Non-Emergency Communications
The primary focus of ARES/RACES is emergency communications, but the same communications capabilities are often useful at non-emergency events. Our operators enjoy using their skills to help their communities, and the resulting experience helps them be better prepared for emergencies. Examples of the work we do at non-emergency events are described below.
If you would like to arrange for ARES help for an event, please contact the ARES Emergency Coordinator in the relevant city.
Large Public Events
ARES operators are often used to augment communications during large public events, such as festivals and parades.
- Situational Awareness
ARES operators can be stationed at key places during an event, reporting information to event organizers such as crowd counts, parade progress, etc.
ARES operators can patrol through an event crowd, looking for problems and reporting them to event organizers and/or law enforcement. (Note: operators are not trained to respond to problems, such as giving first aid. They provide communications only.)
- Communications for Event Officials
ARES “shadows” can pair up with event officials and handle communications for them, leaving the official free to focus on the event itself. No need to juggle cell phones, deal with busy signals or service congestion, etc.
Shadows can pay attention to the situational awareness traffic and provide concise summaries, so the officials they serve don’t have to get immersed in the details.
Event leaders can broadcast information quickly to all officials who have shadows, with a single request.
- Information Distribution
- ARES operators at public events are highly visible, with distinctive safety vests and radio gear. They often get simple questions from event attendees, such as “where are the bathrooms” or “what time does the parade start.” With proper advance briefing, they can answer these questions and save event staff some trouble.
Bike Tours and Races
Bike tours and races often have SAG vehicles roaming the course. Placing an ARES operator in each vehicle allows them to be easily tracked on a map, and dispatched to where they are needed. The territory for such events often has areas with limited or no cell phone coverage, but ARES equipment can have much more comprehensive coverage.
CERT Support
Many jurisdictions have Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) or similar groups that serve community needs. These teams often use short-range walkie-talkies for communications within the team. ARES operators can be paired with these teams to provide them with longer-range communications capabilities, such as talking to a command center.
As radio experts, ARES operators are also often called upon to help train CERT members on basic radio techniques. In fact, many CERT members choose to get amateur radio licenses and join ARES/RACES, since the two skillsets are highly complementary.