Ladies and Gentlemen, Here is an email I sent to Section Managers of the Katrina-affected area to obtain points of contact for use of amateur frequencies by the military. So far, I have received a reply from the MS SM. Paul

Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 09:46:05 -0400 To: Mickey Cox K5MC SM LA <k5mc@arrl.org>, Malcolm Keown W5XX SM MS <w5xx@arrl.org>, E Ray Taylor N5NAV SM ETX <n5nav@arrl.org>, Rudy Hubbard WA4PUP SM NFL <wa4pup@arrl.org> From: Paul L Rinaldo <prinaldo@mindspring.com> Subject: Priority Handling/Katrina/Military use of amateur frequencies Cc: rroderick@arrl.org, fbutler@arrl.org, cday@arrl.org, hkramer@arrl.org, W3KD@aol.com X-Attachments: C:\Documents and Settings\Paul L Rinaldo\My Documents\Use of ARS Freqs by the Military.doc;

Gentlemen,

ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, W1JB, asked me to work with the FCC concerning the use of amateur frequencies by the US military in support of Katrina. I talked with Kathryn Hosford of the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET), who is the FCC liaison to the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC). She said that the FCC has received a request from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which overseas IRAC requesting temporary military use of amateur bands in support of Katrina. She said the FCC cannot turn down NTIA's request but first wants to obtain from ARRL the point(s) of contact for coordination of such military use. I told her that we would supply the contacts but that there could be several.

This is not an unusual request by the military for the use of amateur frequencies for tactical and training operations, although the urgency and magnitude are unusual. There are provisions in the "Manual of Regulations and Procedures for Federal Radio Frequency Management" (usually called the "NTIA Manual") for military use of non-federal-government frequencies. The NTIA Manual has the same force of law as FCC rules. Specific provisions of the NTIA Manual are excerpted in the attachment.

The NTIA Manual says that the military can contact the FCC field office when they want to use non-Government frequencies and to establish local coordination. This situation is of such magnitude that the military requested NTIA and NTIA in turn contacted the FCC to clear the use of these frequencies. It is of the interests of all concerned to get this coordination handled at the local level where people know what's going on, what frequencies are in use, what frequencies could be used by the military and how to handle interference complaints in an efficient manner.

Section Managers of the area affected by Katrina are requested to provide me with the names and contact information for the amateur points of contact for the military to request use of amateur frequencies. Simplest would be best, that is one person per Section. But if that's not possible, then please break it down into the least number of cases.

Paul L Rinaldo, W4RI Chief Technology Officer, ARRL 3545 Chain Bridge Rd, Suite 209 Fairfax, VA 22030 Tel: 703 934 2077 Fax: 703 934 2079

PS: I will be departing for Europe on Friday. My alternate is Technical Relations Specialist Walter Ireland, WB7CSL, same contact info as mine.