ARRLWeb: ARRL COO Testifies on Capitol Hill to Amateur Radio's Value in Disasters

ARRLWeb: ARRL COO Testifies on Capitol Hill to Amateur Radio's Value in Disasters

"ARRL COO Testifies on Capitol Hill to Amateur Radio's Value in Disasters
ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B.
NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 30, 2005--

ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B, testified on behalf of the League September 29 before the US House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. Addressing the hearing topic, 'Public Safety Communications from 9/11 to Katrina: Critical Public Policy Lessons,' Kramer reiterated and amplified comments ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, delivered earlier this month to the House Government Reform Committee. As Haynie did on September 15, Kramer testified on the successful efforts of Amateur Radio operators who provided communications during the Hurricane Katrina response.

'Amateur Radio was uniquely suited to this task by virtue of the availability of HF communications covering long distances without fixed infrastructure,' Kramer pointed out in his testimony. In addition to those who responded to support relief agencies in hurricane-devastated areas, thousands more radio amateurs outside the affected area monitored radio traffic and relayed health-and-welfare messages, he said.

Kramer noted that there's been a lot of discussion in recent years about public safety interoperability. 'The Amateur Radio Service provides a good deal of interoperability communications for first responders in disaster relief incidents,' he told the subcommittee. He said ham radio is able to fill this crucial role because even the 'interoperability channels' that exist in most Public Safety allocations are useless when the Public Safety communication infrastructure goes down.

"Interoperability, in short, presumes operability of Public Safety facilities," Kramer said. "While some 'hardening' of Public Safety facilities is called for, there is in our view an increasing role for decentralized, portable Amateur Radio stations which are not infrastructure-dependent in providing interoperability communication on site."

Kramer told Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and his House colleagues that Amateur Radio "is largely invisible to both the FCC and to Congress on a daily basis, because it is virtually self-regulating and self-administered," he said. "It is only during emergencies that the Amateur Radio Service is in the spotlight." Also testifying at the subcommittee session was FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, and Kramer said he had the opportunity to introduce himself to the chairman before the subcommittee convened.

Martin also was on hand September 22 when Haynie's written comments were placed into the record of the US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on "Communications in a Disaster." Alaska Republican Ted Stevens chairs that Senate panel.

Kramer noted that for the first time ever, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) has provided $170,000 in grant supplements to the ARRL to support the efforts of Hurricane Katrina emergency communicators in the Gulf Coast. The grants to the ARRL's "Ham Aid" fund enable the League to reimburse some volunteers' out-of-pocket expenses on a per diem basis.

Kramer said he was honored to be chosen to provide the testimony on behalf of the ARRL. "I am proud of Amateur Radio's and our role in the Katrina relief effort," he added.


73 fer nw,
Bob N5IET

(old calls KE5CTY - WB5ZQU - WY5L)
10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
http://www.qsl.net/ke5cty/
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.