Carroll & Grayson Counties including the City of Galax, Virginia
RACES is the acronym for the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, is the registered trademark of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and should not be confused with any private corporation or organization
Glen Sage Webmaster
Briarpatch Amateur Radio Club
Information for Agency and Emergency Management
Registration/Training Form for EARS/RACES Twin County On-Line Form (Now Active)
Twin County RACES Standard Operating Procedure
SKYWARN Page with forms for the Blacksburg National Weather Service Office
Twin County RACES Net forms and other informational files
Local Weather Station at the home of W4GHS Glen Sage
Local Served Agencies
Breaking News
Twin County RACES Members Only page (Password Required)
SKYWARN News for the local repeater 145.130
Winlink System, NEW
American Red Cross Local Chapter
EARS/RACES Training Page
Information on FEMA's RACES Program
The American Radio Relay League.
Older Front Page Articles
Emergency (2008) Communicaiton Class
Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service
The Twin County RACES unit is establishing their own local registration. This membership will be shared with local government agencies that the local unit has agreed to support in times of communications emergencies. With local registration we are also recognized by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management as RACES and receive the same state protection as any RACES group. Click HERE for additional details.
Why register with you local RACES unit? Because you are needed. In our area (the Twin Counties) we have mountains over a mile high and other areas are less than 1200 feet above sea level. In the higher elevations we have "whiteout conditions" during severe snow storms. We are plagued with ice storms that create power and telephone outages that have lasted for many days. Click HERE for additional information.
Our local unit is involved in supporting Blacksburg VA Skywarn through out local Skywarn repeater, 145.13-600 Khz with a tone of 103.5. Junior Diamond, N4VL is our Skywarn Coordinator on the N4VL repeater.
EARS/RACES
Leadership
Net Report
(Online)
Operation Deep Freeze
Radio Interoperability with " Bridge" equipment
License and Emergency Communications Exams
Agreement Signed
A new agreement has been signed confirming the continuing leadership of RACES with Carroll County Emergency Management. Our current agreement was signed back on November 23 of 2004. This agreement was for an indefinite period of time but RACES and Emergency Management felt it would be good to reconfirm our understanding of leadership roles. This agreement may be viewed by clicking here. This agreement was signed on 22 July 2010.
We are also posting our agreement with the Woods River Chapter of the American Red Cross, which covers Grayson, Carroll, and Wythe Counties along with the City of Galax Virginia. This document may be viewed by clicking here. This MOU is with the Woods River ARC and the Twin County Emergency Amateur Radio Service (EARS).
We are now completing an emergency communications trailer that will be available for both local, state, regional and national communications emergencies. More to follow on the EmComm trailer soon.
RACES Training Certification
We are in the process of setting up training standards for RACES certification and IDs. There are currently no national or state level standards in Virginia for emergency communication operation in the Amateur Radio ranks. We plan to set up common sense standards that also comply with local volunteer pubic service requirements. The common sense standards are those that apply directly to practical operation by ham radio operators in an emergency. The other standards are the ICS and NIMS course requirements required by local emergency management. We have 3 levels of registered participants. The first is a 1 year "training" program designed for new hams. The second is a "basis" level that requires understanding of how to conduct nets and participate in nets and a basic emergency communications training. The "advanced" certification has more advanced requirements and certification. IDs will be laminated and use photo ID along with a barcode record of training certifications. All levels will require a background check. Previous background checks from any served agency will suffice. A larger ID that is to be worn on a lanyard or clip-on will also be issued. This second ID will have the same information as the wallet size but will allow viewing from a distance. There is no cost for required courses unless you choose an option that is a fee type course. There is no cost for the IDs. Training completion forms will appear on this site soon! Registration and certification are available regardless of organizations they may belong. If you are RACES through state or local registration with emergency management, you may apply.
The ICS & NIMS requirements for first responders in Carroll County is ICS 100, 200, 700 and those with leadership positions will also include ICS-800 as per Cathy Surrett the new training officer for Carroll County Emergency Management. We will adhere to these requirements for the RACES training for those wishing to qualify for the "Advance Certification" level. We will be posting a form on this site to list your training for certification for "Training", " Basic" and "Advance" level. To register your training and skills for the certification, Click here!
