[MilCom] US Ham Operators and Government Test HF Radio Communications

[WD8ARZ]

For immediate release: 27 March 2014

*_US Ham Operators and Government Test HF Radio Communications_*

*Disaster Communications Compatibility Exercise Uses Automatic Link 
Establishment*

Washington, DC, and San Francisco, CA -- 27 March 2014 - US Amateur 
Radio operators (ham  operators) and Federal Government radio stations 
are engaged in a nationwide test of their capability to communicate with 
each other by shortwave radio, in case of an emergency or disaster. They 
are participating in a 12-day joint readiness exercise running from 27 
March through 7 April, covering all areas of USA, using a digital High 
Frequency (HF) radio system known as Automatic Link Establishment (ALE). 
This High Frequency Interoperability Exercise 2014 (HFIE-2014) runs 
concurrent with the federal National Exercise Program (NEP) 2014.

  ALE is a standardized digital signaling protocol used by each radio 
service, ham and government, to establish HF communications between 
their own stations. For the first time, the government regulatory 
agencies (FCC and NTIA) have authorized these stations to communicate 
with each other using ALE. HF radio enables long distance communication 
independent of terrestrial communications infrastructure, internet, or 
satellites.

To facilitate the communication testing, the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency (FEMA) secured temporary authority from the National 
Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal 
Communications Commission (FCC). Federal Government radio stations and 
hams are allowed to communicate with each other using ALE during the 
exercise. Under existing rules, hams have secondary access to 5 HF radio 
channels on which Government stations are the primary users.

HF radios used by Federal Government stations have the ALE capability 
built into the hardware. Amateur Radio operators have implemented the 
same ALE protocols using their personal computers with ham radio 
equipment and software. The Special Temporary Authority allows for 
on-the-air testing of interoperability between the hardware and 
software-generated ALE implementations.

  Participation in the interoperability exercise is open to all 
ALE-capable Federal Government radio stations and to all ALE-capable US 
Amateur Radio stations. While five channels are available if needed, the 
test plan calls for using only two of the channels in order to minimize 
impact on other stations not participating in the exercise. Specifics of 
the STA are as follows:

(1) Temporary modification of the authority granted at NTIA Manual 
section 7.3.8(4), which authorizes Federal Government stations to 
communicate with stations in the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, 
to allow communications with any Amateur Radio station utilizing 
Automatic Link Establishment, limited to the five channels in the 5 MHz 
band which are available to the Amateur Radio Service on a secondary 
basis, for the period March 27th through April 7th 2014.

(2) Concurrent waiver by the FCC of that part of FCC rule 97.111(a)(4) 
which limits communications with US Government stations to transmissions 
necessary to providing communications in RACES, limited to the five 
channels in the 5 MHz band which are available to the Amateur Radio 
Service on a secondary basis, for the period March 27th through April 
7th 2014.

The HFIE-2014 is a semi-annual ham radio readiness exercise coordinated 
by the HFLINK organization http://hflink.com <http://hflink.com/>and the 
Global ALE High Frequency Network http://hflink.net <http://hflink.net/>

It is open to all ALE-capable ham radio stations. Technical and 
operational guidelines for ham and federal government stations are 
available at: http://hflink.net/hfie2014

National Exercise Program (NEP) 2014 is a complex emergency preparedness 
exercise with activities sponsored by government departments and 
agencies, designed to educate and prepare the whole community for 
complex, large-scale disasters and emergencies. As part of the National 
Preparedness Goal (NPG), it enables a collaborative, whole community 
approach to national preparedness that engages individuals, families, 
communities, the private and nonprofit sectors, faith-based 
organizations and all levels of government.

Media and Technical Contact: Bonnie Crystal, KQ6XA, HFIE-2014 Coordinator

Website: http://hflink.net <http://hflink.net/>