Become a Member!

Marathon County ARES/RACES wants you

Being a member of Marathon County ARES/RACES is easy, all you need is a thirst for education and training, a willingness to serve, and an amateur radio Technician or higher class license. We’ll even help you get started if you don’t have the license or equipment yet.

As a group we work with served agencies such as the local hospitals, Red Cross, County Emergency Management, Fire Departments, and the National Weather Service. In order to maintain these working relationships our membership trains and adheres to the policies and procedures set forth by the ARRL and the Wisconsin State ARES/RACES.

Qualifications to Join:

  1. Possess a current FCC Amateur Radio License Technician class or higher
  2. Fill out the annual ARES/RACES Registration form and email to kb9vbr@yahoo.com
  3. Take the FEMA Emergency Management Institute:  ICS-100 and IS-700 Incident Management System courses. (available online).

WI ARES/RACES Membership Standards

Once you have met the qualifications, the following will keep you in as a member of good standing:

  1. Participation in 12 home county ARES/RACES training nets per year.
  2. Participation in one ARES/RACES activation (either Skywarn or other) per year.
  3. Attend one ARES/RACES meeting per year (might be the annual meeting).
  4. Send one NTS radiogram per year indicating the member is still interested in retaining membership. This does not have to be on the air, it can be through e-mail or Winlink 2000, etc., but it must be in NTS format.
  5. Be a contributor to the team in the eyes of the EC (subjective, but important).
  6. Attend Skywarn training at least once every two years.
  7. Completion of ICS-100 and IS-700 courses. (If you do not have copies of your certificates, you can call (301) 447-1200 and you can request copies of your transcripts be mailed to you, or you can fill out a transcript request form and mail it in here.)

Why all these requirements to be a part of ARES/RACES

Marathon County ARES/RACES is unlike any other volunteer organization. Our services are often most needed when situations are critical. As volunteers, we need to be dedicated, trained, and credible to the agencies we serve. Plus our served agencies require certain minimum standards of competency in order to work with them. The education and training assures our partners that can work with them and fit within their chain of command when the need arises.

The training isn’t difficult and in the long run, it will make you a better amateur radio operator. Join us for all the fun and excitement that emergency communications brings!