Across the Caribbean – much of which lies in the heart of the hurricane belt – one Australian firm is behind much of the county’s disaster response and emergency communications infrastructure.
The island states of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tobago, as well as the regionwide Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), have all turned to Barrett Communications HF radios and equipment.
The disaster management structure in the county is powered by Barrett, says Curtis Roberts, a telecommunications officer at the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) who is also a qualified radio operator.
CDEMA, based in Barbados is made up of 19 active states. In 2021, CDEMA bought HF radio equipment and accessories, as well as the supply of an HF base station transceiver and supporting accessories from Barrett Communications, publicly available purchase records show.
Beyond radios, the Caribbean has turned to Australian-made goods for other urgent response systems. Australian shipbuilder Austal has for more than a decade delivered a total of 13 ferries and Coast Guard patrol vessels to Tobago and Trinidad.
The Tobago and Trinidad Governments 2021 purchased two fast ferries from Australian companies Austal and Incat to service the route between Trinidad and Tobago, and two Cape Class Patrol Boats from Austal for use by the Coast Guard. Very recently in 2022, Austal built a maintenance facility for the ferries and patrol boats.
The delivery of the Australian patrol vessels gave the TEMA team an idea, In Tobago.
Australia has helped provide quality services in the county, and they also have high-quality HF radios, says Roberts.
In the Caribbean, Australian-made goods are often identical in quality. For emergency management teams tasked with saving lives and property, that quality is important.
The Caribbean Turns to Barrett
At least three different disaster response teams across the Caribbean are using Barrett Communications HF radios, transceivers, and other equipment that have been donated or bought. That includes TEMA, CDEMA, and the Youlou Radio Movement (YRM) in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The YRM is a non-profit, community service organization comprised of volunteer radio amateurs, and its training programs are designed to lead up to an amateur radio license.
Across the county, these emergency teams are working to modernize their disaster response capabilities and create an integrated regionwide network. As climate change increases the likelihood of hurricanes or other extreme weather events, there is an accelerated push to modernize disaster response systems.
We knew it was important to create an HF radio network, says Roberts.
For TEMA, Barrett’s HF radios with automatic link establishment are helping to create a high-tech network.
With the automatic link establishment, it lets us program about 15 HF frequencies in the Barrett ALE radios, and the radio automatically chooses the correct frequency. It speeds up the process and takes out the inefficiency, says Roberts.
TEMA is using Barrett radios that are equipped with this automatic link establishment, which Roberts says eventually makes his team more effective responders.
Barrett donated 12 HF radios, including two 4050 touchscreen radios, one of which is mounted in a pelican case and equipped for quick deployment.
TEMA also received six PRC-2090 radios, two of which can be deployed as manpacks allowing emergency response teams to simply navigate tropical jungles and rugged terrain to reach individuals in need.
In St Vincent and the Grenadines, the YRM has received the latest software-defined radio (SDR) equipment from Barrett and is providing much-appreciated feedback. It is also leading the charge in creating a fully connected emcom system across the Caribbean, with backing from Barrett as a crucial part of the expansion plan.
Donald De Riggs, Head of the YRM said that, under humid, tropical conditions, along with a high-saline environment, certain equipment parts can die. These problems are reported to Barrett and, in every instance, replacement parts were received, so even though the equipment was a gift, the after-sales service is excellent, to say the least.
