so ive been with my local ARES group for about 8 months now, went to a handful of nets and did one tabletop exercise but this weekend is apparently a real county-wide activation for a severe weather event thats supposed to move through friday night. our EC sent out the email yesterday and now im kind of nervous about it.

my main thing is i dont really know what the flow looks like once you actually get deployed. like i know in training we talked about ICS and checking in and all that but when youre actually sitting at a served agency with your HT and your go bag its a different thing right? do i just wait for instructions from the net control or is there stuff i should be doing proactively? i have a feel the answer is obvious but id rather ask here than look like an idiot friday night

also for anybody whos done a lot of these -- do you actually end up using the radio much or is it mostly just being a warm body available in case something goes down with their normal comms? genuinely curious what the actual experience is like vs what we practice

been doing ARES stuff for probably 12 years now and honestly the nervousness you feel right now is normal and actually a good sign -- means you're taking it seriously. the main thing i'd tell you is just listen more than you transmit, at least at first. when you get to your assigned location check in with whoever the EOC liaison or served agency contact is, let them know youre there, and then yeah mostly you wait. but dont just sit there staring at your radio, pay attention to whats happening in the room, understand the situation as it develops.

as for how much you actually key up -- it depends a lot on the event. ive sat for six hours and barely said anything except my check-in and check-out. ive also had nights where it got hairy and the radio traffic was pretty constant because their repeater went down or there was a shelter that couldnt get through on their normal system. you just never know. bring something to read honestly, and bring food because nobody thinks about that the first time

i did my first real one last spring, not too different from what youre describing. my biggest surprise was how much downtime there is and how important it is to just stay available and not wander off. also make sure your batteries are topped off before you go, sounds dumb but i showed up with my HT at like 60% and spent the first hour stressing about it instead of paying attention to what was going on around me lol. good luck with it, you'll be fine