Westchester County ARES/RACES is a group of about 100 Amateur Radio operators who volunteer their radio communications skills in times of need. ARES/RACES is a single group organized both under the American Radio Relay League's Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the FCC Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES). As authorized by FCC rules (Title 47 CFR part 97), Westchester County RACES is managed by a local government civil preparedness agency: the Westchester County Office of Disaster and Emergency Services (ODES), in the Department of Public Safety.
All Amateur Radio operators and organizers are volunteers by choice and by law: the FCC rules prohibit compensation. The ARES organization is a national structure coordinated by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). ARES at the local level in Westchester County is managed by an Emergency Coordinator (EC) and several Assistant Emergency Coordinators (AEC). The EC reports to a District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) for seven counties in the lower Hudson Valley who in turn reports to a Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC) for the 15-county Eastern New York Section. The SEC reports to the Section Manager (SM), who is elected to that position by the ARRL Section membership as is the Hudson Division Director and Vice Director. The members of the Board of Directors elect the President and Vice President.
Unlike the ARRL's ARES, RACES is not a separate organization but rather a set of FCC rules that defines when and how Amateurs may provide communications services for state and local government. The RACES group in Westchester is headed by the RACES Radio Officer who is appointed by and reports to the Director, Office of Disaster and Emergency Services. Amateurs may only act in an official RACES capacity when a RACES activation is declared by the RACES Radio Officer upon request of the ODES Director or his designee. During this time, RACES members are considered unpaid employees of Westchester County and are covered by Workmen's Compensation insurance. RACES at the New York State level is managed by the State Emergency Management Office.
Several Amateur Radio groups exist in Westchester County. They are variously organized by location and/or focus on a particular aspect of Amateur Radio. Notable Westchester groups active in public service are the Westchester Emergency Communications Association (WECA), Westchester Amateur Radio Association (WARA), Northern Westchester Amateur Radio Association (NWARA), and the Yonkers Amateur Radio Club (YARC).
WECA, the organization with the greatest focus on the emergency communications aspect of Amateur Radio, has developed special relationships with organizations such as ODES and the American Red Cross. WECA operates three voice repeater systems and a digital communications network using a mixture of county-owned and WECA-owned equipment. For example, the main 147 MHz repeater transmitter and antenna system located at the Grasslands complex were paid for by ODES. This equipment is covered by Westchester County's service contract with Motorola. The rest of the system, including four remote receivers located at various points throughout the County, was purchased with funds raised by WECA through member dues, revenues from Amateur Radio flea markets run by the group, and occasional grants.
All the radio system integration, maintenance and management is performed by members of the WECA Technical Committee. A member of WECA is the FCC licensee legally responsible for the system's operation. WECA Officers and Directors are elected by the membership and include the Directors of Engineering and Repeater Operations.
There are some misconceptions--both among Amateurs and emergency services officials--about the appropriate roles and abilities of Amateur Radio operators in emergency communications. Amateur Radio operators supplement rather than replace existing public safety and commercial communications facilities. They are volunteers who have jobs, personal lives and varied levels of technical and operating expertise. They are not professional communicators or emergency responders, but they do strive to approach their volunteer service with a high level of professionalism.
Amateurs generally have the skills and personally-owned radio equipment necessary to provide effective backup or supplemental communications at times when normal public safety and commercial communications systems are busy with mission-critical traffic or overloaded. When well-trained, the typical technically-oriented Amateur Radio operator can prove to be a useful asset in filling the gaps in normal communications systems and excels at flexibly responding to changing communications conditions and needs.
An example of such an application of Amateur communicators is to take logistical communications traffic in order to keep emergency radio systems available for actual emergency traffic. Amateurs, having radios that are frequency-agile across a common set of bands, are also able to establish ad-hoc communications links between officials who may not otherwise have a radio system in common.
The annual ARRL SET is one of many opportunities to train Westchester's local Amateur Radio operators. Thanks to strong support from the Office of Disaster and Emergency Services, many other training opportunities are presented throughout the year.
Probably the greatest opportunity for training Amateurs to operate effectively in the field is provided by the numerous charity events that Westchester's Amateurs volunteer for. These include annual walkathons and public gatherings such as the Multiple Sclerosis Walk in Rye, March of Dimes WalkAmerica in Bedford/Mt. Kisco, Mamaroneck Turkey Trot, Seminary events and walkathons in Yonkers, New York Philharmonic concert at Westchester Community College, American Diabetes Association Tour-de-Cure bike ride and events outside the county in which many from Westchester are key players--most notably the MS Wheel&Rock to Woodstock in the Catskills and the New York City Marathon, which counts many Westchester residents among the 400 Amateurs who participate.
The annual Field Day exercise in June is probably the single largest Amateur exercise each year. At Harbor Island Park in Mamaroneck and other locations throughout the county, Amateurs set up and operate an emergency-powered field camp for a continuous 24-hour period.
Figure 2: Residences (Home Station Locations) of Amateur Radio Volunteers
in Westchester County, NY