When ALL other Communications FAIL during an Emergency – BE SAFE BY BEING INFORMED.
For more than 40 years Dodge Ridge has hosted a Ham Radio repeater at the summit of the resort. In 2020, TCARES, Tuolumne County’s amateur radio club, upgraded the repeater and connected it to a linked repeater system, allowing county wide communications. Licensed amateur radio operators can now use a hand-held radio to connect to the Dodge Ridge repeater from the greater Strawberry/Pinecrest/Emigrant areas to talk to people anywhere in the county and central California. You can learn more about HAM radio in Tuolumne County at www.tcares.net
While the TCARES system links the whole county for licensed amateur radio operators, here in Strawberry and the Pinecrest Basin we have been using GMRS radios to form a local self-help and community news radio group. Not dependent on cell phone or cable infrastructure, it provides a local “When all else fails” communication system. In the event of a significant incident we have the capacity to relay information to and from the Sonora Incident Command center by coordinating with the TCARES system operators. And by September 2025 a GMRS repeater will become operational on Strawberry Peak which should allow connection directly between Strawberry, Pinecrest, and much of the high country. Use of the repeater will require a GMRS radio ~$30 and a GMRS license which is $35, no test, covers your whole family and is valid for 10 years. For more information go to www.tcnrw.com