60-meter ham band frequencies for government-amateur interoperability for fires

[ku4a]

SB QST ARL ARLB022
ARLB022 5-MHz Interoperability Channels Designated for Wildfires and
Hurricane Sally Response

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced that
two 60-meter channels have been made available, as necessary, for
interoperability between US Government stations and US amateur radio
stations involved in emergency communications related to the
wildland firefighting response in California, Oregon, and
Washington, and to Hurricane Sally. These interoperability channels
will remain active until the need for these channels no longer
exists:

*  Channel 1 - primary voice traffic 5332 kHz channel center, 5330.5
kHz USB voice.

*  Channel 2 - digital traffic 5348 kHz channel center, 5346.5 kHz
USB with 1.5-kHz offset to center of digital waveform.

Frequencies may be modified or added to by FEMA Region 10 for their
area or operations due to existing 5-MHz/60-meter interoperability
plans for their region.

Amateur radio is secondary on the 5-MHz band and should yield to
operational traffic related to wildland firefighting and hurricane
response. Although the intended use for these channels is
interoperability between federal government stations and licensed US
amateur radio stations, federal government stations are primary
users and amateurs are secondary users.

The Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS -
https://netcom.army.mil/mars/ ) is following FEMA's lead on the
interoperability channel designations for the wildfire and hurricane
response. Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY, says he
has alerted all MARS members of the FEMA channel designations and
MARS members are prepared to support response efforts as needed.