[FARC] Re: ... ARES/RACES Courses

Sat May 17 07:46:47 EDT 2008

AD K9CMR,_et_al_ = Please excuse me for replying. The question was
 addressed to you, but my leaky memory has info that may help:

Open Letter To:  Allen, KB3OMO

1. To belong to ARES, it is necessary to have a valid Ham license,
and to register with the ARES Emergency Coordinator for the
jurisdiction in which you wish to serve. In Frederick County MD,
that's Jeff Fishman, KB3FIO [ljfish at mindspring.com]. ARES, the
Amateur Radio Emergency Service, has units that are part of the
Field Organization of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).

The ARRL Field Organization is composed of Divisions and Sections
that are under administration of the national Field Organization
at ARRL HQ in Newington CT. It is *not* necessary to belong to ARRL
to be a member of ARES, but any EC can establish requirements for a
local ARES unit. KB3FIO is the source for what you need to have to
be a part of the unit he manages here in Frederick County.

How you register with Jeff is something you need to ask Jeff. He is
appointed to his position as EC in FredCo by the Section Manager of
the Maryland/District of Columbia Section of ARRL (MDC). MDC is part
of the Atlantic Division of ARRL.

If you wish to volunteer for service during an emergency, you are
now required by Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number Five
(HSPD-5) to have a certificate showing that you have successfully
taken Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) courses IS-100 and
IS-700. From your earlier e-mails, I infer that you have these
certificates.

HSPD-5 requires *ALL* emergency responders in the USA, territories,
and protectorates to take IS-100 and IS-700. If you roll bandages
for your local rescue squad auxiliary or stuff food baskets for the
Salvation Army, you are still required to take those courses. You
already have them so I won't go on about what happens if you don't.

2. MEMA is Maryland Emergency Management Agency, located at Fort
Fretterd, near Reisterstown (northwest of Baltimore). MEMA offers
training to volunteers from time to time, schedules some exercises,
and conducts a statewide emergency communications (EmComm) drill
called CommEx on the second Tuesday of each month. Usually there's
no CommEx in June, July, and August.

3. Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) units are government
agencies staffed by volunteers with Ham licenses. Any government can
establish a RACES unit, pursuant to the provisions of Part 97, Code
of Federal Regulations, which authorizes and describes RACES. In this
County, the Office of Emergency Preparedness has established a RACES
unit. Jim Devilbiss, WA3FUJ [wa3fuj at msn.com], is the RACES Radio
Officer (RO) and he has two Assistant ROs: Eric Hvozda, N3MYM, and me.

Jim keeps a copy of a volunteer communicator registration form with
a copy of each volunteer's Ham license, Driver's license/Sheriff Id,
and IS-100/-700 certificates on file in the locked radio shack at the
County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on Montevue Lane in Frederick.

4. Requirements: IS-100 and IS-700 are required for all volunteer
service during emergencies; you've got 'em.

5. Recommendations: Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course-1
(ARECC-1) has a lot of good info on what we do and how we should do
it. It is available online from ARRL. I took ARECC-1 and it cost $45
but it might be more expensive now. ARECC-2 mostly covers how ARRL's
Field Organization works. I got tired of it and quit, so I don't know
what's covered by ARECC-3.

ARRL publishes the Public Service Communications Manual (PSCM). If
you belong to ARRL, you can download it. If you don't belong to ARRL,
you should - not because it's so great - but because, in the USA, we
have the best government that money can buy. And...only ARRL has a
rep in Washington spending money to support Ham radio. You might be
able to download the PSCM without membership. You can find it at

http://www.arrl.org

6. FEMA has promulgated a new message form that we are all trying to
learn how to use. There are no published procedures for this form and
many jurisdictions have published their own versions of the form since
it lacks the usual control data required for military and ARRL forms.

7. For at least 20 years, we have encouraged dual-enrollment in ARES
and RACES here. In some parts of the USA ARES and RACES people don't
speak to each other. ARRL's unstated policy is that RACES isn't needed,
and should be abolished. "Governments are desirous of governing", so I
doubt that RACES will go away. Part 97 states that, when a national
emergency is decreed by the President, only RACES units will be allowed
to operate in the Amateur Radio Service. So...if you're *really* hot to
go in EmComm...enrolling in both is a good idea.

8. When Al Caho, KA3DYL, and I worked at Volunteer Frederick, he put
together a form with some of my ideas that provides for EmComm people
to record their affiliation with *ALL* EmComm services. It is linked
to the FARC and MADXRA WebSites. Since I participated in making that
mess, I'm willing to answer questions about the form if you have any.

Thank you for your interest in EmComm.

73

Roy
___BATES
N2CSQ
RACES ARO FRED

>
> Bob,
>
> What is required for  AIRES?  and what does MEMA stand for?  Thanks.
>
> 73 allen  KB3OMO
>
>
> In a message dated 5/15/2008 11:19:33 AM Eastern Daylight  Time,
windbrkr at erols.com writes:
> Kirk,
>
> You took the right courses to  enable you to participate in RACES and
other MEMA/FEMA-sponsored emergency  response activities.   The leading
zeros don't mean  anything.
>
> There are other, higher-level courses available (Jeff or Joe or  Bill or
one of the Jims can fill you in what's available and what   their
completion gets you), but you've completed the entry-level stuff that
you need.
>
> Now all you have to do is get copies of your certificates  to Jim WA3FUJ
for his records, along with your RACES registration form, if  you're
interested in participating in RACES.
>
> 73, Bob  K9CMR
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> kirktal7237 at msn.com wrote:
>> In  regard to the required courses to be able to participate in amateur
> radio  communications during actual incidents I want to be sure I've
taken
> the
> right  thing.  I took IS-00100 Introduction to the Incident Command
System, and
> IS-00700 The National Incident Management System (NIMS), an
Introduction.
>> The FARC website and the form  required for ARES/RACES registration
seem
>> to
> indicate that you need ICS-100 and  ICS-700 which are Incident Command
System
> Operations and NIMS Awareness, and  others.   Did I take the right
courses
> and are more required courses  necessary?
>> 73
>> KB3ONM
>>  Kirk
>
>
>
>
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