so i finally participated in my first full-scale SET (simulated emergency test) after being an ARES member for about eight months and honestly i learned more in those six hours than i had in probably the previous four months of nets and training sessions combined. figured id write up some thoughts while its still fresh because some of this stuff genuinely surprised me.

the scenario was a fictional earthquake that knocked out a chunk of the county's infrastructure and we were tasked with providing comms between the EOC, a couple of shelter sites, and the hospital. sounds simple enough on paper but when you're actually doing it the little things just pile up. my antenna situation at the shelter site was terrible because i hadnt really thought through where i'd actually be deploying versus just running stuff from home. had to jury rig a dipole off a fence and a car door which worked but was not exactly ideal. also discovered my go bag had a power strip but i forgot to actually test whether the inverter i packed could handle my radio plus the laptop. spoiler: it couldn't, at least not great.

the bigger lesson for me was message handling. i've done winlink stuff before but in a real scenario where the net control is juggling six stations and people at the shelter are handing you actual written messages with semi-legible handwriting, it gets chaotic fast. i was transposing numbers in addresses and had to ask for repeats more than i'd like to admit.

anyway curious if anyone else has done these exercises and what kind of stuff caught you off guard the first time, or really any time honestly. feels like every one of these you find something new that needs work.

yeah the antenna problem gets basically everyone on their first deployment exercise. i've been doing ARES stuff for probably twelve years now and we still have people show up to exercises with gear that works great at home and then they're standing in a parking lot going wait where do i even put this. we actually made it a requirement in our group that everyone does at least one field setup drill before a SET, just pack your go bag and drive somewhere unfamiliar and try to get on the air within 20 minutes. sounds basic but it shakes out a lot of problems.

the message handling thing is real too. ICS 213 forms help a lot but you have to practice reading them under pressure and honestly the worst is when someone at the shelter has filled one out and their handwriting is basically hieroglyphics. we started doing a thing where we practice reading random handwritten notes over the air just to build that skill. sounds silly but it helps.

one thing that really caught us off guard a few years back during a flood comms exercise was just... battery math. everyone thought they had enough power and by hour four we were scrambling. now our group basically mandates everyone can sustain 12 hours minimum and you have to demonstrate it before the exercise, not just claim it.

this is making me want to actually join my local ARES group, i keep meaning to but havent gotten around to it. the power inverter thing is exactly the kind of stuff i would not have thought to test beforehand. do most groups do these SET exercises once a year or more often than that? i feel like once a year wouldn't really be enough to build muscle memory for this stuff.