ARRL is the national membership association for Amateur Radio operators.

http://ka7u.us 

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Emergency Radio Communications at the Basic Level

Many Hams start out listening to broadcast and shortwave radio.  They learn the station calls and times of operations.  Shortwave listening is a hobby shared by many people world wide.  Often a person will decide to obtain a license to transmit and the amateur radio license is an obtainable and desirable way to start.  Other Ham radio operators start out using the Citizens Band or Family Radio Service.  They later decide to obtain an amateur license to further their interests in the hobby.  Some people decide to obtain the amateur license because of family members or friends that already are Hams or have decided to become Hams.  Whatever the reason, once a person obtains an amateur radio license, that person will want to "get on the air"!

Once the equipment is obtained and an antenna is deployed the new Ham starts to interact with other Hams on the radio.  People are introduced, conversation grows, relationships and friendships form.  Soon the new Ham desires to improve the station capability and starts to take pride in his ability to "hear and be heard", to get the decent signal report of good audio or tone and solid strong signal.  

There are more than a few Hams around the country and the world.  Because of this, the amateur radio community represents one of the largest independent "distributed" communication systems in the world.  Each radio station operates independently of every other station in the most basic modes of operation.  If one or many stations do not work, many more still do.  This "distribution" of radio systems makes it highly unlikely, that emergency communications could not be conveyed via amateur radio!

More information about the demographics of amateur radio can be found by following the the links below.

http://www.hamdata.com/fccinfo.html  

http://www.ah0a.org/AH0A.html

http://www.iaru.org/statsum00.html

http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Ham_Radio/Demographics/