None of the situations given in this question are reasons for the FCC rules to not apply. RACES, FEMA and ARES operations are all governed by the FCC rules.

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A 12 volt lead-acid battery is nothing more than a car battery. Even if it's a marine or other deep cycle battery, the charging voltages will be the same, so they can be charged using your car in the same way you would 'jump' another car if it's battery was low. (Although, you might also consider a small solar panel for this kind of emergency.)

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Sometimes it's hard to understand what someone is saying, due to noise, interference from other stations, or a particular accent. The best way to insure correct copy by the receiving station is for the transmitting station to spell out the words.

Since a lot of letters sound alike in the presence of noise, interference or an unfamiliar accent, using a Phonetic Alphabet instead of the names of the letters is a great help.

Saying "Alpha" instead of "A" can help the receiving operator to know it's not an I or E or other letter that might sound like A.

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RACES - Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (only active during periods of local, regional or national civil emergencies, such as hurricane Katrina.)

ARES - Amateur Radio Emergency Service (sponsored by ARRL)

ARRL - American Radio Relay League

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The three key things here are that RACES uses amateur radio frequencies, stations, and operators. They don't have their own frequencies (like MARS does), and all the stations and operators are amateurs (unlike MARS, which does have separately licensed stations and operators). So all of these answers are correct.

For the full description, see 47 CFR 97.3(a)(38) & 47 CFR 97.407.

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During net operations there are commonly many stations participating and attempting to communicate. It is very important that the priority of your emergency be established immediately, so the first words of your transmission should convey that. "Priority" or "Emergency" should be stated immediately so that there is no confusion about your intent and need.

The term SOS does not actually make sense except in morse code and pressing the push to talk button multiple times is likely to simply be ignored as normal radio static or a malfunctioning radio. Similarly a pre-recorded emergency alert tone would probably be taken as an accidental transmission by someone. When in doubt, say it straight; in amateur radio we don't do secret codes.

Note: The closest thing to a "pre-recorded emergency alert tone" that is used is LiTZ which means Long Term Zero. This is not something that is used on an emergency net! It is an emergency repeater feature where if someone transmits a DTMF 0 tone for >3 seconds on a repeater's input frequency the repeater can provide instructions, phone/page the control operator of the repeater, or possibly phone emergency services. It is only used in an emergency when a radio operator can reach a repeater but nobody is currently listening. It is not used on an emergency net or when a human is responding to calls!

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Tags: emergency communication operating procedures arrl chapter 6 arrl module 14

In an emergency, the Net Control operator is making a list of who has checked in, with the intention or at least the possibility of calling on them later. Until dismissed, it's expected that you remain on frequency.

Transmitting during an emergency, when you've already checked in but have not been addressed by Net Control is unnecessary and could interfere with another station trying to contact Net Control, or with Net Control trying to contact another station. It's better to listen and not transmit.

Moving off frequency and asking people to keep clear of the net is a strange idea, and the wrong answer.

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A station passing a message in an emergency has an expectation that it will be delivered, not weighed to see if it merits delivery or relay. So you're expected to deliver it.

You might think you know enough to clarify, abbreviate or otherwise change a message, but it's so risky that you should just not do it - pass the message exactly as received.

Emergency messages should always specify an originating party and the party to whom the message should be delivered. The choice about communicating messages to the news media for broadcast is generally not a good idea, unless that's the destination that was specified.

So the best answer is to pass the message exactly as received.

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This is a bit of a trick question; emergency plans will never take into account transmitting out of band, since if you're planning it you can always plan to not need to transmit out of band.

The rule is this: Always do whatever it takes to keep people safe. If someone is going to die unless you transmit on a police (or other) frequency, transmit first and ask forgiveness later.

Just make sure that whatever action you're taking isn't interfering with something and causing more danger than you are trying to protect against!

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The American Radio Relay League was originally created in order to relay messages across long distances. In order to do so safely and efficiently, the Amateur Radio Traffic Handling system was created. The first part of any message sent across this system is called the preamble.

The preamble contains information such as who the message is from, who the message is to, and information about the content of the message (specifically the number of words). This information is used to facilitate correctly routing the message through the Amateur Radio Traffic Handling System without losing any part of the message or sending it to the wrong destination.

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Tags: formal traffic message emergency communication arrl chapter 6 arrl module 14

The best practice is to use plain English and not jargon. But in the case of formal message traffic, the word, "check" means the count of words in the body (text portion) of the message.

This is a way to make sure you didn't add or drop a word from the message. This is related to the best practice of passing the message exactly as it was received.

Let’s use this as an example message we want to send:

Great seeing you yesterday. Hope to get together again soon. 73

In a radiogram, periods are written as either the letter X (“initial x-ray”), or the word XRAY. Either way, this indicates an end of a sentence. Similarly, if your message was, “How are you?” the question mark would be written as QUERY to indicate a question.

Using this method, we will write the text of the message like this:

GREAT SEEING YOU YESTERDAY X

HOPE TO GET TOGETHER AGAIN

SOON 73

Notice how we did not place X between SOON and 73? When wishing someone 73 at the end of a message, we generally do not include an X as it’s automatically implied. The only exception would be to include it for clarity. For example, if the end of your message was “ON AUGUST 10 73” it could be confusing this way, so we would instead say “ON AUGUST 10 X 73” to help better separate the date from wishing someone 73.

Items like X and QUERY count as a word when filling in the check, so counting what we have above, there are 12 words, and we would write 12 in the check.

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According to the American Radio Relay League (ARRL),

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment, with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes.

By this statement, it's clear that ARES is not meant strictly for members of the military. Furthermore, because ARES assumes a membership of licensed amateurs, it is not intended for those interested in obtaining licenses.

Finally, ARES can indeed be a training program to help promote readiness certifications, but the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) certifies its own membership (FCC Part 97 section 407.)

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