The Bulletins are addressed to the Emergency Management Agency (with sub-addresses to others) with the intent that the Radio Officer, ACS Coordinator or other unit participant will deliver them to the agency coordinator, and discuss their topics.
CA State OES began the Bulletins in the early 1950's to assist agencies and radio operators to become more familiar with RACES. They were issued periodically until 1985, at which time they began to be issued weekly over voice and digital radio systems of Amateur Radio and in print. Originally intended for California, increased demand, and a 1988 request by the ARRL for national distribution, led to their eventual worldwide distribution. With the development of the Internet, demand for these materials soared, leading to this Web site.
Although originally called "RACES Bulletins", they are of wider interest than just RACES, and serve many different organizations providing emergency Public Safety communications. To encourage other organizations to use these training tools, RACES bulletins were incorporated into the new EMCOMM (Emergency Communications) class of bulletins as of April 1, 1996.
1985-1987 bulletins were numbered Year-Number as in 85-1. Serial numbers began with 001 in January 1988 and ended with 423 in 1996 when the EMCOMM series began.
Here's how the RACES series were issued year by year:
| 1985 85-1 to 86-32 (many of which are now out of date) | |
| 1986 86-1 to 86-46 (some of which are now out of date) | |
| 1987 87-1 to 87-47 | 1992 203-254 |
| 1988 001-045 | 1993 255-306 |
| 1989 046-097 | 1994 307-358 |
| 1990 098-150 | 1995 359-410 |
| 1991 151-202 | 1996 411-423 |
The EMCOMM Series picked up with EMC021 on the next week after RB 423 was issued. EMC001-020 overlapped during the transition period so users would become accustomed to the change. The materials in 001-020 were totally different than the RB series.
For specific year listings, or topic listings, please select from the pull-down menu above.
Page Last Updated, 10/15/07