Response: In its communications reserve program plan, such as the RACES plan, a jurisdiction identifies the program participants based on their level of activity and screening required.
Question: How are participants in a communications reserve program, such as RACES, classified; and if so, why?
Response: In its communications reserve program plan, such as the RACES plan, a jurisdiction identifies the program participants based on their level of activity and screening required.
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This is the first in a series in response to letters, messages, and queries at seminars.
Probably the biggest problem with these bulletins, and one that may never be resolved, is misinterpretation or misunderstanding of the written word. What is intended by the writer and how it is interpreted by the readers may not be the same. When RACES seminars are conducted in person it is much easier to clarify issues that arise over such misinterpretation as well as others. Bulletins 305, 306 and 307 resulted from a five-state RACES tour in September by Stan Harter, State ACS Coordinator:
When I started this tour I had in mind the comment we sometimes hear from out-of-state that "the RACES Bulletins don't apply to us because nothing ever happens around here. Or because everything always happens out there in California". An official asks the questions: How and where do you recruit people? How do you do it for your organization?
First, it was determined what paid staff position is responsible for the program. This is the person to whom the chief volunteer reports. The mission of the RACES is basically to provide needed communications in emergencies for the government that sponsors the RACES unit. Its communications are governmental in nature, that is between government units and not third party health and welfare messages --- although it may be used for liaison from government to non-government disaster relief organizations.
Why does this occur? Why do some agencies say "No" to communications volunteers and refuse to call them out? Why does an auxiliary communications unit by whatever title --- ECS (Emergency Communications Service), DCS (Disaster Communications Service), ARES or RACES --- wither and die for lack of agency support or inclusion in its on-going activities?
One real possibility is that the agency administrator may need help in working with a group of people he/she is not accustomed to having around. Not that he/she isn't a professional in their own field, but that the person has little experience working with unpaid professionals with an abiding interest in emergency communications. Perhaps the key response here is one of inter-personal relationships, chiefly between the agency people and the Radio Officer. With the right personality and skill, the Radio Officer CAN establish the liaison and relationship. In some areas of the country volunteers call out their own operators without having a "higher authority" to which they report in order to be activated or mobilized.
In other areas of the country --- possibly with completely different government agencies --- volunteers whether fire, search and rescue or communications, report to a sponsoring agency before responding to an event. There may be little opportunity for Amateurs to self-activate if there is a government agency assigned responsibility in that area. Let's face it, for the fact that it is: some governments don't really understand about Emergency Communications Units; they don't really understand how to work with and utilize volunteers, including hams, some of whom are professional communicators.
Experience dictates that, in a major disaster, communications will fail due to direct effects of the disaster itself such as fire, earthquake, flood, etc. Different government entities often have radios fixed on different frequencies but they cannot talk with each other. At the time of the Loma Prieta earthquake, near San Francisco, it became apparent that many dedicated emergency systems had not been properly
One will see both titles in our discussions on communications volunteers in government service. While it may be of little significance in your government, here is how we define them to those who may just be starting up a communications program.
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RACES BulletinsCA State OES began the Bulletins in the early 1950's to assist agencies and radio operators to become more familiar with RACES. They were issued periodically until 1985, at which time they began to be issued weekly over voice and digital radio systems of Amateur Radio and in print. Originally intended for California, increased demand, and a 1988 request by the ARRL for national distribution, led to their eventual worldwide distribution. Archives
December 1994
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