Fulton Amateur Radio Club takes part in National ARRL Field Day June 25-26 | Arts and Entertainment | nny360.com

2022-06-25 05:18:43 By : Ms. Elaine Lei

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Mainly sunny. High 84F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Mostly clear skies. Low 69F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

Inside the RACES Communication Trailer showing the various radio which we provide communication service.

Inside the RACES Communication Trailer showing the various radio which we provide communication service.

FULTON - I have been asked, what is RACES and what do you do?

So here is a little history and the scope of what RACES and amateur radio can provide to the local community in which they belong and operate from.

The Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) is an emergency radio service authorized in Part 97.407 of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules and regulations governing amateur radio in the United States. The concept of “Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service” to replace the conventional “Amateur Radio Service” used during wartime. RACES was developed in 1952 as the result of input from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), and the Department of the Army’s Office of Civil Defense. During World War II, the Amateur Radio Service had been silenced and a new War Emergency Radio Service (WERS) had to be created from scratch in a process that took six months.

The resulting RACES service was designed to provide a quicker and smoother transition in the event the President ever needed to silence the regular Amateur Radio Service again when invoking the War Powers Act of 1941. RACES stations are only activated by the state, county or local emergency management authority to operate on their behalf. Only amateur radio stations who have previously registered with state and local governments to provide emergency radio communications for them in times of emergency can be activated. In addition to wartime communications, operations under the RACES rules can provide or supplement communications during emergencies where normal communication systems have sustained damage. It may be used in a wide variety of situations, including natural disasters, technological disasters, nuclear accidents, nuclear attack, terrorist incidents, and bomb threats.

The next question I’m asked is how does an amateur radio operator communicate?

Well, the simplest answer is by voice and digital, yet it’s not really that simple. Voice communication is done by two methods, simplex or direct voice, and repeaters. Simplex and digital is done on all band of operation from HF (High Frequency ranging from 3 to 30 MHz), VHF (Very High Frequency ranging from 30 to 300 MHz), and UHF (Ultra High Frequency ranging from 300 MHz to 3 GHz). Now voice communication has various methods from, FM (Frequency Modulation), AM (Amplitude Modulation), SSB (Single Sideband), plus a few others including bouncing radio waves off the Moon, and there are many digital formats like Fusion, D-Star, and APCO P25.

Repeater communication is done by a radio attached to a tower taking in one radio transmission and then repeating that transmission sometimes with more power thus increasing the overall distance. This is done mostly by amateur radio operators with hand held radio pushing only 5 watts of power and some mobile radios ranging from 10 to 50 watts. Then connect to the repeater on one frequency and the repeater sends it out on another frequency.

As in Oswego County, one of the repeaters we use is the 147.150 MHz, which is located on County Route 51A in Scriba. Many operators within the county and outside can connect using their radio from where they are and can be heard within Oswego, Onondaga, Jefferson, and Madison counties.

Another form of repeaters is Amateur Radio Satellites. Many amateur radio satellites are in various orbits, thus communication distance is spread by the ability to contact the satellites from different parts of the earth. This can be done directly or what is known as store and forward.

Digital Amateur Radio Communication is becoming very popular which has many advances to the general Ham radio operator, and RACES. Digital is done by using your radio, and interfacing device or sound card, and a computer. There are many types of digital communication from Amateur Television Fast & Slow, Packet, FlDigi, JT65, FT8, Radio teletype, and many more software programs. In using these programs an operator can send almost any type of digital media from video’s, photographs, text documents, forms, emails, keyboard to keyboard, and many other applications. Benefits of digital communication are speed of sending the information, and error correcting of the information being sent. Also many of the programs use compression functions making transmission as short as possible.

The Oswego County Emergency Operators/RACES are trained in many of these forms of communication to ensure when called out by the Oswego County Emergency Management Office, we can operate locally, county wide, state wide and even to reach national agencies including, if needed, US military along with other RACES groups locally, state, and nationally or those agencies we are authorized to communicate with. If needed we are able to contact supporting groups like the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and others groups who have amateur radio operators supporting them in emergency communication.

Thus amateur radio has many different types of communications from voice and digital which can provide in emergencies multiple forms of supplement communications to protect life and property. Amateur radio doesn’t need to operate only on normal house electric power. We are able to use batteries, generators, and renewable forms of power like solar and wind power. Amateur radio offers communities a functional form of backup communication to the current forms of communicating i.e.: radio, television, internet, and cell phones.

On June 25-26 at Fort Ontario the Fulton Amateur Radio Club operators, and Oswego County Emergency Communicators/RACES operators have been granted the use of the the RACES Communication trailer in the national ARRL Field Day event. The public is welcome to stop by, take a tour, ask questions, and if you would like we can even get you on the air to talk with another radio group or person somewhere in the USA.

Again, FARC, and the Oswego County Emergency Communicators/RACES would like to thank the management staff, and park director of Fort Ontario for their annual support of this event. This event is in cooperation with the New York State of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation – Central Region.

For more information you can check our FARC website: www.fultonamateurradioclub.org and our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/fultonamateurradioclub which will have updates about field day also upcoming classes. Plus the Oswego County Emergency Communicators/RACES website: www.oswegocountyraces.org/index.html and our Facebook page www.facebook.com/ocecraces . Also we have another Facebook page, this one is to offer Skywarn information plus NWS (National Weather Service) weekly weather briefing plus watches and warning of approaching storms: www.facebook.com/Oswego-County-NY-Skywarn-933427650104488 .

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