Mountain Radio Network is a dba of the Mile High Radio Club, a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization.
Skywarn
SKYWARN is a National Weather Service (NWS) program developed in 1971. The Mountain Radio Network proudly supports the efforts of the NWS - San Diego by maintaining the necessary repeater systems for Riverside County. The program consists of trained weather spotters who provide reports of severe and hazardous weather to help meteorologists make life-saving warning decisions. SKYWARN spotter reports provide vital “ground truth” to the National Weather Service (NWS). The reports help NWS meteorologists issue timely, accurate, and detailed warnings by confirming hazardous weather detected by radar. SKYWARN spotters serve their local communities by acting as a vital source of information when dangerous storms approach.
NWS San Diego provides weather information for the Riverside County mountain area. For weather and additional information about SKYWARN please see the following links.
NWS Weather and SKYWARN Spotter information: www.wrh.noaa.gov/sgx/
RACES - Mountain District
Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, also called RACES, was established in 1952 by the Federal Communications Commission and operates under the auspices of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Many government agencies across the country train their auxiliary communications service (ACS) volunteers using the RACES protocol. RACES – Mountain District volunteers are duly sworn as disaster service workers of the County of Riverside and State of California, serving the County of Riverside Emergency Management Department (EMD), as well as local public safety agencies and jurisdictions pursuant to guidelines and mandates established by local emergency management officials. To join visit Riverside County RACES: https://riversidecounty.wixsite.com/rivcoraces
WNKI578-1610AM
Tune to WNKI578 - 1610 AM radio station for local road, weather, fire and any other local emergency conditions. WNKI is a volunteer radio broadcast service providing the greater Idyllwild area with current conditions for travel into and out of the mountain communities. WNKI 578 broadcasts emergency instructions provided from the designated public information officer appointed by the incident command team. The lead agency representing incident command depends upon jurisdiction and may include the Idyllwild Fire Protection District, CALFIRE/Riverside County Fire Department, Riverside County Emergency Management Department, Riverside County Sheriff’s Office or the U.S. Forest Service. The lead agency acts as Incident Command during an emergency or disaster affecting the community. At such times WNKI578 will broadcast emergency updates from the designated PIO that the Incident Command appoints.
Since 1993
There are countless examples throughout the history of our nation that demonstrate the intrinsic value of trained Amateur Radio operators providing auxiliary emergency communications to local, county and state governments, (directly impacting their constituents), as well as to the Red Cross and other related volunteer disaster response groups, after significant weather events or incidents. There are regions of our nation that experience, almost annually, significant weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, extreme ice storms, flooding from severe rainstorms, and wildfires. In those regions Amateur Radio volunteers have established well-trained, deployable auxiliary emergency communications teams that directly support served agencies of state and local governments.
