SomeNetBlog

ARRL_letter-V25#40

In this week’s ARRL Letter, we learned that :

NEW LAW FORMALLY MAKES AMATEUR RADIO PART OF EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNITY

A section of the HR 5441 formally includes Amateur Radio operators as a part of the emergency communications community. Congress approved the measure before adjourning for its pre-election break. President George W. Bush signed the bill into law October 4.

Amateur Radio is included within the legislation’s Subtitle D, Section 671, known as the “21st Century Emergency Communications Act.” Radio amateurs are among the entities with which a Regional Emergency Communications Coordination Working Group (RECC Working Group) must coordinate its activities. Included within the DHS’s Office of Emergency Communications — which the measure also creates — RECC Working Groups attached to each regional DHS office will advise federal and state homeland security officials. The final version of the legislation incorporated language from both House and Senate bills and was hammered out in a conference committee.
An earlier version of the 21st Century Emergency Communications Act, HR 5852, included Amateur Radio operators as members of the RECC Working Groups.

Visit this week’s ARRL Letter for the rest of this story as well as these others :

+ ARRL headed to federal court re: certain BPL rules
+ League leans on FCC to release "omnibus" Amateur Radio order
+ New law makes Amateur Radio formally part of the EmComm community
+ Marketing non-certified CBs as ham gear nets big fine for travel center
+ Top Band beacon project hopes to explain 1901 transatlantic success
+ ARISS-NASA meetings lay foundation for future of ham radio in space