EMC175 A Units Year in Review To: Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin To: Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio By: Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services EMC175 A Units Year in Review For release 3/15/99 Each EMCOMM unit (whether ACS, ARES, RACES, REACT or some other designation, type or organization) has a need to develop training and involvement opportunities for the participants. Each unit will have a uniqueness and way of achieving both of those goals. What we present from time to time is an example of what some units have done. In doing so it is our hope that ideas may be generated that can help in another unit's needs. So, let's look at the City of Huntington Beach RACES '98 activities review: January - March: Provided Antenna Connectors in the EOC March: Orange County Disaster Drill - Red Cross April: -Walk America, where the unit provided mutual support for the March of Dimes Walk America. Supplied field personnel as well as a net control operator. June: -County wide drill hosted by Orange County Races - part of the National SET Drill -Mayor proclaimed Amateur Radio Week -HB RACES Field Day (2E contest stations, tested equipment to provide field shelter communications for 7.0 earthquake. 7 Training Stations; tested Emergency 6' Helium Balloon Lighting System used in the Keoto, Japan Earthquake. HB RACES supported the CERT Earthquake Shelter Drill, Partner in Disasters -Training goals/accomplishments: -Tactical Command Trailer-radio positions/on board power -35 HB RACES Certified Control Operators -ATV Training -APRS Training -Solar Net Control Training -Solar RV Systems Installation -Packet Stations Training -Outbound traffic to LA Cellular O.C ham station 20 miles using ht. simplex only. July: 4th of July Parade and Fireworks. Fewer lost children and medical emergencies that the previous years. "The high- light, aside from the parade, was probably the flooding from one of the rest rooms along Main St. Like all other emergencies RACES handled it well." August: GTE Championship Equestrian Event: September: School Drill Program. First time that Net Control certification techniques put into practice. "Discovered a few areas that need modifying both as to handling traffic and routing of messages through the EOC. October: Running for the Birds. "A delightful day at the beach providing communications; helped the timers know who was in the lead, when the last runner passed, etc. November: -La Palma Days Band Review and Parade "Watching Scotty Grow". -County Election Ballot Box Collection and Communica- tions: provided communications and documentation of ballot boxes collected and shipped from 127 Precincts, the second largest voting area in the County. December: Loma Ridge EOC Tour; learned how and what Orange County (OC) RACES does in an emergency in our County. Also learned how "we fit" in with other RACES groups in the event of a major disaster. >From "A Year in Review - 1998" from the Huntington Beach RACES Newsletter, Vol 6, Issue 5, 12/98. --- To subscribe to bulletins, use the Subscription Services web page at . If you don't have web access, just send an e-mail message to . - For training assistance contact the ACS Training Officer at the web site or send an email to larton@garlic.com - Submit suggestions, topics or comments on the bulletins to cary.mangum@macnexus.org or cary_mangum@oes.ca.gov Bulletins are on the ACS Web page: http://acs.oes.ca.gov -and a Landline BBS: 916-262-0856 (graphical & standard interface); and a FTP Archive: ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/packet/tcpip/incoming for some bulletins. For earlier ones: ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/races EOM