| The RACES leadership, and both Eastern and Western Massachusetts ARES have jointly developed the following protocol for amateur radio operators in Massachusetts to follow in the event of a sudden or large scale emergency, or where communications infrastructure has failed or is likely to fail.
This Protocol called the “Massachusetts Emergency Frequency Protocol” or MEFP has been developed in an attempt to centralize the resources required to support large-scale communications emergencies in Massachusetts. Our observations of exercise traffic and actual emergencies as well as modeling done by other groups including the Federal SHARES HF network has led us to this protocol. |
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| This Protocol is intended to be used for non-weather related emergencies and after the weather related emergencies have passed. During Weather related emergencies, we closely work with the National Weather Service and SKYWARN to report severe weather. Please report severe weather situations as usual to nets on SKYWARN net frequencies at all times. Please use the MEFP as infrastructure for official communications.
During an emergency, all amateur stations should, based on the city/town they are currently located in, monitor or check in when requested on frequencies defined by the Massachusetts State RACES Plan. The frequencies are defined by this document above. Note that all of these frequencies are repeater frequencies. The protocol indicates that in the event of a repeater failure, conduct operations on the repeater output frequency in simplex mode, until operation is restored, or until the a net control station requests that the net change frequency. Relay traffic or Net directions to all stations on the frequency as needed. Amateurs working with served agencies such as Red Cross, Salvation Army and others will monitor the frequency assigned to their city/town for any traffic for their station. Amateurs at home and working with served agencies are encouraged as necessary to conduct operations on other frequencies, but must keep a “watch” on the assigned frequency for their community. During drill or emergency operations, do not pass traffic on the assigned frequency. Arrange another frequency and move there to pass the traffic. If you cannot monitor the assigned channel while off frequency, announce your departure and arrival back on the assigned frequency to the NCS or to all stations on the frequency. The only exception to traffic on the assigned frequency is any “broadcast” message from one to many stations. Messages of record between government officials, and served agency leaders should always be in NTS or Massachusetts RACES Radiogram format. Communications between radio operators need not use these methods and never take the form of official communications. All record communications should include all necessary information about both the addressee and originator in terms of name, title, agency, address, and phone. If we all use this method, then any station or served agency or community can receive messages from the outside world based on their location. In many cases, these frequencies will have an assigned NCS station to help coordinate operations. If no assigned NCS is present, any station is welcome to take charge and organize the net according to the principles of this document and ARES guidelines. -Tom K, N1CPE |
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a field organization of the National Association for Amateur Radio®
