We respond to large scale disasters which result in severe damage to normal communications or where normal communications is overloaded and can not handle the additional load created by the disaster and associated aid and recovery operations.

With commercial 2-way radio NACEC holds the operating licenses and issues the 2-way radio equipment directly to the organization and person that needs it. The radio equipment is very simple to use and user training takes about a minute. The range is good and the NACEC field team can control how large of an area that the communications equipment will cover.

Unlike some other radio services, commercial radio equipment can be used by the person that needs it, rather than requiring it be operated by a licensed radio operator, which can drastically increase the number of persons within the disaster area that must be managed and maintained with water, food and shelter. In some disaster situations this can be extremely difficult. Also the organization can discuss the organizations business issues over commercial radio. In some instances commercial radio conversations may be encrypted adding another layer of security and privacy to the organizations communications.

Once we are equipped and fully operational, we expect to have our field teams deployed around 50% to 65% of the time.

The commercial radio techs in our field teams must poses a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) General Radio Operators License (GROL) or its equivalent and have a minimum of 5 years of radio communications and electronics maintenance experience. It is the responsibility of our technicians to install, service and maintain the communications equipment we provide. They also provide technical support and assistance to other communications services damaged within the disaster area to help them get back in operation faster.

A full NACEC disaster response team consists of 6 staff members augmented by several volunteers if they are available. The response team staff consists of 2 field team coordinators, 2 communications technicians and 2 communications interns. After the initial system installation and equipment issue phase the field teams is broken into two groups that rotate one at a time into the disaster area every several weeks as needed while the part of the team at the NACEC offices provides logistical support to the field team in the disaster area. This allows NACEC to provide its emergency communications services, without interruption, for months if necessary.

Because we are using commercial communications systems, a NACEC response team can provide hundreds of communications points within a disaster area if needed. We are only limited by the amount of equipment that we have as an organization.

Yes! We have asked for volunteers from the Amateur Radio community to assist our disaster response team's commercial radio technicians as many Amateur Radio operators poses electronics skills they use with this hobby. To date response from the Amateur Radio community has been light, this may be because the hobby is not as large as it once was.

We always have a need for the help of volunteers. Most volunteer help will be in support of things that are needed for day-to-day operations on the office end of things. This can be almost anything from helping with Internet research, to helping with fundraising. We are also looking for volunteers that are professionals and retired professionals in many different areas of expertise, like marketing, political science, media, training and grant writing to mention only some of the many skills needed.

From time to time we may need volunteers to assist our field operations within disaster areas. Here volunteers may be sitting at a desk helping to issue equipment, or out assisting technical staff to install or maintain radio and telecommunications equipment at remote locations within a disaster area.

If you would like to volunteer your help, please fill out our volunteer application form.

Prior to 2010, no staff was ever paid. Due to the length of time spent in preparation, management and at disasters, coupled with the difficulty in finding skilled volunteers that had the time to spend weeks or months deployed to a disaster area as part of a response team, it was decided in January of 2010 to change to a core of paid staff. With this core staff we would be able to respond much more quickly to a disaster and augment them with available volunteers as needed.

We are talking to manufacturers, distributors, retailers and others to find those willing to help us provide our emergency communications services by donating equipment to our organization. All equipment that is needed and not donated must be purchased.

NACEC does not charge for its emergency communications support services so all of the money we receive comes in the form of donations from people, organizations that understand the important need for communications following large-scale disasters. All of this organizations funding, for equipment, maintenance, training, transportation, staff and everything else needed to keep this organization ready to respond quickly comes from these donations.

No! Our mission is to provide an emergency communications infrastructure for use by the organizations that are working within the disaster area in support of the victims. We are supported by contributions and thus do not charge for our services.