St. Mary's County, Maryland
Amateur Radio Emergency Services

The SMCRACES site provides access and visibility to multiple St. Mary's County Amateur Radio volunteer Emergency and Support groups.

SMCRACES, located in St. Mary's County, Southern Maryland, is an organized group of volunteer amateur (HAM) radio operators whose goal is to provide emergency communications for both government and private agencies when called upon. SMCRACES strives to enhance the reliability, quality and professionalism of Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) personnel, through the establishment of training and performance standards, policies, procedures, management and supervision.

Working with local, county and state emergency management agencies, and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), SMCRACES provides public safety and public service communication support using Amateur Radios when conventional communication systems are damaged, destroyed, overloaded or otherwise unavailable. SMCRACES tailors its communication services to the needs of its served agencies, which may be any governmental, law enforcement, fire, medical, disaster relief or non-profit agency/organization in St. Mary's County.

SMCRACES members receive emergency communication and preparedness training through courses offered at the district, section and national levels. We routinely test our capabilities under emergency conditions during disaster exercises and public service events. Not only do we provide our served agencies with trained communicators, but communications equipment and technical expertise/assistance as well.

SMCRACES also participates in the local Skywarn® program which utilizes amateur radio weather observers (spotters), trained by the National Weather Service (NWS), to provide ground truth weather observations directly to the Forecast Office during weather events such as severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail storms, floods and blizzards.

Click here for the St. Mary's County, Maryland Department of Public Safty