Volunteering - My Amateur Radio QTH

ARRL training courses

The ARRL offers a few free training courses to HAM operations to help assist them to prepare for emergency situations. Just like the FEMA courses, these are self-paced online courses that you can work on. These are “nice to have” pieces of training that will greatly improve your abilities to operate.

However, these do not take the place of the required FEMA pieces of training needed to participate with your local ARES/RACES. And actually, the FEMA courses are prerequisites for the ARRL courses.

To take the ARRL training courses, you must first register with the ARRL: http://www.arrl.org/online-course-registration
(NOTE: Registration does NOT require becoming an ARRL member for these courses)

Basic

EC-001 Introduction to Emergency Communication
- Prerequisites:
  – FEMA IS-100.c & IS-700.b

Advanced

EC-016 Public Service and Emergency Communication Management for Radio Amateurs
- Prerequisites:
  – EC-001 Intro to Emergency Communiactions
  – Skywarn Training
  – FEMA IS-100.c, IS-200.c, IS-700.b, & IS-800.c
- Referenced:
  – FEMA IS-120.c, IS-230.e, IS-235.c, IS-240.c, IS-241.c, IS-242.c, IS-244.b, & IS-288.a
PR-101 Public Relations 101 for Radio Amateurs

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FEMA training courses

As a licensed radio operator, learning how to be an effective and properly trained volunteer will allow you to be an essential communications asset during a response to any emergency. During exercises and emergencies, your local ARES/RACES must comply with the National Incident Management System (NIMS) because when activated, its operations would function under the Incident Command System (ICS). This means you will need to complete some official training if you want to volunteer with your local ARES/RACES organization.

To help you become “qualified”, FEMA offers a few self-paced training courses relating to Emergency Management that are beneficial to HAM radio operators. All of these FEMA training courses are offered for free, online, thru the FEMA website. They are self-paced courses that you are able to proceed at your own pace through. Each online course is presented as slides that you will click through, and additional course materials are also available for download on the webpage for each course.

Once you complete the course you are then able to take an online exam, for which you will receive a certificate of completion if you pass. In my experience, after taking an exam, I was emailed my pass/fail status and certificate (if passed) within five minutes of completing the exam.

To initially begin any of the FEMA courses you will need to have first created a FEMA Student ID to log in with: https://cdp.dhs.gov/femasid

Basic, required courses:

IS-100.c Introduction to the Incident Command System, ICS 100
IS-200.c Basic Incident Command System for Initial Response
IS-700.b An Introduction to the National Incident Management System
IS-800.d National Response Framework, an Introduction

Advanced, optional courses:

IS-120.c An Introduction to Exercises
IS-230.e Fundamentals of Emergency Management
IS-235.c Emergency Planning
IS-240.c Leadership & Influence
IS-241.c Decision Making & Problem Solving
IS-242.b Effective Communications
IS-244.b Developing & Managing Volunteers

Professional Development Series –
As an added perk to completing the courses I list above, you will receive a certificate from the FEMA Emergency Management Institute for finishing their Professional Development Series.

Optional but related courses:

IS-288.a Role of Voluntary Organizations in Emergency Management
IS-951 DHS Radio Interoperability
IS-2200 Basic Emergency Operations Center Functions

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