Colorado State R.A.C.E.S.
Colorado RACES News / Announcements
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http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/Communications/9612.aspx
09/1/2006
Please send all RACES IDs in ASAP so we can start the new ID process.
Send to
Al Acker
Colorado State RACES
1685 Mae Court
Fruita CO 81521
Please do not delay in doing this, I'd like to see a quick response and so would state.
08/15/2006
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State FM Net.
With the addition of our weekly state FM net on Tuesday night 7:30 PM. We've had less need to post news here. But I thought I'd post a few notes.
For those that would like to listen in to the weekly FM net, you can link to the CRA streaming audio via the link on our home page. You will need internet access and a MP3 player on your computer such as Winamp or Windows Media Player.
IDs.
We are still waiting on state to approve an ID system but in the meantime, we are collecting ID pictures. We will soon produce a report showing all calls that we have pictures for and which calls we need pictures for. We will post a list here.
If you do not have a state ID or have never sent us a picture... you can send them to me via al at ColoradoRACES.net
Specs for the pictures are as follows.... Vertical format 3" high 2" wide. No hats, no sunglasses, plain background.
Name the file <your call >.jpg for example wa4hnd.jpg and send them to my address.
See you on one of our statewide nets.
I would like to welcome Erik Dyce ( W0ERX ) to state RACES. Erik has been appointed the RO of the State EOC and will be looking for a lot of good people to help him over there. Please welcome Erik and give him all the support you can. We need some of our best people over at the state EOC because one of our primary missions is to keep communication channels open between the EOC's around the state.
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Also, again please keep in mind our new standard for state RACES of IS 700, 100, and 200 as well as a background check. ( IS-195 can be substituted for IS-100 and IS-200 ).
12/8/2005
06/19/2005
Lot’s of activities since my last note. I’ll report on the Mesa County RACES activities and if others would like to report on other events, I’ll be happy to post them here. All Mesa County RACES members are also members of ARES District 3 and as such, we provide communications for lots of various bike races, running races, bike tours etc. It seems like there has been one event every weekend for the last month or so. About a month ago, we had two teams of operators working two separate events at the same time.
Of special note is the last event we ran which was a bike race in Palisade Colorado. This event was rather unique because normally, we are the only communications on the course, but this time the local fire department, EMS, SO and Search and Rescue were also deployed. What made this event unique was that ARES acted as the NCS for all agencies and as such, we dispatched all resources via our Net Control Station. Amateur as well as the local Fire, BLM and SO frequencies were used on the event. The main two repeaters used were the local Fire repeater and one of our RACES portable repeaters.
Mesa County RACES also participated in the Grand Junction Airport (Walker Field) exercise. The FAA mandates these exercises every 3 years. This was a mass casualty exercise. The Federal Agencies that participated were the FAA, TSA, and FBI…. State agencies were Colorado OEM. Local agencies included Walker Field Airport, Grand Junction Fire, Grand Junction PD, RACES, and Red Cross. The CAP provided victims.
RACES personal were dispatched to the EOC, ICP, Transportation, Staging, (we also employed an off site resource NCS), and also deployed stations to the local hospitals. This exercise was mostly centered on initial call out, response times and deployment. Of note is the fact that Mesa County RACES is included in the Walker Field emergency plan and will be deployed any time the airport EOC is activated.
All events and exercises in Mesa County are run under the ICS and we use ICS forms 202, 205 and other forms as needed. ICS 213’s are used for formal message traffic.
05/01/2005
Just a note to thank those of you who have checked into our Sunday night HF net… either directly or via relay
We are getting ready to process another round of IDs… ( I have about 20 or 30 IDs processed, printed and ready for signatures. We will most likely get these IDs to state within a week. If you have sent us a RACES application and digital picture and have not received your State ID yet, please send an email to wa4hnd at coloradoraces.net just to make sure we have you in this next batch. I also have a few Ids that will be going into the mail tomorrow…. We normally try to arrange for hand delivery of IDs but for a few, the timing just didn’t work out.
Thanks again to everyone for all your efforts around the state…. Catch you on the air.
04/05/2005
We’re in the process of a large State ID run and will have the next batch out within a few weeks.. To communicate with the state EOC during RACES nets, you need to be on their roster. The State EOC commo group uses the State ID badge list as their roster so if you do not yet have a state ID please email Bill kØssi ( kØssi @ bresnan.net ) to make sure you’re in the next badge run. If we’re missing info or photos to process your ID, we’ll let you know.
Also it was nice seeing some of you at the LARC fest last weekend. A fun time was had by all. OJ, I tried to get your ID into your Subaru but it was too tight a fit. Check your mail in a few days.
03/13/2005
Long time since my last note…. sorry. Things have been busy these days getting everyone up to speed on IS-700 and all the other new “numbers” out there.
Things have been progressing nicely state wide with lots of
training and new members. Participation
on our State HF net is up and even with less than ideal conditions. Everyone seems to be able to communicate and
that’s the bottom line.
Also I’d like to
welcome the members of the State Wide ARES Disaster Response Team (DRT) to
State RACES. Having that group become a
co ARES/RACES group will be a win win for all concerned. It will increase our statewide abilities and
flexibility. I am in the process of
appointing Wes (K0HBZ) the RACES officer for that group. So if you have any questions concerning that
group, please feel free to contact Wes directly.
I’d like to thank everyone who has been working the HF net
control position. It’s great practice
and it gives you a good excuse to get out and fine-tune the performance of your
HF station. We are entering travel
mode again so we hope to see all of you at least once this summer.
01/10/2005
For those of you that
check into our weekly hf net and want to make equipment checks, set audio, or
simply chat some, there is a window of opportunity between the south west net
that Don runs (wb0dsg) at 0030 (normally finished within 5 or 10 minutes) and
our state net that starts at 0100.
There is normally
someone around during that time and it’s a good time to makes checks if needed
or simply have an informal chat. And if
you have the time, I’m sure Don wouldn’t mind some additional check-ins to his
net.
Again, let me remind you
that as you complete IS-700, please let me know so we can update our training
records.
01/6/2005
HSD creates National Response Plan.
The NRP has several deadlines that we need to be aware of,
which are similar to the deadlines outlined in the NIMS.
Secretary Ridge will formally announce the National Response Plan on Thursday
1-6-05. If you need a copy,
please email me.
Governor's Executive Order http://www.colorado.gov/governor/eos/d01104.pdf
Link To FEMA NIMS training site http://www.fema.gov/nims/
01/5/2005
Happy New Year!!!
Time to clean off the old news and bring on the new
news! The major story for 2004 was
that we are now doing our own Ids.
Thanks to efforts from Bill K0SSI, we now can print our Ids “in house”
and then bring them over to state for Signatures. This has sped up the ID process and we now have the capability to
make sure all state RACES members are properly credentialed. If you do not have a state ID, please
contact us and we will make it happen.
A lot has been done in 2004; more needs to be done in 2005. I have written a database software
package that we will make available to the state. It will contain all state races members data, contact info and
any special abilities. It will also
contain training records.
Speaking of training, the new NRP is out today from HSD, I
recommend all of you read this. The
most important thing at the moment to us is the fact that NIMS will become more
important for us. I recommend that all
of you take the IS-700 course (available from FEMA) and get IS-700
certified. The entire process takes
less than a few hrs. (Less if you have
had any form of ICS training). If you
need details on this, please give me a call or email…. Or catch me on the state
RACES hf net.
Speaking of nets…. I’d like to thank all of you for your
excellent participation in our weekly hf net.
Let’s continue and expand as much as possible.
My personal News year’s resolution is to update this web
site a little more often…. So stay tuned, stay ready, and stay safe.
Al WA4HND
Colorado State RACES officer.
01/01/2005
Western slope repeater updates.
Delta / Montrose
447.200 minus CTCSS 107.7 NEW CHANGE
Grand Junction
449.575 minus CTCSS 131.8
Grand Mesa 449.300
minus CTCSS 107.2
Glenwood Springs 447.100
minus CTCSS 107.2
Vail 449.900 minus PL 107.2
Baxter Pass 447.000
minus CTCSS 107.2
Ute Butte 449.400 minus CTCSS 131.8 NEW CHANGE
Bald Mesa * 449.100
minus CTCSS 107.2
Abajo Peak * 447.400
minus CTCSS 107.2
*Utah
All the above repeaters have access to the IRLP node in Grand Junction (node 3710)
Thank you all for your support and checking into the HF net every Sunday. We hope to start a RACES UHF net sometime this spring or summer using the above repeaters. We will most likely have it on Tuesday nites to complement the East Slope VHF / UHF nets.