What Frequencies Do Amature Radio Use To Communicate With Emergency Services

Many people grew upwards hearing about disasters in far-off lands and how amateur (ham) radio operators were initially the only ways of contact with the outside world. Disasters, both most and far, nevertheless occur today, and ham radio operators proceed to volunteer their skills and personal radio equipment to serve the public. From a planning and operations perspective, emergency management professionals must effectively include these volunteer resources into comprehensive emergency management plans (CEMPs).

Steve Aberle headshot Ham radio was the original electronic "social media" with initial contacts between radio stations taking place in the 1890s. Federal licensing of ham radio stations began afterward The Radio Act of 1912 was passed, and today all ham radio stations are strictly regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under US 47 CFR §97.

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), a ham radio member-society founded in 1914, established the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) in 1935. This standby radio service consists of "licensed amateur radio operators who take voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment with their local ARES leadership for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes."

In 1952, the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) was developed as a standby Civil Defense radio service governed by the FCC nether U.s. 47 CFR §97.407. RACES is activated by emergency managers in local, county, tribal, and state jurisdictions, uses Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) protocols, and are the simply ham radio operators authorized to transmit during declared emergencies when the president of the United States specifically invokes powers granted under 47 U.S.C. §606.

Understanding This Communications Resources

Ham radio operators come up in all ages and from all lifestyles, and are essentially neighbors in the community. Each licensee has passed one or more all-encompassing cognition tests covering a multitude of topics, including FCC rules, operator and station license responsibilities, operating procedures and practices, radio propagation, electric principles and electronic circuits, common transmitter and receiver problems, antenna measurements and troubleshooting, basic repair and testing, non-phonation communications, antennas and feed lines, AC power circuits, and condom.

Since ham radio is their hobby, many hams have decades of radio communications experience. Some may have professional dissemination experience, and others may be electric current/former commencement responders. In standards that have arisen with the introduction of the National Incident Direction Organisation, ARES and RACES members may likewise:

Be registered emergency/disaster workers nether land constabulary;
Possess certificates for (sometimes many) FEMA training classes;
Have passed constabulary enforcement groundwork checks; and
May exist engaged in other volunteer activities such as Search and Rescue (SAR) or Customs Emergency Response Teams (CERT).

Knowing When/How to Use Ham Radio

The need for supplemental communications increases with incident complexity.

If, for case, the incident complication is NIMS Type 5 or 4, and all communications needs are being handled through commercial services, there is no need for additional communications resource. When incident complexity reaches NIMS Blazon 3 or two, regular communications systems may not exist capable of normal capacity in the affected areas. Supplemental ham radio communications resources can fill the gap until regular communications are restored. Depending on the quantity of communicators needed and operational periods, deployment of emergency communications resources from outside the affected jurisdiction(south) is possible.

During major emergencies and disasters (NIMS Type ane incident complexity), in that location may be major failures and overloading of the communications infrastructure, including the degradation or loss of the electrical filigree, cellular phone network, Internet, public safety radio systems, and AM/FM radio systems. In such cases, supplemental emergency communications resource are needed in quantity and for extended periods until regular communications are restored.

FCC regulations permit ham radio operators to serve the public past communicating with non-amateur entities (e.g., FEMA, the National Atmospheric condition Service, the armed services) during emergencies and disasters, and when specifically authorized by the civil defense (a.k.a. emergency management) organization for the area served (under RACES protocols):

47 CFR §97.111(a)(2) – Essential communication needs and to facilitate relief actions;
47 CFR §97.111(a)(three) – With another FCC-regulated service;
47 CFR §97.407(d)(1) – Public rubber or national defence or security:
47 CFR §97.407(d)(2) – Firsthand life safety, protection of property, law and order, human suffering/need, combatting of armed attack or sabotage; and
47 CFR §97.407(d)(three) – Public data or instructions in civil defense and relief.

In many areas, or with supplemental resources from outside the affected area, ham radio emergency communicators can provide both voice and data communications modes.

Ham radio resources are bachelor for emergency communications support to any public service agency, and can bridge interoperability gaps between served agencies on a local, tribal, and/or country level. Potential ham deployment locations include, but are not limited to, auxiliary command posts, emergency operations centers, emergency shelters, evacuation sites, fire stations, medical facilities, mobile disaster vehicles, police stations, public works sites, and volunteer intake centers. They can too be deployed to provide mobile links to:

Create communications links between similar agencies beyond political boundaries, especially where there are misalignments in frequency bands and modes;
Constitute communications in locations outside the existing coverage areas of public service and commercial communications systems;
"Shadow" disquisitional public officials and emergency direction personnel to facilitate constant and rapid contact;
Monitor crucial infrastructure (such every bit highways and bridges) and provide periodic situation reports; and
Staff observation posts (river levels, flooding, damaged areas) and provide periodic situation reports.

While it is unlikely that ham radio volition be able to replace all existing communications, the forte of this pool of volunteers is establishing disquisitional communications under less-than-optimal conditions. For hams with solar-powered equipment, they tin keep communications going well beyond the limitations of fuel reserves for motor-driven generators until the commercial infrastructure is restored.

Integrating Ham Radio Into the Emergency Management Customs

Nosotros become so sophisticated and we have gotten so used to the reliability and resilience in our wireless and wired and our broadcast industry and all of our public safety communications, that we can never fathom that they'll fail. They practise. They accept. They will. I think a strong Amateur Radio customs [needs to be] plugged into these plans.

—Craig Fugate, FEMA Administrator (2009-2017), three May 2011

Equally a communications provider, ham radio falls under the Emergency Support Part #two umbrella. Planning for a "when all else fails" communications scenario is essential for all jurisdictions, and in that location are multiple ways of achieving this goal at the state, tribal, and local levels. Following are two examples:

Colorado enacted HB16-1040 in 2016 and put emergency communications provided via amateur radio into public law by establishing an Auxiliary Emergency Communications Unit within the land's Function of Emergency Management.
The CEMP for Clark Canton, Washington, includes the paragraph:

Routine communications systems volition exist used to the greatest extent possible. When routine communication systems are ineffective, alternate methods, such every bit amateur radio, will be used to communicate between the EOC, field operations, mass care facilities, and the state emergency operations center (EOC).

As a side note, in late 2015, the emergency manager in Clark County hosted a ham radio license class for his staff, and all emergency direction personnel are now licensed ham radio operators.

The former aphorism about avoiding the exchange of business cards in the midst of an incident is the guidepost here. Each state has 1 or more ARRL fellow member-elected volunteers who can put emergency management professionals in touch on with local hams. So, if a jurisdiction has not still established an ongoing working relationship with hams in the community, the section managing director listed on the ARRL website tin can direct these professionals to local ham radio resources.

It is difficult to maintain a core of active ham radio emergency communicators in areas that experience little actual activation of those volunteers. To overcome this, frequent interest in drills and exercises is essential. The professionals need to experience comfy working with the hams and vice versa. Not every exercise plan needs to include a communications outage in the scenario, but there is no reason messaging cannot take place in parallel by sending the same message over routine communications systems and also via ham radio.

Hams typically similar to implement different technologies, so what is transmitted by voice in one practise might go by digital manner (computer to estimator continued to radios) the next, a video link after that, and maybe fifty-fifty via a ham radio satellite at some point. Therefore, give the hams a communications trouble and see what they come upward with for a solution. Do non dictate the style they should solve the problem, but rather the emergency communications needs requirements. And, make it interesting for the volunteers to keep them involved, considering hams could be critical communications lifelines in disasters.

Steve Aberle is a FCC-licensed ham radio operator and been agile in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) since 1976 and in Radio Apprentice Ceremonious Emergency Service (RACES) since 1979. He has served equally an ARRL Official Emergency Station in the Country of Washington since 1999, and his radio station at home operates on solar power. During his multifaceted career, he was a trooper with the Oregon State Police, a county emergency communications managing director, a data network manger, and a cybersecurity consultant. He has over four decades of feel in volunteer emergency communications planning, training, responses, mentoring, and exercise evaluation, and is a old mountaineering and Search and Rescue leader and instructor.