| Illinois
ARES
The Illinois
Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®)
is a service provided by the Illinois Section
of the American
Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national organization
for amateur radio.
Amateur radio operators ("ham radio")
remain vigilant to provide communication in times
of emergency. In some cases communication is provided
in severe weather such as a tornado
or blizzard. Other cases include earthquakes or
hurricanes.
Amateur radio operators monitor HF ("shortwave")
frequencies daily listening for calls for assistance
from ships
at sea. Other situations where ham operators
have helped include power outages at hospitals,
community fun-runs or parades and most notably
as the main communication at the September
11th tragedy in New York City in 2001 when
all other forms of communication were destroyed
or failed.
Most counties in Illinois have an Emergency Coordinator
(EC) appointed by the ARRL. Illinois is divided
into districts, each of which has a District Emergency
Coordinator (DEC). Will County is in the Northeast
District of the Illinois Section of the ARRL.
The Illinois Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC)
is Robert
"Pat" Ryan, KC6VVT.
The Illinois ARES® net is held on the 1st
and 3rd Sunday of each month at 1630 (Central
Time) on 3905 kHz. Emergency Coordinators for
each district and county check-in and deliver
a bi-monthly report, and traffic is passed in
the net.
Extensive training is available to amateur radio
operators in the form of the ARRL's Amateur Radio
Emergency Communication Courses, subsidized by
grants
from the federal government. Cost of each
of the three courses may be reimbursed to ARRL
members following a satisfactory grade in the
course.
For more information about ARES, see the ARRL's
ARES®
web page or send an e-mail to willctyares@yahoo.com.
Or write to:
Will County ARES®
c/o Will County EMA
302 N. Chicago Street
Joliet, IL 60432
Phone: (815) 740-8351
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