FM Broadcast Stations supporting Disaster Victims

By the end of last June, BHN Association installed a non-stop power system for the broadcasting station in the Town of Watari.

Until then, once the commercial power supply is suspended, it was always necessary to manually start again which needed some person to rush to the radio station at night.

The system is composed of 6 high-capacity batteries in total for the radio emitter & antenna, automatic power chargers and other equipment.  To minimize the cost to install the system BHN has hand-fabricated the non-stop power circuits(which cost around $10,000 in the market).

With the installation of this non-stop operation system, they are now able to continue broadcasting over 8 hours at the time of blackouts.   This work has been realized with the funds from Global Giving .

Almost the entire radio system in Watari broadcasting station was built by BHN and they are planning to transform from a “temporal radio station” to a normal “community radio station” next year.

BHN is now consulting with Ohtuchi broadcasting station(in Iwate Prefecture) to improve the listening difficulties in the mountain areas and, after fixing the listening problem, we also intend to install the same non-stop power system there.

1. City of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture

The city of Natori is planning to reshuffle all the community FM broadcast system and founded an NGO to operate the system.  Thus, BHN had been requested to prepare the studio designs and to assist the bidding procedure.  At the end of March the contract was awarded to a local contractor and the construction work is going to start soon.

BHN is further requested to supervise the construction works.

2. Town of Watari, Miyagi Prefecture

After resolving the hearing difficulty of the community radio waves in the town, BHN has been requested to furnish emergency broadcasting networks in the town to support people in case of emergency.  The followings were all completed by the end of last March.

(1)  As the town market located in the pier was washed away by the Tsunami of Mar. 2011, the town recently rebuilt the market as a complex of market & souvenir center for visitors. BHN installed a specific kind of Community Addressing system in the market to make announcements to the visitors, both inside the building and out on the pier.

(2)  For the purpose of public hearing of the community radio broadcast, special speaker systems were installed at the entrance of the railway station.  The community radio will make warning announcements to the commuters in case of emergency as well as disseminating normal programs during day time.

(3)  Many of public auditoriums and gyms of schools are assigned as emergency shelters and BHN installed 37 high receptivity radio receivers in those emergency shelters.