RACES or the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services is similiar
to ARES but has one distinct difference. RACES activates
only when the local, regional, or state emergency management 
official activates this group.

Unlike ARES, RACES can only be activated by the authority
of the emergency management official of that town or state. ARES
is activated whenever the Emergency Coordinator or other 
leader representaing ARES sees that a need for ARES activation
is requested. In RACES, that decision is left up to the emergency
management director and his procedures.

In many areas, ARES and RACES are "one in the same"  in that
the procedures written by the Emergency Management director
allow ARES personnel to activate under RACES per the
EMA director's discretion. In other areas, unless training
is obtained in specified areas under the RACES domain, then
ARES personnel may be limited in providing assistance
based on the rules of the Emergency Mangement director or
other similiar government official and ARES performs
tasks under the auspicies of the Red Cross, Salvation Army
or the National Weather Service. Here in Eastern Massachusetts,
the role of ARES and RACES depends on the given towns or areas
and how they handle their communications.

For more information on RACES, please contact the Massachusetts State
RACES Radio Officer, Tom Kinahan, N1CPE at his email address shown
below:

n1cpe@amsat.org

73,Rob-KD1CY.
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton
SEMCARES Emergency Coordinator

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