so i finally got activated for real last weekend, not just a drill. there was flooding in the county over to the east and the EOC called up our ARES group to staff the shelter at the fairgrounds and provide backup comms for the health dept people who were coordinating medical transport.

i've been doing the monthly nets and the simulated emergency tests for about two years now and honestly i kind of wondered sometimes if it was all just going through the motions you know? like would any of it actually matter when something real happened. turns out yes, it absolutely does. the ICS stuff they made us do the training on — i was kind of rolling my eyes at that at first — but when the EOC net control was running position reports and resource requests in that structured format it all just made sense. nobody was talking over each other, information was actually getting where it needed to go.

i ran a simplex frequency between the shelter and a relay point for most of the afternoon because the terrain was blocking the repeater coverage. wasnt glamorous but it worked. anyway just wanted to share because if any of you are on the fence about joining your local ARES group or you've been showing up to the nets but not sure if its worth the time, it really is. at least that was my experience.

that's really cool to hear. i joined ARES about six months ago and have only done the SET so far, plus one public service event for a marathon which doesnt really count as emergency comms i guess. the ICS training was the part i least expected to actually use but everyone keeps saying the same thing you did so i believe it now. what radio were you running if you dont mind me asking, and did you need anything beyond like basic vhf/uhf capability for what you were doing?

good writeup. that feeling you described about wondering if the training is just going through motions — yeah pretty much everyone goes through that at some point. the groups that stay sharp are the ones where the EC actually runs realistic exercises, not just a check-in net with a script. simplex ops especially, people either skip that in training or treat it like an afterthought and then get to an actual event and realize the repeater isnt going to save them. sounds like your group has their act together. the flooding situations are often harder than they look on paper too because the shelter coordinators arent always expecting to actually USE you, they kind of see radio as a backup backup, so good on you for making it work regardless.