Radio Clubs - The Last Lifeline

I am the President of the Boston Area GMRS Club, which is a radio club organization serving Eastern Massachusetts. Like all radio clubs, we form for the purpose of serving the community. Radio club membership is open to anyone who lives in Eastern Massachusetts, holds a GMRS radio license, and wishes to serve the community by providing emergency communications services to other organizations and community members. Our purpose is twofold:

First, as a group of technically focus individuals, we provide open technical education to the community at large for no fee. Technical education is in the form of seminars and classes. Subjects include the technology behind radio communications, extending communications using radio repeating devices, the science and engineering behind radio communications. In addition, we provide training on emergency preparedness including proper radio operating procedures to use during emergencies. One of the most notable accomplishments of radio operators is that they form organized communications networks for aiding individuals in emergency situations. This is done through what is called radio networks that pass health and welfare messages along with logistics requests to organizations such as the American Red Cross and first responders. I personally received commendation for my role is aiding the Red Cross during several Hurricanes.

Second, the club provides individual funding for building an emergency network of individually owned and operated radio retransmitting devices called repeaters. To accomplish our mission, the club must help build a network of radio repeating stations used for emergency communications. These devices sit at high points in the local terrain and receive and retransmit radio signals from handheld and mobile radios, thus extending the communication distance of these devices. Repeaters are essential for building a human operated message network. In these networks messages are passed by volunteers from a network on one repeater to a network on the next. A network, in this case, is defined as a collection of individual radio licensees who are trained in formal message passing using protocols like western unions telegraph network.

Amateur and GMRS Radio Clubs also serve emergency communications for charity and social events such as the walk for cancer, walk for MS, the Boston Head of the Charles, the Boston Marathon, and other public events. In these situations, volunteer radio operators agree to run a network for the event and call in first responders should a medical or safety emergency occur. It isn’t enough to have first responders at such events. They must be directed to emergency or safety situations when they occur. It is the well-trained radio operators who do this directing.

In more recent times, some clubs have also been distributing license free radios to community members when telephone and cellular service is not available. This allows individuals and families to keep track of each other and call for help should the need arise.

Operating such clubs requires funding. Much of this funding comes from individual members’ yearly dues and donation to operational funds. In addition, organizations such as Microsoft will donate based on their employees’ participation in the club.

We admire the work that T-Mobile is doing, and Callie Field articulates so well, in helping first responders with reliable and available cell service, but when it comes to emergency communications, Amateur and now GMRS operators have been providing community help for nearly 100 years. We are there when the public infrastructure fails.

I hope this helps explain the mission of Radio Clubs and clarify what we do and how we contribute to the community. Our contributions are both our personal time and funding where necessary. If your company would like to participate in our mission, please contact me directly.