The Black Saturday Fires Amateur Radio Emergency Response

1. Tony VK3JED April 5 2009 With Assistance from Mark VK3XMU, WICEN Victoria The Black Saturday FiresAmateur Radio Emergency Response 1

2. Contents Meteorology • The 12 Year Drought • January 2009 Heatwave • Feb 7, 2009 "Black Saturday WICEN Victoria Activation Details of WICEN Victoria Activation The HF to VoIP Link • System Design and Implementation for WICEN Activation • Block Diagram • Future Upgrades Thanks 2

3. The 12 Year Drought • The state of Victoria has experienced an extended period of below average rainfall, since the mid 1990s.   • Melbourne's rainfall has been 20% below the long term average during this period. • Prolonged dry conditions have caused forest fuels to dry out and become highly flammable. 3

4. January 2009 Heatwave • January 28-30 saw some extreme heatwave  conditions in Southeastern Australia. • Many notable high temperature events occurred: • Most consecutive days over 43C in Melbourne (3), accompanied by low humidity (5-8%). • Equaling the most consecutive overnight minimum temperatures over 20C (68F) - 6 (29 Jan - 3 Feb), set in 1908. • 2nd (Jan 30 45.1C), and 4th (Jan 28)  highest temperatures recorded in Melbourne (relegated to 3rd and 5th highest respectively after Feb 7). 4

5. "Black Saturday" - Feb 7, 2009. • February 7 2009 had all the ingredients for a severe fire day.  The Fire Danger index exceeded 200, the highest value ever recorded.  50 is considered "extreme" •  Temperatures reached a record 46.4C in Melbourne (47.5 in the western suburbs). • Wind speeds exceeded 100km/h as the pre-frontal trough passed.  • A meteorological report on the  heatwave can be downloaded from http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/statements/scs17c.pdf . 5

6. "Black Saturday" - Feb 7, 2009. • Several major fires broke out across Victoria during the day.  At least 2 were deliberately lit. • Over 450,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) were burned. • Over 2000 houses were destroyed, 3500 buildings total.  Several towns were virtually wiped off the map. • 173 lives were lost. • At least one "pyrotornado" was observed at the height of the fires. 6

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8. WICEN Victoria Activation - 1 • WICEN was activated on Feb 9, 2009. • Initial task was to provide a radio link between the devastated town of Kinglake and the Alexandra MECC (Municipal Emergency Coordination Centre). Links were implemented using HF and VHF. • Once regular communications were restored to Kinglake, WICEN operators were utilised to operate CFA and DSE radios at the Alexandra ICC (Incident Command Centre).  A team of 5 operators was used to staff the Alexandra ICC and MECC. • A WICEN operator assisted with restoration of broadcast services at Flowerdale. 8

9. WICEN Victoria Activation - 2 • WICEN provided a link between Alexandra and Narbethong, until phone services were restored, using 2metres and 6 metres.  Two operators were used for 3 days for this role. • A team of firefighters was deployed to McAdams Hill.  Due to uncertainties with coverage of the SMR (State Mobile Radio) and mobile phones, WICEN was used to provide backup communications on HF and UHF. • WICEN operators were utilised at 3 more ICCs, towards the end of the activation. • A WICEN operator was utilised at Wesburn Airbase for "flight following", until the base was closed after the fires. 9

10. WICEN Victoria Activation - 3 • During the activation, a regular HF WICEN net was held on 3.600 MHz every day at 10:00 and 21:30 local time (UTC+11).  This net fulfilled several purposes: • Kept WICEN members and the wider Amateur community informed. • Deployed operators send situation reports to admin. • WICEN Admin publicised shifts and called for volunteers. • Amateurs tested their emergency comms capabilities. • From 27 Feb, activity on the 3.600 MHz WICEN frequency was linked to EchoLink to allow global monitoring. 10

11. WICEN Victoria Activation -4 • Extensive use of non radio media were utilised by WICEN during the activation.  WICEN's callout system uses mobile phone SMS, and many deployments were arranged by phone.  Email was used to send Activation Updates to members and volunteers.  These updates were also posted on the web. • Statistics over the 28 day activation - • 52 operators deployed - 36 WICEN (Vic), 16 non WICEN (Vic).  • 4 interstate operators deployed. • HF Net - 53 nets, 3 NCOs, 617 total checkins. • 80 stations checked in (VK3 - 67, VK2 - 5, VK4 - 1, VK7 - 3) 11

12. HF to VoIP Link • A HF to VoIP link was utilised to relay traffic from 3.600 MHz to EchoLink. • The link was based on a design that was utilised on 2m SSB for 2 years.  • The interface had to reject channel noise, yet detect speech close to the noise floor on a noisy SSB channel. • The design utilises a commercially built DSP noise reduction unit, followed by a custom designed PIC based controller. • To minimise noise pickup from the PC, a UHF link was utilised between the HF radio and the PC.  12

13. HF to EchoLink Block Diagram 13

14. HF to VoIP Link - Future Upgrades • The HF link can be easily upgraded to full transmit/receive capability by adding a UHF receiver at the HF radio end, and the appropriate audio and PTT lines at the EchoLink PC.  The PIC controller is designed for full transceive operation. • The current DSP has issues under certain signal conditions.  If the speech detection could be completely implemented in software, the system would be more reliable.   • Failing full digital implementation, some interference can be prevented from triggering the VOX by simply filtering off the higher audio frequencies before the peak detector.  • The system needs to be moved to a quiet country location for best performance. 14

15. Thanks • Australian Bureau of Meteorology - for the meterological information presented here. • Mark A Dods VK3XMU - for details regarding the WICEN (Vic) activation. 15