so my elmer basically pushed me into this and i finally caved and contacted our EC about joining the local ARES group. had my first net check-in last week and honestly it was a little overwhelming just because i didnt really know what i was supposed to be doing. like i checked in fine but then there was a lot of talk about ICS forms and served agencies and SET exercises and i was nodding along pretending i understood way more than i did.

im a tech right now studying for general so i know my radio stuff reasonably well but the emergency management side of things is totally new to me. do most groups expect you to already have your ICS 100 and 200 done before you show up to stuff or is that something you work on together? and whats a SET exactly — i heard them mention it twice but didnt want to ask and look dumb on my first net.

any advice from people who have been through this would be really appreciated. dont want to make a bad first impression with these folks

welcome to the rabbit hole haha. so the SET is the Simulated Emergency Test, its basically a once a year drill that ARRL coordinates where ARES groups practice activating and passing traffic like they would in a real event. your section probably does one in the fall, at least most do. its actually a lot of fun once you know whats going on — kind of chaotic in a good way.

as for ICS, most groups want you to at least have 100 and 700 done before you deploy anywhere, those are free online through FEMA and honestly take maybe 3-4 hours total. some ECs are pretty strict about it and some are more relaxed depending on how busy your county gets. i'd just shoot your EC an email and ask what the expectations are — they'd rather you ask than show up to an activation without the certs. nobody's gonna make you feel bad for asking, these groups need people and they know everyone starts somewhere.

yeah i was in your exact spot about two years ago, felt totally lost for the first few months if im honest. one thing that really helped me was just showing up to the in-person meetings when they have them because a lot of the stuff that sounds confusing on a net makes way more sense when someone draws it out on a whiteboard or whatever. our group does a monthly meeting at the EOC and thats where i actually learned what all the ICS positions mean and how we fit into the bigger picture with the served agencies.

also dont stress too much about not knowing everything right away. ive seen plenty of new hams become really solid ARES operators within a year just by showing up consistently and volunteering for the smaller stuff like public service events before diving into actual emergency activations. the public service stuff like marathons or parades is genuinely great practice for learning how to communicate clearly under a little bit of pressure without it being a real emergency situation.