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Humanitarian mission in the Philippines
At the beginning of December 2006, typhoon Durian swept through the Philippines with speeds of up to 230 km/h, hitting the region of Bicol particularly. On the isolated island of Catanduanes, the entire communications system broke down. Contact to the disaster area via mobile radio or landline network was cut off, making it impossible to coordinate the necessary relief efforts. The Philippine National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) called on Rohde & Schwarz (Philippines) Inc. to provide an emergency HF communications system. Within only three days, Rohde & Schwarz installed a stable HF voice and data connection between the disaster area and Manila free of charge.
Durian was the fourth tropical storm to hit the Philippines within three months. The typhoon caused severe damage to the island's water, power and communications infrastructure. It also devastated houses, buried entire villages and left about 45 000 people homeless. During a humanitarian mission of this kind, every hour counts. The team of Rohde & Schwarz (Philippines) Inc. therefore had to act fast to install the urgently needed shortwave communications system.??The engineers first installed a 150 W shortwave station from the R&S XK2000 HF transceiver family at the headquarters of the NDCC in Quezon City, near Manila. The following afternoon, the team went to Catanduanes aboard a military transport aircraft, carrying the second station of the R&S XK2000 and a mobile HF antenna. ??Only two hours after their arrival, the system was ready for operation at the regional seat of the Catanduanes government. Via a radio link to the station in Manila, the governor of Catanduanes issued a report on the extent of the damage caused by the disaster to the NDCC headquarters. Now it was possible to coordinate all humanitarian and technical relief efforts via voice, fax and e-mail.??The HF system was in operation for mission and logistics news 24 hours a day and was operated by NDCC personnel. The NDCC made especially active use of the HF system's data transmission. After three weeks, the regular mobile and landline networks were again ready for operation, allowing the HF system to be removed from operation.??The R&S XK2000 makes it possible to provide reliable and independent voice, data and fax connection free of charge and automatically. Thus, it has proven its success as an optimum ad hoc communications solution between the disaster area and the capital as well as a supplement to expensive satellite connections.
