The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who

have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment for communications duty

in the public service when disaster strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of

membership in ARRL or any other local or national organization, is eligible for

membership in the ARES. The only qualification, other than possession of an Amateur

Radio license, is a sincere desire to serve. Because ARES is an amateur service, only

amateurs are eligible for membership. The possession of emergency-powered

equipment is desirable, but is not a requirement for membership.

· National – National Emergency Coordination at the ARRL HQ is under the

supervision of the ARRL Field Services Manager, who is responsible for

advising all ARES officials regarding their problems, maintaining contact with

federal government and other national officials concerned with amateur

emergency communications potential, and in general with carrying out the

League's policies regarding emergency communications.

· Section - At the section level, the Section Emergency Coordinator is

appointed by the Section Manager (who is elected by the ARRL members in

his or her section) and works under his/her supervision. In most sections, the

SM delegates to the SEC the administration of the section emergency plan

and the authority to appoint District and local ECs. Some of the ARRL

sections with capable SECs are well-organized. A few have scarcely any

organization at all. It depends almost entirely on who the section members

have put into office as SM and whom he/she has appointed as SEC.

· Local - It is at the local level where most of the real emergency organizing

gets accomplished, because this is the level at which most emergencies

occur and the level at which ARES leaders make direct contact with the

ARES member-volunteers and with officials of the agencies to be served.

The local EC is therefore the key contact in the ARES. The EC is appointed

by the SEC, usually on the recommendation of the DEC. Depending on how

the SEC has set up the section for administrative purposes, the EC may

have jurisdiction over a small community or a large city, an entire county or

even a group of counties. Whatever jurisdiction is assigned, the EC is in

charge of all ARES activities in his area, not just one interest group, one

agency, one club or one band.

· District - In the large sections, the local groups could proliferate to the point

where simply keeping track of them would be more than a full-time chore,

not to mention the idea of trying to coordinate them in an actual emergency.

To this end, SECs have the option of grouping their EC jurisdictions into

logical units or "districts" and appointing a District EC to coordinate the

activities of the local ECs in the district. In some cases, the districts may

conform to the boundaries of governmental planning or emergency-operations

districts, while in others they are simply based on repeater

coverage or geographical boundaries.

· Develop a pool of amateur radio operators who have voluntarily registered

their stations for participation in ARES, and provide training opportunities to

build communicating skills.

· Identify situations and scenarios within Howard County that might necessitate

amateur radio communications support, and work with Howard County

Emergency Management to build emergency response plans around these

scenarios.

· Encourage participation in amateur radio nets, SET, and other events which

develop emergency communications skills.

· Voluntarily registering your station with ARES

· Serving as an assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC)

· Assisting with training activities

· Providing input on plans, ideas, and activities

· Participating in regular weekly nets and meetings

· Spreading the word to other amateur radio operators about ARES.

· Email the Howard County EC, at leewalt@powerbank.net

· Check into the Tri-State ARES net, each Sunday at 7 PM on 147.075+ Tone - 103.5

· Attend the Tri-State Amateur Radio Club meeting, the first Sunday of

each month at 2:30 PM at the repeater farm.

· Visit our web page at http://www.qsl.net/w0cvj