Sonora, CA — Local emergency services have been activated and some of those are the amateur radio operators. In certain situations phone circuits can be overloaded and cell phone service may not be available. HAM Radio is one way communication can continue.

Tuolumne County RACES Radio Officer, Phil Fish says, “We volunteer to the county to assist in anyway they need us. The county has asked us to perform public information officer duty, which in this case, is utilizing the phone system. To assist the county we were asked to assist the red cross. We may assist with communications in between the two in case the power lines or phone lines go down. We have the ability to go over a large area much more reliably than cell phones. Amateur radio has the ability to fill in those dead spots.”

As Per the Local Tuolumne County HAM Website: http://lodelink.com/tcares/

RACES, administered by local, county and state emergency management agencies, and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the United States government, is a part of the Amateur Radio Service that provides radio communications for civil-preparedness purposes only, during periods of local, regional or national civil emergencies. These emergencies are not limited to war-related activities, but can include natural disasters such as fires, floods and earthquakes.

As defined in the rules, RACES is a radio communication service, conducted by volunteer licensed amateurs, designed to provide emergency communications to local or state civil-preparedness agencies. It is important to note that RACES operation is authorized by emergency management officials only, and this operation is strictly limited to official civil-preparedness activity in the event of an emergency-communications situation.

For Local Amateur RACES information Please Contact: WB6GGY Phil Fish Tuolumne County RACES Radio Officer. The local Rim Fire information phone line is 533-5511.

As of August 25th at 4:30PM there has been no official update from Emergency Services or Personnel on the Rim Fire.