Equipping for disaster response

Please pray that:

• participants will be able to develop balanced material for programmes
• participants will find good contacts to interview and can draw out the information that they need
• for everyone’s health as they go into the field, especially as they will be working with little sleep

Easy does it?
The ability to set up a radio station within 72 hours of a disaster happening relies heavily on having available equipment that is suitable, quick and efficient for the task. It is critical that it is easily transportable into the disaster area, robust enough for rough handling and simple enough, especially for inexperienced staff, to set up and use under pressure. All of these factors are true of the Chrysolite ‘suitcase studio’ designed by Feba audio engineers. The latest version, the Mark 5, is being used in this FIRST Response field trial.

Setting up portable studio and transmitter

Mike Adams, facilitator of the trial says: “We are looking forward to using the Mark 5 Chrysolite studio in a suitcase because it’s portable, it’s compact and it’s all in one suitcase.” The Chrysolite has proven itself in the past when the Mark 4 version was used in the Philippines field trial last year. Arriving at the police headquarters, setting up on the roof and starting to broadcast only took 45 minutes, so the Chrysolite is certainly simple to use, as Mike says: “You open it up, you plug it in, you turn it on, you start recording - you start doing radio right away.”

Included in the Chrysolite is a small mixer, a laptop computer for recording, a CD player to play music and a small digital recorder for making field recordings. The Mark 5 has been developed to be used as a simple ‘on-air’ studio when connected to a transmitter, or when fitted with the optional low power (1 watt) internal FM exciter. To find out more about the Chrysolite Mark 5, view a video clip here

Normally a FM transmitter, also in a suitcase, would be part of the kit, but for this field trial a FM radio transmitter is being provided by NOMAD, a community radio consultancy in India. Although it’s not in a suitcase, the same demands are being made of it. It has to be small and portable, robust for travel in an airplane and van out to the Tamil Nadu coastal region, and then has to be quick to assemble and start working right away. “At midnight on the first night we’ll be putting this thing up and starting transmission from midnight onwards of the first day of the field exercise,” says Mike.

Radios in times of disaster

In responding to a disaster it is important that those affected are able to receive the broadcasts of critical information, so radios for distribution are an essential part of the kit. Mike explains: “We can’t assume that people will still have radios, especially after a disaster. People who survived the tsunami were lucky to just get away with their lives and maybe the shirt on their backs, so we have to be prepared to give away radios.” Following a real disaster radios will be passed to relief agencies to include with other non-food items distributed to disaster victims.

A small number of radios are being distributed as part of the field trial to get staff used to this part of disaster response. FM, battery-powered radios, purchased cheaply in a local market will be distributed as gifts to people who have been interviewed or have helped with the radio station. A box of 20 wind-up radios will come with the kit, as they also receive short wave.

Routing programmes over Internet
During this field trial, programmes will be broadcast on short wave as well as FM, which requires a broadband Internet connection. The short wave programmes will be sent over the Internet to a short wave transmitter, to be broadcast back into India. In a real disaster situation this would be achieved in partnership with a relief organisation that would set up an Internet satellite dish, but for the field trial an Internet connection has been set up in a house in Nagapattinam. Should that fail, the team will be dependent on the local Internet café and may even test that out as their backup plan. “We want to run it through the whole system and then hear that programme come back over the short wave radio for our listeners, so that we can say we’ve completed the loop,” Mike explains.

Please remember to pray for the equipment and Internet connection during the trial, as its smooth working is vital in disaster radio response.

Feba Radio, registered charity no. 257343. Company no. 940492. Feba UK is a member of the Evangelical Alliance, Global Connections and FEB Radio International. Feba, Ivy Arch Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 8BX, UK