ARES – Additional training above and beyond Level 4 Certification

Presented by Jeremy on October 22, 2013

Utah County ARES has established a procedure to go through to obtain experience with your radios which will help you obtain the equipment and training that you will need to help out in an Emergency.  Working on your certification levels up through level 4 requires you to obtain radios which can be used in various situations, connectors for adapting your radios or others to feed lines, portable antennas and emergency antennas, meals for emergency call outs, experience both broadcasting and listening and recording formal messages in the form of Net Manager, Assistant Net Manager, Training Item Presenter, and participant in RACES, Parades, or other events.  All things told, it’s a great start in the training process and a good thing for everyone to have an understanding of and participate in.  But training doesn’t end when you receive your level 4 certification.

The levels of certification will help you in communicating with other HAM radio operators who are out and helping in an emergency situation, but there will be many others in an emergency who are not HAM operators and have received other forms of training as well.  The more training and understanding you have of the other groups, the more prepared you will be to be a help and not a hindrance in an emergence situation.

CERT spelled C E R T (Citizens emergency response team) is another popular organization that includes disaster response training for responding at the neighborhood level. One of the first things in a disaster that we need to do is make sure that we are alright, and that those around us are alright. CERT provides additional training and an organized structure at the neighborhood and local levels and can work in conjunction with the ARES groups, especially when there is a CERT member or two in each group that are trained ARES members as well.

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the ARRL have a number of online and in person courses designed to help people prepare for supporting and leading roles in an emergency system.  Many of our UCARES members have been level 4 for a number of years and should note that the information regarding these courses has been updated in the certification requirements.

The certification requirements regarding these have changed to read:
FEMA and ARRL Courses

Included in the Certifications are courses given by FEMA and ARRL. These are considered essential to performing in leading roles during Emergency Operations. Proof of successful completion will be required before passing that certification. Several of these courses may be required to inter-operate with certain served agencies.

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) course (IS-700) is available as a self-study program with an online test. Information about NIMS can be found at:
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/courseOverview.aspx?code=IS-700.a

FEMA offers a course on Introduction to Incident Command System: IS-100.b (replaced IS-100) and ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents: IS-200.b (replaced IS-200)

This self-study course and test are available at:
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS100b.asp
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS200b.asp

Also recommended is a course on the National Response Framework. This course is recommended for those wishing to interpolate with various served agencies. It is also a requirement for the AUXCOMM certification.
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/IS800b.asp

The ARRL offers three courses on Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (AREC): EC-001, EC-015 & EC-016. These courses are available through online enrollment, and take a significant amount of time to complete (around 25 hours). While these courses are not currently part of the UCARES certification, they may be required to work with some of our served agency EOC's, and may be added to the certification at a later date. Information about the courses can be found on the ARRL website:
http://www.arrl.org/online-course-catalog

UCARES may also offer the ARRL courses from time to time for free. Successfully completing a UCARES taught course is sufficient for passing the Continuing Certification requirement; however, to receive a certificate of completion, a fee must still be paid to ARRL.

Additionally, it is good practice to regularly participated in the RACES nets and help with the events that UCARES participates in over the year.  If time is short (as it often is) please focus on the strictly volunteer events that work with other agencies and help serve the community (such as the Freedom Festival, Pioneer Days, Onion Days, Steel Days, and other such parades and events) as they are where our time is often most needed and a number of the other events that we participate in often have a paid support staff that don’t require our assistance at quite the same levels.

A lot more can be said about training and preparation, but for now, please focus on obtaining level 4 certification, looking into the FEMA and ARRL courses, and I highly recommend signing up for a CERT course when you can.

Jeremy, KE7DLT