Because of its charter to provide emergency communications support, the Sarasota Emergency Radio Club has focused on assisting the following agencies and organizations:

• Sarasota County Emergency Management
• Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office
• Florida Division of Forestry
• American Red Cross

The nature of the volunteer assistance rendered to the above agencies consists of providing trained personnel that can set-up and operate radio systems to provide voice, data and video communications throughout Sarasota County. These communications systems use the FCC amateur radio frequencies in the High Frequency, Very High and Ultra High Frequency bands. As such, reliable communications paths, ranging from less than a mile to several hundred or even thousands of miles, can be established.

SERC is affiliated with The National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL) as a “special service club”, which means that the club provides a wide range of services to its members and the community. These range from training and licensing courses to helping at charitable events to taking an active role during times of emergency. Many SERC members are also involved in Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) activities. The latter is the FCC-governed operations when assisting all forms governmental agencies.

It is an important asset for a community to have a well-trained group of citizens who can respond quickly when there is an urgent need for electronics and communications skills to cope with an unexpected situation.