County of Orange RACES

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: February 6th

The next County of Orange RACES meeting will be on Monday, February 6, 2012, at 7:30 PM, at 840 N. Eckhoff Street, Suite 104, in Orange. Our featured speaker will be Tom Tracey, KC6FIC, who will review our participation in the January 15th OCSD Search & Rescue Reserve Unit mutual-aid exercise in the wilderness off of Ortega Highway. Tom will also present ideas on how we can become better prepared to function as emergency dispatchers during such exercises and activations with SRRU.

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.

Events Calendar

January 23: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Randy Benicky, N6PRL
Pager: Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC

January 23: 1900
City/County RACES & MOU Meeting
840 N. Eckhoff Street, Suite 104, Orange

January 28
Palm Springs Hamfest

January 30: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Kenan Reilly, KR6J
Pager: Ernest Fierheller, KG6LXT

February 6: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Brian Turner, KI6WZS
Pager: Harvey Packard, KM6BV

February 6: 1930
OCRACES Meeting
840 N. Eckhoff Street, Suite 104, Orange

February 13: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Ken Bourne, W6HK
Pager: Ralph Sbragia, W6CSP

February 20: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Jim Carter, WB6HAG
Pager: Jack Barth, AB6VC

February 27: 1900
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC
Pager: Ken Bourne, W6HK

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Webmaster: Ken Bourne, W6HK, Chief Radio Officer, County of Orange (California) RACES
Last Update: January 20, 2012