ARRL President Submits Congressional Testimony on Hams' Katrina Response:

ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, has provided written testimony on Amateur Radio's response in the Hurricane Katrina disaster to the US House Government Reform Committee. Haynie submitted the testimony to the congressional panel September 15 "on the successful efforts of Amateur Radio operators providing communications for first responders, disaster relief agencies and countless individuals in connection with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort" on behalf of the League.

"As has been proven consistently and repeatedly in the past, when communications systems fail due to a wide-area or localized natural disaster, Amateur Radio works, right away, all the time," Haynie's statement said. "This report is not, therefore, a statement of concern about what must be changed or improved. It is, rather, a report on what is going right, and what works, in emergency communications in the Gulf Coast and what can be depended on to work the next time there is a natural disaster, and the times after that."

The congressional committee, chaired by Virginia Republican Tom Davis, is holding hearings on the Hurricane Katrina response. Haynie told the panel that upward of 1000 Amateur Radio volunteers were or have been serving in the stricken area to provide communication for served agencies such as the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army and to facilitate interoperability among agencies.

"Trained volunteer Amateur Radio operators are also providing health-and-welfare communications from within the affected area to the rest of the United States and the world," Haynie said. "In the past week, the Coast Guard, the Red Cross, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency all put out calls for volunteer Amateur Radio operators to provide communications, because phone lines and cell sites were inoperative, and public safety communications facilities were overwhelmed due to loss of repeater towers and the large number of first responders in the area."

Haynie pointed out that the main reason Amateur Radio works when other communication systems fail during natural disasters is that it's not infrastructure-dependent and is decentralized. "Amateurs are trained in emergency communications. They are disciplined operators, and their stations are, in general, portable and reliable," he told the panel.

The ARRL President also put in a good word for the FCC's Enforcement Bureau for what he called "its efficient and successful efforts" during the hurricane response in monitoring HF nets to minimize incidents of interference.

"The Committee should be aware that this vast volunteer resource is always at the disposal of the federal government," Haynie concluded. "The United States absolutely can rely on the Amateur Radio Service. Amateur Radio provides immediate, high-quality communications that work every time, when all else fails."

Haynie's complete testimony is available on the ARRL Web site http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2005/09/15/100/#statement

Source:

The ARRL Letter Vol. 24, No. 36 September 16, 2005

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