U.C.A.R.E.S.

Utah County Amateur Radio Emergency Service

A.R.E.S. is a national organization of Amateur Raido Operators trained in Emergency Communications under the direction of the Amateur Raidio Relay League.

“The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment, with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes.” (http://www.arrl.org/ares)

UCARES is the A.R.E.S. group for Utah County and we coordinate directly with, and are supported by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.  We also have both official and un-official liaisons with numerous other public service agencies, emergency, health, and transportation entities throughout the County.  Our members are all volunteers and hundreds if not thousands of volunteer hours each year are donated by our volunteers to our community.  For more information on the groups we work with, take a look at our Liaisons page.

Callouts and Activities

We participate in many different activities and callouts throughout the year, but the Summer time is most definitely our busiest time of year.  Our members assist with activities varying from augmenting communications for Search and Rescue, local and area Emergency Disaster drills, Parades, bicycle races, parades, and various other activities that allow us to interact with the community, and strengthen our communications skills.  For more information on the activities and events we support, take a look at our Events page.

Meetings and Training

We meet weekly on the air, and monthly at our regular interface meeting.  Our schedule can be found on our Meetings page.  Much of our training occurs at these interface meetings, however nothing is better than practice so our involvement in community events is an essential part of our training.  We are also frequently invited to assist various agencies in organizing and running mock disaster scenarios.  These scenarios are a great opportunity to practice our skills and to show our served agencies our true value in the event of a real emergency.

The Utah County ARES group is also directly involved with and fully support local CERT organizations as well as the R.A.C.E.S. organization at the State level, and receive training and guidance through both of those organizations.