so i passed my general last spring and joined the local ARES group maybe two months after that. been going to the monthly nets and training sessions pretty regularly and i thought i had a decent handle on things but now they're asking me to actually serve as a net control operator during a real activation (county is doing a full scale disaster drill with the EOC next weekend) and im kinda freaking out a little if im being honest

the training nets are one thing because everyone knows its practice and if you fumble a message or lose your place on the ICS-213 nobody really cares. but the idea of doing it for real with actual served agency people listening and county emergency management watching... i dont know. i feel like i know the phonetic alphabet and message handling well enough but what if i freeze up or something goes sideways with the radio setup

anyone else been through this first activation jitters thing? does it actually get easier or is it always a little stressful? i just want to do a decent job and not embarass myself or the group

oh man i remember my first activation, it was a flooding event back in like 2018 and my EC threw me on packet duty at the shelter without a whole lot of warning. i was convinced i was going to screw up the Winlink connection in front of everyone and send garbled messages to the county EOC lol. honestly the thing that helped me most was just slowing way down. like when you feel the urge to rush through a callsign or a message header because people are waiting, that's exactly when you need to breathe and take an extra half second. nobody in emergency management is going to be upset that you said your callsign clearly and confirmed the message twice.

the other thing is your EC picked you for a reason. they're not going to hand net control to someone they dont think can handle it, so trust that a little. you've been showing up, you know the procedures, just let the training do the work. and honestly even experienced operators make small mistakes during activations, the difference is they just correct and keep moving. you'll be fine.

yeah the nerves dont fully go away but they do get way more manageable after the first couple times. also just a practical tip — write out your net control script on paper before you go in. like literally your opening announcement, how you're going to handle check-ins, what you'll say when you pass traffic to the EOC liaison. having something physical to look at when your brain decides to go blank is genuinely a lifesaver. i still do this for any activation i havent run before even after years of doing this stuff.