What is Auxiliary Communication?

Auxiliary Communication, more commonly known as AUXCOMM, is a program developed and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) utilizing primarily volunteer amateur radio operators, also known as “hams”, to support the work of government agencies responsible for response and recovery operations. The team of operators that serves the Sussex County Department of Public Safety has undergone additional training, enabling members to support response and recovery activities.  The group meets monthly at the Sussex County Public Safety Complex near Georgetown.

History Of Amateur Radio Support to Sussex County

The “hams” have been involved with emergency operations in the county since 1985 at the old Emergency Operations Center (EOC). At that time, the group was organized under the national Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), a program of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). In December 2007, to give the County’s Emergency Operations Director better control of the asset in preparation to move to the new EOC (the present Public Safety Complex), it was organized under the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES). The events in New York City, outside Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, Pa., on September 11, 2001, started a monumental change in how the country would respond in the future to disasters, both large and small.  The Incident Command System (ICS), from its early start in California, has been developed by FEMA to become the designated process for all response and recovery operations. The RACES Group became the AUXCOMM Group in Fall 2018.

AUXCOMM and CERT

In January 2024, the then-Emergency Operations Director, Joe Thomas, placed the County’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program under the direction of the Auxiliary Communication Leader (ACL), John Ferguson, K3PFW. Today, a joint AUXCOMM/CERT Management Team directs the two programs.  The two groups often operate jointly in the support of public service events around the county. For the calendar year 2025, the combined groups provided over 3,200 hours of volunteer service to the community.

For more information email WS3EOC@gmail.com