1.B In accordance with FCC regulations, the contents of messages handled by amateur radio are not divulged to any unauthorized persons. These communications are furnished without any form of compensation. Federal regulations also provide that licensed amateurs shall exert direct control over all transmissions on amateur frequencies.

4.B ICARES Net Control will operate from one of the following locations:

4.E Information concerning the nature of an emergency and the extent of ARES involvement, will be transmitted to all active members as it becomes available and updated, when possible.

4.G ARES members will report en route to, and upon arrival at, the assigned locations. They will continue to monitor, but notify the NCS, if it is necessary to leave or if relief is needed. Otherwise, transmissions will be made only at the request of the NCS, or for emergency or priority traffic, initiated by the official in charge at that location.

4.H All formal traffic shall be in the standard ARRL message format, unless the NCS directs otherwise. All formal traffic shall be signed by the official who originated the traffic, including the official’s title, and by the person who takes responsibility for the traffic. Third parties must give their name and official title. Message precedence of EMERGENCY, PRIORITY, WELFARE, or ROUTINE, as defined by ARRL directives, shall be used for all formal traffic. In addition, the NCS may authorize informal handling of tactical traffic.

4.I Liaison contact will be maintained on the following net frequencies:

a. 146.730 MHz (-600)
b.  3.873 MHz (nights)
c.  7.285 MHz  (days)
d.  

5.A An annual test shall be conducted in conjunction with the nationwide Simulated Emergency Test (SET) program. In addition to, or in lieu of the SET, the ARES will, upon request, participate in emergency or disaster drills conducted or sponsored by the American Red Cross, OEP, or other local government or non-government agencies, as approved by the EC or his designee.

5.B At the discretion of the EC, the ARES can be activated unannounced once per year, for an emergency preparedness test or emergency simulation test.

5.C ICARES net is conducted in combined session with the Southwest Louisiana Amateur Repeater Club net, the first Wednesday of each month, at 2000 hours local, on the 146.730MHz (-600) repeater, for instruction and training in emergency preparedness and the handling of traffic.  

6. ICARES members will be notified of an emergency and advised of the status with the following condition alerts:

1. Receive notification by radio, telephone or other means.

2.   Monitor designated frequencies for information and assignments.

3. Monitor local radio and television stations for advisories. Monitor designated frequencies for information and assignments. Local TV channels (7 & 29) will broadcast information issued them by the parish OEP or the EC.

4. Secure your home and protect your family before volunteering for duty.

5. Charge batteries, assemble radio and personal equipment that is to be taken with you. Have a full tank of gas in your vehicle.

6. Be ready to respond.

1. Hurricane is imminent - shelters opening, evacuation begins.  If you are going to evacuate, notify your EC of your plans. You may be able to assist from a remote location.                                        

a. Designated members report in on 146.730 MHz (-600) for assignments.
b. Designated members report to OEP at the Administration building.
c. Remainder of members standby for relief as needed.

2. Limited or local emergency - tornado, explosion, fire, plane crash, chemical spill, etc.

a. Designated members report in on 146.730 MH z (-600) for assignments.

6.D Condition three - FULL EMERGENCY CONDITION - Hurricane is upon us or other serious emergency is in progress.

1. All members assigned are on standby status, depending on the severity and duration of the emergency.

2. Emergency traffic only; repeaters and simplex frequency are closed to all but necessary emergency traffic on the ARES nets.

3. The simplex frequency will be assigned for tactical traffic as needed. Assignment of this frequency will be by the EC,  or his designated representative.

6.E Condition four - AFTERMATH

1. Assist as necessary with cleanup.

a. Assist government agencies as necessary to supplement their communications and/or substitute for inoperable equipment.

2. Deliver messages to and from outside areas.  

SECTION TWO  

7.A What to do first in case of an emergency.

1. Check that you and your family are safe and secure before you respond as an ARES volunteer.

2. Check that your property is safe and secure before you respond as an ARES volunteer.

3. Monitor 146.730 MHz repeater.

4. Follow the Instructions you receive from the ARES officials in charge on 146.730 MHz.

5. Contact your local Emergency Coordinator, or his/her designee, for further instructions.

7.B Initial action checklist

The net control station and/or ARES officials on the designated emergency net will provide additional instructions, including information on frequencies used or other resource and tactical nets. Normally, a resource net will enroll volunteers and provide information on how you can assist.

1. Be prepared to operate. Check all equipment and connections.

2. Check-in with your assigned contact. Deploy to assignment with "Ready" kit.

3. Obtain tactical call sign for your location/assignment.

4. Initiate personal event log. This is a log of dates and times of various events you performed while activated. Log any traffic sent or received, and other significant events.

5. Enter assigned frequency(s) on log sheet and on emergency/frequency plan.

6. Use a formal message format when a precise written record is required.

7. Use tactical call sign for your location, while observing FCC's ten-minute i-d rule.

8. Monitor your assigned frequency AT ALL TIMES. Notify NCS if you have to leave.  

When responding to an emergency event, or even a training exercise, there is a minimum set of equipment and personal gear you should bring with you to get the job done. Basic items include:

1.  Two Meter HT
2. A 2-Meter mag-mount, or other portable emergency antenna and coax.
3. Ear-phone
4. Paper and pencil
5. ICARES ID card
6. Extra batteries
7. Appropriate clothing
8. Food and water

The majority of these items should be kept in a "Ready Kit". Just pick it up on your way out the door for deployment. You might also consider the items on the following list for inclusion in this ready kit, designed to allow you to stay in the field for up to 72 hours.

Snacks
Throat lozenges
Prescriptions
First aid kit
Log books
3 day change of clothes
3 day supply of water and food
Flashlight
Candles
Alarm clock
Electrical and Duct tape
Safety glasses
Additional radios, packet gear
Headphones
RF Connectors
Patch cords
Liquid refreshments
Aspirin
Toilet articles
Message forms
Shelter (tent and sleeping bag)
Foul weather gear
Portable stove, Mess and cleaning kit
Batteries
Water proof matches
Toolbox
Soldering iron and solder
VOM
Microphones
Power supplies, chargers
Antennas with mounts
SWR bridge (VHF and HF)
Extra coax
ARRL Standardized Connectors

1. Power - Your radio 72-hour kit should have several sources of power in it, with extra battery packs and an alkaline battery pack for your HT. For mobile VHF and UHF radios, larger batteries are needed. Gel-cell or deep-cycle marine batteries would be good sources of battery power, and you must keep them charged and ready to go. It is also wise to have alternate means available to charge your batteries during the emergency. You can charge smaller batteries from other larger batteries. You can build a solar charging device. If you’re lucky, you may have access to a power generator that can be used in place of the normal electrical lines. Have more battery capacity than you think you might need. Have several methods available to connect your radios to different power sources.

2. Gain antennas - You can expect to need some kind of gain antenna for your HT, as well as additional gain antenna that can be used on either your HT or your mobile rig. The extra antenna might be needed by someone else, or your first antenna might break. For VHF and UHF, you can build a J-pole from a TV twin-lead, for an inexpensive and very compact antenna. Have several lengths of coax in your kit, totaling at least 50 feet and with barrel connectors to connect them together.

3. Personal - Include staples: water, or a reliable water filtration and purification system, enough food for three days, eating utensils, a drinking cup and, if needed, a means of cooking your food. Shelter is also important. Here, you are only limited by the size of your kit and the thickness of your wallet. Some hams plan to use their RVs as shelter, conditions permitting. Other disaster conditions may make the use of an RV impossible, so you should have several different plans for shelter. Light is important psychologically during an emergency. Make sure that you have several light sources available. Various battery-powered lights are available, and propane or gasoline-fueled lanterns are also good possibilities.  

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment for communications duty in the public interest 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.

There are three levels of ARES organization - section, district, and local. At the section level, the Section Emergency Coordinator is appointed by the Section Manager (who is elected by the ARRL members in his section) and works under his 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 EC’s.

It is at the local level where most of the organization and operation is affected, because this is the level at which most emergencies occur and the level at which ARES leadership makes 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 district EC (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.

In large sections, the SEC’s have the option of grouping their EC jurisdictions into "districts" and appointing a district EC to coordinate the activities of the local EC’s. 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.

Special-interest groups are headed up by "assistant emergency coordinators" designated by the EC to supervise activities of groups operating in certain bands, especially those groups which play an important role at the local level, but they may be designated in any manner the EC deems appropriate. These assistants, with the EC as chairman, constitute the local ARES "planning committee" and they meet together to discuss problems and plan projects to keep the ARES group active and well-trained.

There are any numbers of different situations and circumstances that might confront an EC and his ARES unit should be organized in anticipation of them. There is no specific point at which organization ceases and operation commences. Both phases must be concurrent because a living organization is a changing one, and the operations of a changing organization must change with the organization.  

The National Traffic System is designed to meet two principal objectives: rapid handle written traffic and participate in directed nets. NTS operates daily, and consists of four different net levels - Area, Region, Section, and Local - which operate in an orderly time sequence to effect a definite flow pattern for traffic from origin to destination.  

National traffic System Digital consist of stations with capabilities to transmit and receive messages via a digital mode.  The Win Link system covers a worldwide network of stations that can rapidly send and receive e-mail and is set up to operate when local internet servers are down.  This system excels in handling large text messages as well as attachments and pictures. This mode is available 24/7. 

Local nets are those which cover small areas such as a community, city, county or metropolitan area, not a complete ARRL section. They usually operate at VHF (typically 2-meter FM) at times and on days most convenient to their members. Some are designated as emergency nets (ARES) nets that do not specialize in traffic handling. Local nets are intended mainly for delivery of traffic. Some NTS local nets operate on a daily basis, just as do other nets of the system, to provide outlets for locally-originated traffic and to route the incoming traffic as closely as possible to its actual destination before delivery - a matter of practice in a procedure that might be required in an emergency. Most local nets and even some section nets in smaller sections are using repeaters to excellent effect. Average coverage on VHF can be extended tenfold or more using a strategically located repeater and this can achieve a local coverage area wide enough to encompass many of the smaller sections.

Coverage of the section may be accomplished either by individual stations reporting in, by representatives of NTS local nets or both. The section may have more than one net (a CW net, VHF net and an SSB net, for examples). Section nets are administered by an appointed Section Traffic Manager or Designated Net Managers. The purpose of the section net is to handle intra-section traffic, distribute traffic coming down from higher NTS echelons, and put inter-section traffic in the hands of the amateur designated to report into the next-higher NTS (region) echelon. Therefore, the maximum obtainable participation from section amateurs is desirable.

2. Resource Net - For larger-scale incidents, a Resource Net is used to recruit operators and equipment in support of operations on the Tactical Nets. As an incident requires more operators or equipment, the Resource Net evolves as a check-in place for volunteers to register and receive assignments.

3. Command Net - As the size of an incident increases and more jurisdictions become involved in the incident, a Command Net may become necessary. This net allows the incident managers to communicate with each other to resolve inter- or intra-agency problems, particularly between cities, or within larger jurisdictional areas. It is conceivable that this net could become cluttered with a high volume of traffic. It may also be necessary to create multiple command nets to promote efficiency.

4. Open and Closed Nets - A net may operate as an Open or "free form" net, or as a closed net where a net control station is used to control the flow of transmissions on the channel. Typically, when the amount of traffic is low or sporadic a net control isn’t required, and an Open net is used. Stations merely listen before they transmit. When a net is declared a "closed" net, then all transmissions must be directed by the NCS.

RACES, administered by local/county/state Emergency Management agencies, with guidance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is part of the Amateur Radio Service that provides radio communications for civil-preparedness purposes only, during periods of local, regional or national civil emergencies. These emergencies are not limited to war-related activities, but can include natural disasters such as fires, floods and earthquakes.

Amateurs operating in a local RACES organization must be officially enrolled in the local civil-preparedness group. RACES operation is conducted by amateurs using their own primary station licenses, and by existing RACES stations. The FCC no longer issues new RACES (WC prefix) station call signs. Operator privileges in RACES are dependent upon, and identical to, those for the class of license held in the Amateur Radio Service. All of the authorized frequencies and emissions allocated to the Amateur Radio Service are also available to RACES on a shared basis. But in the event that the President invokes his War Emergency Powers, amateurs involved with RACES could be limited to certain specific frequencies (while all other amateur operation would be silenced).

While RACES was originally based on potential use for wartime, it has evolved over the years, as has the meaning of civil defense (which is also called civil preparedness), to encompass all types of emergencies.

While operating in a RACES capacity, RACES stations and amateurs registered in the local RACES organization may not communicate with amateurs not operating in a RACES capacity. (Of course, such restrictions do not apply when such stations are operating in non-RACES - such as ARES - amateur capacity.) Only civil-preparedness communications can be transmitted (as defined in the FCC Rules). Test and drills are permitted only for a maximum of one hour per week. All test and drill massages must be clearly identified as such.

9.E Incident Command System (ICS)

The Incident Command System (ICS) is a management tool that has been adopted by professional emergency responders throughout the country. ICS provides a coordinated system of command, communications, organization, and accountability in managing emergency events. Due to the wide spread use of ICS, Amateur Radio operators should be familiar with the system, as well as how they interface with agencies employing ICS.

Integral to the ICS is the concept of Unified Command. There is only one boss, the Incident Commander, who is responsible for the overall operation. For any incident, there are a number of functions that must be performed ranging from planning and logistics to handling the press. The functional requirements of planning, logistics, operations, and finance are always present despite the size of the incident. They may be handled by a single individual for a small incident, or a "Command Staff" in a large incident. Another characteristic of ICS is "span of control." In simple terms, any manager should only directly manage a small number of people. ICS uses the number of five for organizational purposes. The number five isn’t hard and fast, but provides a useful organizational guide line.

How does the Amateur Radio volunteer fit into the Incident Command System? We are expected to be communicators, and within the ICS, this would place us in the Logistics Section in the Service Branch as part of the Communications Unit. The communications unit provides all communications services for the operation.

10.A Principles of Repeater Operation

1. Use minimum power. Otherwise, especially in heavily populated areas, you may run the risk of keying more that one repeater, thus causing unnecessary QRM. Low power also conserves batteries.

2. Use simplex, whenever possible. Use a gain antenna at fixed locations for simplex operation.

3. Observe the "pause" procedure between exchanges. When it is your turn to transmit, after the transmitting station stands by, count to two or three before pressing your transmit switch.

4. Listen much, transmit little. Announce your presence on a repeater when you are certain of being able to assist in an emergency, and don’t tie it up with idle chatter.

5. Monitor local ARES net frequency, when otherwise not busy.

6. Think before you talk. Anyone with an inexpensive public-service-band receiver can monitor. Stick to facts, control your emotions. Remember, during an emergency is the time when you are most apt to act and speak rashly.

1. Keep the QRM level down. In a disaster, crucial stations may be weak. All other stations should remain silent unless they are called upon. If you’re not sure you should transmit, don’t.

2. Monitor established disaster frequencies. Many ARES localities and some geographical areas have established disaster frequencies where someone is always (or nearly always) monitoring for possible calls.

3. Avoid spreading rumors. During and after a disaster situation, especially on the phone bands, you may hear almost anything. Unfortunately, much misinformation is transmitted. Rumors are started by expansion, deletion, amplification or modification of words, exaggeration or interpretation. All addressed transmissions should be officially authenticated as to their source. These transmissions should be repeated word for word, if at all, only when specifically authorized.

4. Authenticate all messages. Every message which purports to be of an official nature should be written and signed. Whenever possible, amateurs should avoid initiating disaster or emergency traffic themselves. We do the communicating; the agency officials we serve supply the content of the communications.

5. Strive for efficiency. Whatever happens in an emergency, you will find hysteria and some amateurs who are activated by the thought that they must be sleepless heroes. Instead of operating your own station full time at the expense of your health and efficiency, it is much better to serve a shift at one of the best-located and best-equipped stations, suitable for the work at hand, manned by relief shifts of the best-qualified operators. This reduces interference and secures well-operated stations.

6. Select the mode and band to suit the need. It is characteristic of all amateurs to believe that their favorite mode and band is superior to all others. However, the merits of a particular band or mode in a communications emergency should be evaluated impartially with a view to the appropriate use of bands and modes. There is, of course, no alternative to using what happens to be available, but there are ways to optimize available communications.

7. Use all communications channels intelligently. While the prime object of emergency communications is to save lives and property (anything else is incidental), Amateur Radio is a secondary communications means; normal channels are primary and should be used if available. Emergency channels other than amateur which are available in the absence of amateur channels should be utilized without fear of favoritism in the interest of getting the message through.

8. Don’t "broadcast". Some stations in an emergency situation have a tendency to emulate "broadcast" techniques. While it is true that the general public may be listening, our transmissions are not and should not be made for that purpose.

9. NTS and ARES leadership coordination. Within the disaster area itself, the ARES is primarily responsible for emergency communications support. The first priority of those NTS operators who live in or near the disaster area is to make their expertise available to their Emergency Coordinator (EC) where and when needed. For timely and effective response, this means that NTS operators should talk to their EC’s before the time of need so that they will know how best to respond.

11.A Message Form  

Emergency - Any message having life and death urgency to any person or group of persons, which is transmitted by Amateur Radio in the absence of regular commercial facilities. This includes official messages of welfare agencies during emergencies requesting supplies, materials, or instructions vital to relief of stricken populace in emergency areas. During normal times, it will be very rare. When in doubt, do not use it.

Priority - Important messages having a specific time limit. Official messages not covered in the Emergency category. Press dispatches and other emergency-related traffic not of the utmost urgency. Notifications of death or injury in a disaster are, personal or official.

Welfare - A message that is either ( a) an inquiry as to the health of an individual in the disaster area or ( b) an advisory or reply from the disaster area that indicates all is well, should carry this precedence. These messages are handled after Emergency and Priority traffic, but before routine.

Routine - Most traffic in normal times will bear this designation. In disaster situations, traffic labeled Routine should be handled last, or not at all when circuits are busy with Emergency, Priority, or Welfare traffic.

HXA - (followed by number) Collect landline delivery authorized by addressee within ... miles. (If no number, authorization is unlimited.)

HXB - (Followed by number) Cancel message if not delivered within ... hours of filing time; service originating station.

HXC - Report date and time of delivery (TOD) to originating station.

HXD - Report to originating station the identity of station from which received, plus date and time. Report identity of station to which relayed, plus date and time, or if delivered, report date, time, and method of delivery.

HXE - Delivery station get reply from addressee, originating message back.

HXF - (Followed by number) Hold delivery until ... (date).

HXG - Delivery by mail or landline toll call not required. If toll call or other expense involved, cancel message and service originating station.