ARES exists for the purpose of providing supplemental communications for government and private organizations involved in emergency and disaster response and mitigation. Our field organization reaches all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and other island protectorates and territories. In Alaska, ARES groups serve all of the 29 LEPDs including the other agencies that also serve those LEPDs.
When an agency asks Alaska ARES for communications assistance, it gets the full benefit of the entire ARES organization, including its nets, repeaters, mobiles and emergency power sources, as well as members' personally owned radio equipment. Even more important than the equipment, the organizational structure includes cooperative planning with the agencies to learn their needs, training programs, and the services of scores of operators, few of whom are visible at the disaster site.
ARES has good working relationships with most major disaster response agencies, both government and private. These are our "served agencies." But too often we fail to contact less conspicuous local groups whose needs are at least as great. Small units of city, county, state and federal governments, or volunteer agencies sponsored by churches and other community organizations, are easy to overlook. ARES planning must include consultation with their leaders, but first we must identify them and seek them out.
Small town and rural community organizations (volunteer fire and rescue departments, to cite one category), usually have single-channel radio systems if they have any at all. Frequently they can't cooperate fully with similar agencies from other localities because their radios won't talk to each other! Similar problems tend to afflict sanitation departments, street and traffic-signal departments, school bus systems, hospitals and convalescent centers. ARES is designed to cope with such problems.
The ARES field organization is designed to support as fully as possible, upon request, any and all emergency response and disaster relief organizations. However, ARES retains its own identity and organizational structure, personnel and physical infrastructure while providing communications support.
When dealing with served agencies we must remember that ARES is a self-contained emergency organization, and retains its own identity. When an ARES operator is assigned to a duty post anywhere, he/she remains an ARES operator for the full length of the ARES assignment. That operator is responsible directly to the EC (and designated assistants) and to no one outside the ARES organization.
The ARES infrastructure includes privately-owned radios, antennas, ARES-dedicated and cooperating repeaters, and accessory equipment Even more important than the equipment, the organizational structure includes numerous nets, training exercises, and cooperative planning with the agencies to learn their needs.
When officials of any organization request support in Alaska, they get the full benefit of all of this, as well as the personal service of hundreds of volunteer operators, most of whom are not visible in the emergency or disaster area. When an agency asks ARES for communications assistance, it gets the full benefit of the ARES group's entire organization including its nets, repeaters, mobiles and emergency power sources. When dealing with served agencies we must remember and remind the agencies that ARES is a self-contained emergency organization, and retains its own identity.
We must never allow officials of a served agency to take control of ARES operators assigned to them, or to absorb them into their own organization, though they may some times attempt that. We do not recruit and train operators for other groups to use.
Officials of emergency and disaster response agencies who desire ARES assistance should contact any of the following ARES representatives:
Section Manager
David Stevens KL7EB
Email: [email protected]
Section Emergency Coordinator
Linda Mullen AD4BL
Email: [email protected]
ARRL headquarters
Rosalie White, K1STO
225 Main St.,
Newington, CT 06111
Phone: 860-594-0200 FAX 860-594-0259
Email: [email protected]
One may also contact any District Emergency Coordinator or Borough Emergency Coordinator, whose names addresses and phone numbers can be obtained from ARRL HQ or from local Amateur Radio operators, or from clubs, or radio equipment dealers.