Commission Seeks Comment on Emergency Communications by ...

WASHINGTON, April 2 ? The Federal Communications Commission?s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau issued the following document:

By this Public Notice, the Federal Communications Commission?s (FCC or Commission) Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau seek comment on the uses and capabilities of Amateur Radio Service communications in emergencies and disaster relief. As set forth below, comment is sought on issues relating to the importance of emergency Amateur Radio Service communications and on impediments to enhanced Amateur Radio Service communications. Stakeholder entities and organizations, including the Amateur Radio, emergency response, and disaster communications communities, are particularly encouraged to submit comments.

BACKGROUND

The amateur radio service is available for persons who are interested in radio communications techniques solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest. It presents an opportunity for individuals to self-train, communicate with other amateur radio licensees, and carry out technical investigations. The amateur service rules are designed to allow, among other things, stations in this service to make transmissions necessary to meet essential communication needs and to facilitate relief actions. Amateur radio operators have been useful in recent years in augmenting essential communication services and providing communication links when normal communication systems are overloaded or not available. For example, amateur radio operators provided storm observations and damage reports to the National Weather Service when winds and tornadoes moved through Arkansas and Alabama in January 2012, and provided communications to villages along the Bering Sea when a November 2011 severe winter storm knocked out power lines and communications.1

Public Law 112-96, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, requires the Commission, in consultation with the Office of Emergency Communications in the Department of Homeland Security, to complete a study on the uses and capabilities of Amateur Radio Service communications in emergencies and disaster relief; and submit to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report on the findings of such study.2

*Omitted footnotes & Rest of the document can be viewed at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-12-523A1.pdf

Copyright ? 2012 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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