Radio Amateurs responding to Slovenia Electricity Disruption
Megasity.com
Since 31st January Slovenia has been affected by extreme cold weather such as blizzards, heavy snow and sleet. This has caused the collapse of power lines under the weight of ice, snow and falling trees with electricity disruptions now affecting 250,000 people (25% of households). The restoration of electricity supply is being made difficult by the continuing bad weather. This has prompted Slovenia to request assistance from the European Union for mobile electric power generators with a capacity of 100-300+ kVA.
Within Slovenia, some radio amateurs are assisting with operations on a local community level due to problems with the mobile phone and professional radio networks. At the time of writing, no national request for assistance has been received but Slovenian Radio Amateurs are preparing to respond if required.
The European Union Civil Protection Mechanism has asked for assistance from nearby European states with Germany, the Czech republic and Austria providing generators and assistance. Because of uncertainty whether the Austrian teams responding to Slovenia will be able to communicate back to their home bases, the Austrian Fire Departments have asked Austrian Emergency Communicators to provide a link between Austria and Slovenia using Pactor/Winlink.
Gregor, OE1VGC the Emergency Communications Co-Ordinator for Austria asks all European Radio amateurs to keep clear of the following frequencies and services which are being used to support these links.
S51SLO 3.644MHz
OE3XEC 3.608 and 3.617MHz
OE6XPD 3.601MHz
Information on the European Union response can be found at :
http://europe.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-102_en.htm
(via)