Monthly Archives: August 2012

FCC Denies Petition Seeking to Designate Nationwide Emergency Calling Frequency

Read by:ED KE4JWS

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (credit: Wikipedia)

Saying that it believes that the Amateur Service “allows flexibility to provide emergency communications in a way that takes into account channel availability and other local conditions,” the FCC denied a Petition for Rulemaking to create a nationwide emergency calling frequency. The Petition — filed by Bryan Boyle, WB0YLE, of Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and Jim Dixon, WB6NIL, of Alhambra, California — called upon the FCC to designate 146.550 MHz as a “non-exclusive nationwide Amateur Radio Service emergency communications channel using FM wideband modulation.”

Doyle and Dixon noted in their Petition that other services, such as the Citizens Band Radio Service, the Aviation Service and the Maritime Service have specific channels set aside for emergency communications. They claimed that use of these channels “to good effect by those in distress [and that this] is a testament to the need for individual services to have a readily accessible and publicized” emergency communications channel. In denying the Petition, the FCC said in part that Boyle and Dixon “had not shown an existing problem that would be addressed by a rule change designating a nationwide Amateur Service emergency calling frequency.”

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Army MARS expands HQ

Read by: RANDY KJ4TFU

Fort Huachuca, AZ—Army MARS headquarters operations will be expanded with recruiting of a fulltime senior MARS Program Officer, it was disclosed Friday (Aug. 10) by Stephen G. Klinefelter, Chief of the Army Military Auxiliary Radio Service.

The Program Officer position is the first fulltime staff expansion at MARS headquarters in at least a decade. “This is a significant change of affairs,’ Klinefelter said. “We are going to strengthen processes and communications to meet our future challenges.”

In another sign of the auxiliary’s response to growing need for its services, the 10 volunteer Region Directors are being summoned to a three-day planning conference with headquarters staff at Dallas Sept. 11-13.

Defense Department spending on its three ham radio auxiliaries (Army, Air Force and Navy-Marine Corps) had been steadily cut back in recent years as more and more communications switched from HF to satellite and combat operations in the Middle East drained available funds. Army MARS formerly operated three area gateway stations in the continental U.S. all with fulltime administrators and military operators. Only one remains, here at Ft Huachuca, operated by civilian contract employees. The Chief’s job had been fulltime until 2007.
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