The Subdelegate of the Government in Valencia, José Rodríguez Jury, has today awarded 18 diplomas for constancy and permanence in the National Network of Radio Emergencies (REMER), in an act in which the trajectory and permanence in this network has been recognized “to the collaborators who have completed more than 40 years in the same and who were protagonists in the first person in the emergency that was lived before the break of the Tous dam”.
Two of the three radio amateurs who collaborated in that emergency have shared their testimony with everyone present. For Antonio Javier Calderón “it was an important personal experience, which marked him a lot” and in which he considers that “radio amateurs were very important to make known the magnitude of what happened”. Calderón took the opportunity to “remember that being organized, trained and prepared must be his motto forever.” Juan Ramón Bea assures that “an incipient organization that was then put to work has continued until now with the same vocation of service as the first day”.
During his speech, the Government’s deputy delegate highlighted “the work being done by radio amateurs, who make available their capabilities to supplement and supplement communications in emergency situations.” In addition, he thanked “his true vocation of service and his solidarity, altruistic, selfless and voluntary disposition, weaving a network of communications at the service of citizens”.
In Spain, radio amateurs have been collaborating with Civil Protection since the 1960s, providing countless services to this day. In 1982, this collaboration was formalized through the participation of several hundred radio amateurs in what is known as the National Civil Protection Emergency Radio Network (REMER). This network currently consists of more than 3,500 employees nationwide, around 300 in the Valencian Community.
REMER is organically dependent on the General Directorate of Civil Protection and Emergencies of the Ministry of the Interior. At the territorial level, it depends on the delegations and subdelegations of the Government.