TO: Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
TO: Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
FROM: Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the California
Governor's Office of Emergency Services

The Future of Amateur Radio? - 1/3

 EMC141
 DATE: 07/20/98

 From the June, 1997 "NetControl", Orange County RACES
 newsletter, "The Leading Edge", by Ray Grimes, W6RYS, Ass't
 Chief RO, Training Officer County of Orange RACES. (now Capt.
 Ray Grimes, OCRACES Chief Radio Officer). (Used with
 permission.) "The future of Amateur Radio?

 Numerous magazine articles published lately pose a question
 about the future of Amateur Radio in providing emergency
 communications The notion is that telecommunications has become
 so widely available to the public, and that most any emergency
 communications requirement can be handled by a cellular
 telephone, a fax machine, or a business-band two-way radio.

 I gave this a lot of thought, wondering if this was indeed how
 emergency communications would be viewed in the future.

 I came to the realization that emergency communications is much
 more than talking on the radio. It must include reliability,
 availability, accuracy, and completeness of information, while
 supporting modern, high-speed, high-performance communications
 modes. Cellular telephone can support voice, fax and perhaps
 vehicle location, but not much more in its present form.
 Business radios can support voice, paging and perhaps packet
 radio. The shortcomings of these technologies are that they are
 public-access systems that, in an emergency, will very likely be
 congested and unusable. Additionally, the operators of these
 systems are not trained emergency communicators. How many
 Cellular 911 calls from a well meaning public are like this...'I
 want to report a bad accident on the freeway' (disconnect)?

 An emergency coordinator for a large midwest community suggested
 that people sign-on to the Internet in an emergency and obtain
 vital information and directions directly from emergency
 management agencies. This is completely contrary to the
 fundamental rule of not using telephone circuits at all during a
 disaster, except for dire emergencies. Non screened public
 information media as found on the Internet can also be a source
 of rumors and bad advise. While a telephone call might last two
 or three minutes, an Internet user could be online for an hour
 or more, tying up valuable circuits."

 (continues next week)