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Emergency Communications

Description

Wilderness Protocol

ARES

RACES

Amateur radio operators may be the last line of defense when conventional public communications are down. This might be the result of a flood, tornado, or hurricane (Hurricane Harvey), mudslide or earthquake, or as a result of prankster, hacker, or even terrorist activity.

Amateur radio may be available even when the power is out through the use of 12V batteries charged by solar panels, a way to remain on the air while being off the grid.

If you look closely, most amateur radios are powered from a 12-13.8V battery or power supply, even the big ones designed to be base stations.

American Disaster Shortwave Radio Frequencies - Monitoring Only

The Wilderness Protocol (See page 101, August 1995 QST) calls for hams in the wilderness to announce their presence on, and to monitor, the national calling frequencies for 5 minutes beginning at the top of the hour, every three hours from 7AM to 7PM while in the back country. This is to allow a ham in a remote location the chance to relay emergency information through another wilderness ham who may have better access to a repeater.

52.525
146.520 <= Primary
223.500
446.000
1294.50

Great description and script for both active monitoring and calls for assistance:
CERN Wilderness Protocol

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service, or ARES is a group of licensed amateurs who help local activities before during and after an emergency.

Washington
Washington State Emergency Net
Clark County Washington
Western Washington District 3
ARES of King County
Texas
Harris County
Williamson County
Williamson County on Facebook
Denton County
Hays County
South Texas
Oklahoma
ARES Oklahoma
Norman

RACES, or Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, specifically addressed in Part 97 and is organized during an emergency. Start with usraces.org/ and you'll start to see more formal organization associated with the FCC and FEMA.

Quoting usraces: Activated by local, county and state jurisdictions and are the only Amateur Radio operators authorized to transmit during declared emergencies when the President of the United States specifically invokes the War Powers Act.

RACES is a more organized effort, perhaps the organizers of organizations would be a good way to describe it.

More research required

Severe Weather and WX training nets Central Texas NWS Alerts

Day	Time	Freq	Parameters	Description	Mem


		146.940 Mhz		Travis Co. WXnet
		147.360 Mhz	131.8	Travis Co. Severe net:
		443.750 MHz	114.8	Bastrop/Smithville
		145.350 Mhz	114.8	Bastrop/Smithville
		146.640 Mhz	162.2	Williamson Co	15
		145.450 Mhz	162.2	Williamson Co	13
		147.080 Mhz	100.0	Williamson Co usually reserved for only TSSI use during Severe Weather/chasing
		147.020 Mhz	88.5	Highland Lakes
		146.820 Mhz	123.0	Bell Co. WXnet
		147.140 Mhz	123.0	Bell Co. WXnet
		444.700 Mhz	123.0	Bell Co. WXnet
		147.140 Mhz	179.9	Sattler/Canyon Lake

Mondays	2000	147.080 Mhz	100.0	TSSI/LSSN
Thursday	2100	145.330 Mhz	162.2	Lampasas area CenTex Storm Spotters Training net
Thursday	2100	146.720 Mhz	88.5	Lampasas area CenTex Storm Spotters Training net
Thursday	2100	147.220 Mhz	88.5	Lampasas area CenTex Storm Spotters Training net
Thursday	2100	444.875 Mhz	88.5	Lampasas area CenTex Storm Spotters Training net
Thursday	2100	ECHOLINK Node# 28821		Lampasas area CenTex Storm Spotters Training net
Thursday	2100	WX_TALK Node# 7203		Lampasas area CenTex Storm Spotters Training net
Thursday	2100	SWLynx System		Lampasas area CenTex Storm Spotters Training net