40 May 2005

ithin hours of the magnitude9.0 “megathrust” earthquakeand the massive tsunami itgenerated December 26, 2004,

the first Amateur Radio emergency com-munication teams responded in northernSumatra. Most severely affected were theIndonesian provinces of Aceh and NorthSumatra. Throughout northern Sumatra, thetsunami had damaged the telecommunica-tion, power and transportation infrastruc-ture or taken them out altogether.

ORARI Steps InAlthough the initial Amateur Radio re-

sponse was done on the fly, within a day ofthe disaster, Indonesia’s International Ama-

teur Radio Union (IARU) member-society,the Organization of Amateur Radio forIndonesia (ORARI), began coordinating amore organized system of emergency sta-tions and command posts.

As is the practice, ORARI assigned“zulu” suffix call signs to many officialORARI stations taking part in the disas-ter relief and response as part of the Indo-nesian Amateur Radio Emergency Service(IARES).

ORARI President Harsono, YBØPHM,messaged all provincial and local ORARIoffices December 27 urging radio amateursto be ready to assist in northern Sumatra.The North Sumatra ORARI office was des-ignated the regional emergency coordina-

tor for tsunami-affected areas in Sumatra.In addition, ORARI activated many localzulu stations and deployed its IARES mem-bers and other amateur volunteers to helpin restoring communication in the disaster-affected areas.

“Zulu Stations” Go on the AirTwo IARES zulu stations were set up

in Medan—YB6ZES at the University ofNorth Sumatra and YB6ZZ at the provin-cial ORARI office. ORARI headquartersalso set up several emergency stations inthe capital city of Jakarta, and these sta-tions handled emergency traffic virtuallynonstop through the early days of the di-saster relief effort.

W

Wyn Purwinto, AB2QV

Under the guidance of their International Amateur Radio Unionmember-society, radio amateurs in Indonesia worked together toprovide communication support in the wake of the devastating tsunami.

�Zulu Stations� a Mainstayin Hard-Hit Indonesia

A post-tsunami aerialview of Calang inAceh Province.

May 2005 41

The first emergency command post wasset up in the emergency room of AdamMalik Hospital in Medan, the capital ofNorth Sumatra. A second was establishedin Melati Hospital in Perbaungan—withHertanto, YB6HB, a physician, coordinat-ing—to handle the initial evacuation ofvictims from Kuala Putri Beach on NorthSumatra’s east coast. Some of the injuredsubsequently were transferred to the hos-pital in Medan.

Several northern Sumatra hospitals ormedical centers, ambulance companies andother emergency mobile units wereequipped with emergency radio gear.Zulkarman Syafrin, YC6PLG, and Ady,YB6VK, in Medan relayed traffic betweenAmateur Radio and the Internet from north-ern Sumatra to many operators in Indone-sia and elsewhere in the world.

Ban Impedes Aceh ResponseIn Aceh, a bewildering situation existed.

Because of security concerns in reaction toa separatist movement there, authorities forseveral years now have banned AmateurRadio activity in the province. Many hamsin Aceh had to surrender their radio gearto the government. As a result, they werenot able to respond immediately to supportthe disaster relief, even though many of thehams there were well trained in emergencycommunication.

Despite the ban, Anto, YD6AT, set upan HF station two miles east of the capitalcity, Banda Aceh. Another operator,Nurbahagia—a nonham member of themilitary police in Lhokseumawe on Aceh’seast coast—took to the airwaves on VHF.Both operators were able to establish con-tact with stations in North Sumatra, includ-ing net control station YB6ZES in Medan,to report on devastation in their locales.ORARI soon granted Nurbahagia the callsign YC5ZAV. Another station in EasternAceh County joined the VHF repeater net,and ORARI granted it YB6ZAU.

Since almost all governmental offices inAceh were out of commission, Medan be-came the center of the emergency relief

Boyke, YC1DLV, from West Java, operatedzulu station YB6ZAT at Blang BintangAirbase, Banda Aceh.

The ORARI-ARESstation YB6ZBJ atthe Search andRescue commandpost in Banda Aceh.(L-R) unidentifiedoperator; RuddyAryanto, YBØNM; M.Rasidi, YCØFIM; MaxLaihan, YC8TMX;two unidentifiedoperators; FaisalAnwar, YB1PR; JerryMambu, YC8TZT, andHudi Indarto,YDØBIK.

effort. YB6ZES subsequently moved intothe building occupied by the nationalSearch and Rescue Bureau command postand by other emergency agencies at PoloniaAir Base in Medan. Zulu stations in north-ern Sumatra operated through two VHFrepeaters and on four HF bands—80, 40,20 and 15 meters. While VHF systemsproved useful, in northern Sumatra, HF wasable to overcome the region’s hilly andmountainous terrain, where VHF and UHFradios simply did not get through.

Deployment in Outlying AreasORARI of North Sumatra also assisted

the relief effort by gathering up radioequipment, antennas, power supplies andgenerators to set up zulu stations in addi-tional tsunami disaster areas. The organi-zation coordinated emergency activities inother districts of the country as well asthose of Amateur Radio volunteers whohad come from outside Indonesia to help.

Along with the local ORARI stations,IARES zulu stations on various Indonesianisland and even some amateur stations fromneighboring Malaysia were on duty nearlyround the clock monitoring HF frequenciesfor emergency traffic.

A Visit to AcehAt one point, Budi Rianto Halim,

YBØHD, deployed his IARES team fromJakarta to Aceh. Officials from ORARIHeadquarters in Jakarta, including Harsono,Faisal Anwar, YB1PR, and Ruddy,YBØNM, flew to northern Sumatra to ob-serve the dedicated Amateur Radio volun-teers firsthand. Their trip included a stop atthe Medan net control station YB6ZES.

During the tour of northern Sumatra,Ruddy said he was pleasantly surprised tolearn that several Malaysian amateurs whowere also doctors had joined the ORARI-ARES members in Banda Aceh. ORARIgranted the Malaysian amateurs the callsign YB6ZBE for their northern Sumatraoperation. The visitors had brought in afull complement of radio gear suitable foremergency service.

Ham is Tsunami VictimIn January a tsunami survivor in

Meulaboh, Aceh, found an Amateur Radiostation permit floating on the wet groundin woods away from the city. The survivorturned the document over to YB6ZAK, thezulu station at Chut Nya Dien Hospital,Meulaboh. It was later determined that thepermit had belonged to local engineerSyaiful Hadi, YD6EMF. The AmateurRadio search-and-rescue team located hisfamily, only to learn that Syaiful wasamong the tsunami victims.

Offroaders AssistIn Metro Jakarta, Triadi, YBØKVN, and

his team of radio amateurs helped the In-donesian Offroader Club to install zulu sta-tion YBØZRN at the club’s command postin Jakarta. This station was used to moni-tor and communicate with the other zulustations in the country—and especiallywith those in northern Sumatra.

The club itself went into emergencymode, using heavy-duty all-wheel drive ve-hicles—many equipped with GPS—to as-sist with local emergency transportation inAceh. Club field volunteers often coordi-nated with the local zulu and mobile stationsin Aceh to communicate among themselvesand with the club’s central command post.

More Zulu StationsAmong other zulu stations set up within

days of the tsunami was YB6ZAJ, a mo-bile station using the clinic van from AdamMalik Hospital, operated by Zulkarman,YC6PLG, and Suryatno, YC6HSS.Equipped with HF, VHF and UHF gear anda couple of handheld transceivers, the mo-bile medical unit carried six doctors, medi-cal supplies and equipment from DoctorSutomo Hospital in Surabaya, Java Island.

The mobile unit traveled from Medanto Banda Aceh along the eastern coast ofnorthern Sumatra, stopping at every com-munity medical center and hospital togather the medical data and tend to localneeds until it reached Chut Meutia Hospi-tal in Lhokseumawe, on the eastern coast

May 2005 43

of Aceh. The mobile unit regularly reportedinto the IARES net control station YB6ZESin Medan to request medical support forlocal relief centers.

Because of the overwhelming numberof refugees and the hundreds of dead atChut Meutia Hospital, the YB6ZAJ teamconverted the mobile unit into an emer-gency base station, changing the call signto YB6ZAV—an IARES medical base sta-tion at Chut Meutia Hospital.

Other zulu stations were set up in Acehprovince, including YB6ZAT at BlangBintang Air Base and YB6ZBJ at thePendopo Gubernur (provincial governmentbuilding), YB6ZBG at Syahkuala Univer-sity—all in Banda Aceh—plus YB6ZAM atLhoknga. Hudi, YDØBIK from Jakarta—one of the operators at YB6ZAM—con-tacted US amateur Earl Campbell, N8TV,of New Mexico, who was set up at theInternational Red Cross office in BandaAceh. Campbell assisted with a CB club sta-tion in the area as well as with the ORARIoperation in Banda Aceh. Campbell plansto remain in Aceh until July 2005.

Elsewhere in Aceh, YB6ZAP was on theair from Lamno’s emergency hospital,while YB6ZBB was set up at Teunom’semergency hospital, and YB6ZAW wasoperating from the hospital in Calang,YB6ZAB was on the air from the hospitalin Sigli, and YB6ZBC was set up at Doc-tor Fauziah Hospital in Bireuen.

Destruction in MeulabohIn Meulaboh, 90 miles from the

earthquake’s epicenter and badly damaged,several zulu stations were put on the air,including YB6ZAK from Chut Nyak DienHospital, YB6ZAO from the 100th Infan-try Battalion’s command post, YB6ZASfrom C Arsenal Company of 112th Infan-try Battalion, YB6ZBF from the damagedharbor and YB6ZAL in a mobile medicalunit. One of the YB6ZAK operators—Unggul, YHØSES, a former member of theAustralian radio amateur emergency ser-

vice—took on the role of interpreter for thehospital in dealing with the many volun-teers from outside the country, includingUS marines and their medical unit, andphysicians from other countries.

“Meulaboh was destroyed completely,like being hit by an atomic bomb,” Unggulsaid. “The smell of death surrounds us.”

Unggul said his group erected an an-tenna at the hospital in Meulaboh usingbamboo poles some 40 feet tall to supportit. “After some matching and radio check-ing, we were on the air . . . with the alloca-tion call sign YBØZRA/6 (later YB6ZAK,as assigned by YBØZZ).”

VIPs VisitIn late January, doctors from Japan, in-

cluding Sato, JR2TDE; Ando, JM2NDG,and Yahinuma, JH1P1P, joined YB6ZAKfor three weeks. The Amateur Radio emer-gency activity in Indonesia attractedmedia attention, with TV reporters fromChile and Switzerland visiting YB6ZESin Medan.

On January 20, Indonesian PresidentSusilo Bambang Yudhoyono and NorthSumatra Gov T. Rizal Nurdin honoredYB6ZES with a personal visit. The presi-dent asked how IARES could help disasterrelief. Rangkuti, YC6IQ—one of theYB6ZES operators—explained that Ama-teur Radio was able to establish emergencyradio stations and provide local and long-distance communication after the collapseof the telecommunication infrastructure.Radio communication was crucial to alldisaster relief participants and to supplytimely aid to tsunami victims, he said.

President Yudhoyono also was curiousabout the kinds of problems operators facedin disaster areas in establishing radiocom-munication. Some common problems,Rangkuti noted, included a shortage of bat-teries and generator fuel as well as a lackof skilled operators. But, he pointed out,such problems typically are solved sooneror later since Amateur Radio is an indepen-

dent operation.In late January, ORARI’s North

Sumatra Secretary Baharuddin, YC6MWI,accompanied Zulkiffley Darus, an AmateurRadio aid relief project leader fromMalaysia, on a visit to the disaster areas.Zulkiffley told reporters in Medan that thefirst that some Malaysian amateurs hadheard about the tsunami was by monitor-ing the HF and VHF frequencies in use byORARI-ARES for exchanging emergencytraffic. The Malaysian amateurs establisheda tsunami relief project that collected tow-els, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, sham-poo and other basic needs, and membersof ASTRA, their Amateur Radio organi-zation and other donors pledged some$56,000 to help the families of disaster vic-tims as well as survivors. The project hadthe support of the Malaysian government.

In addition, the project also deployed 21Malaysian medical relief volunteers whowere ready to serve the tsunami victims anddistribute some medicine in Banda Aceh andMeulaboh. They planned to extend theirsupport to tsunami victims on Nias Islandoff the west coast of North Sumatra.

Some Gave AllMore than one radio operator may have

become an indirect victim of the tsunami.After operating at IARES station YBØZZ inJakarta for the better part of 15 days straight,Maliki, YCØXSM, from Jakarta died Janu-ary 11. Achadi Isnaryanto, YC1IHD, fromWest Java, died in Banda Aceh March 3,following several weeks of nonstop volun-teering. YCØXSM and YC1IHD wereamong many heroic Amateur Radio volun-teers in Indonesia who never gave up in theirefforts to help others during the tsunami di-saster relief effort.

AcknowledgementsHarsono, YBØPHM and Faisal Anwar,

YB1PR, of ORARI Headquarters; RuddyAryanto, YBØNM, and Budi Halim,YBØHD, from ORARI-ARES in Jakarta,and Zulkarman Syafrin, YC6PLG, fromORARI-ARES in Medan for sharing theinformation used in this account.

Wyn W. Purwinto, AB2QV, of Syracuse, NewYork, is a native of Java Island, Indonesia.As an educational researcher, he’s visitedseveral Southeast Asian islands, and in 1983through 1985 he conducted research in north-ern Sumatra and several other islands in theregion under sponsorship of the World Bankand the UNDP-UNESCO. Several of thecoastal towns in Aceh he’d visited in 1985were among those hit by the tsunami. AnARRL member, he belongs to three ham ra-dio clubs. An Amateur Extra class license,he has been an authorized volunteer exam-iner with the ARRL-VEC and W5YI-VECsince 2003.

FAISAL ANWAR, YB1PR

The YB6ZAM zulu station in Lhoknga, a coastal village near Banda Aceh.