The Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) in Lake County is an arm of the Lake County Emergency Management Agency (LCEMA), which is an arm of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), and both agencies get their operating authority from FEMA in Washington, D.C.  Lake County RACES has a two fold mission:

1. To assist the LCEMA in disaster response and planning. This includes implementing Lake County’s official disaster plan if called upon.

2.  To provide the LCEMA and the public with severe weather information by maintaining a radio network of trained and certified spotters. This includes the activation of commercial radio systems which in turn activate tone activated radios in every police and fire department in the county, as well as many other institutions and entities: hospitals, nursing homes, and schools, etc. This information can be particularly important as it’s in real time and based on Lake County observations only.

 The LCEMA office is at 2900 W. 93^rd Avenue in Crown Point. This is also the location of the LCEMA’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC), designed and built largely by RACES. The county’s Mobile Emergency Communications and Command vehicle is also stored at the Office/EOC site. The vehicle was also designed and equipped to a large extent by RACES.

 The office is staffed by two full-time employees, Jeff Miller, Director; and Jodi Richmond, Deputy Director. The office is also authorized an Administrative Assistant position. At this time, the remaining staff are all volunteers, including the RACES organization.

The RACES team is made up of the following Amateur Radio Operators: 

 If you are interested in joining RACES, Please contact  Rick Terpstra, WN9Z, at 219-808-1003 to obtain an application. The application will be reviewed by the RACES Officer or his designee, and a background check will be run on all applicants by the Lake County Sheriff’s Police Department before the application will be considered for final approval. This screening process applies to all applicants for membership after April 15, 2002.

An ARES registration form is available online.  Download this form, fill out, print and mail to Rick Terpstra.

The official RACES/ARES Manual is available online.  Download this document  in Adobe Acrobat format.

The  Lake County EMCOMM Weather Page  located HERE.

[ Home ]