Welcome to The Amateur Radio Association of the Southern Tier's Website
The Amateur Radio Association of the Southern Tier, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation based in Elmira, New York.
The purpose of ARAST is to provide a corporate organization to promote and maintain cooperation among it's members in the promotion, education, and enjoyment of amateur radio, to further the interest of amateur radio in the local community, to sponsor amateur radio related educational and testing activities, to provide training for emergency communications, and to provide communications for the local community as requested and as necessary.
The Chemung County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (CCARES), a division of ARAST, provides emergency communications for the community through and at the direction of the Chemung County Emergency Management Office. We also provide non-emergency communications for events such as the Wineglass Marathon and the Rotary Bike Ride.
We welcome anyone with an interest in Amateur Radio or Emergency Communications to attend our meetings, or contact us with questions.
FCC Okays Employee Participation in Emergency Drills
From the WorldRadio Online Newsroom:
FCC Okays Employee Participation in Emergency Drills
Moving with unaccustomed speed, the FCC adopted a Report and Order on July 14, allowing hams who are employed by both government agencies and non-government agencies such as hospitals, to participate in emergency and disaster drills on behalf of their employers. The ruling was based on a Notice of Proposed Rule Making, WP-10-72, issued this past March, in response to petitions arising from a strict interpretation by the FCC's Enforcement Bureau of the prohibition on amateurs communicating on behalf of their employers. The decision came just more than a month after the reply comment deadline.
The ruling added a new paragraph to Section 97.113(a)(3) of the FCC rules, which reads as follows:
(i) A station licensee or control station operator may participate on behalf of an employer in an emergency preparedness or disaster readiness test or drill, limited to the duration and scope of such test or drill, and operational testing immediately prior to such test or drill. Tests or drills that are not government-sponsored are limited to a total time of one hour per week; except that no more than twice in any calendar year, they may be conducted for a period not to exceed 72 hours.
There is no specific effective date given in the Report and Order, so it will presumably become effective upon publication in the Federal Register. The complete text of the report and order may be accessed online at: http://www.arast.org/documents/FCC-10-124A1.pdf . [This link has been revised, since it had changed since publication in World Radio].
ARAST's 35th Annual Hamfest
ARAST Inc presents it's 35th Annual Elmira Hamfest/Computerfest on Saturday, September 25, 2010 at the Chemung County Fairgrounds in Horseheads, NY. You can download and print our event brochure at: http://www.arast.org/documents/2010HamfestBrochure.pdf . Click on September Hamfest on our site's menu for additional information.
