The ACES development team used emergency managers and amateur radio
emergency communications leadership to identify a basic set of skills
that are required of all operators, regardless of served agency, to
create a training package. The goal is to create operators who can
participate in an incident and function as valued members of the team,
rather than be seen as amateurs. The focus is on amateur radio used in
an auxiliary capacity (as required by FCC rules) but includes discussion
of other communications systems used by served agencies. The course has
been delivered multiple times in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and
California over the past few years. More information can be found at http://www.oregonaces.org/content/faq.
What makes this course unique is in addition to the classroom training,
they include hands-on exercises to insure participants can program
radios, send formal message traffic, etc. A complete outline for the
course can be found at
http://www.oregonaces.org/content/basic-certification. We would like to
encourage anyone interested in emergency communications to attend. The
cost is kept to a minimum to appeal to the broadest possible group. The
training is offered at different locations as local hosts are
identified, much the way the ICS classes are delivered.
The next course offering is the weekend of September 28, 29 in Tukwila.
You can find details and register for the session at
http://www.oregonaces.org/. We hope to see you there!
If you have questions about this great training opportunity please
address them to Scott Honaker, N7SS, scott.n7ss@gmail.com
ARRL Western Washington Section
Section Manager: Monte L Simpson, AF7PQ
af7pq@arrl.org