Amateur (Ham) Radio and Emergency Communications

During normal times, citizens and government officials communicate through the use of telephones, cell phones, radio and TV broadcasts, and similar things.  However, when disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, tsunamis, hurricanes, and terrorist acts occur, the volume of communications may overload the available resources, and normal communications may cease to be available. Also, governments may shut down cell channels to prevent them from being used to detonate bombs.

Historically, amateur radio operators (hams) have provided temporary radio communications to citizens and organizations during emergency situations until normal resources are restored. Ham radio operators do this as their way of giving thanks for the many radio frequencies given them free of charge. Amateur radio is not an Emergency Radio Service. It is a service that provides free temporary radio communications during emergencies until normal communication channels are restored, and it provides its services to the public only when requested by the agencies or organizations involved in the disaster.

The pictures shown below, taken from the web, are from the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco and the April 25, 2015 earthquake in Nepal. The Nepal earthquake caused a lot of damage to facilities and a lot of injuries and deaths. An early report was that at least 4000 people have been killed. "When the earth first shook, residents fled homes and buildings in panic as walls tumbled, trees swayed, power lines came crashing down and large cracks opened up on streets. (Fox News Alert)" "According to the early analysis, a region 75 miles long by 30 miles wide lifted upward by as much as 3 feet during the earthquake, said Tim Wright, a geophysicist at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. This uplift peaked only 10 miles from Kathmandu, even though the city was relatively far from the earthquake's epicenter. (Fox News Natural  Disasters)"


Persons new to amateur radio and/or radio communications during emergencies may not be familiar with the procedures used by hams during emergencies, and this primer will help those persons by presenting an overview of how amateur radio might be used during emergencies. The information presented pertains the the United States of America. The concepts may apply in principle to other countries, but the details and the implementation of the concepts may be different in other countries.

This primer is focused on local radio communications that might be used during emergencies. The information describes procedures that might be used in the USA. Procedures used in other countries may be different. In addition to local nets, emergency nets might be established on lower frequencies for use over longer distances. Much of the information in this primer also applies to nets covering longer distances, but because those distances may involve multi-states or multi-countries, those nets may have procedures that differ from those discussed in this primer.

The navigational bar near the top of each page  gives links to pages in this site. In addition, those pages may give links or references to external sites and publications that elaborate on the topics discussed. Printed copies of this primer are available at http://lulu.com/allenleigh (the pdf of the primer is available for free).