The establishment of NEWS will allow and encourage any ham -- ARRL member or not, ARES or RACES member or not, young or old, firm or infirm, whatever their capability or talent-- to participate in an open net on a frequency to be determined, in which a net control operator (under the auspices of ARES) will conduct a net to pass traffic to the parties that need to receive it. I believe that by reaching out to other local emergency response groups, such as volunteer ambulance services, volunteer fire departments, CERT teams, etc., we can provide emergency communications for our family, friends and neighbors when needed.

Let's say that the City or Town shuts down and travel is impossible.  Phone lines are overwhelmed. Cell phones, Nextels, Cable or Internet Phones, even copper lines are overloaded and no one can get through.  But your family needs help, or your neighbor hasn't heard from her child and is trying to get a message to her/him across the borough. They see your antenna. They know you can talk on the radio. So they ring your bell. What do you do?

The one ability that we, as amateur radio operators, have that NO OTHER group has, is the ability to talk to each other "when all else fails."  That has been proven time and again. So how do we take advantage of this ability? What happens to those of our community who are not members of an organized radio group but have the capability and desire to help themselves and their neighbors? What do we do in a large-scale emergency when we are in our home, near or on our radio, and someone - family, friend, or neighbor needs help?

NEWS!

A NEWS net can and will also liaison with other Emergency nets that are concurrent with the NEWS net. We have the capability to participate in nets that ARES and RACES groups have with public first-responder groups.

Each borough/county/town will have a Local Operations Center, to be developed and determined as the NEWS network is developed. The local LOC's will tie into the Citywide and local emergency nets to provide a venue for local needs.

Background:

Amateur radio has a long history of serving the public during times of need. Over the past number of years, the service, through the ARRL, has developed numerous relationships with many major public-relief organizations. Locally, many ARES groups have developed relationships with the local public sector emergency response organizations.

However, in the rush to support the community at large we may have lost sight of "the little guy," our friends and neighbors.

We in the EmComm community have come to realize that there are so many hams out there who have no desire to participate in Emergency Communications organizations like ARES and RACES, but will gladly come to serve the community during a large scale emergency. We have seen that time and again, in responses to the communications breakdown during the aftermath of both September 11, 2001 and the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast in 2005.

The reasons for not participating in an organization are as varied as they are valid. Too young, too old, incapacitated, too busy with work, too busy with home, too busy with school - just overwhelmed with life.  Whatever the reason is, it is valid to that person.

That doesn't mean that this individual amateur radio operator is unwilling to help when the time comes. It just means that their ability to help needs to be defined.

What Now?

Let's put our combined talents to use, without anyone feeling that they are left out of the response. And let us provide the service that we, as licensed amateur radio operators, are supposed to do under FCC Regulations - Part 97. In doing so, we help ourselves AND our community.

Please let me know what you think. Please provide me with feedback, ideas and suggestions. And please, above all, think seriously about getting involved in this particular endeavor.

Let's all understand that something natural like Hurricane Katrina or a man-made disaster can happen here just as easily as anywhere else.
Can you look at yourself in the mirror and be happy with what you see if you had the opportunity to help out and didn't?