RACES
RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) is under the FEMA umbrella and serves a sponsoring government agency, which for us is the Department of Emergency Management within the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office. During official callouts RACES operators are used to provide assistance in the county's Emergency Operations Center (EOC), set up and operate the County's Emergency Communications Van, provide radio relay services to other parts of the state (including the State EOC) and deploy to field locations as required. A combination of ham frequencies and public safety frequencies may be used at any given time. Most operations in the Communications Van are conducted on public safety frequencies.
Each RACES jursidiction appoints a RACES Officer (referred to as the "RO") to serve as liaison between the local RACES organization and the jursidiction's Emergency Management Director. In Cowlitz County the RACES Officer is Randy Greeley, NU7D. Randy can be contacted at Randy's email.RACES membership requires successful completion of a background check by the Sheriff's Office as well as approval by the Department of Emergency Management. A Washington State Emergency Worker Card is issued to qualified RACES members. ARRL membership is recommended but not required. RACES members are given access to sensitive areas and information so we take the need for discretion and confidentiality seriously. In addition to emergency activations we operate as an auxiliary communications service for the Sheriff's Office and provide assistance during some law enforcement operations. We enjoy a very good working relationship with local law enforcement agencies and we appreciate the opportunities they provide us.
The current Cowlitz County RACES plan and FEMA document "Guidance For Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service" are available from our Documents and Downloads page.