[EAS] Amateur Radio and Hawaii Alert

[Bill Ruck]

Not taking any sides but:

ARRL Hudson Division Director Mike Lisenco, 
N2YBB, testified Thursday (January 25) before a 
session of the Senate Committee on Commerce, 
Science and Transportation regarding Amateur 
Radio’s readiness to respond in an emergency. The 
session, “This is not a Drill: An Examination of 
Emergency Alert Systems,” was called in the wake 
of an incoming missile warning erroneously 
released in Hawaii earlier this month. Lisenco 
said Amateur Radio played a role not only in 
responding to the warning but in disseminating 
word that the missile alert had been issued by mistake.

Lisenco said the Hawaii Radio Amateur Civil 
Emergency Service (RACES) activated on UHF and 
via a VHF inter-island repeater network, and 
amateur stations monitored the alert and 
cancellation activity, which came less than 1 day 
after RACES had completed an Amateur Radio 
communication exercise at the State Emergency 
Operations Center (EOC). In his written 
testimony, Lisenco recounted that the situation 
after the missile warning in Hawaii was chaotic.

“The phone lines into the State EOC were soon 
overwhelmed and congested, and the website was 
overwhelmed with public inquiries,” he said. 
Lisenco said that in such situations, Amateur 
Radio volunteers typically are present at state 
or county EOCs and at the State Warning Point, 
the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. He 
pointed out that the cancellation of the false 
warning circulated on various information outlets 
13 minutes after the missile warning went out.

“That was picked up and relayed through the 
Amateur Radio networks,” he told the Committee in 
written testimony. “The cellphone alert system 
could not be used for the cancellation notice 
until prior FEMA approval was obtained. Once that 
was obtained, the cancellation alert went out to 
the cellphone network after 38 minutes from the initial alert.”

“Many people had received the warning first on 
their cell phones through the Wireless Emergency 
Alert (WEA) system, but a cancellation on that 
same system was substantially delayed,” Lisenco 
said. “The result was that Amateur Radio networks 
disseminated validated cancellation information 
long before the cellular networks were able to do so.”

Lisenco took the opportunity to address how 
private land-use regulations can preclude Amateur 
Radio disaster response capabilities.

“There is no substitute for the ready 
availability of a residential Amateur Radio 
station in daily operation from a licensee’s 
residence,” he said. “The licensee cannot be 
expected to have the ability to communicate into 
or from a disaster site unless he or she has a 
station with an effective outdoor antenna capable 
of operation on multiple frequency bands at once, 
which is ready to be pressed into service from 
the licensee’s residence at a moment’s notice.”

Lisenco reminded the panel members that the 
Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2017 is now pending 
before the Committee. “[Senate Bill 1534] is a 
balanced, completely bipartisan bill that would 
fully protect both the entitlement of Amateur 
Radio volunteers to
provide emergency, disaster 
relief and public service communications, 
while
protecting the aesthetic concerns and the 
jurisdiction of homeowners’ associations,” 
Lisenco said in his written remarks, noting that 
the bill is unopposed. “We are in desperate need 
of this legislation, and without it, the 
volunteer emergency communications services 
provided by Amateur Radio will be precluded. We 
urge the Committee in the strongest terms to 
please approve and send this legislation forward without delay,” Lisenco said.

Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker, a co-sponsor 
with Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, of 
the Amateur Radio Parity Act, attended the 
hearing. Responding to a question from Wicker at 
the hearing, Lisenco pointed out that an early US 
Coast Guard warning cancellation notice was 
relayed to Amateur Radio networks and 
disseminated quickly, while the State Warning 
Point waited to obtain FEMA authorization to 
rescind the warning via cellular phones. As a 
result, Amateur Radio networks were able to 
disseminate validated cancellation information 
long before the cellular networks were able to do 
so. Wicker issued a statement noting Lisenco’s 
testimony and posted a video clip of his exchange with Lisenco.

South Dakota Senator John Thune, who chairs the 
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation, convened the hearing, called to 
“examine policy concerns surrounding the use and 
effectiveness of Emergency Alert Systems 
including Wireless Emergency Alerts, as well as 
recent system failures, including but not limited 
to the mistaken missile alert in Hawaii.”

Bill Ruck
Curmudgeon
San Francisco