This move has been greeted by New Zealand Amateurs as somewhat controversial, as blocks of ZKxxxx callsign space were still occupied by the Niue (ZK2) and Tokelau (ZK3) islands and a perceived risk of AREC stations being confused with 'Rare DX' on HF frequencies.

These concerns were raised with the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development (now Radio Spectrum Management), and in February 2007 the MED requested that NZART place a hold on the use of ZK2 and ZK3 callsigns.

On August 3, 2012 following an ITU update of the Table of International Call Sign Series, Niue has the entire E6 prefix block and ZK2 became available for AREC use.

National knowledge of the comms plan also allows for neighbouring less-affected regions to provide overlapping assistance and/or relay over HF, VHF or UHF frequencies as required.

Examples of AREC equipment include: Repeaters provide means by which VHF or UHF handheld radios can have their effective range greatly improved.

These events provide an excellent opportunity to practise the establishment of portable radio equipment in the field, as well as a Headquarters facility and mobile stations.

Radio traffic during the course of the event provides an opportunity to practise message handling procedures both in the field and at Rally HQ.