[W2CRA] RACES Update

[Michael N. Varas]

For all RACES Members and anyone who wants to participate

The Hunterdon County Office of Emergency Management has changed the date 
of the exercise.  I was moved from 9/9/2002 to Thursday, 9/19/2002  at 
19:00 hrs. we will be manning posts at Amwell Township, Lambertville, 
Stockton, Deleware Townshipe and Amwell Valley.  I am hoping to post 
people who are geographically close to these locations for several 
reasons;  first would be that your already close ant this (in an actual 
emergency) would be your post anyway, Second, to familiarize you with 
the people and surroundings you'll be operating with.

The exercise is scheduled to begin at 19:00 hrs. and end around 21:00 
hrs,  I want the Net opened beforehand and the role call completed by 
then.  I would like all RACES members to participate, from home or one 
of the locations.  Another consideration is that this will conflict with 
the regular Thursday night Net which emphasizes the fact that we may 
need to operate the net on the 147.015 Repeater.  We must assume that 
all volunteers will  bring the necessary equipment to operate 
effectively on either Repeater.  It would be just fine if you would like 
to team up with someone to share the responsibility and marshal the 
necessary equipment to operate effectively.

Some of these municipal EOCs have new locations since 9/11, Roberto and 
I will make sure you get all the necessary information to arrive on 
time, at the correct location and provide the names of your contact 
people once we know who will be going.  

The scenario is a major explosion at the Texas Eastern Plant and our job 
is to pass messages between the municipal coordinators and the county 
coordinator.  Try not to offer any suggestions relative to the scenario, 
limit suggestions simply to how you can serve the coordinator.  Most of 
these coordinators are not professional emergency management people, you 
represent a resource and most of these people have no idea what your 
function is or how you function to accomplish your task.  I hope they 
become comfortable enough with you to understand how important you 
really are!

In the passed Dave Kanitra, WB2AZE  has sent all of us suggestions about 
grab and go kits and net protocol, please review these suggestions.  Try 
to remember that the 147.015 machine is provided to the Hunterdon RACES 
and The Cherryville Repeater Assoc. by the county, every time we have an 
opportunity to show off our willingness to help and our skills set we 
give the more reason to provide money for new equipment and expansion of 
the system we already have which should give all RACES members and Club 
members incentive to make this and all other functions successful.

The Warren County event is scheduled for 9/21 in Belvidere, Please 
consider helping out,  its expected to run from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm and 
lunch will be provided.  These are the people who will help us in a 
pinch and Warren County is the NJ State alternate EOC if Trenton becomes 
disabled and it also represents another opportunity to polish your 
skills (I'll be there).

You can reach me and / or  Roberto at;

Michael Varas, KC2CMC

908-806-3998 or
kc2cmc@arrl.net

Roberto Matos, K2PA

908-788-8253 or
k2pa@arrl.net