Amateur Radio has its founding roots in public service. Amateur Radio
Emergency Service, ARES, and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, RACES, are
two nationally recognized public service organizations whose mission is to
protect life and property during events and emergencies.
We do this by working closely with federal, state, and local officials during
event planning and execution to facilitate communications between departments
and organizations. History has shown that during a large event or disaster,
traditional communications will become saturated. Additionally, the mechanism
for inter-departmental (i.e. Police to National Guard and Forest Service) is
problematic and difficult.
This is where the Amateur Radio service comes into the picture.
Typically ARES and RACES members are one and the same, the difference is in
who activates the group and what jurisdiction they have. For more information,
please read on.
ARES
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service is administered through the American Radio
Relay League. This group can be activated by any member of ARES. More information is available at the ARRL
WEB site.
RACES
RACES may be activated by the appointed director of an emergency management
office, or authorized representative, for a particular area. In most counties the
county emergency management office or the state emergency management office
would start the process.
RACES gets its jurisdiction directly from the FCC
Part 97 rules. For more information, please follow the link.
RACES may be activated during times of war. At such a time all other amateur
radio activity is silenced and only registered RACES HAMS are allowed to operate
on specified frequencies.
RACES may also be activated during peacetime disasters
such as fire, floods, chemical spills, earthquakes and other large-scale
disasters.
For more information see the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, FEMA Web site.
Membership
Membership in both organizations is open to any licensed amateur radio
operator. If you are interested, please contact:
Click here for an application.
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