Welcome
This is the site of the Michigan Section of the Amateur Radio Emergency Services.
Michigan ARPSC is the Amateur Radio Public Service Corps and encompasses ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services), RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services) and Skywarn (a service provided in cooperation with the National Weather Service). ARES Events can be any event where a Communications need exists of a non-commercial nature (FCC Part 97 Rules). ARES is administered by the ARRL - American Radio Relay League. RACES is any event that the Government sees a need for additional communications needs (Generally the Governor of a state or their duly appointed Representative makes the call. For clarification please read Part 97 Rules) and is administered by FEMA. Skywarn is administered by the NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service Division. There are four National Weather Service sites in Michigan - Detroit/White Lake, Grand Rapids, Gaylord and Marquette.
Michigan is unique in that it was one of the first if not the first state in the United States to recognize the need for Amateur Radio Operators to be cross-trained in both ARES and RACES protocols. This aids the process of assistance we provide in the sense that cross-trained individuals who start out as an ARES Operator can just change hats and continue the operations wearing the RACES hat. This was in no small part to several individuals in the Eighth Region (Ohio and Michigan in particular!) and most especially to George Race, WB8BGY as well as others.
Amateur Radio Operators are unique people who have a love for Communications. This is one of the first Wireless Mediums that was invented and has been used for everything from World Wide Communications in the HF (High Frequency) Spectrum, to local Communications in the VHF/UHF (Very High Frequency/Ultra High Frequency) Spectrum, to Microwave Communications. Different types of ways have also been perfected or discovered via Amateur Radio such as SSB (Single-Side Band), AM (Amplitude Modulation), FM (Frequency Modulation), Packet (the forerunner to what we know as an Internet Protocol), ATV (Amateur Television), RTTY (Radio-Teletype), PSK-31 (Phase-Shift Keying) and many other types of communications.
This Web Site was developed as a way for you the reader to learn something about Amateur Radio and what is happening in the State of Michigan.
In the sidebar on the left you will notice several items including the buttons that will take you to additional pages on this site. The top two items are propagation aids for Radio Operators. When there are Flares or Geomagnetic Storms communications can be hard at best for certain locations and bands. The Third item is the current state of the Homeland Security level. All of these are important functions of which we should all be aware of at any given time.
Our Mission Statement
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"Develop the Michigan ARPSC Program in to a fully integrated
communications team ready, willing and able to provide radio
communications support to Public Service Agencies and the citizens of
Michigan."
MIARPSC Guidelines Document
Over approximately the past year, the DECs and a number of ECs have been working on a document to help focus who we are and what we do. This has been a long hard road, but the result has been worth it. After many edits, we have a document that the ARPSC leadership and the Michigan State Police leadership can all agree to. This document is now available here.
We will discuss this document at the upcoming EC meeting. Those ECs wishing to roll it out to their programs before the EC meeting might want to take advantage of the PowerPoint Presentation that has also been prepared. Warning: PowerPoint, Word and Excel documents can contain active content. Whenever you download one of these documents or receive it in an email, you should always scan it for viruses before opening.
EC Meeting
A synopsis of the EC meeting which was held on October 27th is available here.
