Last Revised: 19 FEB 2002

1. INTRODUCTION TO RACES/ARES

1.1 The Lincoln County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)/Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is comprised of FCC licensed Amateur Radio Operators who have voluntarily registered their capabilities and equipment for public service communications. Under Federal regulations, Amateur Radio operators can not receive compensation of any kind for providing public service communications.

1.2 The Lincoln County RACES/ARES functions under this EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS PLAN and the direction of the LINCOLN COUNTY RACES/ARES EMERGENCY COORDINATOR (EC). The EC shall be appointed by the NORTH CAROLINA SECTION EMERGENCY COORDINATOR (SEC).

1.3 The EMERGENCY COORDINATOR may appoint one or more ASSISTANT EMERGENCY COORDINATORS (AEC) sufficient to function efficiently as a RACES/ARES unit.

1.4 Registration in RACES/ARES will also register a station with the RADIO AMATEUR CIVIL EMERGENCY SERVICES (RACES/ARES) as directed by the State of North Carolina.

1.5 The contents of messages handled by Amateur Radio are not divulged to unauthorized persons.

1.6 Such public service communications are furnished without compensation of any kind.

1.7 The primary responsibility of Lincoln County RACES/ARES is to furnish emergency communications in the event of disaster or other events, when regular communications fail or become inadequate for serviced agencies to perform their duties.

2. PURPOSE

2.1 The purpose of this plan is to provide a written guide containing the minimum information that would be needed in an emergency. Each emergency is different and flexibility to provide adequate response to each situation is a necessity.

2.2 All drills, training and instruction shall be carried out to insure readiness to respond quickly in providing effective Amateur Radio emergency communication whenever an occasion may arise.

2.3 The following agencies could be served during a communications emergency.

• Lincoln County Office of Emergency Management

• Lincoln County Emergency Operations Center (EOC)

• Lincoln County and City of Lincolnton Police Departments

• Lincoln County Fire Departments

• Lincoln County Emergency Medical Service (EMS)

• American Red Cross, Lincoln County

• American Red Cross, Mecklenburg County, West Mecklenburg High School Shelter during events involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

• Duke Power Company, Joint Information Center (MC), Weather Center and Damage Dispatch

• National Weather Service, Greenville-Spartanburg Office

• Lincoln County Area Hospitals

• Salvation Army, NC/SC Divisional Headquarters and Regional Center

• State Emergency Response Team (SERT)

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

• Any other department or agency requiring and/or requesting assistance

3. ACTIVATION PROCEDURES

3.1 Any RACES/ARES member who, for any reason suspects a communication emergency exists, should MONITOR his assigned frequency for activity (reference

4-2)

3.2 If local telephone service is available the EC and or AEC(s) should be notified by phone or Pager (reference Appendix B).

3.3 In an emergency where RACES/ARES activation is required, Amateur Operators may be alerted by a served agency directly or authorized person acting on behalf of a RACES/ARES official.

3.4 The DISTRICT EMERGENCY COORDINATOR (DEC) for the WESTERN BRANCH will be notified of activities and if any assistance is needed.

3.5 The requesting agency should use the following order of contact precedence when requesting RACES/ARES activation:

a. The requesting agency or service should attempt to contact the EC first.

b. If the EC is unavailable, please continue to call the RACES/ARES Officers or the AEC(s) until one is reached. Contact information for the RACES/ARES EC, AEC(s) and the Officers is maintained by the Lincoln County Office of Emergency Management and in Appendix B of this plan.

c. In the event an Officer or AEC cannot be reached, a transmission should be made on the 147.015 repeater (or simplex if the repeater has failed) requesting assistance from any RACES/ARES member or available amateur radio operators on frequency.

d. If all other attempts have failed, please contact the DEC or SECTION EMERGENCY COORDINATOR (SEC) to initiate the request.

3.6 After making initial contact with a RACES/ARES member, the requesting agency is responsible for communicating the necessary information for RACES/ARES to activate and effectively mobilize for the emergency. See Appendix B for further details about the information that is necessary for a RACES/ARES activation.

After completing this step, the requesting agency/services’ responsibility is fulfilled and they should continue with their normal duties in the emergency. The first RACES/ARES member contacted is responsible for contacting the remaining individuals on this activation list and beginning the RACES/ARES mobilization procedures mentioned below.

3.7 A list of amateurs and RACES/ARES members shall be kept on file with the

EC/AEC(s) in the event of an emergency. This list will be used to populate a "Alert

List" that will be used to activate RACES/ARES members during an emergency

requiring RACES/ARES services. See Appendix B for a description of the Lincoln

County "Alert List".

4. RACES/ARES MOBILIZATION PROCEDURES

4.1 If telephone service is available, use telephone activation. All training will advise operators to tune to proper frequencies during emergency situations.

4.2 All Lincoln County RACES/ARES mobilization efforts will be coordinated on the primary call up frequency. The primary call up frequency for Lincoln County is the NC4LC repeater on 147.015 MHz (+600 kHz). In the event of a repeater failure, monitor the (147.53 5 simplex frequency).

4.3 After assembling the RACES/ARES unit on the primary call up frequency for Lincoln County, a RACES/ARES official (or station acting on behalf of a RACES/ARES official) may spawn additional nets to meet the needs of the emergency relief and recovery efforts. Some of the frequencies that may be used during an emergency are as follows:

• 147.0 15 MHz + repeater (NC4LC) Lincoln County 2-meter Emergency Net

• 147.53 5 MHz simplex

• 442.350 MHz + repeater (WA4YGD) Secondary Tactical Net or Traffic Net

• 3.923/3.927 MHz State EOC/EM statewide HF (Tarheel Emergency Nets)

• 7.232 MHz State EOC/EM statewide HF (Tarheel Emergency Net — 40m band)

• 3.573 MHz Carolina’s Net (CW Traffic Net — 10pm nightly)

• 145.350 MHz —repeater (WA4AOS) SKYWARN Net

• 146.520 MHz simplex (National Simplex Calling Frequency)

• 445.900 MHz simplex

• Other frequencies as needed

4.4 Mobile units are activated as required to cover evacuation centers amd locations of disaster.

4.5 The EC/AEC shall act as Net Control Station (NCS) or may delegate to another station.

4.6 The NCS shall originate from the best location possible, preferably one with emergency power. This could be from any of the following areas:

Lincoln County Courthouse (This site serves as the County EOC)

115 Main Street

Lincointon, NC

At home, where emergency power exists.

Any other location as needed.

5. DUTIES OF THE NET CONTROL STATION (NCS)

5.1 The main duty of the NCS is to insure the RACES/ARES nets are run in an orderly fashion, to help eliminate confusion on communication networks, provide information regarding the disaster to RACES/ARES member stations and to coordinate the flow of traffic as required.

5.2 All traffic shall be written in ARRL message format or other specified protocol as deemed fitting by the served agency or department. See Appendix C for a sample of this message format.

5.3 All messages must carry the signature of the person originating the message and their title or office. (Example: John Smith, Emergency Management)

5.4 Message precedence as defined by ARRL will be used. They will be in the following order:

• EMERGENCY (E) — Any message dealing with life and/or death urgency to any person or group which is transmitted in the absence of regular commercial facilities.

• PRIORITY (P) — Any important message having a specific time limit, official messages that are not covered by the emergency category, press dispatches and emergency-related traffic but not of utmost urgency.

• WELFARE (W) - Any message that refers to an inquiry as to the health and welfare of an individual in the disaster area or an advisory update from the disaster area that indicates all is well.

• ROUTINE (R) — Any message not meeting the above criteria or any message of a routine (day to day) type nature.

5.5 The NCS is responsible for taking check-ins as needed to meet the needs of the disaster operation and/or RACES/ARES activation requirements. Traffic listed shall be categorized by precedence and moved as soon as possible, with Emergency and Priority traffic taking top precedence.

5.6 Participating stations should be instructed by the Net Control Station NOT TO TRANSMIT unless asked or if they have information that is of urgent importance for the net (emergency or priority traffic from other nets or agencies, urgent announcements, etc.).

5.7 WELFARE precedent traffic SHOULD NOT BE PASSED until authorized by the EC. The EC will not authorize this traffic to be accepted (unless it is of an emergency nature) until all normal emergency communication requirements have been satisfied and are operating efficiently. The point during an emergency when Welfare traffic will be allowed is at the discretion of the EC.

5.8 The phrase "BREAK" will only be used in an emergency. NCS will recognize emergency traffic immediately and handle the emergency traffic.

5.9 The NCS shall keep a log of the net and member check-ins. This log will be provided by the EC as soon as possible following the emergency closure.

5.10 Before starting a RACES/ARES net, make sure someone records a list of participating RACES/ARES member stations who are available for deployment and/or assignment. Preferably, this should be performed by the EC or an AEC.

5.11 Net Control Stations (NCS) may use any preamble and net procedure(s) that appropriately meet the needs of the emergency. A sample NCS preamble can be found in Appendix D of this plan.

6. DUTIES OF THE MEMBER STATIONS

6.1 The main duty of the RACES/ARES member station is to provide a communication link from critical locations in the disaster area for RACES/ARES nets. These locations may be under the control of any of the served agencies during an emergency (i.e., Red Cross, Salvation Army, Local Government Agencies, FEMA, etc.). While performing these duties, the RACES/ARES station will work closely with on-site agency members to communicate information to and from their site.

6.2 A primary goal of the RACES/ARES member station should be to prepare and participate in training in order to become proficient in providing emergency communications. Means to accomplish this goal are local area training offerings, participation in RACES/ARES and NTS training nets, self study and technical preparation.

All traffic shall be written in ARRL message format or other specified protocol as deemed appropriate by the served agency or department. See Appendix C for examples of this message format.

All messages must carry the signature of the person originating the message and their title or office. (Example: John Smith, Emergency Management)

6.5 Message precedence as defined by ARRL will be used. They will be in the following order:

• EMERGENCY (E) — Any message dealing with life and/or death urgency to any person or group which is transmitted in the absence of regular commercial facilities.

• PRIORITY (P) — Any important message having a specific time limit, official messages that are not covered by the emergency category, press dispatches and emergency-related traffic but not of utmost urgency.

• WELFARE (W) — Any message that refers to an inquiry as to the health and welfare of an individual in the disaster area or an advisory update from the disaster area that indicates all is well.

• ROUTINE (R) — Any message not meeting the above criteria or any message of a routine (day to day) type nature.

6.6 Participating stations will be instructed by the Net Control NOT TO TRANSMIT unless asked by NCS or if they have information that is of URGENT IMPORTANCE for the net (i.e., emergency or priority traffic from other nets or agency sites, urgent announcements, etc.).

6.7 Traffic with a precedent of WELFARE will NOT be passed until authorized by the EMERGENCY COORDINATOR. The EC will not authorize this traffic to be accepted for inbound or outbound communication through local nets (emergency traffic of this nature is always an exception, but uses the EMERGENCY precedent) until all emergency communication requirements have been satisfied and are operating efficiently. The point during an emergency when welfare traffic will be allowed is at the discretion of the EC (or "Assistant EC in Charge").

The EC will primarily receive direction from the Lincoln County EOC Director and/or RACES/ARES official, which will allow him to make these decisions at the appropriate time. When WELFARE traffic is authorized by the EC, this traffic should be handled on an alternate frequency other than the primary RACES/ARES call up frequency. After the traffic is passed, all stations participating in this task should return to the primary call up frequency for further instructions and notify NCS of their availability.

6.8 The phrase "BREAK" will only be used in an emergency. NCS will recognize emergency traffic immediately and handle the emergency traffic. This traffic may be of a tactical or formal message format (i.e., you do not necessarily need to use the NTS message for this traffic, unless it is applicable. For example, if you are confirming the touchdown of a tornado, you should use the phrase BREAK and pass this traffic immediately without taking time to format a NTS message. Try to use clear and concise statements as you pass this traffic. Keep things simple and make sure directions to your location are accurate. On the other hand, if you have emergency traffic for State EOC and need to pass it via a very busy RACES/ARES net, you should use the NTS format with a signature and alert the net of this traffic by saying the phrase BREAK). Primarily, this phrase should be used sparingly and only when a situation of a life or death nature is present.

6.9 Member stations should follow the instructions of their EC, AEC, DEC. SEC or NCS to the best of their ability. This may require the member station to travel to a location in Lincoln County or one of the surrounding areas to provide a vital communication link for a RACES/ARES net. Your cooperation and participation is appreciated.

7. DRILLS, TESTS AND ALERTS

7.1 An annual test will be conducted in October in conjunction with the nationwide

SIMULATED EMERGENCY TEST (SET).

7.2 An annual event called "Field Day" will be held in the Lincoln County area to assist amateurs with training and enhancing their operating skills under less than normal conditions (using noncommercial power, operating outdoors, expedient station construction, etc.). This event is normally hosted by each of the area clubs (Lincoln County Volunteer Communications) and each club will participate in this national event.

7.3 Two annual drills will coincide with the nuclear tests performed at McGuire and Catawba Nuclear Stations. The date of these drills are determined by the Lincoln County Office of Emergency Management. Officials from this office notify the EC of drill dates and requirements for participation.

7.4 Training is held weekly (Tuesday evenings at 9pm) on the 147.0 15 repeater, the Lincoln County Volunteer Communications 2m Net. Other training courses will be offered at area facilities and publicized in Lincoln County. This training will help the RACES/ARES member to become more proficient with emergency communications skills and procedures.

7.5 Public service events, training at monthly meetings and other drills will supplement training on a regular basis.