Emily Davis22

Hi everyone! Just got my Tech license and want to get involved with emergency communications. My local EC mentioned I need to complete some FEMA courses before I can participate in exercises. Is it really necessary to take IS-100, IS-200, IS-700, and IS-800 right away? I'm excited to help but feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the training requirements. Any advice on which courses to prioritize first? Thanks in advance!

General is definitely a step up from Tech but its really not that bad if you already passed Tech. the extra theory stuff is mostly around things like propagation, some basic electronics, operating procedures for HF, and the regs around HF bands. hamstudy is still great for it, same deal, just more questions in the pool. for bands -- as a General you get big chunks of 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m which honestly is plenty to get started on HF. 40m at night is where i'd point any new HF op first, you can work a ton of stations without needing great conditions or a fancy antenna. you dont get the phone portions of 17m and a few others until Extra but realistically General gets you enough to keep busy for years. i wouldnt stress about Extra right away, just get on HF and have fun first then decide if you want to push for it. one thing i'll say is dont skip understanding the electrical theory bits even loosely -- not because the exam is tricky but because it'll actually help you troubleshoot stuff once you have a rig running.

so i finally did it after putting it off for like 8 months, passed my technician exam yesterday at the library session and got my callsign this morning which honestly i did not expect to happen that fast. anyway i have a baofeng uv-5r that my brother in law gave me and i programmed in the local repeater frequencies from the club website but i just kind of sit there with the radio and dont actually key up because im not sure if im doing it right or if someone will be listening or if my audio is even going to sound okay. i know its dumb but there is something weirdly intimidating about just pressing the button for the first time. did anyone else feel this way or am i just overthinking it