EMC185 Agency Needs Shift 2/4 To: Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin To: Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio By: Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services EMC185 Agency Needs Shift 2/4 For release 5/24/99 "WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?" (contined article by Rick Palm K1CE, from May 1999 QST Reprinted with Permission; Copyright ARRL) "Last year, the ARRL sponsored four public service conferences around the country to identify future telecommunication needs of served agencies and reconcile them with corresponding present and future capabilities of the ARES program. The question we wanted to try to answer is, how will Amateur Radio continue to play an important role in providing emergency telecommunications in the future, in the face of new technology and the greater capabilities of such systems as the global mobile-satellite services? And what could our served agency representatives tell us to help us adapt to their evolving needs? The conferences were held in Seaside, Oregon; Alanta, Georgia; Wichita, Kansas; and Tampa, Florida. Conference proceedings were reported in August 1998 QST, p 86; September 1998 QST, p 84; January 1999 Q5T, p 70; and February 1999 QST, p 80 respectively. Local, state and national Red Cross, Salvation Army, county and state emergency management agencies, National Weather Service, forestry departments, public safety (state police), and the National Hurricane Center were all represented. Each conference drew roughly 50 conferees, who were handed many solid ideas by these served agency reps, steering us in a good direction for the future. Here's a look at a few of the salient points. MORE CROSS-TRAINING IN SERVED AGENCY FUNCTIONS WILL ADD VALUE TO OUR CONTRIBUTIONS. This was a recurring theme in all four conferences. Especially in the case of the American Red Cross, amateurs can increase their value to the agency by taking advantage of training courses offered for several disaster relief functions: damage assessment, shelter management, mass care and feeding, for examples. Traditionally, amateurs have declined to perform functions unrelated to their primary radio communication interest and training. Indeed, ARRL literature has cautioned amateurs against providing unrelated services, encouraging them to concentrate on their role as radio communicators only. The caution was founded on a healthy concern that amateurs performing unrelated functions for which they were not trained would become liabilities rather than assets, and cause Amateur Radio to lose credibility. However, if we do not broaden our perspective on Amateur Radio's traditionally limited role, we minimize our utility and risk finding ourselves outside looking in when it comes to serving Agencies engaged in future disaster relief. Proper training and certification in the various functions are the keys to a success- ful bid for greater utility and corresponding perpetuation of our public service tradition. INTEGRATION OF AMATEUR SYSTEMS WITH NON-AMATEUR SYSTEMS WILL INCREASE UTILITY AND VALUE. Kandel and other who have worked on ARRL planning and advisory committees have proposed greater integration of Amateur Radio Systems with other telecommunication systems, despite concerns that we would dilute the "purity" of the amateur service and give other interests a foot in our door. Kandel says this is happening anyway: APRS, an Amateur Radio developed technology, now incorporates computers, the lnternet, weather stations and the GPS. As another example, WiinLink developers have interfaced Internet e-mail and HF radio using PACTOR. Hybrid systems such as these may represent an opportunity to enhance our contributions to served agencies for the future. Emergency managers and NWS personnel at the conferences all appreciated the value of APRS and similar systems in gathering information, and supporting communications from locations not serviced by their own." Continues bulletin 186, which will be 3 of 4 parts of original. --- To subscribe to bulletins, use the Subscription Services web page at . If you don't have web access, just send an e-mail message to . - For training assistance contact the ACS Training Officer at the web site or send an email to larton@garlic.com - Submit suggestions, topics or comments on the bulletins to cary.mangum@macnexus.org or cary_mangum@oes.ca.gov Bulletins are on the ACS Web page: http://acs.oes.ca.gov -and a Landline BBS: 916-262-0856 (graphical & standard interface); and a FTP Archive: ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/packet/tcpip/incoming for some bulletins. For earlier ones: ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/races EOM