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Amateur Radio is a public service created by the Federal Communications Commission or FCC and has over 600,000 radio operators in the United States. This service is all about communications and various ways of communicating via radio waves with an emphasis on providing emergency communications. Amateur Radio Operators are also affectionately known as Radio Hams or Ham Radio Operators. What most people do not understand about the Amateur Radio Service and the Hams that operate their stations, are that they are the most dependable when police & fire communications and cell phones fail in a disaster situation. Cellular Telephones are the first to fail after disaster strikes.

The Ham Radio community has emergency networks set up all over the world that can be activated quickly if there is a disaster. At the site of The World Trade Center in New York City, amateurs worked for weeks side by side with rescue crews supplying communications after the attacks of September 11, 2001. As the name Amateur implies, these Hams receive absolutely no financial compensation for their time and their service is anything but amateurish.

When disaster strikes, such as forest fires or tornadoes, the first thing to be compromised is local emergency communications and cell phone service. When the electrical power is lost, the only thing the public service agencies can rely on are those Radio Hams that can deploy and have two way portable radio stations set up in minutes.

Many of these Hams were involved recently in the hurricanes that landed on the Gulf coast states in 2005. Prior, these Hams held hurricane watch networks on shortwave frequencies all over the world and were watching and reporting the movement of these storms. Once these storms landed on shore, the Hams set up communication networks to pass traffic. This traffic was not only for the rescue groups and served agencies. Plenty of health and welfare traffic was also handled for people trying the get in touch with friends and loved ones in the stricken areas. It is always a wonderful event for a family in a stricken area to get a message out to family that confirms that they are well.

Radio Hams also serve as Storm Spotters for the NWS aka National Weather Service. Every NWS office has Ham operators on duty anytime there is the threat of severe storms in their served area. Although the NWS has high tech Doppler Radar, these radars can not interpret the storms as a trained Storm Spotter on the ground can. These trained Ham Radio Operator Storm Spotters report directly to other Hams physically operating from the NWS offices.

Once a year, thousands of Radio Hams from all over the United States gather for Storm Spotter training. This all day training is conducted by the actual Severe Storm Forecasters of the NWS. After this special Storm Spotter classroom training, these Hams continue to hone their skills weekly on their own radio networks as On the Air Training. These radio networks often simulate disaster events to make their training as real life as possible. Not IF but WHEN the time arrives, these Radio Hams will be best prepared to provide the needed emergency communications.

These Ham Radio Operators may not be cited as heroes; however, they are always there when needed to serve the public agencies. The important point to remember is the Hams provide their services at no cost to the served agencies and all the equipment used is bought and paid for by the Amateur Radio Operators themselves.

by Jerry Karlovich, KD5OM - click on photos for a larger image