so our county ARES group got activated last weekend for a pretty bad storm system that knocked out power to like half the county. i've been a member for almost a year but this was my first real activation, all the previous stuff was just drills and the monthly nets.

honestly i didnt know what to expect going in. the EC called me about 6am and said we needed bodies at the EOC and a few shelters, so i grabbed my go bag and headed out. ended up spending most of the day at the red cross shelter running a simplex link back to the EOC on our local 2m calling freq since the repeater was on backup power and they wanted to save it for mobile stuff.

traffic was pretty light which i think surprised some of the newer people but the experienced guys said thats usually how it is — a lot of hurry up and wait and then maybe 20 minutes of actual busy radio work. still felt really good to be useful. the shelter coordinator actually thanked us which was nice, i think sometimes served agencies dont really get what we do until they see it in person.

anyway if anyone is on the fence about joining their local ARES group or has been putting off getting involved — just go. the training nets and exercises are worth it just for knowing what youre doing when it counts. curious if anyone else has stories from their first real activation

yeah that hurry up and wait thing is SO real, my first activation was a marathon event but then we did a real one for some flooding and it was exactly like you described. most of the day was just sitting there logging check-ins and making sure the gear was working, then a couple hours of actually relaying health and welfare traffic.

the thing that got me was how much the simplex discipline mattered — during drills people kind of half pay attention to proper procedure but when it's real everyone tightens up. our EC is pretty strict about that stuff at the training nets which i used to think was a bit much but now i totally get it. glad your first one went smooth, not every activation does.

nice writeup. im just getting my technician license sorted out and was already looking at ARES, good to hear from someone whos actually done it. does your group require HF capability or is 2m/70cm enough to get started? i keep reading different things depending on which county group's website im looking at