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.

Winlink Survey

Initial procurement of Winlink equipment for County and City RACES units will begin in July. It will provide e-mail capability to our served agencies, MOU members, and RACES/ACS members, without relying totally on the Internet. The equipment will also provide a ham-radio-based TCP/IP connection from the County EOC to remote sites. Furthermore, this project will also establish a packet-based bulletin board, probably using Outpost. Each City RACES unit will need to make sure that an outbound network port is open where the Winlink station is set up. Skilled people will be needed for installation, assembly of hardware and cables, installation of software and initializing system desktop computers, and to initialize the provided server. City RACES leadership will need to designate lead persons as contact points during implementation and operation of the system, and backup support persons. A specific ham radio call sign, name, and address must be provided by each City RACES unit. This is needed to register the TCP/IP addresses that are specific to the TCP/IP over radio portion of this project. Each City RACES Chief Radio Officer (or his designee) is asked to click on the following link: WINLINK PARTNER SURVEY.xls. Please complete the form, which will provide the information mentioned above, and submit to OCRACES Radio Officer Scott Byington, KC6MMF.

Next OCRACES Meeting: July 6th

The next County of Orange RACES meeting is on Monday, July 6, 2009, at 7:30 PM, at 840 N. Eckhoff Street, Suite 104, in Orange. RACES Sgt. Jim Carter, WB6HAG, will give a presentation on "How to Become a Mesonet Weather Station for NWS San Diego." Jim will describe how his Davis weather station communicates information directly to the National Weather Service.

OCRACES Supports Baker to Vegas 2009

Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC (left), and RACES Lt. Ralph Sbragia, W6CSP, install DC cables in follow van for Baker to Vegas

OCRACES members, under the leadership of Radio Officer. Ralph Sbragia, W6CSP, supported the 25th Annual Baker to Las Vegas Challenge Cup Relay, March 14-15, 2009. Helping Ralph with pre-race follow-van installations were Chief Radio Officer Ken Bourne, W6HK, Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC, Randy Benicky, N6PRL, and Steve Sobodos, KN6UX. Radio Officer Scott Byington, KC6MMF, prepared radios, TNCs, antennas, etc., for the Pahrump Command Post, which was manned by Assistant Radio Officer Jack Barth, AB6VC, Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC, and Martin La Rocque, N6NTH. This year we supported eight teams with APRS, including the four Orange County Sheriff's teams (up from three in previous years), two Orange County DA teams, the California Department of Insurance Fraud Investigation Unit, and the Arizona AG Team. Our Pahrump Command Post was also there to provide communications support via the linked UHF repeaters we monitor.

RACES Activates for Fires

County of Orange RACES activated on Saturday, November 15, 2008, in response to the Freeway Complex Fire, and provided EOC communicators and assistance to the Orange County Fire Authority at the Incident Command Post or with Red Flag patrols. City RACES units activated in support of their own communities or responded to mutual-aid requests from OCRACES and nearby cities. OCRACES was deactivated at 12 noon on Monday, November 17th..

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

Jul. 6: 7:00 PM
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Nancee Graff, N6ZRB
Pager: Jim Carter, WB6HAG

Jul. 13: 7:00 PM
OCRACES ACS Net
2 m: Ray Grimes, N8RG
Pager: Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC

Jul. 18: 9:00 AM
Southwest ACS Meeting, Cal EMA REOC, Los Alamitos

Jul. 20: 7:00 PM
2 m: Walter Kroy, KC6HAM
Pager: Ernest Fierheller, KG6LXT

Jul. 27: 7:00 PM
2 m: Martin La Rocque, N6NTH
Pager: Harvey Packard, KM6BV

Aug. 7: 5 PM-11 PM
Orange County Fair, OCRACES at Ham Radio Booth (with SART)

Aug. 10: 7:00 PM
Huntington Beach RACES Meeting, OC EOC

Aug. 19
SONGS Dress Rehearsal Plume Exercise

Sep. 23
SONGS FEMA Graded Exercise

© Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. No HTML nor original artwork may be reproduced or used without written express permission .
Webmaster: Ken Bourne, W6HK, Chief Radio Officer, County of Orange (California) RACES
Last Update: July 1, 2009