CNN Story: Ham Operators Needed for Emergency Comm

K4JMF writes "
CNN.COM POSTED THE FOLLOWING STORY---Calling All Ham Radio Operators-



July 10, 2001 Posted: 11:30 a.m. EDT by CNN.com---



By Dan Verton



(IDG) -- The System Administration Networking and Security (SANS) Institute is recruiting amateur radio operators to take part in an emergency communications network that it said could be used by disaster relief personnel in the event of a catastrophic failure of telecommunications systems, including the Internet.




In its weekly newsletter this week, Bethesda, Md.-based SANS asked all interested ham and packet radio operators "to take a leadership role to help establish and maintain" such an emergency backup communications network. Interested parties can contact SANS, a research organization for systems administrators and security managers, via e-mail at info@sans.org.



There are approximately 650,000 amateur radio operators in the U.S. and 2.5 million around the world. Ham radio operators, as amateur radio operators are popularly known, must obtain a license from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and are encouraged to provide emergency communications during natural disasters and national emergencies.



Jim Haynie, president of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), a Newington, Conn.-based organization that supports the interests of ham radio operators in dealings with the government, said the SANS proposal is a good one and in many ways similar to what amateur radio operators have been doing since the first licenses were issued in 1912.



"There is a network that can be marshaled if needed," said Haynie, referring to the potential of a terrorist attack or natural disaster to cripple large portions of the Internet and the telecommunications grid. "If the Internet went down today, it wouldn't change my life one bit," he added. "It's nothing for me to go in my ham shack and flip one switch and talk to New York or Bulgaria or Ukraine."




The ARRL estimates that there are about 275,000 "hardcore operators" who could swing into action if needed, Haynie said. "But to back up the entire infrastructure is a pretty tall order," he cautioned, noting that the use of ham radio operators in this fashion wouldn't mean the instant restoration of Web browsing capabilities or Internet e-mail capabilities.



Instead, Haynie said, the ham radio network would be strictly used for passing emergency voice and data communications between government officials at the local, state and federal levels and the public.



The ARRL is a signatory to several memorandums of understanding with various federal and private relief agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross. In fact, many of the ARRL's 175,000 members have actively supported federal emergency response operations during many of the most recent disasters and crises.



During the flooding that ravaged parts of Texas last month, for example, the FCC set aside a band of frequencies for use by ham radio operators to support federal relief efforts, Haynie said. Likewise, the radio operators were called into action after the 1995 blast that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City led to an overload of the cell phone network.



Alan Fedeli, director of emergency response services at Atlanta-based security software vendor Internet Security Systems Inc. (ISS), applauded the approach suggested by SANS and said any attempt to establish alternate communications channels should be supported.



David Curry, manager of business strategies at ISS, pointed to outbreaks of Internet and e-mail worms as prime examples of the need for such an alternate network. Many companies simply pull their systems off the Internet when that happens in order to prevent the worms from reaching them, according to Curry.



"People's reaction was to unplug the network," he said, referring to several such incidents. "The problem is that the people disconnected themselves from the source of information about the problem.""