Memorandum of Understanding between the
Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Texas Sections
of The American Radio Relay League

Purpose:  Recognizing that the United States Gulf Coast is subject to catastrophic storm events, particularly hurricanes and tornadoes, and that amateur radio operators are frequently asked to assist with emergency communications during these storm events, this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been prepared to establish a framework for cooperation between the Louisiana (LA), Mississippi (MS), and South Texas (STX) Sections of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).

During storm events amateur radio operators in an impacted area often cannot participate in emergency operations at the section level because they must attend to family and local problem areas.  Thus, the availability of emergency coordinators, experienced net control stations, traffic handlers, etc. can be at a premium in a given section.

In order to mitigate this potential problem area and to take advantage of the expertise of nearby amateurs, who are not in the impacted area, the Louisiana , Mississippi , and South Texas Sections agree through signature of their respective Section Managers (SM’s) to the following:

(a)  Upon being made aware of an imminent storm event, the three Section Managers will determine which section is the most likely to sustain the major impact of the storm event.  This SM will contact the Federal Communications Commission and make arrangements for frequencies to be set aside for emergency as well as Health and Welfare Communications.  Suggested frequencies are: Emergency Net – 7285 day and 3873 night and Health and Welfare – 7290 day and 3935 night.  The transition time between bands will be established by the SM depending upon band conditions.

(b)  The SM of the impacted area will be responsible for organizing and staffing an emergency net possibly delegating some duties to his Section Traffic Manager (STM) or to SM’s or STM’s in the least impacted sections.  In additional, he will make tactical decisions related to amateur participation in the emergency situation in consultation with the other SM’s, as necessary.

(c)  One of the remaining two SM’s will organize and staff a Health and Welfare Net possibly delegating some duties to his Section Traffic Manager (STM) or an STM in one of the least impacted sections.

(d)  The SM’s of the two least impacted Sections will coordinate with the Section Emergency Coordinators in their respective Sections to render assistance, as needed.

(e)  The provisions of this MOU may be modified at any time contingent upon the signatures of the current SM’s of the Louisiana , Mississippi , and South Texas Sections.

1 July 2000

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Last Updated July 20, 2003 by k5dpg@laarrl.net Louisiana Section webmaster