so i've been a licensed ham for about two years now, got my general last spring, and i finally joined our county ARES group back in the fall after kind of procrastinating on it forever. we had our first real activation a few weeks ago because of the flooding over on the east side of the county and honestly i wasnt sure what to expect going in.

the net control stuff was pretty straightforward, i've done plenty of traffic nets so that part felt familiar. but what threw me off was just the pace of it all — like during training exercises everything moves kind of slow and organized, but when it was actually happening there were moments where three people were trying to check in at once and i could tell the net control op was having to really work to keep things sorted. we were mostly passing health and welfare traffic between the EOC and the shelter they set up at the middle school.

what i didnt expect was how much of the job is just... waiting. like you get there, you set up, you check in, and then sometimes its an hour before anything actually needs to go. i was glad i brought a book lol. but when things did pick up it was genuinely satisfying to feel like the comms were actually useful and not just a drill.

has anyone else had that experience with their first real activation? curious if the waiting around part is just normal or if our group is particularly slow

yeah the waiting is basically the job, at least in my experience. ive been doing ARES stuff for close to twelve years now and honestly most activations are 80% sitting around being ready and 20% actually doing anything. the frustrating part early on is feeling like you should be doing something but really your value is just being there and being reliable when the call comes.

sounds like your group handled the flooding activation pretty well from what you're describing. net control during an actual event is a totally different animal than a weekly net or even a SET exercise — the SET exercises are useful but they cant really replicate the background noise and the stress of a real situation. the fact that NCS was working to manage it means they were on top of it, that overlap at check-in is super common when people are anxious to get on and report.

one thing that helped me was bringing a small notepad and just keeping a log of everything even when i wasnt the one handling traffic. keeps your head in the game and you'd be surprised how useful your own notes can be later if there's any question about what got passed and when.

the waiting thing is so real. i did my first SET last year and thought i was prepared but then our group got called out for a real thing this past summer (nothing major, just backup comms for a search and rescue thing) and yeah it was a lot of sitting in a parking lot with the radio on. not complaining though, i'd rather be there and not needed than not there at all i guess.

also your point about the health and welfare traffic is interesting — we haven't done much of that in our training nets and im wondering if i should ask our EC about running some practice sessions with that specifically. feels like a skill that atrophies if you dont use it.