[MRIC] Follow-up on 72 Rule and Activation Authority

[Joe]

Hello All,

A number of RACES Officers raised the question as to who has authority under
the 72 hour rule to activate RACES for exercises. It was put forth by the RO
from MEMA with backing by the RO from Talbot County that the authority
resides with the State. Myself (based on conversations with William Cross of
the FCC) together with the HarCo RO and PG County RO put forth that the
authority resides with the officer (i.e. Emergency Manager) responsible for
civil defense in the jurisdiction in question. We tabled the discussion and
I offered to once again put the question before William Cross of the FCC,
one of the primary persons responsible for regulations governing Amateur
Radio. 

The following are two questions I asked Mr. Cross followed by the pasted in
text of his response. I will be more than willing to send (via direct
e-mail) anyone who doubts the authenticity of the response a PDF of Mr.
Cross's e-mail including the routing headers.

Regards.

Joe, AJ3X
Baltimore County RO
Baltimore County EC

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Question 1 posed to Mr. Cross and my interruption of the rule:

1. Who has authority over activating RACES for an incident and for
activating RACES under the 72 hour exercise rule?

My understanding of the issue based on our conversation:
In the event of an emergency the officer responsible for Civil Defense in
the jurisdiction (i.e. Emergency Manager) has responsibility for emergency
activation of his/her RACES group and for exercise activation under the 72
x 2 hour rule.  However, if there is no local officer responsible for civil
defense (i.e. Emergency Manager) in the jurisdiction the responsibility
transfers to the state, territory, district or tribal officer (i.e.
Emergency Manager) responsible for civil defense.

Mr. Cross's response:

"1. A civil defense organization the station is registered with has
authority for activating RACES for an incident or for tests and drills under
the 72 hour exercise rule.  The rule doesn't address the who or how to of a
civil defense organization activating RACES.  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."

Question 2 posed to Mr. Cross and my interruption of the rule:

2. Is the 72 x 2  rule per exercise or could it be applied to multiple
exercises adding up to 144 hours?

My understanding of the second issue based on our conversation: 
The 72 hours is not cumulative, it is a maximum of 72 hours twice a year. If
the local civil defense officer wishes to include it's RACES personnel in an
exercise and the 72 x 2 limit has been met, the operation can be run as an
amateur radio exercise under the jurisdiction's Auxiliary Communications
Service (as in CA and NY) or if one exist in the jurisdiction, an affiliated
ARES group.

Mr. Cross's response:

2. "48 hours 3 times a year, for example, or other combinations of multiple
exercises adding up to 144 hours, would not be authorized by Section
97.407(e)."
 
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