IEEE Radio and Antenna Days of the Indian Ocean 23-26 September 2019 - PDF document

IEEE Radio and Antenna Days of the Indian Ocean 23-26 September 2019 / Reunion Island http://www.radiosociety.org/radio2019/ Thank you for inviting me to participate in this symposium. I m Patrick BENARD president of our amateur radio association ARRA since 20 years. Our association exists since 1975 and we have about 30 members. We try to animate the activity by developping radio vhf network, we organize training sessions to prepare amateur radio exam, wokshops on new technology by ex satellite communication on quatar QO100 (http://www.arra.re/telechargement/iee2019/atelier-qo100). Sometimes we enjoy radio on fieldday operation outside our house or DX expedition like (http://www.arra.re/nouveautes/vie- associative/en-une/172-dx-pedition-3b9run) we did in Rodrigues island last year. But there is an area that we would like to develop further is the resilience to assist communities more effectively in the event of natural disasters. Imagine you wake up in the morning, a terrible hurrciane like Irma or dorion moved across the island during the night AND no electricity, telephon cellular tv broadcast channels all out is of order… But you are an amateur radio and you have 2 transceivers HF and VHF a battery car and about 20 meter of electric wire which will be your antenna . Your amateur radio antennas are obvouisly also down… You can communicate with this equipment. Just throw the electric wire with a slingshot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEwSxsRKc5w&feature=youtu.be tune it and you are ready to communicate on low HF bands with others amateur radio on the island or in Indian Ocean. Propagation on low hf bands depends of the local time, better in the morning and the evening… But you can also use VHF to communicate with another guy who is closed to you. Our vhf transceivers could be turned in repeater mode transponder so we are able to quickly build a VHF network with these kind of radio relays. Pending the restoration of the official communication networks like in Saint Martin (more than 6 days long) we could set up a first emergency network using our allocated frequencies and our technical skills. It s this reselience we would like to increase. Now i ll try to share our experience , explain how we developped these technical skills and identified some opportunities for better response to natural desaster. 1 Patrick BENARD (FR5FC) Fr5fc.patrick@gmail.com Portail.arra.re

A. Our VHF UHF Networks Currently 5 sub-VHF-UHF networks composed of transponders (about fifteen deployed on the island by ARRA) connected on a local server by the Internet , allow a quasi-total radio coverage of Reunion Island. Raspberry PI are used for connection to the Internet : http://www.arra.re/telechargement/iee2019/rpi-sdr.jpg See our repeater link and coverage on http://carto.arra.re (overlaps layers are available : west, east…) Mauritius island network is also connected to our server. Activity of theses sub network are visibles on a dashboard : http://rroi.arra.re We plan to interconnect 5R8 3B9… on our Indian Ocean repeater network (rroi.arra.re) It is important to note that these 5 subnets can be interconnected by radio in case of failure of the Internet (degraded audio in this case). In the afternoon these 5 sub networks are connected to the French Repeater Network (more than 100 amateur radio relay stations in France and in Overseas Departments of France) http://rrf.f5nlg.ovh/ via a server based in mainland France. The association is also involved in the radio safety of car rallies by setting up VHF radio networks where cellular coverage is not ensured. Relays mounted on vehicles provide these links. http://www.arra.re/nouveautes/vie-associative/en-une/164-securite-radio-du-46-eme-auto These acquired skills could be used in the case of a request by an official authority to quickly set up a UHF/VHF radio network between 2 geographical points B. HF Networks Amateur radio provides many HF frequency bands and they are able to use the better band depending on the hour, the season to establish a contact with a very far station. Digital modes like FT8 mode allow far contacts with very weak signals in case of very bad wave propagation. In case of satellite official failure, or Internet submarine cable failure (South Africa Far East cable). C. Satellite Networks Since some months amateur provides a geostanoory satellite QO100 which gives a permanent contact with a large part of the world http://www.arra.re/telechargement/iee2019/qo100coverage.png 2 Patrick BENARD (FR5FC) Fr5fc.patrick@gmail.com Portail.arra.re

We could be indeed deployed quickly in Indian Ocean, particularly in Madagascar, which is regularly hit by hurricanes and is often poor in terms of communication. D. Interconnectivity with official network Our radio network could be very quickly opened to official authority. We have an Internet gateway (our local mumble server). So authority could speak over our network if required in case of emergency. E. IV. PROVISION OF WEATHER DATA ARRA has installed its first weather station (http://stations.meteor-oi.re/GDI1340/) in Salazie addind its equipment to a partner weather network (http://stations.meteor-oi.re/). The data transits via the Internet to a server in Reunion Island but the goal is to use radio link s etting up an Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) network to ensure that the feedback of these information flows in the event of a failure of the Internet. In times of cyclones, the availability of weather information on several points of the island could prove very useful in the decision-making by the officials. Raspberry pi are also used to connect weather station to the Internet. F. IV. PROVISION OF ADSB AND AIS DATA ARRA has installed Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) beacon receivers (SDR USB dongle) to locate in real time the position of aircrafts (within a 500 km radius). The data feed a local server (screenshot :http://www.arra.re/telechargement/iee2019/ecran-adsb.PNG )(local server : http://adsb.arra.re ) via the Internet but, as is the case for the weather data, the future network APRS could be used. In case of black out knowing aircraft position could be useful… Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers (SDR USB dongle) allowing to locate the position of boats within a radius of 500 km, were also installed (screenshot : http://www.arra.re/telechargement/iee2019/tropo-5R8.PNG) (Server : http://ais.arra.re Our local server provides the datas which could be used by officials to divert a boat in case of a necassary emergency evacuation…. We would like to also use the future APRS network to carry these datas. Raspberry pi are also used to connect ais and ads-b SDR receiver to the Internet : http://www.arra.re/telechargement/iee2019/rpi-sdr.jpg 3 Patrick BENARD (FR5FC) Fr5fc.patrick@gmail.com Portail.arra.re

G. Amateur internet network call hamnet We are connected to the network Highspeed Amateur radio Multimedia Network (HAMNET) by a backbone to mainland France through a Virtual Private Network and we provide 2 access point on 2.3ghz , a web server (http://44.168.52.2 ), 1 webcam. Our hamnet wifi access point of this private network could be opened to public in case of inoperative traditional network. After a disaster people are lookink for internet network to communicate with familily… The powers allowed to amateur on the Super High Frequency (SHF) bands also suggest enormous possibilities such as the connection to computer peripherals located on remote and inaccessible sites (e.g. webcams and sensors that need high speed for the transfer of information). CONCLUSION We are currently pursuing 3 goals designed to consolidate APRS network to carry low throughput data AIS and ADS-B AND Hamnet network for high throwput to connect webcam or to deploy VOIP transmission… But the most important goal is to encourage people to become amateur radio operator and participate to expand this human network with guys able to quickly restablish links between people. Don t forget that In the current context of global warming, our tropical islands are particularly impacted by more and more powerful and frequent cyclones. In Reunion Island, there are further risks of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis. Amateur radio is a community inherently resilient to natural disasters Thank you ! 4 Patrick BENARD (FR5FC) Fr5fc.patrick@gmail.com Portail.arra.re