RECOM Data Network

RECOM Data Network It uses a ‘distributed network’ over HF

radio With three of the control stations on air

communication through one or another is always possible

To overcome HF propagation variability, software samples available frequencies to work out the best at any time

RECOM HF Data Network

RECOM National

Data Gateway

Sale

Wangaratta

Beaconsfield

RECOM HF Data Network

EOC

Ballarat (2)

Korumburra

Mcrae Drouin

BairnsdaleLara

Typical quick set-up vertical antenna

Antenna details It takes 2 minutes to put up the antenna. Anchored at the base by 3 tent pegs. A squid pole (telescoped fishing rod) is

rotated to wind 10 turns of wire over its entire length.

Most stations work this antenna as the vehicle body although sometimes ground radials are deployed.

National inquiry registration centre

Bushfire recovery in progress

Recovery continues Communities continue to recover from the

Black Saturday bushfire disaster

Preparations are underway for the next fire season which starts in 8 weeks time

WICEN and RECOM are at the ready

The end – thank you!

Jim Linton VK3PCChairmanIARU Region 3Disaster Communications Committee

Program Committee Member GAREC-2009Honorary Life Member - Wireless Institute of AustraliaEmail: jlinton@iprimus.com.auPO Box 200, Forest Hill, Vic 3131 Australia

About the author Jim Linton VK3PC Joined the Wireless Institute of Australia as a teenager and shortwave listener. That

begun a life-time of volunteering for the WIA including being on of the longest continuous office bearers. His roles have included that of a State President and Public Relations Officer, Federal Councillor, Guest Editor of the WIA journal Amateur Radio magazine, WIA team member at the IARU R3 triennial conferences since Darwin 2000. He is an Honorary Life Member of the WIA.

Jim has been President of Amateur Radio Victoria (WIA Victoria) since 1983. By profession he has had a career of 40 years including that of a news journalist writing many of the major stories of the day 1971-94, and then as a public relations practitioner in local government.

He first wrote of amateur radio emergency communications in 1974 in relation to the tropical cyclone Tracy that destroyed Darwin, the Ash Wednesday bushfire disaster 1983, other occasions of fires and floods in Australia. Jim was a member of the WICEN representative team that appeared before the Victorian Government Miller Inquiry into the Ash Wednesday disaster.

As the IARU R3 Disaster Communications Committee Chairman attending GAREC-2009, this presentation on bushfire communications also reflects his experience as a local government officer playing a key communications role in response to that disaster.