Nepal Emcomms: Misguided? (Updated)

The earthquake in Nepal last week has prompted an unusually strong emergency communications response from some in the ham community.

On 20m, a bunch of folk have been trying to keep 14.210 and then 14.205 clear in case someone in Nepal might want some help.

Excitable US operators think they can make a difference.

Now, providing such cover has always been a part of radio.  Indeed, it was a welsh amateur working in a tiny wooden shed that first heard Titanic's distress signals in the UK - which was ignored as rubbish by the authorities for a while.  Not that it mattered, because Artie Moore, the ham involved, could do nothing - nor could the authorities. Ships more local to the event, with radios, could help.

But, one has to wonder about the way in which the current response is being run.  Firstly, whilst there is no 'approved' emergency frequency, the IARU emcomms centre of activity resides at 14.300MHz.  Now, up here, you will generally only hear the Maritime Net during the (UK) evenings.  It's a largely unused section of the band, with only Germans seeming to use above this frequency.

So, it seems very odd indeed that the current Nepal response has chosen smack-bang in the middle of the busiest, most QRM-infested portion of 20m for their operations.  This is evident in the fact that all their efforts thus far seem to be trying to keep the frequency clear, and not actually responding to any calls.

Update: by now, there are sentinels keeping several kHz clear either side of 205.  To be frank, this has become ridiculous.

Indeed, they don't seem to be getting any calls.  That isn't surprising, because the number of Nepalese stations on air during the year can be counted on a couple of fingers during non-emergency periods.  And those seem both to be either businessmen, missionaries of some sort, or DXpeditions.

So, quite why we might expect all this fuss for a region where amateur radio is extraordinarily rare is a bit of a mystery.  This isn't covering a tornado event in the US, where technology is fairly robust and ubiquitous.  It is covering a very remote, less developed area where complex electronics are not anywhere as common.

I do accept that, even if all this effort led only to one person's situation being improved, it's worthwhile.  So much the better if it improves more people's situations.

It has to be said that, listening a bit to the exchanges, it all does sound totally overblown, misguided in where it has set up shop, and seems to be keeping those who like to wear 'Emcomm' hats and T-shirts happy, more that actually helping anyone.  Remember that, in the poorer, developing world where, as any look-up of the WSPR or DX maps will show, amateur radio is practically non-existent. 

That said, the US approach does seem to believe that operators within or local to Nepal can't help themselves via the medium of radio, which is either patronising or naive, or both.

I am sure some will find this contentious, in which case, I am happy to be proven wrong later, when the current excitement is turned into cold, hard facts (and not angry assertions) about (a) how many people in genuine need of help in the affected regions actually called in to the US and (b) how many of those calling had their situation improved directly as a result of the US-based emcomms activity.

We might also wonder whether, without the benefit of the internet to tell them that 14.210/05 was in use for this purpose, they spent some time and maybe wasting valuable battery power nearer the published emcomms centre of activity, perhaps calling in vain for attention.

I fear that, for the most part, emcomms is a nice aspiration, but in practice, does not have the prominence or utility that is often ascribed to it.  Certainly, the current efforts need to be looked at as to who, exactly, it is trying to serve.

UPDATE: At long last, those running the Nepal emergency comms have shifted to where they ought to have been in the first place.  After starting to take up more and more space right in the middle of the band, they seem to have realised the error of their ways and observed IARU recommended bandplan frequencies.