GAREC started as an initiative of Region 1. In 2005, Seppo Sisatto, OH1VR, now IARU Region 1 Emergency Communications Coordinator, organized the first meeting in Tampere, the ‘Capital of Emergency Telecommunications’. It was here, that in 1998 the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union, convened an intergovernmental conference, ICET-98, which adopted the ‘Tampere Convention’. This international treaty facilitates the use of telecommunications in humanitarian assistance, and made “Tampere” known throughout the telecommunications community. Conferences on the same subject were held in the following years. In 2006 GAREC met in Tampere for the second time, now in connection with the International Conference on Emergency Communications, ICEC-2006 and the UN Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications.

Right from the beginning, GAREC was an ambitious project – as the ‘G’ in its acronym indicates. And the ‘global’ expectations were not too high: In both years, all three IARU Regions were represented. Following the suggestions made in 2005 and 2006, we therefore looked for possibilities to rotate the event between the IARU Regions.  Reviewing the various proposals we received for 2007 and 2008, the participants of the first two events agreed to accept the offer from Region 2.

We are therefore glad to announce, that GAREC-07 will take place in Huntsville, Alabama, USA, on 16 and 17 August, Thursday and Friday just before the annual Huntsville Hamfest and of the 2007 ARRL National Convention, both on the week-end of 18 and 19 August 2007. This combination of date and venue will for many participants facilitate the participation, just like in Region 1 the annual ‘HamRadio’ in Friedrichshafen gave an additional incentive at least for most of the participants from outside Europe.

The agenda of GAREC-07 will mostly focus on the topics discussed in Tampere. Most of all, GAREC wants to be a forum for the exchange of information. Many IARU Member Societies and specialized emergency communications groups have developed and implemented emergency concepts. Many others want to benefit from their technical, operational and, not the least, their administrative or even ‘political’ experiences when establishing the necessary cooperation with partners in emergency and disaster response. GAREC also developed new concepts, such as the ‘Center of Activity Frequencies’, meanwhile adopted by IARU Region 1 and 3 conferences.

The review of advanced, digital technologies and their applications to emergency telecommunications will be an additional element for GAREC-07. The ARRL Alabama Section is the leader in respect to D-STAR repeater systems, activities and users, and has offered to share this know-how with us. APRS is another capability of the Amateur Radio Services, and a demonstration of this system’s capabilities found much interest among the delegates of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Turkey last November.  Echolink and e-QSO are yet more such tools, and specialized groups, have developed emergency applications for these modes. More technologies are being developed or have become available already. The two days in August will be packed with practical information, and experts will arrange demonstrations of the capabilities of 21st century ham radio!

Details for GAREC-2007 are now being worked out. First information, also about its venue and the related events, is available at http://www.arrl-al.org/GAREC07.htm and on the links from there to the sites of the Huntsville Hamfest and the ARRL National Convention sites, as well as at http://www.iaru.org/emergency/ from where links also give access to the presentations and the proceedings of GAREC-05 and GAREC-06. The sites will be up-dated as more information also about registration becomes available.

See you in Huntsville in August –
73
Hans Zimmermann, F5VKP / HB9AQS
IARU International Coordinator for Emergency Communications