I don't think amateur is very useful for most SAR-- it's odd that you guys keep bringing it up. You guys can provision for typical needs; amateur is a benefit because of its elasticity.

> but otherwise it's just a LARP.

Don't be a dick. I think CERTs are important, and amateur radio is the lifeblood of CERT in many areas.

Doctrine here in Santa Clara County is that it's for things like:

- getting initial information and assessments from earthquakes in the first 20 minutes (a couple hundred people trained popping on nets saying modified Mercalli numbers and reporting the most urgent needs for assistance near them).

- coordinating distribution of relief supplies ("we need 100 more flats of water bottles at site GR2")

- medium priority traffic between hospitals when other communications systems fail (coordinating transfers, etc)

- handling all the low priority traffic from large festivals and events to keep primary communications systems clear (so a town's EMS dispatch doesn't need to talk about boo-boos, and so that event organizers don't need to try and talk through police dispatch)

- additional eyes and ears for police and fire

- locating anyone (inadvertently or deliberately) disrupting emergency communications

Would stuff be OK without the above? Sure. But it works a bit better with all that.