We are so pleased you stopped to visit!
RACES is an organization sponsored by FEMA designed to provide disaster assistance communications during declared emergencies.
If you are a ham radio operator interested in public service, review this site and contact your county Emergency Coordinator Darin Gudgeon, KC9JTA at (608)647-8187 or (608)604-7736(c) or email: gudgeon()co.richland.wi.us. You may also contact Bob Naegele, W9MZ at (608)647-6430 or email: w9mz()arrl.net.
Get Involved:
If you are not involved in ham radio and are interested in communications and public service, we want to talk with you! We are always looking for interested individuals who want to uniquely serve their communities. All it takes to get an FCC issued ham radio license is the desire to learn.
If you are in emergency management, state or federal government, law enforcement, fire service, emergency medical service, health service, or a private disaster support agency and are not engaged with your local ARES/RACES group, contact Bob Naegele, W9MZ. He will put you in touch with your county or district emergency coordinator.
Enjoy serving your community. Learn from your experiences, generate ideas to take back to your organizations and then share those ideas with us so we can share them with others.
Remember, we provide communications when no one else can!
The Richland County ARES/RACES Amateur Radio operators were called to duty at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 19, to serve as communicators at the Richland County EOC to monitor the radios and telephone during heavy rainfalls and flash floods. The PVR communicators were expertly led by Bob Naegele (W9MZ) and Chris Kanable (KC9CMD). Chris is also the PVR SKYWARN Coordinator.
The radio operators remained on duty, some for 24 hours/day, to help with the week-long flooding emergency that involved the following counties: La Crosse, Vernon, Grant, Crawford, and Richland. Operators were also dispatched to various county sites to monitor the rise/fall of creeks/rivers, and to determine rainfall amounts.
Several hundred messages were received and relayed from the Communications Center of the EOC to various local and county officials, and to the State ARES/RACES offices during the emergency. The Richland County Emergency Plan worked very well.
The following PVR ARES/RACES operators are to be commended for the tremendous efforts they put forth during this time of need: Bob Naegele (W9MZ), Dick Neumann (W9JR), Chris Kanable (KC9CMD), Glen Dunne (KC9GPD), Nancy McLaughlin (KC9HHD), Richard McLaughlin (KC9JTB), Heidi McLaughlin (KC9HQK), Roger Nicholson (KC9HHH), Joe Harrell (KC9HHK), Mary Maclay (KC9HQW), Mike Kaufman (WB9SLI), Linda Kaufman (KC9HHF), Gus Slayback (WB9SKG), Walt Lesetmoe (KC9KIG), Josh Lesetmoe (KC9KOM), Laura Rockland (KC9KOO), Shawn Rockland (KC9KOQ), Cole Muth (KC9GPE), Dan Brewer (KC9HHG), Ken Ramsden (KC9KOR), and Dana Wilson (KC9KOQ). The Richland County Emergency Management Coordinator, Darin Gudgeon (KC9JTA), was the official in charge of the Emergency Management team. Good job!
You can find more Wisconsin ARES/RACES information here.
