BUT also please understand to be in a "Lead Position", we will ask you to have experience and some idea of the nature of how our local agencies put together command and response systems. Your understanding of how our local agencies function will help insure TARA's participation at a useful and reliable level!

This page will help you in understanding all that takes place when we are called upon to help with radio communications during an emergency situation in our area. If you decide to go a step further, this page will also provide you the links and information to become certified as an emergency response individual.

Our participation in the area bike rides as communication operators is well received and indeed well coordinated. But these events are more relaxed with the actual traffic we pass due to the nature of the event We are only working with the event organizers and passing their traffic as requested.

TARA has now become integrated into the Lake Tahoe community of service agencies. These organizations are professional in their response and everyday operations because they deal with life and death situations on a moments notice (police, fire, sheriff and medical). Because of this integration, we need to add some additional training to insure we do our part without stepping over our job position as "radio operators" and confusing the command operations.

As a TARA communicator, this is what we expect for your successful operation.

1. A working relationship with both your fellow hams AND the emergency personal around you. Even if you don't like or agree with them, work with them!
2. Cooperation - again, ask how YOU can help within your realm of expertise
3. Training - volunteer and participate in actual communication exercises. Its one thing to listen, the real learning comes from actual participation and responsibility for a communication point.
4. Be flexible - your location may experience difficulties at both technical and logistic levels. Do what you can to help, stay calm and don't complain or announce your problems over the radio (unless it's an emergency of course)
5. Follow our established communication protocol using the Net control station for permission to pass your traffic ( any radio traffic should be cleared through the station acting as the central NET control) (hopefully there will be an NCS (net control station) and it will be centrally located to facilitate communications using both repeaters and simplex relays)
6. Any information about the exercise or real-time emergency operation is NOT to be provided by you to the press, curious individuals, friends, etc. Refer to the agency you are working with, especially if they have a PIO on site (Public Information Officer).

• Your participation should include a written log of your communications. The station(s) contacted, time of communication, and the traffic passed. An excellent form is the ICS 309, as we have used on the bike rides.
  
  
• The radio traffic during these events, both training exercise, or the actual emergency operation, should be as directed by the offical we are providing radio communication for. No other traffic, especially comments or idle conversation should be transmitted. This helps the channel to be ready and keeps the information we are assigned to convey clear and concise.
  
  
• Use PLAIN LANGUAGE! The 10 codes and other acronyms used by different agencies are not universal in meaning, plain language keeps the traffic simple and concise!
  
  
• Additionally, the timing of these communication messages should be as directed by the official over-seeing your point of operation. The timing can be important for reasons beyond our personal knowledge, so again, transmissions should only occur when directed by the official in charge.
  
  
• Come prepared - proper equipment (radios, batteries, antennas), food and water, clothing, your special needs medications and other "comforts" to allow you to perform and remain comfortable!

ICS was developed in the 1970's following a series of catastrophic fires in California's urban interface. Property damage ran into the millions, and many people died or were injured. The personnel assigned to determine the causes of these outcomes studied the case histories and discovered that response problems could rarely be attributed to lack of resources or failure of tactics. Surprisingly, studies found that response problems were far more likely to result from inadequate management than from any other single reason.

The ICS is a management system designed to enable effective and efficient domestic incident management by integrating a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure, designed to enable effective and efficient domestic incident management. A basic premise of ICS is that it is widely applicable. It is used to organize both near-term and long-term field-level operations for a broad spectrum of emergencies, from small to complex incidents, both natural and manmade. ICS is used by all levels of government—Federal, State, local, and tribal—as well as by many private-sector and nongovernmental organizations. ICS is also applicable across disciplines. It is normally structured to facilitate activities in five major functional areas: command, operations, planning, logistics, and finance and administration.

The Incident Command System:
..Is a standardized management tool for meeting the demands of small or large emergency or nonemergency situations.
..Represents "best practices" and has become the standard for emergency management across the country.
..May be used for planned events, natural disasters, and acts of terrorism.
..Is a key feature of the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

Frequency  Mode		Location	Coverage Notes

147.240	Repeater(+)	East Peak	Lake Tahoe - Gardnerville - Carson
                          (requires PL of 123Hz)

146.850	Repeater(-)	Angels Roost	Lake Tahoe, Truckee - some Gardnerville and Carson
                          (requires PL of 123Hz)

145.350**Repeater(+)	S. Lake Tahoe Link to American River Canyon - **Freq change May 2011 Odd Offset
                            Your radio needs to transmit on 146.205Mhz
			Placerville, American River Canyon and Sacramento (requires PL of 123Hz)

145.150	Repeater(-)	S. Lake Tahoe  Link to Sacramento and parts of Bay Area
			(requires PL of 123Hz)

147.150	Repeater(+)	S. Lake Tahoe and Reno - Carson - Gardnerville
			(requires PL of 123Hz)

146.550	Simplex	         Coverage depends on power and location of your station

Additional Radio resources for NON Amateur Radio Individuals
FRS and GMRS