ARES:
FCC Licensed Amateur Radio Operators who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment, with the local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes. ARRL/ARES provides basic training curriculum and exercise opportunities. The list of agencies a volunteer might end up serving is long but could include a County EOC/CERT, Hospital radio room, Red Cross ERV/Shelter, Nursing Home radio room, NWS office. Once you register with an agency your training & credentialing will be completed with them.
Who decides when ARES will be activated?
That would be the agency ARES volunteers are serving. ARES is a registered trade mark for the ARRL. The roles in emergency communication is really defined by the agencies, state, county, local government or NGO they serve as volunteer communicator. Without these served organization ARES has no role to support.
Leadership is provided by the ARES county or state EC
Click on the LEADERSHIP DIRECTORY tab above for contacts.
RACES:
Amateur Radio Operators that have registered with their EOC for volunteer communications service should the President of the United States order the shutdown of all amateur radio transmissions per FCC rule 97.407 ***
RACES operators are allowed to transmit only by order of the EOC they volunteer for.
Each RACES volunteer must be endorsed by the respective county or state EOC.
Leadership is provided by each EOC / RACES Officer, county or state.
AUXCOMM: is not an organization, it is a training standard.
An all inclusive term used to describe the many organizations that provide various types of communication support to emergency management, public safety and other government agencies as described in themselves. This includes but is not limited to Amateur Radio, Military Radio, Citizens Band Radio, DMR, DMRS, FRS, SatCom, Skywarn and many others.
Members of Auxcomm all have the title of Auxiliary Communicator.
Auxcomm is a position specific specialist certification.
Leadership is provided by the State EMD
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The above information is specific to South Carolina, a home rule state, some states have organized these three groups differently. An example is some states may not organize RACES with the county EOC. Check with your local EOC for direction.
Some common terms we use often….
EC = Emergency Coordinator (for a county)
SEC = Section Emergency Coordinator (State EC in South Carolina)
SM = Section Manager (State Manager in South Carolina )
EM = Emergency Manager
REM = Region Emergency Manager
EOC = Emergency Operations Center
DEC = District Emergency Coordinator
EMD = Emergency Management Division
ARES = Amateur Radio Emergency Service
RACES = Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service
NGO= Non-Government Organization
VOAD = Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters
one or coalition of (usually not-for-profit) Second Responder organizations in the United States. These groups voluntarily help survivors after a disaster. One example is the American Red Cross.
