Rainbow Radio League benefits from Australian communications company

Story and photo by Don DeRiggs

The Rainbow Radio League Inc (RRL), a non-profit volunteer organization with emergency communications as its specialty, received a quantity of High Frequency (HF) communications equipment from Barrett Communications, an Australian company that manufactures communications equipment, mainly for the military, but which also can be used for humanitarian and civilian communications in the legacy mode.{{more}}

The donation includes six HF transceivers and three low band VHF portable man packs, fourteen 10-watt solar panels, six solar charge controllers, base and mobile antennas, along with associated cables, connectors and surplus equipment. The majority of the HF equipment has been earmarked for the Grenadines, which has the greatest need for emergency communications equipment.

One HF system will replace one damaged by salt blast at the Clifton Health Centre in Union Island; others will be placed in Mayreau and Canouan and at Paget farm in Bequia. In St Vincent another will be placed at Fancy and the other at RRL HQ in Kingstown. The new equipment will be installed over the next two months.

Within one week of receiving the equipment, some of the portable equipment was used to provide support communications for an outdoor motor sporting event, held Sunday at Mt William. According to the director of the RRL Donald De Riggs, that event was well organized by the Motor Sporting Association, with the RRL providing an improved service during this event, thanks to Barrett Communications.

He thanked all agencies that made the gift possible, including the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) which provided a 100 per cent waiver on import duty and VAT; Dornet Hull from the Physical Planning department, for providing maps during the initial stages of this project; Radio Resource International magazine, where the original request for assistance was published, and of course Barrett Communications from Australia, which responded positively, resulting in this very useful donation shipped to SVG via air cargo just before the start of the 2016 hurricane season.

De Riggs went to on appeal to the local business community and other philanthropists for assistance with the purchase of batteries to operate these radio systems. He said that they now have the solar panels to charge the batteries, but NO batteries. Although the equipment can be operated from mains power, reliability, especially in the aftermath of a disaster, can only be ensured with the use of 12 volt batteries and recharged using green energy. The current need is for ten 100-amp hour (Ah) deep cycle batteries, to be placed at all the proposed sites. He said that he has already made requests for assistance, but is still awaiting replies.

This is the second major donation to the RRL. In 2010, the RRL received a donation from the Canadian government, which saw the retrofitting of nine amateur radio installations with renewable energy devices, including solar panels and two VHF repeaters. The Barrett Communications – RRL agreement spans two years, after which it will be reviewed for further assistance.