FCC Rules Part 97 RACES (RB235)

QUESTION: Where does it say in the FCC Rules that the RACES is a governmental organization?

REPLY: It doesn't. What the FCC Rules do say is that a group of Radio Amateurs can only function as a RACES unit under the control of a properly constituted Civil Defense agency. (Reference: FCC 97.163a, 97.169b, 97.175, and 197.177.) The RACES unit remains an Amateur Radio group performing a unique communications service for a particular civil defense agency. By its nature as a service to local government under local government supervision, activation, and authority it becomes, in effect, a quasi-governmental function.

There are many Radio Services. There is Amateur Radio, Local Government, Fire, Police, Business, Special Emergency, Personal, Land Transportation, Aviation, Citizens and many more. They all have several things in common. They define eligibility, technical parameters, permissible communications, frequencies of operation and other points. Let's take the Police Radio Service for example. It tells a local government how to apply for authorization for and the use of the Police Radio Service frequencies, but it does not tell a local government how to run it's police department and the use of its personnel. Exactly the same applies to the RACES subpart of the Amateur Radio Service rules. The rules do not presume to tell a government how to organize and administer Amateur Radio operators in a RACES unit any more than it tells any jurisdiction how to run its police department, fire department, emergency management agency and so forth. The Rules do require that a RACES organization be a part of the local government's civil defense structure.

The FCC Rules do require that an Amateur Radio operator have a copy of the latest Rules. The FCC rules do not require any local government, however, to use the RACES or any Amateur Radio operators. Those who serve consider it an honor and a privilege.

--- Stan Harter, CA State ARS Coordinator, KH6GBX