The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) has held to the same precepts virtually since its inception in 1935, encouraging participation by any licensed Amateur Radio operator with a sincere interest in Public Service Communications. With the advent of more uniformly functioning public safety organizations across the nation, more requirements imposed upon agencies and organizations assisting them, and the development of the Incident Command System (ICS) and The National Incident Management System (NIMS), ARRL was challenged to align the standards of ARES with current needs of our served partner agencies.
ARRL consulted with experienced and talented resources from a broad cross-section of radio amateurs in the U.S. to examine the needs of our served agencies and their partners. A mission statement was developed for ARES — one that is versatile, tells why ARES exists, and provides an overview of what ARES does and how it does it. There are countless individuals who have made contributions to the new program. To each, we extend our thanks and appreciation.

These updates to the ARES program are being developed to allow the implementation of a policy of Best Practices and Continuous Improvement. With these concepts in place, we envision a more flexible ARES program that can adapt to meet new and emerging communication needs as identified by partners and program participants.
This program introduces many changes that were asked for by our partner agencies. Notably, all have been included in the Strategic Plan, and from the mission statement itself, new ARES Guidelines were created, which appear in this document. This Plan will continue to evolve. Changes in technology and local needs will require updates and revisions to accommodate our served partner agencies. ARRL Headquarters staff will conduct an annual review of this Plan to assure its continued relevance.

Formerly inconsistent training requirements are now organized into a consistent and achievable format. This is a first step towards our long-term goal of being recognized by our served partner agencies as the “gold standard” of volunteer communications support based upon ARES unique Expertise, Capability and Capacity as those attributes are described below.

ARES® Mission Statement

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service, a program of the ARRL, offers to its partners at all levels, trained Amateur Radio Service licensees who are skilled in the use of a wide range of emergency and disaster communications techniques and who are committed to supporting our partners’ missions in service to the public.

ARES® Vision Statement

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®), a program of ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio®, is comprised of organized, trained, and identified Amateur Radio operators who augment and support vital communications on behalf of the public through partner agencies and organizations during emergencies and disasters. The Amateur Radio Emergency Service, through its volunteer radio communicators, strives to be an effective partner in emergency and disaster response, providing public service partners at all levels with radio communications expertise, capability, and capacity.

Expertise

Amateur Radio operators (“hams”) possess unique skills. While a ham’s license allows the operation of radio equipment on a wide range of frequencies with varying propagation conditions, hams also are capable of setting up field stations and portable antennas, and using non-conventional means of getting a message through when other systems are overloaded or have failed.

These skill sets are created and improved by the local ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) group through thorough training that is formal or informal, and often in conjunction with local agencies where the team can meet the individuals with whom they can expect to be operating during a true emergency. This effort is a strong contributor to developing mutual trust and understanding among the key individuals managing any emergency operation, and should be exercised at every opportunity.

Capability

ARES groups have actively engaged in the following steps so that they have the ability to perform certain actions and meet their objectives. Further, a goal of the ARES program is to ensure that program participants continue to improve and develop additional capabilities for serving the needs of partners.

Net operations and traffic passing provide experience in on-the-air operating, including net procedures and routines that are easily learned and adopted. Experience resulting from regular net participation ensures that established procedures and routines for net participation become rote practices for participants.

The Amateur Radio discipline of DXing (contacting distant stations) offers ways of improving skills in operating under adverse conditions like interference (QRM) and static (QRN). The skills involved in copying transmissions subject to severe noise levels or interference come only through the actual experience of operating under severe conditions. Contacting DX stations, even occasionally, offers the unique experience necessary for skill level improvement.

Radiosport, also known as “contesting,” teaches ways to operate with a fixed format at high contact rates. Learning a fixed routing plan and employing common practices and terminology sets the expectations for network participants so they can anticipate the procedures used by the net and more readily adapt to the net routines.

Effective exercises offer locally developed scenarios to practice for hazards and threats. Having an established written policy relating to the most likely emergency scenarios allows ARES participants to understand the procedures for activating for a given situation. Severe weather events may be quite different from a wildfire, for example, requiring contact with different agencies and different skill sets from ARES participants. A well-written emergency communications plan greatly simplifies activation procedures and ensures that smaller items are not inadvertently overlooked.

Emergency and disaster response provides experience with actual pressures and changing requirements found in such environments. Having the opportunity to participate in emergency or disaster response offers one with valuable lessons and experiences. Therefore, it is important for those involved in the response to participate in the After-Action Reports (AAR) and debriefing process, so that all participants can learn from those who have operated in emergency conditions. Careful attention to details and retention of notes is an important part of completing this important educational task.

Capacity

In this application, capacity means the limits imposed by available ARES resources and the scope of the Amateur Radio service. These limits may be technical, personnel, equipment, or regulatory, in nature, and may prevent an ARES group from providing additional services. Each ARES group has capacity limits, and it is incumbent for ARES Leadership to be acutely aware of their capacity to serve, so the group is never overcommitted. Further, each group should strive to match their capacity with partner needs and plan for extension of that capacity as appropriate. An emergency communications plan should detail existing ARES group capacity and plans for expansion, depending upon local needs.

There are two methods for establishing and determining capacity:

Utilization of effective communications methodologies, including

• Various available field resources for communicating, such as VHF, UHF, HF, repeaters, accepted simplex frequencies, and local/regional HF networks
• Integrating messaging networks such as high-speed multimedia (HSMM) networks, the National Traffic System (NTS), and NTS-Digital (NTSD), along with new technology and data communications, and
• Cross-training with other communications services such as Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN), Military Auxiliary Radio Service (MARS), and local public safety.

Engagement with the Community through

• Working with state and local officials
• Participation in neighborhood programs
• Cooperating with local CERT, National Weather Service SKYWARN, and similar programs, and
• Assisting with community events, such as rallies, races, marathons, parades, all of which create training opportunities and team building.

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) is chartered with providing emergency communications support. This support can take many forms, but it does by its very concept include the transmission of third-party messages for our partner organizations and the communities we serve. Training in both net operating and message formatting can be found in several well-regarded publications, including The Amateur Radio Public Service Handbook, first edition; The ARRL Operating Manual, eleventh edition; The National Traffic System’s NTS Methods and Practices Guidelines (http://www.arrl.org/files/file/NTS_MPG2014.pdf);
The NTS Manual (http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Public%20Service/NTS_Manual2015.pdf); and The ARES Field Resource Manual.

The organization should not limit itself to any specific messaging format or system, but develop the operating skills and capacity to accommodate a wide variety of formats to meet the ever-changing needs due to propagation, agency requirements, or technology.

Some things to keep in mind:

• ARES, as it is working with its partners, will need to handle messages and send those messages using partner-preferred forms in lieu of or in addition to NTS Radiograms.

• ARES will need to accept responsibility and be held accountable for timely delivery and tracking of messages, which were sent on behalf of partners.

• ARES participants — as their skills (qualifications) improve via training and performing tasks — shall be familiar with, and use, multiple digital communication protocols for messaging.

• ARES groups should invite NTS personnel to work with them as they assist with messaging for their Partners. However, the protocols used by ARES and its partners will necessarily take priority over other alternative system.