The situation in PR is very devastating across all the island. Communications via land phone or Mobiles are almost null. In respect to the local Ham repeaters we may have a few working partially with damage antennas. So we are using simplex frequencies 146.52MHZ. Even the Police Headquarters are down in their repeaters. Moreover the State Police are in the Ham VHF frequency. Driving toward the temporary American Red Cross (ARC) HQ due to flooding a no operational generator at their quarters. The ARC stablished an incident center at the Marriott Courtyard San Juan Miramar. The may move to a new site tomorrow. Driving 25 miles from my home to San Juan I heard the PR Power Authority on 146.52 coordinating fuel and Diesel for the offices at the Monacillo Control Center and several power plants. The power system is fully shut down for all the Island. Most gasoline Service Stations are destroyed or have run out of fuel with lines of people of more than 200 people long. Phone land lines are down, and only a few cell site are operational and unstable. At the moment I am at the temporary ARC and they have internet and phones as well cell phone. We are trying to get the information assessment from the 12 zones that includes the 72 municipalities. Heath and welfare traffic is very difficult due that we can only contact people by driving to their address. Cleaning of the roads are been work as we speaks, but it will take still some time. Also flooding at Toa Baja and the crack of the Quebradilla dam is in process of evacuation. Casualties are in a small number, at the moment the ad said from the Security Commissioner Mr. Pesquera. Almost all radio AM and FM stations and one TV station (running low power) are off air. H/W are one of the most needed public service requirement. Drinking water and sanitation need to be reestablish. A sort of family reunification system is need to be establish ether by local network VHF/UHF as has been perform in HF 3.803 MHz. and 7.188 MHz. In my personal assessment, just lost one antenna (tribander) and my reserve of drinking water for the house (a pipe was kicked by something). It took me three days to chains saw the 50 trees just on my property road. What we need? Everything.... solar panels, repeaters, and most important transmission lines and antennas. Some base or mobile VHF/UHF radios. 1 to 2kW Power generator. --Oscar I be back to the ARC close to 8:00 tomorrow morning. 73 Oscar Oscar Resto Specialist in Scientific Instrumentation University of Puerto Rico Department of Physics, IFN Nanoscopy Facility PO Box 70377 San Juan PR 00931 Rocket Satellite Specialist NASA Puerto Rico Space Grant Consortium ARRL Puerto Rico Section Manager o.resto@live.com kp4rf@arrl.org kp4rf@live.com Tel. 787-764-0000 IFN Lab 7387, RockSat Lab. 4222 Cel. 787-345-6088 I have attached the report of Oscar Resto, PR Section manager received last evening from San Juan. The principal communications problems stem from loss of electrical power with total outages throughout the island. Hams are providing 2-meter communications to both the police and the power company since their trunked UHF systems are not operational.

 

Oscar needs:

  1. Portable generators powered by gasoline which is available to Oscar from the Red Cross (we are sending seven);
  2. One or two VHF repeaters to be placed on a mountain top for wide-area coverage for police and power company use (we are attempting to locate);
  3. Lots of coaxial cables, fitted with connectors (no soldering available) in 100’ lengths;
  4. Diamond dual-band antennas to replace damaged repeater antennas;
  5. solar powered kits for use in the more rural areas.

 

We are supplying this from HQ in addition to 25 Ham Aid kits ordered yesterday from DX Engineering for delivery in HQ today. These units will travel with the 50 volunteer operators deploying on Thursday.

 

More as it becomes available.

 

Tom