[BARC-List] changing plates

[WM0G@aol.com]

Hi,

 It has been my experience that just having license plates with your callsign on them won't get you very far in any real emergency. Your ARES or RACES organization should have an agreement with your SERVED AGENCY that allows you to gain access to an area in the case of an emergency where Amateurs have been CALLED OUT to assist with communications. That agency should then provide the hams in that organization some form of ID that can easily get you through the line. 
 If you do not have such an agreement, then it really must be pursued, and a memorandum of understanding between the two groups be obtained so that there is no question as to who belongs at the scene and who does not. There is nothing worse then having untrained volunteers on the emergency line in a disaster. 
 Here is a link to thge ARES group I belong to with a further link found there to the "Red Book" which has examples of memorandums of understanding between served agencies. We usually have more than enough real emergencies out here with forest fires, etc.. to keep us well trained and we have complete and free access to the fire lines as we all have been trained to assist in that type of emergency (we actually get paged by the sheriff's dept.) plus we do other types of communications too when asked. Here is the link:
http://www.qsl.net/aresco-d11/ 
 The sheriff dept. here photographs our ARES group volunteers and we are all required to pass a background check and then we are issued a sheriff dept. volunteer's photo badge ID which gives us access to the declared emergency. Anyone without one, ham call license plate, name tag, etc.. or not, does not have access. Additionally, all volunteers must attend training on ICS procedures, portable packet radio operations, portable ATV training and also check in regularly to the weekly local ARES NCS net. This gives us well trained ham radio volunteers on the line who can handle the radio traffic and any other mode of communication the served agency (Boulder County Sheriff Dept.) deem necessary for us to provide. 
 Incidentally, here in Colorado, ham call license plates are $2.00 but, it took a lot of coercion by the ham radio emergency communication providers here to get that reduced fee from the state. 
 
Jack Ciaccia, WM0G (ex: K1IVY)
Boulder, CO