Emergency communications
| Emergency communications | |
|---|---|
| Also called | EmComm |
| Main US organizations | ARES (ARRL), RACES (government, under FCC Part 97.407), SKYWARN, Salvation Army SATERN |
| Typical roles | Shelter and hospital links, damage reports, weather spotting, event support |
| Bands | Local VHF and UHF; HF for regional and long-haul links |
| Training | ARRL EmComm courses; FEMA ICS-100, 200, 700 and 800 |
Emergency communications, or EmComm, is the public-service side of amateur radio: providing communications when normal systems fail or are overloaded. Hams carry no network to lose. A handheld on a battery and a repeater on a hill keep working through a power cut, and an HF station on a generator can pass messages out of a region whose phones and internet are down. Over the years amateurs have supported responses to hurricanes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes and ice storms, and the ability to do so is written into the FCC's statement of why the amateur service exists.
Who does it
- ARES, the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, is the ARRL's volunteer organization. Members register with a local emergency coordinator, train, and are called out by served agencies such as the Red Cross, hospitals and county emergency management.
- RACES, the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, is a government-sponsored service under FCC rules, activated by civil-defense authorities during declared emergencies. Many hams belong to both.
- SKYWARN spotters report severe weather to the National Weather Service, often over amateur nets.
- Auxiliary communications units in some states place trained hams directly inside emergency operations centers.
What the work is like
Most EmComm is quiet. Volunteers staff a weekly net, keep a go-kit packed, and support planned events such as marathons and parades, which are the best training there is: real traffic, real logistics, no real danger. When a disaster does come, the jobs are practical: relaying shelter headcounts, passing supply requests, reporting road conditions, or sitting at a hospital radio for a twelve-hour shift. Formal message handling, with written radiograms and precise read-backs, exists so that what reaches the other end is exactly what was sent.
The amateur's job is to communicate, not to direct the response. Hams work under the served agency's incident command, which is why the FEMA Incident Command System courses are standard training.
Getting involved
- Join the local ARES group or an equivalent; the ARRL section website lists them.
- Take the free FEMA ICS-100, 200, 700 and 800 courses online, and the ARRL's introductory EmComm course.
- Check into the weekly net and turn up for drills and public-service events.
- Build a go-kit: a dual-band handheld with spare batteries, a mobile radio with a power supply or battery, an antenna you can put up anywhere, coax, adapters, a headset, paper logs, pens and a copy of the local frequencies.
Winlink
Winlink sends email over radio, through HF and VHF gateways, and has become a core EmComm tool for passing forms and supply lists out of areas with no internet. Many groups drill with it weekly.