so i finally got my general last spring and joined the local ARES group a couple months ago, been going to the monthly nets and the ICS-100 and 200 training which was... a lot of material but i think i got the gist of it. anyway our EC just sent out an email that there's a countywide severe weather exercise next weekend and they want all members to participate if possible.

my problem is i dont really know what my actual job is gonna be. like i know we'll be setting up a net and relaying messages between served agencies but i dont know what that looks like in practice. do i just bring my HT and show up? should i have something more capable? i have a IC-7300 at home but obviously thats not going portable easily. i have a Yaesu FT-60 which is what i usually use for the local repeater. also not sure about the message forms, ive seen ICS-213 mentioned a lot but ive never actually filled one out for real.

anyone been through a first activation and can give me a heads up on what to actually expect? dont want to show up and look completely clueless

Hey welcome to the fun part of the hobby honestly. First activations are always a little chaotic but thats kind of the point of exercises, nobody expects you to have it all figured out right away. Your FT-60 is totally fine for most auxiliary comm roles especially if you're working off a local repeater which is probably what'll happen for something like a county exercise.

The ICS-213 stuff will make a lot more sense once you're actually doing it. Basically you're just writing down who the message is from, who it's to, and the actual message text, then you sign it and log it. Your EC or net control will walk you through it. What I'd honestly suggest is reach out to your EC before the exercise and just ask what your assignment is. Good ECs appreciate members who do that instead of just showing up and waiting to be told what to do. Bring a notebook and two pens minimum, pencils too if you have them. And snacks. Seriously people forget snacks and then get grumpy three hours in.

yeah the 213 form is way less intimidating once you hold a real one. they're usually just passed around on paper at the local level. i'd honestly print a few blank ones before the exercise just to get familiar with the layout, you can find them on the FEMA site.

also dont stress too much about equipment for your first one, the FT-60 will be fine. i ran my first two activations on a beat up HT and nobody cared. if you end up doing more of these and want to go portable you'll probably start looking at something like a FT-891 or the IC-705 setup but thats way down the road