so i finally got activated for a real event last weekend, not just a drill. county EOC needed radio support for a pretty bad flooding situation we had going on and our EC called everyone in saturday morning. i've been doing the ICS training and the ARRL emcomm courses for about a year now so i figured i was reasonably prepared but man there's a difference between practicing and actually being there with the served agency depending on you.

overall it went fine. i was stationed at a shelter about 8 miles from the EOC and we were handling welfare traffic and some logistics stuff when their digital systems were being flaky. ran simplex most of the time on the county ARES simplex frequency and occasionally had to relay through the repeater when propagation got weird inside the building. nothing exotic, just VHF FM work but it kept things moving.

my questions are kind of random but here goes -- how do you guys handle logging when things get busy? i was trying to keep a paper log and also key stuff into ICS 214 forms and i felt like i was falling behind. also, has anyone had issues with served agency people not really understanding what we can and cant do? one of the shelter managers kept wanting me to relay messages that were really more like personal cell phone calls and it was kind of awkward to explain the third party traffic rules without making her feel bad. anyway just curious how experienced folks handle all that

congrats on your first real activation, that's a big deal. flooding events are rough because the situation keeps changing and you never quite know what the served agency is actually going to need from you until you're in it.

on the logging question -- i stopped trying to do both simultaneously a long time ago. during high traffic periods i just do paper and fill in the 214 during any lull, even a 5 minute break. nobody expects the 214 to be real-time, it's an after action document as much as anything. some of our guys use a simple notepad app on a tablet just for quick timestamps during the hectic parts and then reconcile it all later. whatever keeps you in the net and not buried in paperwork.

the served agency education thing is genuinely one of the harder parts of emcomm and dont let anyone tell you otherwise. i usually try to have that conversation early before anything is happening, like when i first arrive and set up. just a quick friendly heads up about what kind of traffic works well over amateur radio and what doesnt. framing it as "here's how to get the most out of having me here" tends to land better than explaining rules to someone who's already stressed out managing a shelter. your EC should probably also be doing some of that pre-event coordination with the agency so you're not the one having to explain it on the fly

yeah the third party traffic thing trips people up every time, especially shelter staff who just see a radio and think it's basically a fancy walkie talkie that connects to everything. i had almost the exact same situation a couple years back at a red cross shelter, lady wanted me to call her cousin in another state to let him know she was okay. i mean the intention is totally understandable but still.

what i've started doing is keeping a little printed one-pager that explains in plain english what amateur radio emergency communications is good for and what it isnt. laminated it, costs nothing. hand it to whoever's in charge when you arrive. most of the time they appreciate having something physical to reference and it takes the awkwardness off you personally.

also on the logging thing, have you looked into the ARES Connect stuff or just basic net logging templates? some districts have a pretty streamlined paper form that makes the 214 easier to fill in after the fact. might be worth asking your EC what they use locally