Seattle Auxiliary Communication Services

[AK9R]

Nice video showing how City of Seattle Emergency Communications integrates amateur radio as another tool in the toolbox.

 

[MTS2000des]

Great example of what AUXCOMM aka RACES 2.0 can do. The folks at Georgia AuxComm have been a lifesaver for us helping out with COM-T duties at FIFA 2026 here in ATL. Without them, our radio support team would be working non-stop. Great resource of trained volunteers!

 

[mmckenna]

Great example of what AUXCOMM aka RACES 2.0 can do. The folks at Georgia AuxComm have been a lifesaver for us helping out with COM-T duties at FIFA 2026 here in ATL. Without them, our radio support team would be working non-stop. Great resource of trained volunteers!

Would like to hear more about this.

I agree, I watched that a few days ago. Well organized and integrated into their EOC. We've been looking at doing this locally, and it's been a challenge on the EOC side. We had a few meetings with the ham group, and they are interested. EOC manager is interested, but things move painfully slow.

What seems to make this work is some careful integrations and making sure roles are clear.

 

[MTS2000des]

Georiga AUXCOMM was requested by Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security to assist us (Fulton County Emergency Services) on behalf of the Georgia World Congress Center to assist staffing our radio support room at GWCC for FIFA2026. They are manning the unit during all operational hours both on game days and FIFA Fan Fest days distributing radios, batteries and technical support for the 300 additional officers brought in from around the region to augment APD, Fulton agencies, and state folks with security at Atlanta Stadium (aka Mercedes Benz) as well as Centennial Olympic Park where FanFest is taking place.

We (FCDES) supplied 100 cache radios (I programmed all but 15!) along with 150 batteries and chargers, along with another 200 from both the City of Atlanta's radio shop and Athens-Clarke County, who also brought a COM-L and an MCV. GA AUXCOMM is a life saver as our radio shop would be on the hook to staff all hours over a month long period without them. They come on their own time and have a great attitude, are 100 percent pro, aren't wearing orange vests with badges or TEH POLICE or bandoleros of Baofengs either.

 

[mmckenna]

They come on their own time and have a great attitude, are 100 percent pro,

Nice. Good use of a resource.

 

[AK9R]

We've been looking at doing this locally, and it's been a challenge on the EOC side. We had a few meetings with the ham group, and they are interested. EOC manager is interested, but things move painfully slow.

As we've discussed before, a lot of planning about scope, responsibilities, and procedures has to happen before thinking about hardware.

Managing expectations among the amateur radio community may be a challenge. Once word gets out that there's an interest, all sorts of "experts", including bozos like me, will come forward with their pet ideas. Doing it right takes time.

 

[MTS2000des]

That is where AUXCOMMs are a good thing, as they are an augmentation to a .GOV. This means vetting, no whackers, and validated real training/certification from recognized entities such as FEMA, state POST/EOC, etc. The key point being they are auxiliary to a served gov agency. No self-dispatching, no flashing light whackerism, no unauthorized trunking subscribers, etc. Just dedicated volunteers who utilize amateur radio and OTHER radio/telecom services to assist served entities in accomplishing a mission. I am blown away with what I have been working with and this is refreshing to say the least.

 

[mmckenna]

As we've discussed before, a lot of planning about scope, responsibilities, and procedures has to happen before thinking about hardware.

Yeah, that's kind of where we've been.

We discussed how they could fit into existing operations. I got some pushback when I suggested one good role was to offload welfare type traffic that didn't need to tie up public safety, helping disseminate information to the public, etc. Someone on the ham side wanted more involvement. That led to a bit of friction. I stepped back and let the EOC manager take over, but we kept coming back to the same thing.

Waiting on an official EOC drill so we can involve them. As the communications guy for our EOC, that will be on me to help guide the EOC manager how to best utilize them. The Seattle exercise above gives me some good ideas. Since we've been running the EOC for a long time without amateur radio, things are pretty well sorted out as is. Finding how to best utilize their resources will take time.

Managing expectations among the amateur radio community may be a challenge. Once word gets out that there's an interest, all sorts of "experts", including bozos like me, will come forward with their pet ideas. Doing it right takes time.

Yeah, "managing expectations" is always what it comes down to.
I need to work more with the ham community on this, but as noted, sometimes it gets a bit bumpy. We'll work through that. It's hard to rely on volunteers when there's only a handful of them.

 

[mmckenna]

That is where AUXCOMMs are a good thing, as they are an augmentation to a .GOV. This means vetting, no whackers, and validated real training/certification from recognized entities such as FEMA, state POST/EOC, etc.

I agree.

Just dedicated volunteers who utilize amateur radio and OTHER radio/telecom services to assist served entities in accomplishing a mission. I am blown away with what I have been working with and this is refreshing to say the least.

So far, there's a limited number of them, so relying on them for anything more than a few hours is a concern.

 

[AK9R]

I should have included in my original post that the video shows Seattle ACS being activated for the Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl parade and for the Seattle sessions of the FIFA World Cup.

That reminded me of my involvement with Super Bowl XLVI which was held in Indianapolis in 2012. Indianapolis public safety agencies ramped up to a high level for that event and one of the managers had a "light bulb" moment. His thinking was that if the S really did HTF, he might want amateur radio as an auxiliary level of communications in/out of the temporary EOC that was being set up in a warehouse a few blocks from the stadium. So, plans were made and I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the operators. Background checks were made and credentials were issued.

We were set up in a corner of the EOC away from the very busy police, fire, and EMS radio operators. As we set up our station, we found a bad run of coax. One of the FBI radio techs at the EOC loaned us a run of their coax. Our operators were assigned 12 hour shifts running Thursday evening through Monday morning. Our job was to periodically verify that we had communications on 2m and 70cm with other operators and repeaters around the city. It was a pretty boring assignment as nothing major happened. But, we were there just in case.

 

[MTS2000des]

So far, there's a limited number of them, so relying on them for anything more than a few hours is a concern.

Our AUXCOMM folks are up to around 50 members, most of which are fellow public safety communications folks, industry/vendor folks, retirees, etc. The team has fully staffed FIFA 2026 COM-T needs here in ATL which is over a month long. I am tremendously proud of them as a served agency thru GEMHSA and will make sure the state recognizes their dedication and hard work.