The eight amateurs from Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) who were operating under the callsign HI8RCD/HH have had to abort their operations after the convoy they were travelling in was fired on. News is also being received of two new stations which it is hoped will become active soon.

EB9GF, who is integrated in the Spanish Red Cross contingent, was able to contact the colleagues from the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD). The RCD has currently two VHF repeaters in use for operations:

- 146.970 (-600), CTCSS 100 Hz. Placed in the Dominican Republic. Please note that the old frequency 147.970 seems to be wrong.
- 145.350 (-600), CTCSS 100 Hz. New repeater active near the border with Haiti.

RCD initially reported that their team crossed the Haitian border at 10:50 hours Haitian time arriving at the Dominican Embassy in Haiti at 14:29 hours when they started installing and testing their equipment.

Within a few hours though, reports via the RCD Facebook page confirmed by a long telephone conversation between Hugo Ramón HI8VRS and Ramon Sanyoyo V, XE1KK reported that the HI8RCD team of eight amateurs, were back in the border town of Jimani (Dominican Republic). Their convoy, which included other non related Dominicans, was assaulted and one person reported dead.

The Radio Amateurs were uninjured but decided to leave the capital for safety and return to the border unescorted. They report the situation as extremely unsafe and scary.

The repeaters they have installed remain in service linking the Haitian and Dominican capitals,  and are being used by the Red Cross and Civil Defense since there is no other way to communicate. The station at the Embassy in Haiti could not be activated though.

To confirm, all members of the HCD team are safe and have returned to Jimanji in the Dominican Republic.

In other reports, John Henault HH6JH who is engaged in Missionary work with homeless children in Port au Prince continues to make contacts on 20m using power from a neighbour's generator and very pleased that amateur radio enabled him to let his friends in the USA know he was alive.

Another radio amateur in the country, Pierre Petry HH2/HB9AMO who works for the UN food program is also safe. However nothing is known at this stage of about another ten hams in Haiti.

HK3L is due to start operating on 7.085MHz as part of a Colombian relief effort. This frequency has been chosen because of the QRM which continues to operations on 7.045MHz.

It is also believed that S57CQ/ST2T Dane Novrlic of the UN-WFP is in Haiti but there is no information about whether he is active.

Thanks to Ismael EA4FSI, Cesar HR2P, Magdi ST2M and Jim VK3PC for their reports.

Frequencies in use from Haiti are now believed to be: 14.300MHz, 14.265MHz, 7.045MHz , 7.065MHz, 7.265MHz, 3.720MHz,  3.977MHz and a 2m repeated on 147.970MHz. The International Radio Emergency Support Coalition (IRESC) is also active on EchoLink node 278173 Please keep clear of these frequencies even if you cannot hear any emergency traffic - stations in the area are low powered and may suffer interference. Interesting news from the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) group in Facebook ( Translation by Ismael EA4FSI ):

"During the night of the tragedy, amateur radio operators received a message from the Dominican Red Cross, requesting the use of an amateur radio repeater in order to establish communications between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This repeater started to operate immediately, with the assistance of Mr Joal Cleto HI8RYF and Mr Angel Carpio HI8ABC. Mr Joal Cleto is now leading another group installing additional repeaters in order to improve the communications.

The Radio Club Dominicano has sent communication teams to the neighbour country, in the hope of transmitting from the Dominican Embassy Pétionville, in the following frequencies:  7.045, 7.065, 7.265 and 3.720 (recommended for disasters by IARU) and the 2m repeater in 147.970.

The hams which will operate the Radio Club Dominicano station with callsign HI8RCD/HH are:

Teddy Jimenez HI3TEJ
Candido Guzmán HI8CJG
Fausto Alvarado HI8FLB

We would like to thank Mr. Goyco, who offered the transport logistics to the neighbour country, and INDOTEL for granting the frequencies."

Some status reports are now coming from Haiti but at the moment , no data regarding survivors or any other 'Health and Welfare' traffic is currently being passed. Anyone trying to trace family or friends in Haiti should register their details with the International Federation of the Red Cross at;

http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/web/doc/siterfl0.nsf/htmlall/familylinks-haiti-eng?opendocument

The ICRC are co-operating with the Haitian Red Cross Society and other Red Cross/ Red Crescent societies around the world to accelerate the process of restoring contact between separated family members. Further amateur radio support is on its way to the island, Victor Baez, HI8VB, Secretary of the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) reports that the RCD with UDRA, Unión Dominicana de Radio Aficionados, are preparing to go to Port au Prince early morning of Friday January 15 to install an emergency radio Communications stastion, HI8RCD/HH, and a mobile station. Victor has a blog which hopefully he will update with more news from Haiti: www.hi8vb.tk

Some countries in Region 1 have activated their own stations to respond to the disaster, Jari Perkiömäki, OH6BG has produced some propagation predictions for 40m and 20m assuming the transmitter has an output power of 10 watts (very low power) and a compromise antenna. On all receiver sites on the map (there are hundreds of similar receivers in a grid), it is assumed that there is an antenna whose gain is equivalent to that of an 3-element Yagi and is 55 ft (appr. 17 meters) above the ground. His predictions can be downloaded from:

 http://www.voacap.com/hh.zip - 7Mhz propagation predictions

http://www.voacap.com/hh14b.zip - 14MHz propagation predictions

Alonso EA3EPH has produced an alternative MUF prediction available in Spanish at;

http://www.ipellejero.es/remer/emercomms/Estudio_Circuitos_HF_desde_Puerto_Principe.pdf

Live feeds are available on the internet from receivers better placed in Region 2 where any traffic can be monitored, these feeds are available at http://bit.ly/69Mqbr

Radio communications has now been established with HH6JH in Haiti, frequencies in use for this disaster are now: 14.300MHz, 14.265MHz, 7.045MHz , 7.265MHz, and 3.977MHz. The International Radio Emergency Support Coalition (IRESC) is also active on EchoLink node 278173 Information from www.arrl.org and CQ/WorldRadio Online Newsroom

From the CQ / WorldRadio Online Newsroom:

Some ham radio activity from Haiti is beginning to be heard, following yesterday’s devastating earthquake.

Father John Henault, HH6JH, in Port-au-Prince, made contact late Wednesday morning with the Intercontinental Assistance and Traffic Net (IATN) on 14.300 MHz, the IARU Global Centre of Activity frequency for emergency communications. Based on relays monitored at W2VU, Father John reported that he and those with him were safe, but had no power and no phone service. He was operating on battery power and hoping to get a generator running later in the day. He asked the station copying him, William Sturridge, KI4MMZ, in Flagler Beach, Florida, to telephone relatives with information that he was OK.

The following frequencies are in use for earthquake-related traffic and should be kept clear unless you are able to provide requested assistance: 14300 (IATN), 14265 (SATERN); 7045 (IARU Region II) and 3720 (IARU Region II) kHz. Additional frequencies may be activated on different bands at different times of day, so be sure to listen carefully before transmitting to make sure you are not interfering with emergency traffic.

We will continue to provide updates as information becomes available.

– The editors

Radio amateurs are requested to keep 7.045MHz and 3.720MHz clear for any emergency traffic resulting from the Earthquake which struck Haiti on 12th January 2010 in case any Haitian hams manage to get on the air, and in case of other related events in surrounding areas, including aftershocks.

Arnie Coro, CO2KK, IARU-R2 Area C Emergency Coordinator calls reported at 0245 UTC that they haven't been able to communicate with any radio amateur in Haiti but if there is presence from amateurs from other countries in the area that also felt the tremor. We ask for your support to keep this frequencies clear.  

 "A few minutes after the earthquake was felt in eastern Cuba's cities, the Cuban Federation of Radio Amateurs Emergency Net was activated, with net control stations CO8WM and CO8RP located in the city of Santiago de Cuba, and in permanent contact with the National Seismology Center of Cuba located in that city.

Stations in the city of Baracoa, in Guantanamo province, were also activated immediately as the earth movements were felt even stronger there, due to its proximity to Haiti. CO8AZ and CO8AW went on the air immediately , with CM8WAL following. At the early phase of the emergency, the population of the city of Baracoa was evacuated far away from the coast, as there was a primary alert of a possible tsunami event or of a heavy wave trains sequence impacting the coast line at the city's sea wall ...

Baracoa could not contact Santiago de Cuba stations on 40 meters due to long skip after 5 PM local time, so several stations in western Cuba and one in the US State of Florida provided relays. CO2KK, as IARU Region II Area C Emergency Coordinator, helped to organize the nets , on 7045 kHz and also on 3720 kHz, while local nets in Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa operated on 2 meters.As late as 9,45 PM local time 0245 UTC we have not been able to contact any amateur or emergency services stations in Haiti.

The following is from an e-mail from CO2KK posted to the CQ/WorldRadio Online Newsroom:

A few minutes after the earthquake was felt in eastern Cuba's cities, the Cuban Federation of Radio Amateurs Emergency Net was activated, with net control stations CO8WM and CO8RP located in the city of Santiago de Cuba, and in permanent contact with the National Seismology Center of Cuba located in that city.

Stations in the city of Baracoa, in Guantanamo province, were also activated immediately as the earth movements were felt even stronger there, due to its proximity to Haiti. CO8AZ and CO8AW went on the air immediately , with CM8WAL following. At the early phase of the emergency, the population of the city of Baracoa was evacuated far away from the coast, as there was a primary alert of a possible tsunami event or of a heavy wave trains sequence impacting the coast line at the city's sea wall ...

Baracoa could not contact Santiago de Cuba stations on 40 meters due to long skip after 5 PM local time, so several stations in western Cuba and one in the US State of Florida provided relays. CO2KK, as IARU Region II Area C Emergency Coordinator, helped to organize the nets , on 7045 kHz and also on 3720 kHz, while local nets in Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa operated on 2 meters.

As late as 9,45 PM local time 0245 UTC we have not been able to contact any amateur or emergency services stations in Haiti.

Amateurs from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela were monitoring the 40 meter band frequency, that I notified to the IARU Region II executive Ramon Santoyo XE1KK as in use for the emergency, requesting that 7045 kHz be kept as clear as possible ...

We are still keeping watch on 7045 kHz hoping that someone in Haiti may have access to a transceiver and at least a car battery to run it.

All information that has so far come from the Cuban seismologists tell us of a very intense earthquake, and also of the possibility of other events following.

Following the advice of the geophysicists, we are keeping the 7045 and 3720 kiloHertz frequencies active until further notice.

Information from Ramon Santoyo V, XE1KK, Jim Linton VE3PC and the CQ/WorldRadio online news room.