so i joined our local ARES group about 8 months ago after getting my general, went to a few nets and the monthly meetings and figured id never actually get called out for a real event. well last weekend that changed. county emergency manager called an activation for the flooding situation we had and i got paged to go set up at the EOC.

i have to say it was kind of overwhelming at first, not the radio stuff but just the whole environment. lots of people moving around, the EM staff doing their thing, and i wasnt totally sure where i was supposed to be or who to report to at first. our EC was great though and got me sorted out pretty quick. spent about 6 hours handling health and welfare traffic and some resource coordination messages between the EOC and a shelter about 12 miles away where we had another operator.

the training nets we do every week honestly did prepare me more than i thought. message formatting, keeping a log, phonetic alphabet without having to think about it — all that repetitive stuff paid off. i did fumble one message because i wasnt sure about the proper ICS form they wanted attached to it but the served agency guy helped me figure it out.

anyway just wanted to share because i know some folks in our group are nervous about activations and wondering if the training actually means anything. it does. still a lot to learn but it felt good to actually do something useful with the hobby for once.

that first real activation is something you dont forget. i remember mine from years back, different situation but same feeling of not knowing exactly where to fit in until someone pointed you at a task. sounds like your EC runs a tight group which makes all the difference honestly.

the ICS forms thing trips up a lot of people who are new to working with served agencies. if you havent already it might be worth asking your EC if the group can do a tabletop exercise specifically around ICS integration, 214s, 213s, that kind of thing. we did one last spring and it cleared up a lot of confusion for our newer members. ARRL has some material on it too but nothing beats just sitting down with the actual forms and walking through a scenario.

glad the training clicked for you. thats the whole point of those weekly nets even when they feel a little repetitive.

this is really good to hear, im about 4 months into ARES and havent been on an activation yet. kind of nervous about it tbh. did you use just a handheld or did you bring a mobile setup into the EOC? our EC mentioned something about bringing a go-kit but i havent built mine yet and im not sure whats actually expected vs what you can get away with for a first time.