Amateur Radio Emergency Service^® (ARES^®) The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment, with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes. world a better place.

    Whatever your interest and motivation for getting into ham radio, the hobby has one undeniable benefit when things go terribly wrong in the local community: it may be the only means of communication in case of natural or man-made disaster when commercial radio, television, and phone systems are down.

     Even if landline and mobile phones are functional, government and disaster response agencies have priority to use these channels of communication, which means personal calls are unlikely to get through.  The internet may also be disabled or compromised.  In this situation where personal communication is difficult at best, ham radio is the only practical means of getting messages across town and even farther.