Arlington County, Virginia RACES

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Arlington County, Virginia RACES

• David Jordan
• Department of Technology Services
• Chief Information Security Officer
• OEM Technical Liaison, Emergency Support Function
  2 Lead

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ABOUT RADIO AMATEUR CIVIL EMERGENCY SERVICE
(RACES)

• RACES was established under the Federal
  Communications Commission Rules and Regulations,
  47 CFR 97.407, as part of the amateur radio
  service.
• RACES is employed during a variety of
  emergency/disaster situations where normal
  governmental communications systems have
  sustained damage or when additional
  communications are required or desired.
  Situations that RACES can be used include
  natural disasters, technological disasters, civil
  disorder, nuclear/chemical incidents, acts of
  terrorism or enemy attack.

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ARLINGTON RACES MISSION

• The mission of Arlington County RACES is to
  establish and maintain the leadership and
  organizational infrastructure necessary to
  provide amateur radio communications in support
  of emergency management in Arlington County
  Virginia.
• Arlington Countys RACES Officer (RO) reports to
  the OEM Emergency Support Function 2 Emergency
  Communications Lead.

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RACES MISSION FOCUS

• RACES Mission Communications (Unless otherwise
  requested by the Office of Emergency management,
  the served agency)
• Use of RACES assets for other purposes
• Assisting in searches
• Setting up or staffing shelters
• Moving, setting-up or troubleshooting equipment
• Answering telephones or keyboarding data into
  networks
• Communications Network infrastructure restoration
• MUST NOT jeopardize the primary communication
  mission!

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RACES EARLY BEGINNINGS IN ARLCO

• ARLCO OEM Establishes RACES RO
• Arlington County Public Service Club sponsors
  RACES
• ARPSC installs 2m, 220, Red Cross repeaters
• RACES Volunteer recruitment starts 10/05/05
• 25 licensed amateurs sign-up
• 30 unlicensed county employees express interest
  in getting a license.
• Technician Class developed for WEBCAST and
  self-training
• Basic RACES Operator Class developed for WEBCAST
  and self-training (www.w4ava.org)

                    Arlington Radio Public Service Club W4AVA / R ----- Arlington, Virginia -- 146.625 MHz (- 600 KHz) - Tone 107.2 WB4MWF / R -- Arlington, Virginia -- 224.620 MHz (- 1.6 MHz) -- No Tone
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OEM Emergency Support Function 2 EmCom

• ESF 2 responsible for County Government voice,
  video, data, EOC, MCVs, ETSU support and RACES.
• Three RACES Alternate Radio Officers
• Three Arlington RACES teams (ARL, FFX, ALEX,
  other jurisdictions).

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Current ARLCO RACES Status

• 26 ARLCO certified RACES volunteers as of 04/10
• RACES Team participates in major exercises
  (Fairfax, VA AEOC drill, FFX Simplex exercise,
  ARRL Field Day)
• Weekly Net exercises
• Arlington Alert activation by text enabled
  devices, etc.
• W4AVA.ORG website updated regularly

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Volunteer Requirements

• Mandatory character background checks
• Successful completion of basic communications
  training
• Pass vehicle inspection
• Maintain active roll in exercises
• FEMA NIMS training required
• County issued OEM ID badge

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RACES BASIC OPERATOR TRAINING

• UNIT 1 Introduction to Emergency Communication
• UNIT 2 Operating Procedures for Voice Nets
• UNIT 3 Message Handling Using ICS 213 Form
• UNIT 4 Personal Preparedness and Equipment
  Recommendations
• UNIT 5 RACES Interfaces and Functions in the EOC
• TEST (85 or 38/50 required for passing)

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Emergency Technology Support Unit Objectives

• Provide high speed Inet and Internet access to
  users and additional communications vehicles.
• Allow inbound and outbound connections from
  multitude of video end-points and to allow video
  conferencing from the vehicle and to host
  conferences from other video end-points
• Provide a mobile data storage solution to allow
  access of county resources such as Pictometery,
  traffic cameras, GIS data, and reporting tools.
• Provide HF, VHF, UHF station and UHF repeater

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FEDERAL FACILITIES IN ARLCO

• Pentagon, Navy Annex, National Airport
• National Guard Readiness Center
• State Dept. Foreign Affairs Training Center
• gt 30 other Federal agencies
• ARLCO responsible for first response to these
  agencies

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RACES W4AVA REPEATERS OVERLOOKS DC/NOVA

• Excellent 144 220 MHz Coverage
• ARPSC W4AVA I-NET Remote HF with antennas for 80
  - 6 M
• American Red Cross GMRS and ARC business band
  repeater co-located with RACES and countys
  public safety 800 radio system.
• ACFD owned I-net HF/VHF/UHF 80 meters-440MHz
• Diamond V-2000 tri-band 50-144-440MHz antennas at
  all 10 Fire Stations

                                               S
TATION W4AVAThe Arlington Radio Public Service
Club operates W4AVA, the National Capital
Region's first club Internet Remote Amateur
Radio (IRAR) HF station, as well as the ETSU and
ACFD stations.
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ARLINGTON RACES FUTURE

• Develop General class on-line licensing and RACES
  Basic Operator Courses ongoing
• Weekly practice nets, monthly activities
• FEMA Courses IS-100, IS-700 etc. for Leaders and
  Operators
• Future goals Packet equipped and trained, HF
  liaison stations ready

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Contact Information

• David Jordan
• Arlington County Government, Virginia
• Technical Liaison OEM, ESF 2 Lead, RACES Radio
  Officer
• Department of Technology Services
• Chief Information Security Officer
• 703-228-3185
• Djordan_at_arlingtonva.us
• www.arlingtonalert.com