so i finally got activated for real last weekend. been doing ARES training for about eight months now, net check-ins every tuesday, two simulated emergency tests, the whole thing. figured i had a decent handle on what an actual activation would look like.

it was a missing persons search in the county just north of us and our EC called us out Saturday morning. i showed up with my go-bag, HT, the spare battery pack i always charge on fridays, and my little notebook. felt pretty prepared honestly.

except nobody really told me where to go when i got to the staging area. like there was a lot of standing around waiting for assignments and the ICS stuff i studied didnt totally match how it actually played out on the ground. the served agency liaison was great but she was pulled in like four directions at once. i ended up just kind of shadowing one of the more experienced guys for the first couple hours which was actually really valuable, more than any of the online training if im being honest.

not complaining at all, it was a good experience and the search had a happy ending. just curious if this is kind of normal for a first activation — that gap between training and the real thing? how did other people's first real activation go?

yeah that sounds pretty much exactly right honestly. the ICS coursework is important and i dont want to knock it but there's always this translation layer between the textbook version and how things actually run in the field, especially with served agencies that are used to doing things their own way. shadowing someone experienced is genuinely the best thing you can do early on. some of our best operators learned more in two real activations than in years of nets and tabletops.

the standing around thing is also just real. a lot of emergency comms work is hurry up and wait. you get staged, the situation is evolving, nobody has perfect information yet. learning to be comfortable in that ambiguity without wandering off or getting in the way is actually kind of a skill. sounds like you handled it well. the fact that you showed up with charged batteries and a notebook already puts you ahead of some folks i've seen roll in totally unprepared.

my first activation was a flood situation and i was so nervous i forgot to log half my traffic lol. had to piece it back together afterward from memory which was not fun. now i keep a voice recorder going anytime things get hectic. anyway glad the search went well, those are the best kind of outcomes obviously. did they use any digital modes or was it all voice?