SOUTHERN PENNSYLVANIA
	Amateur Radio Club
	P.O.Box 1033 Lancaster, Pa. 17608-1033

ARES and RACES are volunteer groups that provide communications during emergencies or natural disasters such as snowstorms, floods, and widespread power or telephone outages. SPARC manages and supports ARES and RACES for Lancaster County.  Its members serve as ARES/RACES communications operators to further the missions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) and the Lancaster County Emergency Management Agency (LEMA).
 

ARES Amateur Radio Emergency Service	LEMA Lancaster County Emergency Management Agency	RACES Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service

SPARC supports these groups through several activities:

Registration

Training

Drills

Field Support Van

Skywarn

SPARC has been designated a  Special Service Club by the ARRL for its participation and service to these groups and other community events.

Registration

All participants in ARES/RACES are required to be registered.  Registration information is used to build a database of individual members' capabilities to assist in the assignment of emergency tasks during a callup.  Registration also provides a shield from liability during the performance of official ARES/RACES duties.  Since these duties may involve access to sensitive or privileged information membership is contingent upon completion of a background check.  If you are interested participating in this vital public service, print and return this application to SPARC.

Training
 

A partial list of course modules includes:

• IS-1 Emergency Program Manager:  An Orientation to the Position
• IS-2 Emergency Preparedness, USA
• IS-3 Radiological Emergency Management
• IS-5 Hazardous Materials: A Citizen's Orientation
• IS-7 A Citizen's Guide to Disaster Assistance
• IS-10 Animals in Disaster -  Module A Awareness and Preparedness
• IS-11 Animals in Disaster -  Module B Community Planning
• IS-120, An Orientation to Community Disaster Exercises
• IS-195 Basic Incident Command System
• IS-275 The EOC's Role in Community Preparedness, Response and Recovery Activities
• IS-279 Engineering Principles and Practices for Retrofitting Flood-Prone Residential Structures
• IS-288 The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management
• IS-301 Radiological Emergency Response
• IS-324 Community Hurricane Preparedness
• IS-346 An Orientation to Hazardous Materials  for Medical Personnel
• IS-393 Introduction to Mitigation
• IS-394 Mitigation for Homeowners
• IS-513 The Professional in Emergency Management

Drills

SPARC conducts an emergency test net every first Tuesday at 8:30 PM (2030 hours).  These test nets demonstrate the readiness of the ARES/RACES communications operators and their equipment.  The net also provides the necessary practice to assure that they can operate effectively during an actual event.   The net is conducted using SPARC's K3IR repeaters on 145.230 MHz for 2 Meters and 449.975 for UHF.  All are encouraged to monitor this net. Participation in the net is limited to registered ARES/RACES members.

The Pennsylvania State RACES net is held every Sunday at 09:00 on HF frequency 3993.5 (LSB).  This net takes check-ins from each county throughout Pennsylvania.  As with the VHF net, participation is limited to registered ARES/RACES members.
 

Field Support Van

The Field Support Van is the centerpiece of SPARC's support for ARES/RACES.  This van is a portable self-contained communications center that can be quickly mobilized to serve as on-site eyes and ears for the county emergency coordinators.  Powered by a propane generator, it has the following capabilities:

• HF voice, slow-scan television
• VHF voice, packet (TCP/IP), APRS (automatic position reporting)
• UHF Fast-scan television
• Access to the Lancaster County trunked radio system
• Access to LEO satellites to relay voice, packet, and video worldwide

Skywarn
 

Skywarn is a network of  trained civilian storm spotters.  When asked, these volunteers provide accurate and timely weather observations to the National Weather Service.  As a supplement to the NWS ground stations and radar, this additional information can be extremely important in providing more accurate predictions of a  storm's path and intensity.  Skywarn volunteers often operate APRS beacon stations that continually feed local observations of rainfall, wind speed and direction, and air temperature into a national net that is accessible by the National Weather Service,  other beacon stations, and over the Internet.  SPARC supports Skywarn as a supplement to the ARES/RACES training and is adding weather reporting capability to its APRS beacons.