so we finally got around to doing a full scale simulated disaster exercise with our county ARES group, been trying to coordinate this for like 6 months and we had maybe 18 operators show up which i thought was pretty good turnout honestly. the scenario was a prolonged power outage combined with flooding that took out several repeaters and most cell infrastructure in the southern part of the county.

what i didnt expect was how fast things got confusing with net control. we had two guys both trying to act as NCS at the same time on 2m simplex and it basically turned into a mess for the first 20 minutes. nobody had clearly established who had primary net control authority before things kicked off and we just kind of assumed everyone knew. spoiler: they didnt.

the other thing that caught us off guard was how many guys showed up with HTs and nothing else. like no external antenna, no spare batteries, just a stock rubber duck. in a real event those folks would have been pretty limited past maybe a mile or two depending on terrain. we're in a hilly area so line of sight is already tough.

anyway posting this because i know a lot of groups are planning spring exercises and thought maybe hearing what went sideways for us might help somebody else. happy to answer questions about what we did and what we'd change.

yeah the dual NCS thing is a really common problem and it almost always comes down to not having a written ICS structure before the exercise starts. we ran into the exact same thing a couple years back. what helped us was designating NCS, alternate NCS, and a liaison position in writing like a week before the exercise and making sure everybody got a copy of the net plan. sounds obvious but it really does make a difference when the stress is on.

the HT issue is something i think about a lot too. we actually started requiring operators to bring a minimum kit checklist to our exercises — external antenna or mag mount capable setup, 12+ hours of battery, and a written copy of all the simplex and backup frequencies. a few people grumbled about it at first but after the first drill where guys ran out of juice by noon the complaints kinda stopped. terrain is brutal for HTs around here too so i feel that.

this is really helpful to read, im still pretty new to all the ARES stuff and havent done a full drill yet. the net control situation sounds stressful, how did you guys eventually sort it out mid-exercise or did someone just kind of take over?