WOW, I hope you like reading. I guess it's all about how good you want to be. It's like being a father. It's easy to become a father, but it's hard to be a good father. To start off I would suggest:

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Public Service/ARES/ARESmanual2015.pdf

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/ARESFieldResourcesManual.pdf

https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1922-25045-7047/ics_forms_12_7_10.pdf

I would take the following FEMA courses on line:

IS-100.b – Introduction to Incident Command System
IS-200.b – ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents
IS-700.a – National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction
IS-800.b – National Response Framework, An Introduction

Look at other counties/states web sites. There is a plethora of info on-line. Again this is just a start. I'm sure there are other people that will add their experience/suggestions. Have fun and thanks for stepping up.

 

Holy Moly! I do like reading....so there's that. [emoji2]
Thank you!
Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

Looks like ARES is about dead in my county. No meetings, the WEB page hasn't been updated in five years, no response to emails offering to help.

 

Not sure how your county is set up, but you might want to check out various RACES organizations for more information:

http://www.w4ava.org/

http://www.ocraces.org/

and check EMCOMM training around the country also. BTW the link for the FEMA training is:

https://training.fema.gov/is/crslist.aspx

Take care. 73

 

I don't know the structure yet but I believe I need to work with WV ARES. I sent a message to them a week or so ago to figure out where to start. I got a reply that my inquiry was forwarded to the appropriate person and they would be contacting me. Nothing yet so I'm going to try again
Thank you for the links! I'll take a look this evening.

.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

I was certified 4-5 years ago but never received my spotter ID or any acknowledgement for that matter... Lots of RACES/ARES Skywarn action in my area and I always listen when weather approaches. This post motivated me to question my regional office to see if they have any records or if I need to take the courses again. Good luck OP. I think you should be more excited than worried, best training is on the job!

 

I am attaching the Arlington County, VA RACES Operator Basic Course, which covers useful things not in the ARRL courses. They are copyrighted, but come under the fair use provisions of the copyright law as long as they are for noncommercial, educational and public safety use.

 

I'm close to the same situation, but am receiving quite a bit more help. Our club has some old timers who know all of this stuff, but who have not written much down about it. I have volunteered my services as a scribe, and in the process am learning a lot about ham radio in emergency situations. Last night I was net controller during two county-wide tornado warnings here in Western Arkansas.

 

Good on you for getting involved in something that actually contributes to preparing your community for real-world events! Much more useful than chatting on the internet about becoming a badass lone wolf gunfighting motorcycle zombie killer.

 

I second what Jeff said.

getting out there and actively participating in emergency comms is the best way to practice for a real world scenario.

 

i took the ARRL emcom course there is a lot of information there for you, also there will be a new entity called auxcom for ham radio under fema , finding a course is not easy.

but look at the emcom course for a lot of info about how hams integrate into the system.

alex

 

During a ARES/RACES net, can a non member relay for the net? May be important during emergencies.

 

Absolutely! On HF nets the net control will usually ask for relays of stations not recognized which cannot be heard by net control.

On our VHF nets when you get a station which is weak into the repeater, we will similarly ask other stations to listen on the repeater input frequency to relay people who aren't making it into the machine.

 

I was just asked about becoming the EC in my county as well. Im interested, but concerned i would not be able to fulfill the requirements. Although i assume something is better than nothing. 2 jons and 2 young kids make me wonder if i can afford the time. I saw a meeting scheduled for all PA EC's. My job is not one i can just leave from. So i submitted my ARES application. I am waiting to hear back from that. It was nice that the DEC asked me. What kind of out of the house hours per week does this position require? I am all willing to learn new skills, and have done all the FEMA classes suggested in this thread. My main issue is that i work evenings at a state prison, and cannot leave at a moments notice for a non-emergency situation. Although i saw you can send proxys to those meetings in your place.

 

I think a lot depends on what you want to make of it and if you can find and manage a team of assistants. One trap a lot of people fall into is trying to do all the work by themselves and not understanding how to delegate.

I'm going to start taking the online FEMA courses this winter. My plan is to retire an a couple years and once that happens I may look for similar opportunities.

 

http://www.arrl.org/online-course-catalog

• Introduction to Emergency Communication (EC-001)+
• Public Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio Amateurs (EC-016)+
• PR-101: ARRL Public Relations (EC-015)

 

I have done the courses. But I think it may be best to wait until the kids are older, as well as me. I'm 33, with a 6 and 7 year old. It is an amazing opportunity, and 1 that I may not get another chance to do, but the responsible thing would be to let someone who has the time to do it. I got my FEMA student id working at the prison and going to the fire academy. I still want to do more FEMA courses, but I think I will hold off on the EC position. Good luck to ya'll.

 

While I am not the EC (nor do I really have the urge to be. I would rather be the door kicker, than the guy telling people which doors to kick) I am an ARES/RACES member. In my county, the two organizations are pretty intertwined. So they both fail pretty badly. Over the last two years that I have taken part in the ARES/RACES group in my county not much has ever been done. They have meetings every month, and a weekly check-in net, but that is about it. The meetings regularly rehash the need to know more digital communications, however they never move beyond the basics of how to use winlink. it seems like every 3-4 months, they revisit the winlink 101 presentation. After that, it is a couple of months of saying how they need to use more digital modes, but no one knows how to use them, so they then come back to winlink 101. As far as the weekly check-in net goes, it is on a local club repeater, and you literally just check in that you are on the net, and that is it.

With regards to training events, the last training event we did was terrible, it was conducted on the top level of a parking garage with all our local teams present. Even though all the teams were within 100 yards of each other, most teams could not field a digital station to do winlink (they couldn't figure it out). Most stations defaulted back to voice transmissions, which was an issue, due to the length of messages to pass. There were a couple times, it took the pair of stations 15 minutes to pass traffic due to the length. There was also the issue of that everyone being on a parking garage together did not account for line of sight issues with teams at fixed locations, and the real world fact that they would not be able to communicate together without a relay.

In the end, like you, I am apart of these organizations for the legitimacy fact. I find more usefulness and real world training from the AMRRON folks. On their nets, they have done FLDIGI modes (various modes) sending messages/reports, pictures, as well as Winlink usage, and testing out the possibility of using JS8Call for emergency communications.

 

Sounds like you need to help lead a course. These groups can only be as strong as what's put into them... If you know other tools that you believe would be useful, learn about them and share how to use them. If you have what you believe are better plans of action on how to deploy, share them at the meeting. This of course will mean that you'll need to spend more time than the couple hours one day a month to work with people on coordinating these plans are preparing your course.

 

There are an awful lot of useful training suggestions offered in this thread. The FEMA online courses and the ARRL online Ecoms courses are probably the hot place to start.

I'd check with your State ARES coordinator for some direction. Plus, ask your County contact for suggestions. Sometimes they have minimum training for anyone operating in an EOC in any capacity.

Lastly, check the web site at your State Emergency Management Agency to find the list of Instructor lead FEMA courses offered.

 

Most important is that you need several municipal employees who are licensed amateurs to volunteer to work for the Office of Emergency Management (OEM).

There is a great benefit to having a government employee heading local government volunteer efforts. Without doing so the municipal government has volunteers without any accountability. OEM then never really knows whether the volunteers are well trained, practiced, and drilled, etc.

When you empower a municipal employee to act as the ARES EC or RACES Radio officer, who reports to OEM and is responsible to the local government, the local government then has accountability for volunteer personnel and a focus point.

Many localities know and use amateur radio operators affiliated with OEM and establish a more formal requirement for background checks, specific skill sets and mandatory training, testing, and drills.

I recommend, that Emergency Managers who currently maintain only a loose association with their amateur radio volunteers, go to the FEMA web site and read up on best practices associated with a more formal structure which provides local control of the implementation and incorporation of radio volunteers into emergency response. The benefits are spread across both the local government and the volunteers, something that just doesn't exist with the "club" affiliations.

Volunteers who think they can offer the same level of services via a "club" affiliation simply don't get it. Indeed that is the filter to be used. If volunteers are resistant to follow the recommended FEMA practices, you don't want them as volunteers.

Arlington County Virginia raised the bar significantly for its radio amateur volunteers, beginning with the successful completion of a County character background check and then going to twice monthly training classes based on FEMA and VDEM approved emergency communications training materials.

Training is provided by the County Safety Officer (also an amateur operator) via the Internet using a WEBX format. Volunteers don't have to leave home or take time during the weekend to attend live training sessions. The Power Point/PDF presentations are hosted on the local club web page www.w4ava.org along with the related audio WAV file. For that those volunteers that are frequent travelers or if they miss a class, they can catch-up at their convenience using the web site links.

Volunteers are enrolled in the County’s text alert system so that text alerts can be sent to remind members of the scheduled training classes and/or the weekly evening emergency net exercises, etc.

What worked pre-9/11 is no longer sufficient post 9/11 with regard to radio amateur volunteers. Individuals who cannot appreciate the need for background checks can volunteer in other ways, perhaps, but it makes no sense for a locality to place volunteers into the heart of OEM operations without having at least some minimal level of vetting and certification.