This is a video of the October 18, 2023 Zoom training on the use of ICS-213 and ICS-309 forms for the communication of emergency traffic. We will be using the procedures demonstrated here for our city-wide exercise on Saturday, October 21.
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Jerry’s Home Improvement Centers in both Eugene and Springfield held their annual Safety Day on Saturday, October 7, 2023. The Eugene EmComm booth at the Eugene Jerry’s was hosted by Gerry Brown (KK7GAB) and Matt Albertson (KJ7CNL). An unidentified CERT shared a neighboring booth at the Eugene location.
At the Springfield location, Andy Davis (KJ7JDN) manned the EmComm booth.
Sunday, October 8 – Friendly Area Neighbors’ regular Radio Ready Second Sunday exercise starts at 6 pm for FRS/GMRS operators, and at 6:30 pm for ham operators and guests on 145.450, Tone of 123, with thanks to W7ARD.
Saturday, September 9, 2023 was our city-wide “Dry Run” exercise; a chance to test ourselves and our tools in preparation for our official October exercise. Photographer Deb Jones of Friendly Area Neighbors caught some of the FAN volunteers in action.
On Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 7:00 PM, there will be a Zoom training and prep session for our city-wide exercise that will be held the following Saturday, October 21. The training session will cover the flow of information, the use of ICS forms and ID numbers and general information about the exercise. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.
The session will be held in place of our regularly scheduled on-air net. There will be a brief announcement about the training on 146.88 MHz (PL 100) at the regular net starting time of 7:00 PM.
The Zoom session will be held on our EmComm Zoom link. For more information or for the link, please use the Contact form.
Here is an overview of the exercise instructions for the Saturday September 9, exercise. You will note that the exercise has the October dates, but the details will be the same. We will be using the ICS-213 form, and the ICS-309 form. A listing of the message identifiers is also available.
Here is the link to the September 7 CERT radio workshop.
There is a new version of the ICS-309 Log form now available which includes a column for a message ID number. This version may be used to replace the previous ICS-309 even if your district is not yet using the message ID numbers.
In the heat of a real emergency, there is some basic information we each need that may not come immediately to mind. The EmComm wallet card is a place where you can note and keep some of this information handy for use in an emergency (or a drill, for that matter). Use of this card is not required; it is offered here as a tool for you to use as you see fit. In my case, I am a neighborhood Ham who receives information from neighborhood teams and relays it to the Neighborhood Net Control.
Here is an example of a card filled out with my information in NE Eugene.
Most of the information should be self-explanatory, but briefly:
- Your name and FCC callsign
- Your tactical callsign in the emergency or exercise, assigned by your region
- Incoming comms are the frequencies or channels you will monitor for incoming traffic. On my card I have listed both the main and alternative FRS channel for my neighborhood
- Outgoing comms are the frequencies or channels you will use for outgoing traffic
- Your ICS ID Prefix is the assigned prefix to use to number your message forms
- Report to is the next level up in your region’s communications chain
- Documentation lists the forms you will use to document your work
I have printed out a number of these cards on card stock to share in my neighborhood. I have created a PDF which will print 10 copies. I would encourage you to print and share these with your neighborhood teams.