ACES

Depoe Bay CERT and Lincoln County ACS sponsored an ACES BASIC class at the Gleneden Beach Depoe Bay Fire Hall.  The class consisted of new North Lincoln and Depoe Bay CERT communicators as well as ACS/RACES communicators.  Four ACES instructors participated in the presentation and fourteen people graduated from the program.  Depoe Bay CERT has been very proactive in encouraging their members to get amateur radio licenses.  Student experience ranged from less than one year to well over 30 years, with the more experienced students pitching in to help the newer folks learn the techniques needed for emergency communications.

The winter 2011 offering of the ACES basic course was sponsored by the Hillsboro EOC amateur radio team.  The typical Hillsboro and Beaverton students were joined by colleages from Multnomah County ARES and the City of Gresham.  Skill levels ranged from "very experienced" to those that made their first amateur transmission as part of the course.  Represented agencies included ARES/RACES units, city EOCs, and multiple CERT organizations in the metro area.  Three of the lessons were taught by guest instructors, one of which being the City of Hillsboro Emergency Manager.

In Washington the weekend of October 30th, the Snohomish County ACS/ARES and City of Everett ACS groups partnered to sponsor an ACES Basic course. The course was attended by more than 30 students, and taught by a team of Oregon and Washington instructors. Participating agencies include Snohomish County ACS/ARES, City of Everett ACS, Federal Way ACS, Whatcom County ACS, Tulalip Tribes OEM, Blaine ACS, Puget Sound Energy ARES and Emergency Services Coordinating Agency RACES.

Class started in Everett in the Providence Hospital conference room. After two days of instruction and practice, the class moved to Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management at Paine Field for the final day. Following the written test, the students were divided into smaller groups and evaluated on their ability to properly program their radio. The students individually set frequency, tone, offset and other parameters into their radios and demonstrated saving them into a memory position. They also demonstrated determining if a message is tactical or formal, and the proper procedure to send each one.

Aside from individual evaluations, the group conducted several simulated nets where they checked in, listed their assigned simulated traffic, and sent and received at least one message.

Following the course, a train the trainer program was delivered to enable local regions to take the ACES Basic course and teach classes in their own organizations.

For a more detailed account of the course, see Brian Lawler's blog from Whatcom County.

For more pictures of the event, see the gallery.

This weekend the first two Oregon ACES Basic Certification courses were held in Tillamook and Lincoln counties.  Each was structured as a three-day offering with Friday and Saturday as classroom sessions and Sunday as the practical portion.  With 11 and 12 participants respectively, a total of 23 people achieved their Basic Certification certificate.

To see the pictures taken during the two courses, head over to the gallery.

On Saturday, July 10, 2010, Oregon ACES conducted their second Auxiliary Communications Test (ACT).  To date, we have reports from most groups, showing a total of 59 individual participants.  The focus of this event was integration of non-ham communications resources (such as CERT) into the response simulation.  The exercise was very successful, again garnering overwhelmingly positive comments and including more people than before.

The full set of pictures is in the gallery.