Posted by Mike on 11/23/2008, 3:54 pm Link: Click here to vist ARES Website
To All Radio Amateurs (or those interested):
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is a voluntary organization of licensed amateurs who have registered their capabilities and equipment for providing emergency communications as a public service to the community. The purpose of the ARES is to furnish communications in the event of natural disaster, when regular communications fail or are inadequate. Sponsored by ARRL®, the ARES functions at the local level to meet local communications needs.
The ARES has a long history of public service going back to its formal inception in 1935. Since that time, the ARES has responded countless times to communications emergencies.
Experience has proven that radio amateurs respond more capably in time of emergency when practice has been conducted in an organized group. There is no substitute for experience gained before the need arises.
The ARES in each locality operates under the direction of the Emergency Coordinator (EC), whose function is to direct the activities of the ARES to maintain a state of readiness.
How can Amateur Radio and ARES be useful nowadays?
We have cell phones and internet access virtually everywhere.
The first thing we need to do is distinguish between an emergency and a disaster. Your cell phone may very well be a handy thing to have in the event of an emergency, such as being involved in a traffic accident--indeed, many Amateur Radio operators carry cell phones, too. But a disaster is something else again. A disaster is larger in scope than an emergency, and that's where the communication problems come in. There are only a limited number of cell phone circuits that can coexist in the same place at the same time, so there's a good chance that your cell phone won't work in the event of a disaster. Your urgent phone call may not get to be made because of all the people using the circuits for inconsequential matters. We hams would call this a situation with no communications discipline. Also, if the disaster includes a power outage, those inconsequential cell phone calls will drain down the backup batteries at the cell phone towers, and soon the cell phone network will be inoperative for everybody. The official emergency response community knows this, and we hams would not be surprised to find out that official disaster management plans might include disabling the cell phone network to everyone except recognized agencies. Actually, the telephone network was more robust and reliable back when everybody had wired ("landline") phones. Unfortunately, now even most people who still have hard-wired telephone service have cordless phones, which require house electrical power to operate.
Interested in learning more or joining? Visit http://www.pottcoares.org/
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