Dick Verburg (call sign PD1CIS) has collapsed the antennas on the roof terrace of his apartment in a suburb of Amersfoort. Inside the television room, Paul Oor (call letters PA2PWM) and Hans Leemans (PA8HL) switch off their radio equipment. For an hour in the evening between the TV and the treadmill, the couch and the desk, one emergency message after another came in over the air. Received according to a fixed schedule with the general ‘call sign’: “This is PI9DU with a Dares exercise. Over.”
Other volunteers from Dutch Amateur Radio Emergency Services (Dares) sent their requests for help from all over Utrecht and Flevoland to this living room; the three men forwarded the fictitious messages to the emergency services control room in Hilversum. The simulated situation: the power is out for so long that phones can no longer be charged and mobile networks no longer work.
The radio equipment.
Photo Dieuwertje Bravenboer
In all emergency scenarios that local administrators, authorities such as energy companies and other experts take into account, communication with residents is crucial. That is one of the lessons of the major power outage in Spain and Portugal in May 2025. In the event of a crisis, people want to know what is going on, and the government wants to prevent disinformation from circulating.
But normal life also continues during a crisis. And if people have an accident and can no longer reach emergency number 112, what then? The men from Dares know it: the old-fashioned analogue radio. “Radio amateurs communicate via the airwaves, you don’t need a mobile network,” says Dares volunteer Dick Verburg.
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16,000 radio amateurs in the Netherlands
The Netherlands has an estimated 16,000 radio amateurs, 400 of whom are affiliated with Dares. They can be asked for assistance by the security region in the event of a crisis. Dares has received radio frequencies on the so-called short wave from the State Inspectorate of Digital Infrastructure, the former Telecom Agency, on which volunteers can transmit during a crisis.
Dares has agreed with a number of safety regions, including Gooi and Vechtstreek, how radio amateurs can assist. Verburg says they need two hours to be operational. That is how long the poles for the mobile network still have power via an emergency supply and Dares can call volunteers, adjust antennas, determine the “contours of the crisis area” and join the Interregional Crisis Center in Hilversum, where the Central Netherlands control room is also located. There is now a Dares transmission tower on its roof.
The Netherlands is spoiled. We actually didn’t have any significant power outages.
When asked, a spokesperson for Gooi en Vechtstreek says: “As a safety region, we can call on Dares when our regular communication facilities fail as a result of a large-scale disaster or crisis. Dares cannot replace our current communication, but can establish communication between specific locations.”
‘Fire in Kockengen’
This evening the
notifications
inside the Amersfoort apartment. Flames from a house in Kockengen. A missing child in Zeist. A child fell from a bicycle. A person has become unwell. An escaped dog. A car fire. A fire on an inland vessel. A street fight. A referee who fell out of his chair on the tennis court.
The radio amateurs in the region transmit to the Dares command center in Verburg’s living room. There, Paul Oor writes down who is being asked for help (fire brigade, police or ambulance), where something is going on and what, what the call sign is of the person making the report, and the time. The transmitting equipment runs on batteries, but everything else is done with pen and paper.
Paul Oor gives a note with an emergency situation to Hans Leemans.
Photo Dieuwertje Bravenboer
Hans Leemans then sends the information to the control room in Hilversum and also receives feedback if, for example, an ambulance is on its way. Oor passes on that information to the radio amateur.
In the coming years, every municipality must set up emergency support points “within walking distance”, or one for every five thousand inhabitants. Residents must receive information there. “But what if there is no telephone?” Dares can contribute to this, thinks Dick Verburg. The network will not be comprehensive, because not every village has a radio amateur with transmitting equipment to whom accidents or emergencies can be reported. But radio amateurs already participated in an initial pilot with such an emergency support point in Utrecht. Verburg shows a large black suitcase containing a transmitter, a battery (“you can get 48 hours”) and solar panels to charge the battery. This way he can transmit “in the field”.
‘Bakkies’ were popular
A bigger challenge for Dares is the growth of new – young – radio amateurs. Verburg (77) was a liaison officer in the Marines in the late 1960s and came into contact with sending messages over the air. Oor (69) worked in IT security and has had a radio license since he was eighteen. Leemans (67), a civil servant at the Ministry of Justice & Security, has also been a radio amateur since he was eighteen. “When I was young, you had nothing else to communicate with. Yes, a landline.”
Dick Verburg takes the antenna down at the end of the exercise.
Photo Dieuwertje Bravenboer
“Bakkies” were popular, radios with which you could receive and transmit messages, and on which you could tinker a bit. Some amateur radio operators did it illegally. “But the police came to the door three times and then your father said: ‘Go get your license,’” says Verburg. All radio amateurs must take the CBR exam to prove that they have sufficient knowledge of technology and regulations.
Interest in radio has declined in recent decades. But the “self-reliance drive does make a difference,” the Dares volunteers notice. Just like the idea that the Netherlands must become more digitally autonomous. “The Netherlands is spoiled,” thinks Verburg. “We haven’t actually had any significant power outages. No one is really prepared, no one is used to what can happen.”
The three experienced the Cold War. But that was different from the threat now, says Verburg. “Then we had landlines and radio was established. Now we are completely dependent on the internet.”
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