RAYNET was formed in 1954 following the severe East Coast flooding which occurred a year earlier.
On the night of Saturday, 31 January, to the morning of 1 February 1953, a huge storm tide in the North Sea surged against the East Coast of the UK. The storm tide was almost six metres above the mean sea level and easily overwhelmed the sea defences. Over 160,000 acres of land were inundated with flood water and 30,000 people were forced to leave their homes. Communications along the East Coast were crippled by the flooding, with phone lines being ripped down and washed away.
At the time, the police had no other means of communication other than telephones, so they called upon licensed Radio Amateurs to assist them.
Although it was illegal for Radio Amateurs to provide this communication service, the Home Office quickly stepped in and authorised them to direct and coordinate rescue teams for the Police, as well as to handle distress messages from ships in the North Sea.
In 1954, after a review of the previous year’s flooding, the Home Office agreed that an organisation that could be called upon to relay messages and co-ordinate rescue operations would be useful, and the Postmaster General amended the Radio Amateur licence. This led to the formation of the Radio Amateurs Emergency Network (RAEN) to organise the valuable resource that Amateur Radio offers to the community.
Since then, RAEN has become RAYNET and has grown into a very active organisation with around 1500 members across the UK & Republic of Ireland, providing communication assistance at many hundreds of events each year.
Amateur Radio operators have access to a wide range of radio bands, operating modes, and equipment, which allows RAYNET to offer a unique range of emergency communication services to our User Services. Coupled with our members’ endless resourcefulness, RAYNET is regarded as a professional support organisation by both statutory and volunteer emergency service organisations across the United Kingdom.
Over the last 72 years, RAYNET volunteers have been deployed to many major incidents & emergencies, and our members continue to train regularly to ensure that we are ready to deploy when requested.
