GAREC recommends establishment of HF emergency frequencies

The first Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications conference, GAREC 2005, was held in Tampere, Finland, on 13 and 14 June, under the umbrella of the IARU.

45 delegates from 17 countries gave presentations on the amateur radio emergency service of their own countries and described some of the major emergencies in which they have been involved.

The UK’s Raynet presentation was given jointly by Paul Gaskell, G4MWO, the RSGB Emergency Communications coordinator, and David Smith, G8IDL, of the Network's Emergency Planning Team. Also attending from the UK were IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Co-ordinator Gordon Adams, G3LEQ; Mark Wood, G4HLZ; John Corbett, G3TWS, and David Palmer, G4PFX.

Paul and David described Raynet's history from its formation after the East Coast floods in 1953 to the present day. They featured several major emergencies which benefited from Raynet involvement. Raynet's coverage of public events and training exercises throughout the year was also described. The delegates of India and Sri Lanka gave gripping accounts of their experiences in the aftermath of the tsunami.

The view of the Conference was that progressively more international co-operation will be needed as time goes by and GAREC 2005 agreed a formal recommendation that the next competent conferences of IARU Regions 1, 2 and 3 should consider the establishment of a Centre-of-Activity Frequency for emergency traffic in the 15, 17, 20, 40 and 80 metre bands.

The entire proceedings of the conference, including all the slides and other recommendations, will be posted on the IARU website in due course and plans are in hand for further GARECs

Source: GB2RS News - Courtesy of the RSGB

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