so i've been doing the monthly nets and the occasional tabletop exercise for about a year now with our local ARES group and this weekend is apparently going to be an actual activation - county EOC is asking us to support a pretty big search and rescue operation, missing hiker situation up in the hills east of town.

my EC gave me a heads up yesterday and said to bring my go-bag and plan to be at the EOC by 0700 saturday. i've done the IS-100 and IS-700 courses online like they asked when i joined but i've never actually sat in the EOC during a real event, only during drills. i dont really know what my role is going to be, like do i just show up and wait to be assigned a frequency or do i need to coordinate with someone ahead of time? also wondering if i should bring my HT and my mobile rig or just the HT is fine. i have a little 25w mobile in my truck so i could bring that too if it helps.

any advice from folks who've done real activations before would be great, i'm a bit nervous honestly

totally normal to be nervous your first time, i remember mine was a flooding situation back in like 2015 and i had no idea what was going on for the first hour lol. the biggest thing i'd say is just check in with your EC as soon as you arrive and dont try to freelance anything - the EOC has its own rhythm and your job is basically to be a reliable relay between served agencies, not to make decisions on your own. bring both rigs if you can, having the mobile in the truck gives you way more options especially if they need someone to go mobile and relay from a different location. HT alone is fine for inside the building but range can be an issue depending on how the building is shielded.

also bring food and water for at least 8 hours, way more comfortable than trying to scrounge something mid-activation. and a notepad, actual paper, you'll want it for logging traffic even if the EOC has their own system

yeah what he said about the notepad is real, i cannot stress that enough. and honestly the IS courses are good background but nothing really prepares you for the actual pace of it. sometimes its super hectic and sometimes you're sitting there for two hours waiting. just stay off your phone and stay alert because things can change fast and your EC needs to be able to grab you without hunting you down.

one more thing - make sure your go bag batteries are all fresh before you go. sounds obvious but ive shown up to exercises before with a depleted pack because i forgot to top everything off after the last drill. good luck saturday, sounds like a good group to be learning with