EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

It may be ham radio heresy to say it out loud, but in the view of many, amateur radio is no longer on the front burner as a backup resource. There are several reasons for this, many having to do with improvements to the “regular” communication systems we depend upon daily. But there are some specific functions amateur radio technology can contribute before, during and after an emergency.

Commercial and Public Safety Radio is Far Better Than It Used to Be

My first exposure to public safety radio came in the late 1960s, when every county sheriff’s office in the entire state was on one frequency and every cruiser answered back on the same frequency. While there was a certain element of “safety in numbers,” we knew we could usually count on the “FM capture effect” to connect our cruiser with the correct county base station. It worked most of the time. By the late 1980s, digital FM was under development and the “public safety” band was nearly full of licensed frequencies. APCO International, the public safety standards organization, began the P-25 digital voice protocols around 1988, with phase 2 launching around 2012. While some data was able to be transmitted over the systems, typically they were limited to voice communication. Quickly, the VHF and UHF public safety bands filled to capacity. Frequencies above were considered undesirable, but the advent of “big money” highly computerized digitized voice systems (various names like MARCS) opened a new world to safety agencies. Cellular telephone systems were on a parallel course with similar frequencies.

Using improvements in backup capabilities and general infrastructure, along with the lessons learned from many disasters, manufacturers have created systems that are dependable and rich in their performance. For example, the ability to take a low-power handheld radio and talk across your state to another similar radio while being routed through several transparent