(ARES®) is a voluntary radio communication service available to Federal, state, county and local governments, as well as non-profit organizations.
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® is comprised of more than 40,000 amateurs nationwide who have voluntarily registered their services and formed an organized pool of operators to provide reliable primary and secondary communications links for governmental agencies and / or non-profit organizations when needed.
Communications provided may be in the form of voice, Radioteletype, television, computer modes or even Morse code. Handheld amateur radio equipment has a range that varies from next door to the next county or state.One of the newer modes of communications that really has proved to be a valuable resource as well as a ‘selling point’ for amateur radio is Winlink. We have the capabilities now to run a program called Airmail on a computer that looks and feels similar to Outlook, and it can send messages just like an e-mail only it will send these messages over the amateur radio frequencies. We can take electronic documents and attach them, send to normal e-mail addresses if needed or to other radio amateur operators who are also running this service. This is a tremendous advantage if there is the need to send lists, information that would not normally be transmitted over voice and even signed documents.
Services are provided on a strictly volunteer basis at no charge. Federal Communications Commission rules strictly prohibit compensation of any kind for services rendered by amateur radio operators.
Here in Waller County, Texas we have formed a group and are actively recruiting members for our group. We hope to be able to provide service to a number of agencies in the Waller County area, including Waller County Emergency Management, the American Red Cross, incorporated cities in Waller County, Law enforcement, fire departments, emergency medical services, hospitals and nursing homes, and the Salvation Army as well as The State of Texas Division of Emergency Management and The Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The purpose of this web site is to provide information to our members and other interested parties in respect to the services we are hoping to provide.
If you have any further questions or interests that are not addressed at this web site, please feel free to
e-mail the Waller County ARES Emergency Coordinator,
Ken Miller at WallerARES 'at' aol.com