extraordinary situation response such as: natural and man-made disasters, transportation, power, or telecommunication network failures, war, peacekeeping, or stability operations. Organizations known to use ALE for Emergency management, disaster relief, ordinary communication or extraordinary situation response include: Red Cross, FEMA, Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, NATO, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United Nations, AT&T, Civil Air Patrol, SHARES, State of California Emergency Management Agency (CalEMA), other US States' Offices of Emergency Services or Emergency Management Agencies, and Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). International HF telecommunications for disaster relief The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in response to the need for interoperation in international disaster response spurred largely by humanitarian relief, included ALE in its Telecommunications for Disaster Relief recommendations. The increasing need for instant connectivity for logistical and tactical disaster relief response communications, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake tsunami led to ITU actions of encouragement to countries around the world toward loosening restrictions on such communications and equipment border transit during catastrophic disasters. The IARU Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Conferences (GAREC) and IARU Global Simulated Emergency Tests have included ALE. Use in amateur radio Amateur radio operators began sporadic ALE operation on a limited basis in the early to mid-1990s, with commercial ALE radios and ALE controllers. In 2000, the first widely available software ALE controller for the Personal Computer, PCALE, became available, and hams started to set up stations based on it. In 2001, the first organized and coordinated global ALE nets for International Amateur Radio began. In August 2005, ham radio operators supporting communications for emergency Red Cross shelters used ALE for Disaster Relief operations during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. After the event, hams developed more permanent ALE emergency/disaster relief networks, including internet connectivity, with a focus on interoperation between organizations. The amateur radio HFLink Automatic Link Establishment system uses an open net protocol to enable all amateur radio operators and amateur radio nets worldwide to participate in ALE and share the same ALE channels legally and interoperably. Amateur radio operators may use it to call each other for voice or data communications. Amateur radio interoperability adaptations Amateur radio operators commonly provide local, regional, national, and international emergency / disaster relief communications. The need for interoperability on HF led to the adoption of Automatic Link Establishment ALE open networks by hams. Amateur radio adapted 2G ALE techniques, by using the common denominators of the 2G ALE protocol, with