Contra Costa RACES

Membership Info

Emergency service is one of the basics of the Amateur Radio Service and there is sometimes come some confusion about ARES, the ARRL arm of emergency services and RACES, the government arm of amateur emergency services. If you are registered in ARES and RACES, you can switch hats as conditions dictate. ARRL and FEMA both recommend dual membership.

Join RACES

RACES, administered by local, county and state emergency management agencies, and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the United States government, is a part of the Amateur Radio Service that provides radio communications for civil-preparedness purposes only, during periods of local, regional or national civil emergencies. These emergencies are not limited to war-related activities, but can include natural disasters such as fires, floods and earthquakes.

As defined in the rules, RACES is a radiocommunication service, conducted by volunteer licensed amateurs, designed to provide emergency communications to local or state civil-preparedness agencies. It is important to note that RACES operation is authorized by emergency management officials only, and this operation is strictly limited to official civil-preparedness activity in the event of an emergency-communications situation.

Join ARES

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in ARRL or any other local or national organization, is eligible for membership in the ARES. The only qualification, other than possession of an Amateur Radio license, is a sincere desire to serve. Because ARES is an amateur service, only amateurs are eligible for membership. The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable, but is not a requirement for membership.

Join ARC

The Amateur Radio Communications team (ARC-Team) is a group of amateur radio operators within the Contra Costa County Sheriff's reserve organization.  The group provides a number of communications-related services to the Sheriff's Department, including the following:

  • Acting as EC for the OES
  • Searching for lost children and parents at special events
  • Additional "eyes and ears" for special details, such as the County Fair
  • Traffic control for special details
  • Management, operation and deployment of the Mobile Command Post
  • Management and deployment of the Sheriff's portable radio cache
  • Provide wireless television services for the command post at special events
  • Search and Rescue - Dispatch communications and command post support during call-outs and exercises

The ARC-Team meets monthly at the OES Building, 50 Glacier Dr., Martinez on the third Wednesday of the month at 7:00PM.  For additional information, contact the ARC Team Reserve Lt. Mike Patterson (N6JGA).

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