so i finally got activated for a real event last weekend, not just a drill. local flooding knocked out some cell infrastructure and the county EOC called in our ARES group to handle welfare traffic and coordinate with Red Cross shelters. ive been a member for about 8 months and done maybe 4 or 5 exercises but this was the first time it was actually real and i gotta say it felt completely different.

the training def helped but there were still moments where i wasnt sure what net control wanted or if i should be initiating contact or waiting. we were running on the county repeater for most of it with a backup simplex freq that we had pre-coordinated. my HT held up fine but i noticed my audio was apparently a little rough at one point, probably my hand placement on the mic. someone corrected me on the air which was a little embarrassing but honestly i needed to hear it.

anyway just wanted to share. if anyone else is thinking about getting more involved with ARES or RACES i'd say just do it, the training nets are worth it even when they feel repetitive. curious if others have had similar first activation experiences or if i'm the only one who felt kind of lost in the moment even with training behind them.

that feeling of being lost even after training is completely normal, i promise. i've been doing ARES stuff for going on 12 years now and i still remember my first real activation like it was last month. ours was a tornado warning that turned into an actual touch down and the net was chaotic for the first 20 minutes until everybody settled into their roles. the thing nobody tells you is that training is always cleaner than reality because in training everyone knows its training, you know? people on both ends kind of relax a little.

the bit about net control — yeah that takes time. every EC runs their net a little differently and until you've worked with yours enough to almost predict their patterns it can feel like you're always half a step behind. don't sweat the audio correction either, good operators will tell you and better to know. keep showing up to the monthly nets and before long you'll be the one correcting someone else's mic technique.

this is really cool to read, i just passed my technician like 6 weeks ago and ive been looking into ARES but wasnt sure if i was ready or experienced enough yet. sounds like they actually let newer people participate which is good to know. does your group do like regular training nets or is it mostly just showing up to activations? i found our local ARES group online but the website looks like it hasnt been updated since 2019 so im not even sure theyre active lol