Tait portable Repeaters to the rescue. Setting up a backbone emergency radio service in Grenada post Hurricane Ivan - 7^th September 2004

Grenada, a volcanic island of 90,000 people that is a major producer of nutmeg, cloves and other spices, was was struck by Hurricane Ivan on Tuesday 7^th September 2004. It was one of the worst hurricanes to hit the West Indies in 10 years.

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell told BBC Radio: "We have got a tremendous hit that we never expected - you are talking hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. We have declared the country a national disaster, contacted our international friends and indicated that"... "I am pretty sure we have taken a tremendous hit in the nutmeg industry, which is a key barometer of our economic development", he added.

Detailed below is a personal account of the Tait emergency radio solutions installed in Grenada post Hurricane Ivan, taken from a situation report filed by one of Mobile & Marine Systems Ltd's on-the-ground team:

On Tuesday 7^th September Hurricane Ivan hit Grenada and for nearly 12 hours the island was subjected to storm force winds in excess of 220 km/h. When it was all over the following morning the "Spice Island" was devastated. 

Mobile & Marine Systems received a call from the Barbados Defence Force around 9pm on the Wednesday 8^th of September requesting that we set up an emergency communications system, using equipment from the Barbados Defence Force and Mobile & Marine Systems stock.

After discussing the requirements we decided to use a Tait T800II Portable Repeater and a mixture of Tait T2015 Mobile Radio Base Stations and Tait Orca T3000 / T5000 portable handheld radios. The radios were programmed with the repeater and a number of simplex channels and Marine VHF channels.

By next morning we had the equipment ready to go, however, getting transport into Grenada proved to be a problem. Point Salines International Airport was officially closed to traffic as the control tower had sustained damage.

I finally hitched a ride on a flight around 2pm on Thursday 9^th of September. The plane was loaded to maximum with equipment and 5 passengers who were part of an international assessment team.

On the 40 minute flight down to Grenada there was the usual talk with each of us telling what our area of interest was. However, as the plane banked over the Southern part of Grenada all conversation ceased as the size of the damage to the island became apparent.

Once on the ground the plane was quickly unloaded and our communication equipment was stacked on the tarmac while the plane turned around. It was very apparent I was now on my own.

I managed to find someone from the Grenada Police Force and he arranged for an open truck to carry me to the Fort George Police Headquarters. The drive from the Airport was very slow due to fallen trees, poles and debris from roofs. The pictures do not tell the story of the destruction. No building seems to have escaped some form of damage.

After about 90 minutes we arrived at Fort George Police Headquarters. A 5 mile journey that normally takes 10 to 15 minutes. Fort George is the site of a 200 year old fort. It is on a 200 meter high hill overlooking the capital, St. George's. The Police station which has a concrete roof had generally remained intact albeit most of its windows were missing. On arrival I found that the Grenada Police Force had lost all their communication systems in the Hurricane.

After a short meeting with the Commissioner of Police I erected a temporary antenna on a hand rail and ran 20 meters of coaxial cable to the Tait T800II Portable Repeater. Given the emergency conditions, the Tait T800II Portable Repeater was left in the open sealed in a plastic bag to protect it from the elements. I switched on the internal battery and we had a working repeater system, all in about 45 minutes of arriving at Fort George Police station! This Tait T800II Portable Repeater worked using its internal battery until the next day when we were able to secure an AC power connection from a nearby standby generator.

Having set up the Tait T800II Portable Repeater, Mobile Handhelds Radios were quickly passed out to patrols on-the-ground.

I then returned to Point Salines where I set up a Tait T2015 Mobile Radio Base Station this time using a car battery as the power source.

The next day, Friday 10^th of September, I set up another Tait T2015 Mobile Radio Base Station at Point Salines International Airport, together with a HF transceiver to communicate outside the island. The latter consisted of an Icom IC-707 and an AT-130E Automatic Tuner which was connected to a long wire antenna stretched from a flag pole to the Airport building. I also returned to Fort George Police Headquarters where I moved the Tait T800II Portable Repeater into a secure room and repositioned the antenna to the highest point at Fort George.

The Barbados Defence Force and Mobile & Marine Systems initially operated the Tait T2015 Mobile Radio Base Stations using car batteries until a generator could be obtained. Likewise the chargers for the Tait T3000 / T5000 Portable Handheld radios were also powered from a number of salvaged car batteries which were readily available from vehicles wrecked by falling trees. The internal battery in the Tait T800II Repeater operated for over 24 hours and is ideal for emergency situations.

Postscript: The Eastern Caribbean Regional Security System (RSS) Force in Grenada departed on the 15th of December 2004. The operation was very successful in maintaining law and order, delivering and controlling relief supplies and repairing or rebuilding critically damaged infrastructure. This has been a good example of where the people of the Eastern Caribbean came together to help a neighbour in a time of dire crisis.

The Tait repeater played a very important part in this operation and proved to be very reliable over the time it was in operation. The Tait T800 portable Repeater system kept the RSS control base at Point Salines in contact with units across the Southern area of Grenada.

I visited Grenada again during the first week in December and was pleased to see the rate of reconstruction that had taken place. Electricity and telephones were back up as were the cell phones. The tourist industry still needs a lot of rebuilding but most hoteliers are taking this chance to improve their operation. When they are fully reopened in the middle of 2005, Grenada will a very modern hotel plant which will rival any in the Caribbean.

Click here to see how Mobile & Marine Systems has set up a trailer based mobile repeater for the Barbados National Cultural Foundation, which is also held in reserve as part of the island's Disaster Management / Emergency Relief plan. The base system comprises of a trailer with a tilt over telescoping 7-meter mast, a battery box, a 19 inch rack containing a Tait T800II repeater, a Tait T2015 with a Tait T2000-80 line interface board and a solar array panel.

If you have questions, simply need more information, or, need to discuss specific requirements, please click on the Contact Us to e-mail us.

Detailed below is some additional background information on Hurricane Ivan.

Click here to see the archived situation reports from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) - the intergovernmental agency established in September 1991 by an Agreement of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to be responsible for disaster management. There are presently sixteen Participating States within CDERA's membership.

Based in Barbados in the West Indies, Mobile & Marine Systems are the authorised sales and service agents /dealers and radio systems integrators for private mobile radio (pmr) solutions for Tait Radio communications equipment. We operate throughout the Caribbean (Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos, Virgin Islands plus Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname and Venezuela).

Mobile & Marine Systems provide a comprehensive range of professional pmr services backed by more than 25 years of experience within the Caribbean. 

If you have questions, simply need more information, or, need to discuss specific requirements, please click on the Contact Us to e-mail us.