MOU with IEVHFRA

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Published: 06 May 2023 06 May 2023
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Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

Regarding Emergency Operations

On Repeater Systems in Spokane County

Public Service is the one of the primary "calling's" for Amateur Radio. One aspect of Public Service is known as Emergency Operations. To ensure good understanding and communication for all concerned in preparation for and during Public Service Events and Emergency Operations, this document describes the terms for cooperation between:

For the purposes of this agreement Public Service and Emergency Operations shall mean, but may not be limited to, the following depending on the nature of communications need:

  1. Public Service Events include those community service opportunities shared among Radio Amateurs for the purpose of coordination and communication for parades, marathons, and other such events where Amateur Radio operators may be asked to assist by event organizers.
  2. Operations during states of emergency (“Emergencies”) declared by city, county, state, regional or national departments of Emergency Management or other served agencies or organizations including but not limited to FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security or the American Red Cross.
  3. Training events simulating operations during Emergencies including tests, drills, exercises, and events which enhance field operations such as Field Days and the annual Simulated Emergency Test (SET) and other such events.

The three aforementioned organizations support Emergency operations in various ways.

  1. Spokane County ARES/ACS/RACES is the primary center for Emergency Operations and is activated in such an emergency at the behest of the Spokane County Dept of Emergency Management. Their meetings, operations and repeater are the primary facilities for these operations.
  2. The IEVHFRA Club supports emergency operations by providing back-up coverage for primary operations should the ARES repeater system be overwhelmed or otherwise down, or additional alternate coverage when more than one system is required. IEVHFRA also provides “packet” and UHF signal transmission support which can also be utilized for either a real situation or simulated.
    1. Example 1: During an exercise, part of a simulation would be the "147.30 repeater went down;" became non-functional. Therefore, all traffic would be moved to the alternate repeater (which would be published prior to the event); in this case, the 146.880 repeater (using the published tone and standard offset).
    2. Example 2: During an exercise, an alternate net is needed to pass specialized traffic such as weather reports. The alternate repeater at 146.88 would be tasked for that purpose
    3. Example 3: FEMA ICS forms such as the ICS 213 or the WA State ICS 213RR would need to be communicated via Winlink using the IEVHFRA packet nodes into Winlink RMS Gateways, using published frequencies and packet node paths

Standard practices will be observed while operating on any system by either party to this MOU, such as leaving a few seconds between transmissions for emergency traffic. On-air announcements will be made at the onset of either a real or simulated emergency and at regular intervals to alert nonemergency traffic to the situation. Additionally, attempts will be made in advance to alert nonparticipants of any upcoming simulated event by communicating on all and any forms available to ARES and IEVHFRA at the time, e.g. groups.io, club nets, etc. These attempts are to prevent a “War of the worlds” panic type situation, should anyone not realize that the simulated event is indeed a simulation. The announcements need only to state that between “X” time (both Zulu and local) and “XX” time, that members of ARES and IEVHFRA should expect heavy traffic due to an emergency simulation. The contents of this Memorandum of Understanding between ARES and IEVHFRA shall be posted on the websites of both ARES and IEVHFRA and all members shall be informed of said agreement.

Either party to this MOU has the right to amend, change or otherwise modify any content of this agreement only after verbal or written confirmation by the heads (Presidents) of both organizations. 

Either organization has the right to dissolve or otherwise discontinue participating at any time in the future. In this event both organizations are held harmless to any results from this action. (Peaceful dissolution, no hard feelings, etc.)

Point of Contacts as of May 2023 (contact information should be revisited annually and revised as needed):

Spokane County ARES/RACES:

Inland Empire VHF Radio Amateurs club:

Effective date: Upon acceptance by all organizations; supersedes previous versions

Revision #5: 2023 05 06 – complete re-write based on other ARES staff submitted revisions and revised via telephone with IEVHFRA.