Sun City Anthem licensed Amateur Radio operators are encouraged to consider serving the Las Vegas community by joining Clark County ARES/RACES. Quarterly membership meetings take place on Saturday mornings, at 9am, in the Clark County Government Center, Training Room 3. Consult the Clark County ARES/RACES website, http://ccnvares.org/ for more information.

ARES/RACES COMMUNICATIONS RODEO

What: Fourth Annual ARES/RACES Communications Rodeo

When: Saturday, March 12, 2022. Starting at 8am

Where: 4233 West Warm Springs Road

(Hosted by Frank - N7ZEV, and Linda - KC7IIT)

Why should I attend?

If you are interested in demonstrating or testing your mobile communications capabilities or, you would like to see how others have configured or installed their radios and antennas, this is the event for you.

It’s the 4th annual ARES/RACES communications rodeo and it will be held next Saturday, March 12. The rodeo brings together those who already have radio equipment installed in a vehicle or in a go-box and those who want to learn how to put it all together.

Gate opens at 8am for set up. The exercise is expected to be complete by noon, so you can still make that T-Hunt.

What are you going to see?

This year, the exercise is focused on the HF world of emergency communications. The objective is to exercise mobile HF installations as well as HF go-box capabilities.

There will be many demonstrations from various Las Vegas valley hams showing how they have tackled remote/mobile communications.

The main test.

The main exercise for the day will be to get everything set up in time to be on 3965 kHz (lower side band) by 9am and check in with the net controller, Jim, W1RO, who will be running the net from Pahrump. Jim will be providing information on various stations around the state (many of which are operating from Emergency Operation Centers (or EOCs) and it’s expected many of them will be on 40 meters).

ARES/RACES groups in Utah and Arizona are also planning on participating, if they can.

When you arrive, you will be asked if you are a participant or an observer.

The participants will be assigned a spot in which to set up their antennas, batteries, radios, and other equipment. Observers will park elsewhere.

It’s a great opportunity!

For those who have all the pieces and parts to make this work, this is great practice.

And for those who have never gone "mobile" with HF, this will be a great opportunity to see how various hams have put their stations on the road.

For those who cannot attend, but who can monitor HF, VHF or UHF frequencies from home, think about jumping in from home and participate by radio. Maybe you could even become a net control station an run an informal net.

Questions?

If you have any questions, you can contact Frank - N7ZEV at frank.n7zev@gmail.com

We hope to see you on March 12 at 8am, at the Fourth Annual ARES/RACES Communications Rodeo, located at 4233 West Warm Springs Road in Las Vegas.

ABOUT CLARK COUNTY ARES/RACES

Clark County ARES/RACES is a team of Amateur Radio Operators, licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), who have voluntarily agreed to utilize their skills and sometimes use their own equipment for public service communications support to both government and non-government entities. FCC regulations prohibit Amateur Radio Operators from receiving compensation of any kind for providing public service communications. Clark County ARES/RACES is not a club, but rather a team dedicated to serve the public. There are no dues. We hold monthly training sessions.

Our primary mission is to augment and support vital communications on behalf of the public through partner agencies during emergencies and disasters. Especially when normal communications fail or become overloaded. Our partner agencies include the Emergency Management offices of Clark County and the Cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, the Southern Nevada Health District, the Las Vegas Chapter of the American Red Cross and 17 hospitals in Clark County.

When Clark County ARES/RACES is activated for an actual incident, event or exercise, we use K7CCN as our call sign.

Interested in joining? To become a member of Clark County ARES/RACES, you must possess a valid FCC-issued Amateur Radio License and possess a serious interest in providing emergency communications. A “serious interest” is manifested by regular participation in our training activities, in drills/exercises, completion of a basic Amateur Radio emergency communications course, and completion of four (4) free, online FEMA courses about the Incident Command System (ICS), which has been adopted by all our served government agencies. Completion of the four FEMA courses is also a requirement to be able to access some emergency management facilities in Clark County, and in one instance, a background check is also a requirement for access.

To learn the difference between ARES and RACES, click here: http://www.arrl.org/ares-races-faq

To learn more about Clark County ARES/RACES and their numerous training opportunities, visit http://ccnvares.org/