Emergency Ham Radio

Ham Radio Organizations

There are number of different organizations that support ham radio in the Mountain View area.  Two most important for CERTs are:

• www.K6MTV.org - The amateur radio station located at the Fire Department Headquarters at 1000 Villa Street.   K6MTV provides Mountain View specific emergency plans and resources such as city level frequency assignment (including FRS/GMRS channel assignments for neighborhood CERTs).

• Santa Clara County, California ARES®/RACES https://www.scc-ares-races.org/ provides county level coordination and training.  They are a collaboration between national organizations:

  • Amateur Radio Emergency Services, or ARES, is the field arm of the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL).

  • Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services, or RACES, is the communications branch of the Federal Emergency Management System (FEMA). 

  • The Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) is a program created by government's disaster or emergency management office to supplement its emergency communications.

If you are interested in ham radio, electronics or emergency communications you are strongly encouraged to get an amateur radio license.  One good starting place is Licensing, Education & Training at the ARRL.

If you have an  amateur radio license you are strongly encouraged to get emergency communication training  from ARES/RACES.