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People walk on the damaged streets of Port-au-Prince following the massive earthquake - Source: Reuters -
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With many communication lines cut off in Haiti one form is making a strong comeback with the help of some New Zealanders.
Amateur radio operators in New Zealand have joined a global network to help those in earthquake ravaged Haiti.
Daniel Ayers is using his skills to help communications in and out of Haiti as he is part of an international network of two million amateur radio operators.
With mobile and landline phone towers destroyed old fashioned radios work when nothing else does.
"Amateur radio doesn't rely on that infrastructure it just transmits radio waves through the air so that means it's not vulnerable to being knocked out by disasters," says Ayers.
In Haiti "hams", as they are called, have been key to getting information out.
"Radio operators are working by pulling car batteries out of cars, running a couple of hundred feet of wire up a tree and those signals, they're weak, but they're making it out," says Ayers.
It does not matter if they are right next door or thousands of kilometres away.
From Auckland Ayers was able to reassure the sisters of a convent in Trinidad and Tobago that their fellow sisters in Port au Prince were safe.
He says the ham network could prove vital if a disaster strikes New Zealand as our potential lifeline to the outside world.
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