Rob Bareham - Coordinator for the Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre (CTARC)

Cape Town Amateur Radio Center (CTARC) every year amateur radio operators, also known as radio hams, gather around the world on the third weekend of August. Amateur radio operators serve the communities where they live around the world by providing emergency communications infrastructure is destroyed such as telephone and cellular facilities and power lines. It is the radio amateurs who were the first to get the news out in situations like the Boxing Day Asian Tsunami and the Earthquake in Haiti recently when there was no other form of communications available. Radio Amateurs keep and maintain equipment capable of operating on international frequencies utilizing on simple aerials and can operate on battery, solar power, portable generators or mains allowing them to set up quickly when all else has failed.