County of Orange RACES

County of Orange RACES, an auxiliary communications unit of the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD), is administered by OCSD's Communications & Technology Division. Members are registered as Disaster Service Workers with OCSD's Emergency Management Bureau. They are trained to provide voice, video, and data communications during emergencies, using their own equipment on County VHF and UHF repeaters and simplex frequencies. When activated, OCRACES provides emergency communications support, handles messages between incidents and the EOC, or between public-safety agencies and critical locations, and reports conditions from the field to the EOC or Command Post.

Next OCRACES Meeting: May 7th

The next County of Orange RACES meeting will be on Monday, May 7, 2012, at 7:30 PM, at 840 N. Eckhoff Street, Suite 104, in Orange. At this meeting we will discuss our preparations for the May 19th drill and for Field Day.

Next City/County RACES & MOU Drill: May 19th

The City/County RACES & MOU drill will be held on Saturday, May 19, 2012, from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM. The scenario will be a major earthquake, as used in the Golden Guardian exercise to be conducted at the Orange County EOC on Tuesday, May 15th, from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. At least one OCRACES member will participate in Golden Guardian.

OCRACES Participates in SRRU Exercise

OCRACES van was parked next to the Incident Command Post, for easy interfacing with SRRU leaders.

County of Orange RACES participated in the OCSD Search & Rescue Reserve Unit (SRRU) mutual-aid exercise on Sunday, January 15, 2012. Members functioned as the communications dispatchers for the event, operating from the OCRACES emergency communications emergency response vehicle positioned next to the Incident Command Post. The location was east of San Juan Capistrano. The drill scenario was to search for a downed aircraft and victims in the mountain wilderness.

Tom Tracey, KC6FIC, who wrote the communications plan for the exercise and reviewed it with SRRU Capt Steve Riches, N6SOG (who headed the exercise), served as Dispatcher 1. RACES Sgt. Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC, served as Dispatcher 2. Both operated on law-enforcement frequencies on UHF and 800-MHz trunked. RACES Capt. Ken Bourne, W6HK, was the communications unit supervisor, interfacing, along with Tom, with the SRRU leaders. Also assisting was John Bedford, KF6PRN. Tom's communications plan detailed personnel assignments, planned times of major events, and radio channels and their functions. He also prepared various forms such as a check-in list, clue log, incident communications team status chart, and communications log.

Other participants in the drill included the OCSD Aero Squadron Reserve Unit (ASRU), about 70 personnel from San Diego County Search & Rescue, the Civil Air Patrol, and Boy and Girl Scouts (some of whom were dressed as air-crash victims).

OCRACES Goes on Fire Patrol on January 8th

On Saturday, January 7, 2012, OCRACES Chief Radio Officer Ken Bourne notified all members that the National Weather Service had declared a Red Flag Warning for the next day, Sunday, January 8th, from 8:00 AM until 6:00 PM. Members were requested to notify Ken of their availability for Severe Fire Weather Patrol on Sunday, pending high winds. Beginning at about 10:00 AM, Capt. Bourne and RACES Sgt. Chuck Dolan patrolled Area 1, Kenan Relly, KR6J, and John Bedford, KF6PRN, patrolled Area 2, and Randy and Lee Anne Benicky, N6PRL and KI6VUH, patrolled Area 3. Net Control was handled first by RACES Lt. Harvey Packard, KM6BV, then by Tom Tracey, KC6FIC, and finally by Brian Turner, KI6WZS, from the EOC. Winds died down shortly after 1:00 PM, and, by 2:00 PM, the patrol was concluded.

OCRACES Van at Irvine Preparedness Expo

County of Orange RACES exhibited its emergency communications response vehicle at the Emergency Preparedness Expo in Irvine on September 17, 2011. Irvine's RACES unit (IDEC) and Laguna Beach's RACES unit (LBECT) also displayed their vehicles.

OCRACES Exhibits Van at HAMCON

OCRACES exhibited its emergency communications response vehicle at HAMCON (2011 ARRL Southwestern Division Amateur Radio Convention) on September 10, 2011. The convention was held at the Marriott Torrance South Bay.

OCRACES Activates for Power Outage

OCRACES was activated for the power outage that occurred on September 8, 2011. RACES Capt. Ken Bourne, W6HK, reported to the Orange County EOC at 1725 hours, and was relieved by Brian Lettieri, KI6VPF, at about 2100 hours. Jim Dorris, KC6RFC, who passed background and became an OCRACES member on September 7th, relieved Brian at 0100 on September 9th, and remained at the EOC until 0400, when the EOC was deactivated. Meanwhile, Wayne Barringer, KB6UJW, drove throughout South County and transmitted power-outage and traffic reports to OCRACES, which were then relayed to the EOC Command Center.

OCRACES at OC Fair Ham Radio Booth

Seven OCRACES members and applicants occupied the ham radio booth at the Orange County Fair on Wednesday, July 27, 2011, from 5:00 PM until 11:00 PM. The booth was equipped with an operational Icom IC-9100 transceiver and other radios.

RACES/MOU Units Support General Election

Members of City and County RACES units and HDSCS supported ballot-collection communications on the evening of the General Election on November 2, 2010. A communicator was at each of the 23 Collection Centers in Orange County. Communicators at the Collection Centers recorded the precinct numbers of the boxes being loaded into the vans, and transmitted those precinct numbers to Net Control when the vans departed enroute to the Vote Tally Center. Using three OCRACES repeaters enhanced communications efficiency.

OCRACES participants included Jack Barth, AB6VC, Randy Benicky, N6PRL, Ken Bourne, W6HK, Scott Byington, KC6MMF, Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC, Nancee Graff, N6ZRB, Ray Grimes, N8RG, Walter Kroy, KC6HAM, Kenan Reilly, KR6J, John Roberts, W6JOR, and Brian Turner, KI6WZS.

City RACES units participating included Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, Seal Beach/Los Alamitos, Tri-Cities, and Westminster. The Hospital Disaster Support Communications System (HDSCS) provided coverage in Aliso Viejo.

OCRACES Displays Van at Tabletop Exercise

John Roberts, W6JOR, Harvey Packard, KM6BV, Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC, and Ken Bourne, W6HK (left to right), at TTX in Anaheim.

OCRACES displayed its emergency communications response vehicle at the Citizen Preparedness Tabletop Exercise (TTX) on Wednesday, October 13, 2010, at The Grove of Anaheim. Participating members included Chief Radio Officer Ken Bourne, W6HK, Radio Officer Harvey Packard, KM6BV, Assistant Radio Officer Chuck Dolan, KG6UJC, and John Roberts, W6JOR. Local and Operational Area volunteers gathered at the TTX to learn about the latest initiatives and capabilities of all ASAUA/OCOA Citizen Corps programs and to advance the degree of mutual understanding to improve existing volunteer management and community preparedness capabilities.