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County
of Orange RACES, an auxiliary communications unit of the Orange County
Sheriff's Department (OCSD), is administered by OCSD's Communications
& Technology Division. Members are registered as Disaster Service
Workers with OCSD's Emergency Management Bureau. They are trained to
provide voice, video, and data communications during emergencies, using
their own equipment on County VHF and UHF repeaters and simplex
frequencies. When activated, OCRACES provides emergency communications
support, handles messages between incidents and the EOC, or between
public-safety agencies and critical locations, and reports conditions from
the field to the EOC or Command Post.
Next OCRACES Meeting: May 7th
The
next County of Orange RACES meeting will be on Monday, May 7, 2012,
at 7:30 PM, at 840 N. Eckhoff Street, Suite 104, in Orange. At this
meeting we will discuss our preparations for the May 19th drill and for Field Day.
Next City/County RACES & MOU Drill: May 19th
The
City/County RACES & MOU drill will be held on Saturday, May 19, 2012,
from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM. The scenario will be a major earthquake, as
used in the Golden Guardian exercise to be conducted at the Orange County
EOC on Tuesday, May 15th, from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. At least one OCRACES
member will participate in Golden Guardian.
OCRACES Participates in SRRU Exercise

OCRACES
van was parked next to the Incident Command Post, for easy interfacing
with SRRU leaders.
County
of Orange RACES participated in the OCSD Search & Rescue Reserve Unit
(SRRU) mutual-aid exercise on Sunday, January 15, 2012. Members functioned
as the communications dispatchers for the event, operating from the
OCRACES emergency communications emergency response vehicle positioned
next to the Incident Command Post. The location was east of San Juan
Capistrano. The drill scenario was to search for a downed aircraft and
victims in the mountain wilderness.
Tom
Tracey, KC6FIC, who wrote the communications plan for the exercise and
reviewed it with SRRU Capt Steve Riches, N6SOG (who headed the exercise),
served as Dispatcher 1. RACES Sgt. Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC, served as
Dispatcher 2. Both operated on law-enforcement frequencies on UHF and
800-MHz trunked. RACES Capt. Ken Bourne, W6HK, was the communications unit
supervisor, interfacing, along with Tom, with the SRRU leaders. Also
assisting was John Bedford, KF6PRN. Tom's communications plan detailed
personnel assignments, planned times of major events, and radio channels
and their functions. He also prepared various forms such as a check-in
list, clue log, incident communications team status chart, and
communications log.
Other
participants in the drill included the OCSD Aero Squadron Reserve Unit (ASRU),
about 70 personnel from San Diego County Search & Rescue, the Civil
Air Patrol, and Boy and Girl Scouts (some of whom were dressed as
air-crash victims).
OCRACES Goes on Fire Patrol on January 8th
On
Saturday, January 7, 2012, OCRACES Chief Radio Officer Ken Bourne notified
all members that the National Weather Service had declared a Red Flag
Warning for the next day, Sunday, January 8th, from 8:00 AM until 6:00 PM.
Members were requested to notify Ken of their availability for Severe Fire
Weather Patrol on Sunday, pending high winds. Beginning at about 10:00 AM,
Capt. Bourne and RACES Sgt. Chuck Dolan patrolled Area 1, Kenan Relly,
KR6J, and John Bedford, KF6PRN, patrolled Area 2, and Randy and Lee Anne
Benicky, N6PRL and KI6VUH, patrolled Area 3. Net Control was handled first
by RACES Lt. Harvey Packard, KM6BV, then by Tom Tracey, KC6FIC, and
finally by Brian Turner, KI6WZS, from the EOC. Winds died down shortly
after 1:00 PM, and, by 2:00 PM, the patrol was concluded.
OCRACES Van at Irvine Preparedness Expo
County
of Orange RACES exhibited its emergency communications response vehicle at
the Emergency Preparedness Expo in Irvine on September 17, 2011. Irvine's
RACES unit (IDEC) and Laguna Beach's RACES unit (LBECT) also displayed
their vehicles.
OCRACES Exhibits Van at HAMCON
OCRACES
exhibited its emergency communications response vehicle at HAMCON (2011
ARRL Southwestern Division Amateur Radio Convention) on September 10,
2011. The convention was held at the Marriott Torrance South Bay.
OCRACES Activates for Power Outage
OCRACES
was activated for the power outage that occurred on September 8, 2011.
RACES Capt. Ken Bourne, W6HK, reported to the Orange County EOC at 1725
hours, and was relieved by Brian Lettieri, KI6VPF, at about 2100 hours.
Jim Dorris, KC6RFC, who passed background and became an OCRACES member on
September 7th, relieved Brian at 0100 on September 9th, and remained at
the EOC until 0400, when the EOC was deactivated. Meanwhile, Wayne
Barringer, KB6UJW, drove throughout South County and transmitted
power-outage and traffic reports to OCRACES, which were then relayed to
the EOC Command Center.
OCRACES
at OC Fair Ham Radio Booth
Seven
OCRACES members and applicants occupied the ham radio booth at the Orange
County Fair on Wednesday, July 27, 2011, from 5:00 PM until 11:00 PM. The
booth was equipped with an operational Icom IC-9100 transceiver and other
radios.
RACES/MOU Units Support General Election
Members
of City and County RACES units and HDSCS supported ballot-collection
communications on the evening of the General Election on November 2, 2010.
A communicator was at each of the 23 Collection Centers in Orange County.
Communicators at the Collection Centers recorded the precinct numbers of
the boxes being loaded into the vans, and transmitted those precinct
numbers to Net Control when the vans departed enroute to the Vote Tally
Center. Using three OCRACES repeaters enhanced communications efficiency.
OCRACES
participants included Jack Barth, AB6VC, Randy Benicky, N6PRL, Ken Bourne,
W6HK, Scott Byington, KC6MMF, Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC, Nancee Graff, N6ZRB,
Ray Grimes, N8RG, Walter Kroy, KC6HAM, Kenan Reilly, KR6J, John Roberts,
W6JOR, and Brian Turner, KI6WZS.
City
RACES units participating included Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa,
Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach,
Mission Viejo, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, Seal Beach/Los Alamitos,
Tri-Cities, and Westminster. The Hospital Disaster Support Communications
System (HDSCS) provided coverage in Aliso Viejo.
OCRACES Displays Van at Tabletop Exercise
John
Roberts, W6JOR, Harvey Packard, KM6BV, Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC, and Ken
Bourne, W6HK (left to right), at TTX in Anaheim.
OCRACES displayed
its emergency communications response vehicle at the Citizen Preparedness
Tabletop Exercise (TTX) on Wednesday, October 13, 2010, at The Grove of
Anaheim. Participating members included Chief Radio Officer Ken Bourne,
W6HK, Radio Officer Harvey Packard, KM6BV, Assistant Radio Officer Chuck
Dolan, KG6UJC, and John Roberts, W6JOR. Local and Operational Area
volunteers gathered at the TTX to learn about the latest initiatives and
capabilities of all ASAUA/OCOA Citizen Corps programs and to advance the
degree of mutual understanding to improve existing volunteer management
and community preparedness capabilities.
OCRACES Displays Van at OCFA Open House
Chuck
Dolan, KG6UJC (left in left photo), John Roberts, W6JOR, John Bedford,
KF6PRN (left in right photo), Scott Byington, KC6MMF, and Harvey Packard,
KM6BV, at OCFA Open House.
The OCRACES
emergency communications response vehicle was displayed at the Orange
County Fire Authority (OCFA) Open House on Saturday, October 9, 2010. At
the event were Ken Bourne, W6HK, Scott Byington, KC6MMF, Chuck Dolan,
KG6UJC, Harvey Packard, KM6BV, John Roberts, W6JOR, and Applicant John
Bedford, KF6PRN. Many visitors, especially children, toured our van and
learned about its many radios. Scott set up his portable Winlink station
outside the van, which was observed by several radio amateurs who dropped
by.
City/County RACES & MOUs Hold Oct. 2nd Drill
Left
photo: OCRACES Member Kenan Reilly, KR6J (left), and Applicant John
Bedford, KF6PRN, handle drill traffic at EOC RACES Room; right photo:
RACES Sgt. Jim Carter, WB6HAG, at ATV/SSTV position, with Martin La
Rocque, N6NTH, at HF position next to him, observe images from city RACES
units.
OCRACES
and most City RACES units, plus the Hospital Disaster Support
Communications System (HDSCS) and American Red Cross—Orange County
Chapter, participated in the City/County RACES & MOU Drill on
Saturday, October 2, 2010. The scenario was wildland fires throughout the
County.
OCRACES
participants included Randy Benicky, N6PRL, Ken Bourne, W6HK, Scott
Byington, KC6MMF, Jim Carter, WB6HAG, Chuck Dolan, KG6LXT, Ernest
Fierheller, KG6LXT, Martin La Rocque, N6NTH, Harvey Packard, KM6BV, Kenan
Reilly, KR6J, John Roberts, W6JOR, Brian Turner, KI6WZS, and Applicant
John Bedford, KF6PRN. All activity was from the EOC RACES Room at Loma
Ridge, or from just outside the EOC for the special simplex relay exercise
(led by OCSD Emergency Communications Manager Marten Miller, KF6ZLQ) that
was added to the drill. Because of new equipment recently installed in the
RACES Room, but not all fully functional yet (because of programming and
antenna routing to be done), not all positions were operational.
Therefore, a position was not available for Tom Gaccione, WB2LRH, from
HDSCS, but he was able to handle all HDSCS traffic with his HT outside the
EOC building.
The
ATV/SSTV portion of the exercise posed interesting challenges. This
year’s participants were Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Mission Viejo,
and Santa Ana. Santa Ana had only ATV receive capability and the other
participants sent either ATV or SSTV video. OCRACES was Net Control with
operators Martin La Rocque, N6NTH, and Jim Carter, WB6HAG, who were
directing ATV/SSTV operations while receiving the video from the
participants and feeding it to the OCRACES room main monitor. This
exercise demonstrated if ATV operations could co-exist between cities
operating at the same time, allowing OCRACES to selectively receive each
city’s video using a beam, the ability to change the ATV/SSTV voice
control channel in a moment’s notice, and the
ability to send ATV/SSTV video to adjacent cities. The ATV and SSTV
signals were acceptable (ATV P2-P4+), with Huntington Beach having the
more solid ATV signal at OCRACES operations. Mission Viejo used SSTV, and
they had P5 pictures after re-syncing their SSTV transmissions. Seal Beach
and Huntington Beach could see each other’s video. We learned OCRACES
cannot selectively select with the beam ATV transmission from cities
sending ATV signals simultaneously. Huntington Beach overpowered Seal
Beach. Also, changing our ATV/SSTV voice frequency caused some delays as
participants reprogrammed radios. Also, the fastest means to re-sync an
SSTV transmissionis for OCRACES to transmit an SSTV picture to
participating stations.
RACES Wants You!
Experience
the most exciting and rewarding part of amateur radio. Being a
RACES member gives you the opportunity to sharpen your
operating skills and technical knowledge while volunteering your services
in public-safety communications. Get involved in emergency communications now. Click the
Contact
OCRACES link for more information.
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Events
Calendar
April
30: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Kenan Reilly, KR6J
Pager: Scott Byington, KC6MMF
May
5: 0900
OCRACES Digital Team Meeting, OC EOC
May
7: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: John Roberts, W6JOR
Pager: Jim Carter, WB6HAG
May
7: 1930
OCRACES Meeting
840 N. Eckhoff St., Suite 104, Orange
May
10: 1000-1200
Golden Guardian Overview Course, OC EOC
May
14: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Ralph Sbragia, W6CSP
Pager: Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC
May
15: 0800-1600
Golden Guardian Exercise, OC EOC
May
19: 0900-1100
City/County RACES & MOU Exercise
May
21: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Joe Selikov, KB6EID
Pager: Ernest Fierheller, KG6LXT
May
28: 1900
Memorial Day (no net)
June
4: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Tom Tracey, KC6FIC
Pager: Harvey Packard, KM6BV
June
4: 1930
OCRACES Meeting
840 N. Eckhoff St., Suite 104, Orange
June
9: 0900
Southwest ACS Meeting
Los Angeles County EOC
June
14: 1000-1200
EOC Responder Section Training, OC EOC
June
23-24
Field Day
June
25: 1900
City/County RACES & MOU Meeting, 840 N. Eckhoff Street, Suite 104,
Orange
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