Cowlitz County ARES® /RACES General Information
Most Cowlitz County ARES®/RACES activity is centered around three core functions. ARES® is organized and administered by ARRL Section leadership, which in our case is the Western Washington Section, and provides emergency communications services to private agencies such as the Red Cross. RACES is under the FEMA umbrella and serves a sponsoring government agency, which for us is the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office. Our third major role is providing a radio direction finding service for Emergency Locator Transmitters, such as those found on general aviation aircraft. This radio direction finding role is in the initial stages of being expanded to include assisting Cowlitz County Search and Rescue in tracking Project Lifesaver beacons worn by Alzheimer's patients. CCSAR, also sponsored by the Sheriff's Office, has taken the lead on providing this service to Alzheimer's patients locally.
Many Cowlitz County ARES®/RACES members are also active in the Lower Columbia Amateur Radio Association. The close relationship between the emergency communications group and LCARA provides a greater level of service to the local community then either could provide alone. LCARA provides the repeater systems and much of the other infrastructure used within ARES®/RACES.
More information can be found for each core function under their individual menu links.