[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] FW: Ham Radio in Emergency Operations

[Don Lewis (KI4D)]

This item concerning ham radio emergency communications was shared thanks to
the Fairfax County CERT program.  It has a lot of valuable info.

 

Don, KI4D 

 

From: system at ecemail.samaritan.com] 
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2017 3:40 PM
To: KI4D
Subject: Ham Radio in Emergency Operations

 


Ham Radio in Emergency Operations


 

by Steve AberleWed, June 21, 2017

Many people grew up hearing about disasters in far-off lands and how amateur
(ham) radio operators were initially the only means of contact with the
outside world. Disasters, both near and far, still occur today, and ham
radio operators continue 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
<http://www.domesticpreparedness.com/site/assets/files/9318/saberleheadshot.
jpg> 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 after 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
<https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2016-title47-vol5/pdf/CFR-2016-title47-vo
l5-part97.pdf> .

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL <http://www.arrl.org/> ), a ham radio
member-society founded in 1914, established the Amateur Radio Emergency
Service (ARES <http://www.arrl.org/ares> ) in 1935. This standby radio
service consists of “licensed amateur radio operators who have 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 under US 47 CFR
§97.407
<https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2016-title47-vol5/pdf/CFR-2016-title47-vo
l5-sec97-407.pdf> . RACES is activated by emergency managers in local,
county, tribal, and state jurisdictions, uses Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) protocols, and are the only 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
<https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCODE-2015-title47/pdf/USCODE-2015-title47-c
hap5-subchapVI-sec606.pdf> .

  Understanding This Communications Resource 

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

Since ham radio is their hobby, many hams have decades of radio
communications experience. Some may have professional broadcasting
experience, and others may be current/former first responders. In standards
that have arisen with the introduction of the National Incident Management
System <https://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nims/NIMS_core.pdf> , ARES and
RACES members may also:

·         Be registered emergency/disaster workers under state law;

·         Possess certificates for (sometimes many) FEMA training classes;

·         Have passed law enforcement background checks; and

·         May be engaged in other volunteer activities such as Search and
Rescue (SAR) or Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT).

 
<http://www.domesticpreparedness.com/site/assets/files/9318/domprep-article-
aberle-201706-photo-2-1.908x0-is.gif> Source: Steve Aberle, 2011. 


Knowing When/How to Use Ham Radio


The need for supplemental communications increases with incident complexity.

If, for example, the incident complexity is NIMS Type 5 or 4
<https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/icsresource/assets/incidenttypes.pdf> ,
and all communications needs are being handled through commercial services,
there is no need for additional communications resources. When incident
complexity reaches NIMS Type 3 or 2, regular communications systems may not
be 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(s) is possible.

During major emergencies and disasters (NIMS Type 1 incident complexity),
there may be major failures and overloading of the communications
infrastructure, including the degradation or loss of the electrical grid,
cellular phone network, Internet, public safety radio systems, and AM/FM
radio systems. In such cases, supplemental emergency communications
resources are needed in quantity and for extended periods until regular
communications are restored.

FCC regulations permit ham radio operators to serve the public by
communicating with non-amateur entities (e.g., FEMA, the National Weather
Service, the military) 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)(3) – With another FCC-regulated service;

·         47 CFR §97.407(d)(1) – Public safety or national defense or
security:

·         47 CFR §97.407(d)(2) – Immediate life safety, protection of
property, law and order, human suffering/need, combatting of armed attack or
sabotage; and

·         47 CFR §97.407(d)(3) – Public information 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 available for emergency communications support to
any public service agency, and can bridge interoperability gaps between
served agencies on a local, tribal, and/or state 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 also be
deployed to provide mobile links to:

·         Create communications links between similar agencies across
political boundaries, especially where there are misalignments in frequency
bands and modes;

·         Establish communications in locations outside the existing
coverage areas of public service and commercial communications systems;

·         “Shadow” critical public officials and emergency management
personnel to facilitate constant and rapid contact;

·         Monitor crucial infrastructure (such as 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 will be able to replace all existing
communications, the forte of this pool of volunteers is establishing
critical communications under less-than-optimal conditions. For hams with
solar-powered equipment, they can keep communications going well beyond the
limitations of fuel reserves for motor-driven generators until the
commercial infrastructure is restored.

 
<http://www.domesticpreparedness.com/site/assets/files/9318/domprep-article-
aberle-201706-photo-1.681x0-is.gif> Source: Steve Aberle, 2012 


Integrating Ham Radio Into the Emergency Management Community


We get 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 do. They have. They will. I think a strong Amateur Radio
community plugged into these plans.

—Craig Fugate, FEMA Administrator (2009-2017), 3 May 2011
<http://www.arrl.org/news/fema-administrator-calls-amateur-radio-the-last-li
ne-of-defense> 

As a communications provider, ham radio falls under the Emergency Support
Function #2 <https://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-esf-02.pdf>
umbrella. Planning for a “when all else fails” communications scenario is
essential for all jurisdictions, and there are multiple ways of achieving
this goal at the state, tribal, and local levels. Following are two
examples:

·         Colorado enacted HB16-1040
<http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2016a/bills/2016A_104
0_enr.pdf>  in 2016 and put emergency communications provided via amateur
radio into public law by establishing an Auxiliary Emergency Communications
Unit within the state’s Office of Emergency Management.

·         The CEMP for Clark County, Washington
<http://cresa911.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/cemp.pdf> , includes the
paragraph:

Routine communications systems will be used to the greatest extent possible.
When routine communication systems are ineffective, alternate methods, such
as 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 management
personnel are now licensed ham radio operators.

The old adage about avoiding the exchange of business cards in the midst of
an incident is the guidepost here. Each state has one or more ARRL
member-elected volunteers who can put emergency management professionals in
touch with local hams. So, if a jurisdiction has not yet established an
ongoing working relationship with hams in the community, the section manager
<http://www.arrl.org/sections>  listed on the ARRL website can direct these
professionals to local ham radio resources.

It is difficult to maintain a cadre of active ham radio emergency
communicators in areas that experience little actual activation of those
volunteers. To overcome this, frequent involvement in drills and exercises
is essential. The professionals need to feel comfortable 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 like to implement different technologies, so what is
transmitted by voice in one exercise might go by digital mode (computer to
computer connected to radios) the next, a video link after that, and maybe
even via a ham radio satellite at some point. Therefore, give the hams a
communications problem and see what they come up with for a solution. Do not
dictate the way they should solve the problem, but rather the emergency
communications needs requirements. And, make it interesting for the
volunteers to keep them involved, because hams could be critical
communications lifelines in disasters.

Steve Aberle is a FCC-licensed ham radio operator and been active in the
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) since 1976 and in Radio Amateur Civil
Emergency Service (RACES) since 1979. He has served as an ARRL Official
Emergency Station in the State 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 director, a data network manger, and a cybersecurity
consultant. He has over four decades of experience in volunteer emergency
communications planning, training, responses, mentoring, and exercise
evaluation, and is a former mountaineering and Search and Rescue leader and
instructor.