[MRIC] RACES 72-hour rule
BrettHam at aol.com
BrettHam at aol.com
Mon Jul 23 10:51:05 EDT 2007
Pat,
I forwarded your email to Mr. Cross at the FCC for response, and he does not
want to reply and enter into a debate. He believes he has made it very clear
that the local jurisdiction needs to get prior approval from the state in
order to exceed 1 hour. For example, when I asked him in the email below:
>> Suppose, instead, I was conducting a local drill just involving Talbot
>> County, but that exceeded 1 hour per week. Would I also need to get
prior
> approval from the state of Maryland?
His response below was "Yes...." and then goes on to support his "yes"
response.
He also will not address quotes from him taken out of context. And his
understanding of "state" and "territory" is the same as mine: Maryland is a State;
Puerto Rico is a Territory (a county is not a territory); Washington DC is a
District; and Pennsylvania is a Commonwealth. Since we live in a state, we
must get permission for the appropriate STATE agency responsible for
emergencies (MEMA) to exceed 1 hour. RACES groups operating anywhere in Districts,
Commonwealths or Territories need to get permission from their District,
Commonwealth or Territory level agency to exceed 1 hour.
If you still disagree, I don't know what else to say. I suggest you discuss
this with your EM and/or his attorney for further clarification.
Brett Hammond - K3TAL
Chairman, MRIC
In a message dated 7/20/2007 11:20:07 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
wb0egr at comcast.net writes:
Brett,
One, this goes against the concept of "home rule" in Maryland whereby
the counties and emergency management jurisdictions are "independent"
and do not need state approval to do something such as invoking the 72
hour RACES rule. In this case, a county would fall under the
"territory" terminology that Mr. Cross uses.
Two, I refer you back to the May 11, 2007 e-mail from AJ3X where Mr.
Cross states "...Because there can be local, state, regional, tribal,
etc., RACES organizations, the "however" part of your questions isn't
addressed by the rules. And we aren't going to get into squabbles like
"then and only then" about "who has authority" between local and state
level CDOs or what the organization is."
So Brett, until Part 97.407 gets updated so that it no longer reflects
the "cold war era" where emergency management was the red haired step
child left to the upper levels of government, then we shall have to live
with the concept that "...whomever gives life to the RACES group, also
grants them the 72 hour permissions..."
If MEMA directs Harford County RACES to activate, then they will need to
ask the Harford County Emergency Manager(s) to activate the RACES group
within Harford County and explain why because it is the Harford County
Emergency Management and Civil Government, not MEMA, that allows RACES
to exist in Harford County.
Oh, and by all means, Harford County RACES will and does fully cooperate
with any and all other RACES groups in the surrounding jurisdictions
when there are incidents.
73,
Pat Scolla, wb0egr
Harford County RACES Officer
BrettHam at aol.com wrote:
> Pat,
>
> I believe you are mistaken. In my second email to him, I specifically
asked
> if I just held a local Talbot County Drill just involving Talbot County,
do I
> need permission from the state to exceed 1 hour, and Mr. Cross responded
> "Yes". He said it doesn't matter the scope of the drill, it is only the
time
> that matters. If you exceed 1 hour per week, you need state permission.
He also
> specifically said in his first response: "The rule does not allow a local
> jurisdiction's emergency manager to approve drills and tests that exceed
1 hour
> per week."
>
> Brett Hammond
>
> In a message dated 7/19/2007 10:59:51 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> wb0egr at comcast.net writes:
> Brett,
>
> To clarify, ONLY in a STATE-RUN Drill, does this apply because the STATE
> is asking Talbot County RACES to activate. In the case of a Talbot
> County ONLY exercise, then the 72 hour exception is granted by the
> Talbot County EM.
>
> 73,
>
> Pat Scolla, wb0egr
>
> BrettHam at aol.com wrote:
>
>> Maryland RACES Officers:
>>
>> Please find below the complete exchange between the FCC and I to clarify
>>
> the
>
>> debate we had earlier this year at MRIC about whether or not RACES
drills
>> exceeding one hour require state (MEMA) approval. The short answer is
>>
> that a
>
>> drill over 1 hour does requires MEMA approval. Please see details below
>>
> if you
>
>> are interested. Feel free to share this with others, but please do not
>>
> edit
>
>> it or excerpt parts. Keep the comments in proper context. Thank you.
>>
>> Brett Hammond
>> Chairman, MRIC
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>> In a message dated 7/19/2007 3:23:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>> William.Cross at fcc.gov writes:
>>
>> Yes--the last sentence of the rule allows exceptions, up to twice a
year
>>
> and
>
>> capped at 72 hours per time, to the hour-per-week rule, when the chief
>> officer for emergency planning in the applicable State, Commonwealth,
>>
> District or
>
>> territory, approves. The rules does not distinguish between local drills
>>
> and
>
>> state, regional, or some other geographic area drills. It distinguishes
>> between drills that do not exceed 1 hour per week and those that do.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: brettham at aol.com [mailto:brettham at aol.com]
>> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 2:24 PM
>> To: William Cross
>> Cc: Riley Hollingsworth
>> Subject: Re: RACES 72-hour rule
>>
>> Mr. Cross,
>>
>> Thank you very much for your prompt response.
>>
>> Suppose, instead, I was conducting a local drill just involving Talbot
>> County, but that exceeded 1 hour per week. Would I also need to get
prior
>>
> approval
>
>> from the state of Maryland? Sorry if this sounds redundant, but I want
to
>> make sure there is no confusion. Thank you.
>>
>> Brett Hammond
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: William Cross <William.Cross at fcc.gov>
>> To: BrettHam at aol.com
>> Cc: Riley Hollingsworth <Riley.Hollingsworth at fcc.gov>
>> Sent: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 11:26 am
>> Subject: RE: RACES 72-hour rule
>>
>> Mr. Hammond:
>>
>> Riley asked that I respond to your question. The rule that you are
>> referring to is Section 97.407(e)(4). It states:
>>
>> (e) All communications transmitted in RACES must be specifically
>>
> authorized
>
>> by the civil defense organization for the area served. Only civil
defense
>> communications of the following types may be transmitted:
>>
>> (4) Communications for RACES training drills and tests necessary to
>> ensure the establishment and maintenance of orderly and efficient
>> operation of the RACES as ordered by the responsible civil defense
>> organization served. Such drills and tests may not exceed a total time
>> of 1 hour per week. With the approval of the chief officer for
>> emergency planning in the applicable State, Commonwealth, District or
>> territory, however, such tests and drills may be conducted for a period
>> not to exceed 72 hours no more than twice in any calendar year
>> (emphasis added.)
>>
>> The rule allows a lot of flexibility for management of civil defense
>> communications at different levels of organization in that it allows
>> "the responsible civil defense organization served" which, in turn,
>> depends on how civil defense is organized in a particular area, to
>> decide what communications RACES stations are authorized to transmit
>> for tests and drills not exceeding 1 hour per week. The last sentence
>> allows exceptions, up to twice a year and capped at 72 hours per
>> time, to the hour-per-week rule, when the chief officer for emergency
>> planning in the applicable State, Commonwealth, District or territory,
>> approves. Because civil defense was and still is overseen at the
>> State, Commonwealth, District or territory level, the
>> Commission decided that the chief officer for emergency planning at
>> that level should be the one to decide whether exceptions to the the
>> hour-per-week rule are appropriate.
>>
>> In that Talbot County RACES will be participating in the state-wide
>> DHMH pandemic drill, the "area served" appears to be the State of
>> Maryland and the "responsible civil defense organization for the area
>> served" appears to be the DHMH, a state agency, in collaboration with
>> the Maryland Emergency Management Association. As written, the rule
>> allows only "the chief officer for emergency planning in the State" to
>> approve drills and tests in excess of 1 hour per week. The rule does
>> not allow a local jurisdiction's emergency manager to approve drills
>> and tests that exceed 1 hour per week. Note that in other paragraphs
>> of the rule the phrase, "a [or the] civil defense organization" is
>> used. This is broader than "State, Commonwealth, District or
>> territory" in that it includes local or national civil defense
>> organizations, thereby comporting with the definition of RACES in
>> Section 97.3(a)(37)-- A radio service using amateur stations for civil
>> defense communications during periods of local, regional or national
>> civil emergencies (emphasis added.)
>>
>> William T. Cross
>> Mobility Division
>> Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
>> Federal Communications Commission
>>
>>
>>
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> --------
>> From: BrettHam at aol.com [mailto:BrettHam at aol.com]
>> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 9:53 AM
>> To: Riley Hollingsworth
>> Cc: William Cross
>> Subject: RACES 72-hour rule
>>
>> Hello Riley,
>>
>> Let me introduce myself: I have a commercial radio license (GROL) and
>> professionally maintain public safety radio systems in Maryland. I am
>> also an Amateur Extra and volunteer as RACES Officer for Talbot County
>> for the past 5 years. I got into amateur and commercial radio because
>> of my desire to get involved in emergency communications after 9/11.
>> Prior to that I was a telecommunications software engineer.
>>
>> Early this year, the Maryland Emergency Management Association created
>> a new subcommittee called the Maryland RACES Interoperability Committee
>> (MRIC), and I was appointed Chairman. It consists of all the RACES
>> Officers in the state and so far this year we have unanimously agreed
>> on a standard message form for communicating across jurisdictions
>> (ICS-213), coordinated all our RACES frequencies, and compiled contact
>> information for RACES Officers state-wide. We are currently working on,
>> and expect to have completed a state-wide HF RACES net by November (as
>> a backup to repeaters on towers) and will start work on a state-wide
>> digital network then.
>>
>> Talbot County RACES will be participating in the state-wide DHMH
>> pandemic drill in two weeks, and will exceed the 1 hour per week
>> exercise rule. It is my understanding from the FCC rules that we can
>> exceed 1 hour, two times per year, up to 72 hours each time. I applied
>> for, and was granted permission from MEMA to exceed 1 hour for the
>> Eastern Shore Evacuation exercise a few months ago, and was going to
>> request permission for the Pandemic drill as well, but there was some
>> discussion from MRIC members that permission from the local
>> jurisdiction's emergency manager is all that is required (i.e. we do
>> not need permission from MEMA). Again, my understanding is that the
>> state, territory, commonwealth, etc, must give permission. Can you
>> please clarify this for us?
>>
>> I will forward this email and your response to all Maryland RACES
>> Officers so we are all on the same page. Also please tell us about your
>> responsibilities at the FCC so everyone understands your authority.
>>
>> Thank you very much for your time. I know you are a busy man, but your
>> guidance here would help us greatly.
>>
>> Brett Hammond - K3TAL
>> Talbot County RACES Officer
>> Chairman, MRIC
>> 410-829-6749 (cell)
>> _brettham at aol.com_ (mailto:brettham at aol.com)
>>
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