Hams in Haiti ------------- The "Radio Club Dominicano" initially reported that on Friday, January 15th, that their team had crossed the Haitian border and headed toward the Dominican Embassy in Port au Prince. Once there they then began installing ham radio equipment but had to abort and flee the area when gunfire erupted. Within a few hours the RCD Facebook page reported on a telephone conversation between Hugo Ramón HI8VRS and Ramon Sanyoyo, XE1KK. There it was confirmed that all 8 members of the HI8RCD team were back in the border town of Jimani in the Dominican Republic. None of the hams had been injured but decided to leave the Port au Prince for their own safety and returned across the border unescorted. Later they were able to establish two repeaters near the Haiti and Dominican Republic border. One is at Jimaní on 146.880 MHz covering Dominican Republic Border and most of Haiti including Port-Au-Prince. This system is linked with 146.970 MHz covering 85% of the Dominican Republic and the west of Puerto Rico. Other reports say that a third repeater near the Dominican Republic border with Haiti is now operational on 145.350 MHz. All machines require a -600 kHz transmit offset and 100 hertz tone for access. In other Haiti relief news, YV5AMH has e-mailed Newsline to say that two Venezuelan hams identified as YV5JF and YV5VE, were to be operating from a base located 5 Km west of Port au Prince after January 20th. This operation is coordinated between the Radio Club of Venezola and the Office of Communications of the Bolivarian Army. It is strictly in support of Venezuelan humanitarian aid to Haiti. The Venezuelan hams plan to use SSB, BPSK-31 and SSTV on several frequencies in the 80, 40 and 20 meter bands but the exact nature of the communications services that they will be providing was not spelled out in the news release from YV5AMH. And looking down the pike as it were, as time goes on the need for ham radio High Frequency communications is fast declining. This as satellites are repositioned to quickly restore both international telephone and Internet service to Haiti for aid workers to use. What is expected to emerge ham radio-wise is a need for more bi-lingual emergency communications operators using 2 meter FM and possibly D-Star for on-island communications as the overall infrastructure of Haiti is rebuilt. Its believed that one group is already in route to Port au Prince to install a 2 meter D-Star machine that could become operational this week. (AR Newsline)