That would be the civil defense groups who would be licensed to continue operation if the President closes down amateur radio in a time of war, right? I guess invasion or nuclear war isn't quite as likely a scenario in the US now as it was in the Cold War.

Do people in RACES think that it'll be merged with ARES some time in the future, or is there a benefit to having the two parallel structures?

RACES groups still exist. Some places, RACES and ARES groups have the same people in them, other places they have only one or the other. ARES is run by the ARRL, while RACES is run by the local government (state/county/parish/city). Both provide services to local government, but ARES is more free to support NGOs and activate more often.
Correct?

Since you work in dispatch, and are a ham, you obviously know much more about how the radios work than the average nurse or fire fighter who only know how to push the PTT. And they're not supposed to know more either - they need to focus on their jobs.

There's probably a difference in license class here, because a technician class ham is only supposed to know how to operate legally on the short-range radios, while the extra class hams are supposed to have in-depth knowledge of how a radio works. Then again, maybe some people only cram for the test and then forget about it?

The whole point is that the hams can do the radio stuff that the first responders don't know or have time for, so the first responders can focus on their jobs.

Returning to the rifle example, I don't think most rifle association members can make a rifle either, but at least they have an active interest in shooting, and some of them know how to repair or modify one.

Scenario: The garage of the police station floods. Radios have to be temporarily installed in other vehicles so officers can respond to calls.

So you are personally offended because many people don't know about the internals of the equipment that they use? Are you similarly offended because most cops and soldiers don't know how to make a semi-automatic rifle from scratch? Sorry, but unless they're required to know that stuff, or have it as a hobby, they won't know. They are professionals with enough on their minds - medical protocol, conflict resolution, security etc. without having to solder their own radios or make their own guns and fire engines.
First responder radios are channelized, more and more frequently trunked, and the user doesn't need to bother with modulation and frequency. That's fine and dandy until they stop working.
If they're lucky they have a resident trained expert, but often they'll have to call the supplier service line; those usually respond quickly, but in the interim they need to communicate.

Hams, cops, paramedics and firefighters all happily eat donuts together, in reflective vests. It boils your blood, doesn't it? We like more healthy baked items over here though.

I suspect the group is taken seriously roughly in proportion to how well trained and integrated they are. And donut eating capacity of course.

Yet many Japanese hams have indeed been helping out in Japan after the tsunami. But again, it's the communication emergency following the tsunami that they've helped out with, not the events at the nuclear power plant.

Don't worry, hams are already radio active.

- We already have a thread on this: http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php/topic,73898.0.html
- The 70cm frequencies are not being auctioned to first responder emergency communication - it was proposed sold off to any highest bidder, * because it was assumed to be first responder frequencies. This is wrong, which may indicate that this subsection of the bill was written in error.
- As K1CJS says, the band is used by the military for anti-ballistic missile radar - not communications.

*: The old analog TV frequencies were planned to be sold at auction, but the bill gives them to public service users. To compensate for this, some current public service frequencies are to be sold to commercial use.

Right, but you wouldn't object to properly trained people who also happen to be hams?
Sometimes "whacker" is used for people who are untrained or operate outside their training, but sometimes it's used for anyone who does anything while having an amateur license.

Thanks W3JKS and KA6MLE for reminding me that even though amateur radio might not directly be needed in all cases, radio amateurs who are interested in technical things and serving their community can be trained as radiation monitoring personnel.
That's a nuclear weapon. What we're mainly talking about in this thread is fallout not just from nuclear weapons, but from non-criticality events such as "dirty bombs" or radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant. In some cases, the area needs evacuation - in others it's enough to stay indoors a couple of days. It depends on the isotopes which fall down outside.

Frankly, the main health effects from the nuclear situation in Japan right now is lack of electricity, and mental health effects from the fear of radiation - which is understandable. Under direct radiation threat at the moment are only the people on the power plant.

Radiation meters need regular calibration. As NN4RH points out, a reading from a bunk meter is probably worse than useless.

If there's only a nuclear emergency - radiation leak or fallout - I don't think amateur radio would enter into it in a big way. If, however, there's a communication emergency and a nuclear emergency at the same time, let's say phone lines and internet knocked out by a disaster which also causes fallout, then it might be a good idea to use amateur radio to report radiation reports from monitoring teams using properly calibrated meters. Teams of people trained in radiation monitors with a ham on each team to report back the results to authorities - identifying when areas are safe to return to, so power and communications can be restored as well.

Note that if the internet and phones are down, APRS packets would need alternative routes out of the area, so fill-in digipeaters and re-routing of packets would need to be planned for as well.

Thank you. Please tell us about what you learn, and what you decide to do. (Except any parts which might benefit burglars.)

Have you taken the advice to arrange an out-of-state contact point?

Do you have an emergency plan for the family which you exercise a couple times each year? Pick a likely scenario for your area - flooding, bush fires, house fires out of control - and exercise it.

Sure, anyone is allowed to use any radio equipment and any gear to raise the alarm about a life-or-death calamity, but that does not mean that your kids can use any radio to say "hey dad, how are you and the family dog coping with the hurricane?" - that's still illegal. It just means that they are allowed to, for example, grab an injured police officer's radio and say "help, we're stuck on a roof drifting out to sea - please call the coast guard" or "a dam is about to break".

I suppose you could give them a 2 meter amateur radio or a marine VHF radio - but then they would ONLY be allowed to use it to call for life-saving assistance. They are not allowed to transmit otherwise.

If you want to talk at will to your kids over long distances without infrastructure, you all need licenses for HF frequencies, and have pre-arranged times and approximate frequencies.

So do we all have to become radio amateurs then? No. If you just want to know that your kids are alive, pre-arrange to have a couple of dependable out-of-state family members or friends serve as contact points. Then use phone, internet, or amateur radio to get a message to them that you're alright.

In the US and Canada, some radio amateurs take part in the so-called National Traffic System, which passes formal emergency, priority, welfare, and routine radiogram messages all across the country. Some of these amateurs are stationed at county and state emergency centers, while others are stationed at Red Cross and Salvation Army shelters - some are just radio amateurs in the neighborhood who keep in touch with their neighbors by foot, CB or GMRS. Amateurs outside the affected area can pass messages to and from these locations by phone or digitally.

Let's say a hurricane or tsunami knocks out phone and internet in large areas of your state. You send a welfare message to your in-laws in Texas saying, effectively "From Ronald, at Red Cross shelter in Fairfax. I'm OK. Have you heard from the kids?". Your welfare message will take precedence over routine messages, but will have to wait if there's any life-saving emergency or official priority messages which need to be sent first. When the message reaches out of the affected area, an amateur in the NTS will call your in-laws on the phone and pass on the message, then ask if they want to give a reply. That reply is then passed along to the amateur radio operator at your shelter. This process can take some hours.

If you're lucky enough to live in a area where radio amateurs also monitor CB and GMRS radio, then a CB or GMRS radio might be useful in a disaster, to keep in touch with their neighbors and getting messages passed out of the area by radio amateurs.

Communication is actually essential to achieve those things. How do you call for medical evacuation? How do you get out word that you're stuck on a rooftop? That your shelter is running out of fuel and toilet paper? Where reinforcements are needed? That your part of the city is un-damaged?

Sure, for most private individuals stuck in a disaster, their main concern is to tell their loved ones that they're still alive; while that is important psychologically, and to avoid diverting search- and rescue operations needlessly, it's the official priority and life-saving emergency communications which are even more important. Amateur radio can truly save lives and lessen hardships in that way.

It can help you get help, and it can help coordinate emergency relief efforts. Communication is pretty essential.
There have been disasters where there were enough resources, but where problems were caused due to poor communications and control.

Well there's a news article here saying police in Ichinoseki are using amateur radio to gather information: http://www.iwanichi.co.jp/ken/item_23064.html

Once the situation has stabilized, we'll probably get news through the JARL about what amateurs in Japan have done after the disaster.

Currently, the latest news posted on the JARL's website was posted a few hours before the quake, and was about emergency communications rules.

As for hearing Japanese stations, yes the DX clusters show Japanese stations heard in the US, Europe, Asiatic Russia, etc. but I don't know if any those are in the affected area.

Well, it might benefit those who would like to launch ICBMs at North America undetected.

Hopefully this is just a blunder that will be written out of the bill, but you US hams need to make sure it happens. Representative King should perhaps be reminded of what amateur radio did to help in the aftermath of 9/11 2001? Maybe suggest rewording that section of the bill to something like

Alternatively, remove subsection (d) of section 207 entirely.