so after like two years of drills and monthly nets and practicing ICS forms that nobody ever seemed to use the same way twice, we actually got called out last week for a real activation. county EOC got spun up because of the flooding on the east side and they needed backup comms between the shelter at the high school and the EOC because their landlines were being flaky and they didn't trust cell for critical traffic.

honestly it went pretty well but there me share a few things that surprised me coming from someone who thought the trainings were maybe a bit overly repetitive. first thing is the ICS integration stuff - like i understood it in the abstract but actually showing up and checking in with the EOC coordinator, getting badged, finding out who my actual supervisor was in the ICS structure... that stuff felt real in a way the tabletop exercises never quite did. the forms made sense suddenly.

second thing and this one kinda caught me off guard - nobody cared about my fancy radio. i had my IC-7300 in the car just in case but all they needed was basic VHF simplex and i spent most of the activation on a HT talking to the shelter operator. the boring stuff was the useful stuff. our EC has been saying this for literally years and i finally get it now.

anyway if you're on the fence about whether ARES training is worth the time commitment i'd say yes, but also maybe manage expectations - most of it really is just about showing up consistently and knowing how your local EOC actually works, not about having cool gear or knowing exotic modes.

yeah this tracks with what ive heard from the older guys in our group. the EC here always says the most important skill is being someone they trust to show up and not cause problems, lol. which sounds almost insulting but i think hes right. we had a guy who was technically super sharp, knew DMR and all kinds of digital stuff, but he missed like every other drill and when a real activation came around they called the reliable people first and he was kind of salty about it.

glad yours went smooth. we havent had a real activation in a couple years, just the annual exercises with the county, and honestly those are fine but theres definitely something different when you know the stakes are actually real even a little bit.

I'm newer to all this - just got my general last spring and I've been sitting in on our local ARES nets but haven't fully committed yet partly because I wasn't sure if I had enough experience to be useful. Reading stuff like this is helpful. Can I ask what your training schedule looked like before you felt ready? Like how long were you with the group before you felt like you weren't going to be a liability during a real event?