so i joined my local ARES group about 4 months ago, been doing the weekly nets and a couple of the training exercises but this weekend is the first real activation ive been asked to participate in. its for a county-level emergency management exercise, not an actual disaster or anything but still, my EC said they want me on a shelter net as a message handler.

honestly im a little nervous. i know the basics, i can pass traffic, i've practiced ICS forms in training but when its actually happening with real coordinators watching i get in my head a bit. anyone been through this kind of thing? is it pretty low key or does it move fast? my gear is ready, got the HT and my spare battery pack, just not sure what to expect in terms of how structured the actual operation is versus the training exercises we've done.

first real activation is always a little weird but honestly shelter nets are usually pretty slow paced. you'll have a lot of hurry up and wait moments. bring something to do in the quiet stretches, a book or whatever, because sometimes the first hour or two is just getting everyone checked in and sorted out.

the biggest thing i'd say is dont overthink the message handling piece. write everything down even if it seems obvious, say back what you heard before logging it, and if you're not sure about something ask your net control. no one expects you to be perfect on your first go, the EC picked you because they think you're ready and they're usually right about that. just stay on your frequency, keep your log current, and you'll be fine. the nervousness goes away after about 20 minutes once things settle into a rhythm.

yeah what he said. i remember my first one, spent like 45 minutes convinced i was going to mess something up and then the whole thing was honestly kind of uneventful in the best way. the training exercises are actually pretty good prep. one thing i will mention — find out before you show up if they want you to log on paper or if they're using something like ICS 309 forms digitally, because some groups have shifted to winlink or even just shared google docs for the exercise and it helps to know ahead of time so you're not scrambling with unfamiliar software while also trying to listen to the net.