The FCC regulations that establish the Amateur Radio Service describe the fundamental principles for allocating so many different segments of the RF spectrum to a use that doesn’t generate any revenue for the government:

§97.1 (a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.

The very fundamentals of amateur radio–our access to a wide variety of frequencies that have different characteristics, our ability to purchase, modify, and build whatever equipment we desire to use the spectrum without regulation, and our inquisitive, experimental nature–ensures that our ability to communicate under adverse conditions will often work when communications systems that have been designed by committee, use equipment from only one or two manufacturers, and operated under regulations that limit or prohibit experimentation have failed.

Below are just some of the many natural disasters and other emergencies in which hams have played a critical role in protecting life and property amid the chaos of an unexpected event.

Hurricane Katrina

Recognized by the FCC’s “Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks”: “amateur radio operators volunteered to support many agencies … provided wireless communications in many locations where there was no other means of communicating and also provided other technical aid to the communities affected by Katrina.”

September 11, 2001

The World Trade Center Disaster: My Deployment At Ground Zero–Bob Hejl, W2IK, shares the tale of how he and his team of ARES/RACES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services/Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services) amateur radio operators were deployed to support communications at the Ground Zero command center, the Mayor’s command post, and Red Cross headquarters.