Chile's Defense Minister recognises radio amateurs emergency role

source：//www.southgatearc.org

IARU 2 district report:

Baldo Prokurica, CE1JIU, is Chile’s Minister of Defense; he has been a radio enthusiast since 1980. In the recent QSO between Prokurica and his colleague Dino Besomi (Chile Broadcasting Club President CE3PG) and Chilean Amateur Radio Clubs CE3NY President Angel Toranzo, Prokurica emphasized the relevance of amateur radio enthusiasts who are always willing and able to Help their community if necessary.

This shows how important emergency communication is, it will help people get in touch at a critical time, and how bad it would be without these amateur radio enthusiasts.

In Chile, the work of radio enthusiasts in the field of communications in emergency and disaster situations has been fully recognized and valued by the government. Chile has frequent natural disasters and a wide territory. Therefore, emergency preparedness is one of the activities that many Chilean amateurs often participate in. Different colleague groups regularly participate in disaster preparedness drills. In disaster situations, they are on the front line on many occasions.

For IARU, emergency communication is essential. In Zone 2, the emergency communications work is led by Dr. Carlos Alberto Santamaría of CO2JC.