Arlington Amateur Radio Club
Arlington County, Virginia USA

ARES/RACES

ARES

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is a program sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) administered at the national, section, district, and local level where amateur radio operators volunteer to provide communications support with the purpose of providing public service and emergency communications.

RACES

Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) is a radio service authorized in Part 97.407 of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations where amateur radio operators register with a civil defense organization to provide communications support on behalf that organization.

ARES/RACES

Although ARES, an organization, and RACES, a radio service, are separate entities, many amateur radio operators maintain an affiliation with both to be able to “switch hats” from ARES to RACES and RACES to ARES to provide flexibility in providing communications support. Amateur radio operators can volunteer to provide communications support as ARES during a public service operation, but when an emergency is declared by a civil defense organization, the operation can become RACES with no change in personnel or frequencies.

Arlington County ARES/RACES

Arlington County ARES/RACES is a not a club, but rather a combined group of radio operators from both the Arlington Amateur Radio Club (AARC) and the Pentagon Amateur Radio Club (PARC).

When activated, Arlington County ARES/RACES operates from the Pentagon Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) station with VHF/UHF radio circuits to provide support to local agencies and provides Emergency Support Function 2 (ESF-2) communications support via long-haul HF radio circuits to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) Virginia Emergency Operations Center (VEOC) located in Richmond, Virginia.

All licensed amateur radio operators are eligible to affiliate with Arlington County ARES/RACES. Arlington County ARES/RACES meets each Tuesday night at 8:00 PM during the Arlington County Net held on the W4WVP 2-meter repeater. Set your radio to 145.470 MHz receive, 144.870 MHz transmit, with a subaudible tone of 107.2 Hz to join the net.