This past weekend (1/2 June 2013), I took the Office of Emergency Communications (OEC - part of Homeland Security) AUXCOMM course at the Raleigh Emergency Operations Center. It was an excellent course. It was well taught and a lot of good information was passed out. I would recommend the course to any amateur radio operator with an interest in assisting during emergency situations.
It was pointed out during this course that the Amateur in amateur radio means that a person does it for the love of it and not to be compensated in any way. "Doing it" is its' own compensation. But it is also important to realize that amateur shouldn't mean un-professional.
The instructors stressed that we should leave our amateur radio organizations/positions/awards/badges/hats/t-shirts/etc. at the door when we report for an AUXCOMM assignment. We become Auxiliary Communications personnel who have some special skills and knowledge which is appreciated by the emergency responders, but is not of any interest to them beyond how we perform the jobs they assign to us. In other words, do our assigned tasks, and don't try to impress the people for whom we are working with our knowledge about radios, etc. That makes a lot of sense to me. If you are very knowledgeable, it should be obvious by how you perform your assigned duties.
I've always found some of discussions among hams to be very tiring. Flaunting equipment capabilities/hour of net participation/awards won/digital modes used/size of antenna/power supply model number/___________ (fill in the blank) seems to me to be similar to bumping chests or elk or moose or ram horn locking. The same thing occurs among computer users - computer model number/size of hard drive/size of RAM/CPU speed/monitor size/______ (fill in the blanks). And the most insufferable of all is the amateur radio computer user. It's ok to tell me if I ask, but not gratuitously.
Sorry. I got off track there. But those are the kinds of things we do to try to impress the unenlightened with our prowess. And those are the kinds of things that keep us out of EOCs and other emergency situations.
It occurred to me that I enjoyed this course more than the COML course I took last November, probably because it was pointed at amateur radio operators, and the jargon used was more understandable than that spoken by emergency people. Not being immersed in the emergency responder environment caused me during the COML course to have to think about "what did he just say?" That detracted from the course for me because I missed important points. But that's why we take these courses - so that when we are in the environment, we won't be in a total fog. This past weekend's course was a good "bridge" between the two environments.
A photo of the class is at http://goo.gl/Zhd7D or http://auxcomm.us/main/2013/06/oec-auxcomm-training-class-held-at-n-c-state-eoc-2/
The final note in the course was: "Train as you operate, operate as you train"
It was pointed out during this course that the Amateur in amateur radio means that a person does it for the love of it and not to be compensated in any way. "Doing it" is its' own compensation. But it is also important to realize that amateur shouldn't mean un-professional.
The instructors stressed that we should leave our amateur radio organizations/positions/awards/badges/hats/t-shirts/etc. at the door when we report for an AUXCOMM assignment. We become Auxiliary Communications personnel who have some special skills and knowledge which is appreciated by the emergency responders, but is not of any interest to them beyond how we perform the jobs they assign to us. In other words, do our assigned tasks, and don't try to impress the people for whom we are working with our knowledge about radios, etc. That makes a lot of sense to me. If you are very knowledgeable, it should be obvious by how you perform your assigned duties.
I've always found some of discussions among hams to be very tiring. Flaunting equipment capabilities/hour of net participation/awards won/digital modes used/size of antenna/power supply model number/___________ (fill in the blank) seems to me to be similar to bumping chests or elk or moose or ram horn locking. The same thing occurs among computer users - computer model number/size of hard drive/size of RAM/CPU speed/monitor size/______ (fill in the blanks). And the most insufferable of all is the amateur radio computer user. It's ok to tell me if I ask, but not gratuitously.
Sorry. I got off track there. But those are the kinds of things we do to try to impress the unenlightened with our prowess. And those are the kinds of things that keep us out of EOCs and other emergency situations.
It occurred to me that I enjoyed this course more than the COML course I took last November, probably because it was pointed at amateur radio operators, and the jargon used was more understandable than that spoken by emergency people. Not being immersed in the emergency responder environment caused me during the COML course to have to think about "what did he just say?" That detracted from the course for me because I missed important points. But that's why we take these courses - so that when we are in the environment, we won't be in a total fog. This past weekend's course was a good "bridge" between the two environments.
A photo of the class is at http://goo.gl/Zhd7D or http://auxcomm.us/main/2013/06/oec-auxcomm-training-class-held-at-n-c-state-eoc-2/
The final note in the course was: "Train as you operate, operate as you train"
