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<H1>Amateur Radio in Spanish Emergency Exercises</H1>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>IARU Region 1 carries a report by <STRONG>G0DUB</STRONG> on
the involvement of Spanish Radio Amateurs in two major emergency communications
exercises.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Spanish Radio Amateurs have been involved with two major
exercises recently, raising the profile of the Amateur Service and testing their
own skills.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>In the first exercise several teams of the Spanish
Emergency Radio Network (REMER, Red Radio de Emergencia), a group of 4000
amateur radio operators which is integrated in the Spanish General Directorate
of Civil Protection and Emergencies, participated in the international exercise
PRES EU 2010, which took place at the Madrid Barajas International Airport on
June 26th</STRONG>. This exercise was funded as part of European Union Project
"<STRONG>EU Rapid Response Capability 7</STRONG>".</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>The exercise simulated an accident resulting from a plane
leaving the runway on landing and crashing into a building in which radioactive
substances for hospital use were stored. This exercise envisaged the possibility
of a large number of victims of different nationalities and the activation of
the corresponding Civil Protection plans in an environment of radiological
contamination. More than 600 Spanish emergency technicians were deployed and
also several teams from eight european countries.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>The REMER amateur radio teams were deployed in the
area of the exercise in order to operate a VHF coordination network and to
provide technical support to the European Union Command Post</STRONG>.
<STRONG>The network covered several strategic points inside the area of
operations, such as the accident site, the Command Post and the vehicle
rendezvous point.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>The Spanish General Director of Civil Protection
and Emergencies (Ministry of Interior) acknowledged the participation of REMER
during an official ceremony four days after the exercise, where she acknowledged
the important support provided by the amateur radio
operators.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Further information on this event in Google English with
pictures can be found here. </FONT><A href="http://tinyurl.com/39z8q4o"
target=_blank><FONT face=Tahoma>http://tinyurl.com/39z8q4o</FONT></A></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>In the second exercise on June 27th, the amateur
radio group "GRT" (Grupo de Radio Transpirenaico), bringing together Radio
Amateurs from Spain, France and Andorra, performed an emergency communications
exercise to demonstrate a network spanning the Pyrenees without using any
existing infrastructure. During the exercise, a chain of more than 60 amateur
radio stations was established from the eastern to the western Pyrenees,
alternating radio links between France and Spain in the amateur radio
bands.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>This chain of VHF radio links was used to transport
messages from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean, and from there back
to the east using HF in a single hop. The stations were placed in strategic
areas such as Figueres, Perpignan, Puigcerda, Seo de Urgell, Valley of Aran,
Andorra, Toulouse, Orio, Castro Urdiales, Lleida, Pobla de Segur and Tremp,
establishing a communications chain and showing that amateur radio is a very
powerful alternative emergency communications asset for the
Authorities.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Two important checkpoints were deployed in the Montsec
d'Ares Peak, controlling the eastern Pyrenees (northeastern Spain and France),
and in the Goramendi Peak, controlling the western Pyrenees.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>All the messages were also transferred to a digital
network based on the Internet</STRONG>.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Thanks to Ismael, EA4FSI for the information on
these events and congratulations to all the Radio Amateurs involved in Spain,
France and Andorra.</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Red Radio de Emergencia (REMER) in Google
English<BR></FONT><A href="http://tinyurl.com/SpainREMER" target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>http://tinyurl.com/SpainREMER</FONT></A></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>Grupo de Radio Transpirenaico (GRT) in Google
English<BR></FONT><A href="http://tinyurl.com/SpainGRT" target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>http://tinyurl.com/SpainGRT</FONT></A></P>
<P><FONT face=Tahoma>IARU Region 1<BR></FONT><A href="http://www.iaru-r1.org/"
target=_blank><FONT
face=Tahoma>http://www.iaru-r1.org/</FONT></A></P></BODY></HTML>