Dedicated to being here for the citizens of Lee County, Florida, R.A.C.E.S. volunteers work under the direction of the Lee County Emergency Operations Center staff for those times when disaster strikes.  While Lee County has state of the art communications systems, it is considered prudent to have a second communications network in time of extreme problems and to provide a back-up method of communication should the primary system become incapacitated.  That is where the RACES volunteers come in to play.

Recently renamed the ALERT group, RACES & ARES* volunteers are unpaid Ham operators who dedicate themselves to being here during and after a tragedy.  Most of the shelters and hospitals in the area will have one or more of us "assigned" as a communicator.  We use our own equipment to provide a separate communications network to EOC through a series of coordinators to ensure that needs and other items are passed to those who provide emergency response without tying up what will be an overloaded county communications system.

Haven't ever heard of the term "HAM"?

Ham is a term used to describe licensed amateur radio hobbyists.  Many of us can be detected because of the weird antenna in our yards, on our roofs, or on our cars.   We pass tests to receive licenses from the FCC to be able to work with a large spectrum of radio frequencies (that we call Bands) and both commercially made and self-built experimental communications equipment.  Some of us are electronics wizards, but most of us are not.  Some have college educations, some are in grade school, and most fall somewhere in the middle.  There are over 1,300 Hams in the local area according to a recent report.  Of those 1,300, around 100 are currently RACES volunteers.

*ARES, Amateur Radio Emergency Service, is an organization sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL).  Many of the ALERT membership belong to ARES as well, but it isn't a prerequisite.  During times of emergency (as declared by government officials), only RACES members may use those portions of the amateur radio bands.

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