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News about GEM

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October 18, 2015 – KA1AAA – Gem Activation Level One Typhoon Koppu
Typhoon Koppu, known as Lando in the Philippines, is drenching the country’s main northern island of Luzon and will continue to do so for several days, bringing a risk of life-threatening flash floods and mudslides. Among the hardest-hit areas are the eastern coastal town of Baler, where significant building damage was reported Sunday morning; and the inland city of Cabanatuan, about 60 miles north of Manila, where widespread flooding was reported and several rescues requested. Power outages were reported province wide in Pangasinan, Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Apayao, and Kalinga, according to the Philippines National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. At least two deaths have been blamed on Koppu and several others are missing.

Based on JTWC data, Koppu (Lando) is the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone on Luzon in five years. The most ominous threat for the Philippines, however, should be its prolific rainfall as it grinds across the mountains and valleys of Luzon, the main island of the northern Philippines and home to almost half of the country’s 98 million people.

August 27, 2015 – KA1AAA – GEM activated to LEvel 2 monitoring Hurricane Erika.
SUMMARY OF 800 AM AST…1200 UTC…INFORMATION
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LOCATION…17.7N 68.5W
ABOUT 90 MI…145 KM ESE OF SANTO DOMINGO DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
ABOUT 385 MI…620 KM SE OF GREAT INAGUA ISLAND
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…50 MPH…85 KM/H
PRESENT MOVEMENT…WNW OR 290 DEGREES AT 17 MPH…28 KM/H
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…1006 MB…29.71 INCHES

April 25, 2015 – KA1AAA – Gem activated for 2 events. The Chile Volcano and the NePal Earthquake.
All systems are on standby for both of these events for Health and Welfare traffic. The GEM_INTL conference server is online as well as the *KA1AAA* server in Private mode for secure conversations.

March 15, 2015 –  KA1AAA – GEM was activated to Level 2 in response to the weather related disaster in Vanuatu.

GEM was activated for the Typhoon Hugapit that rolled through the Philipines.

We activated up to Level 2 and rolled it back to level One. The event was well managed by PARA/HERO as they learned with the Typhoon a year ago and made a lot of changes to their response procedures. GEM stayed on stand by until we were no longer needed to stand by.

We received an email from PARA thanking us.

Van: Thelma Pascua [mailto: [email protected] ]
Verzonden: Montag, 8. Dezember 2014 08:44
Aan: Mike Koopsen
CC: PARA
Onderwerp: Re: Emergency Typhoon Hagupit (Ruby)

Hello Mike, PC1MK / DD4MK,

I could not help but notice that you are a PARA Lifetime International Associate Member (LIAM). Thank you for believing in the national association for the amateur radio service in the Philippines – PARA.

Please tell Ray, KA1AAA and the rest of the responsible and civic minded individuals and entities in GEM that we are sincerely grateful to the offers of support and their willingness to relay traffic for us.

As you probably know Mike, the Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands. Our need for stable communications is driven by geography but unfortunately, our local government units have unequal levels of development and growth. For example, internet is quite sufficient in Metro Manila but in the poor provinces of Samar, it is woefully inadequate. For this reason, most of our public service activities during emergencies, especially the linkages between the serviced area and the HERO network, are done on purely RF. If cellular signals are available in the affected areas, then it lightens our load and HERO is terminated immediately after the relief and other agencies have began their work. Local clubs usually refocus their efforts to local matters once HERO is stood down.

What we need is a robust network that can link to the internet at all times. Also, we noticed how helpful even a small weather station kit is in provinces

Thanks and regards.

73

Thelma C. Pascua, DU1IVT

PARA Chief Operating Officer

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Activation of GEM-Spain.es and Gem-spain.org

EA150201, Tomas will be administering the website both the GEM-spain.es (July 2013) and Gem-spain.org (Jan 2014)

NOV 2013:

Typhoon Haiyan-13

GEM was activated to a Level 2 and rolled back to level One oinitoring the natural disaster in the Philippines. GEM has been active on the WINMOR mode  with DK3CW and his contacts in the Philippines and G4HPE has also been working the same mode. We have recieved some requests that are still being worked in the database. KA1AAA has a contact in Montreal who has contacts in CEBU in the Philippines and has been passing H&W information to the Island nation.

No formal net activation was declared for this however we have been monitoring and are ready to activate our members at any given moment.

EUREC-DL 2012

This national conference provides current information on the topic of emergency radio.  The event is primarily aimed at representatives of the authorities and organisations with security tasks as well as anyone with an interest in emergency communications whether professional or voluntary.

In addition to presentations on current issues and developments in the field of emergency radio, the event will have an exhibition featuring interesting products and emergency radio equipment.  Practical demonstrations from various emergency communications groups will complete the programme.

The event offers a unique opportunity for discussions between representatives of both authorities, aid agencies and communications providers, as well as between different organisations.

The organisers look forward to welcoming you 7 to 9 September 2012.  Registration is open to all interested parties at www.eurec-dl.de.  GEM is very proud that its Board Member Thomas Full DG1FDV is one of the organisers of the event and he may be contacted by  email (click on this link).

The location is the District Office in gross-Gareau, near Frankfurst, Germany.