Field Training Opportunities

Pop-Up-Practices

Pop-Up Practices are events where you can come try out a skill, with experts on hand to help you. No pressure and no consequences; they are opportunities to try something new and experiment. Pop-up practices are offered occasionally on no set schedule.

Drills

Drills are events focused on training a single skill, such as net control or packet operations. Participants are expected to have taken the classes for the skill, and in most cases to have the requisite equipment.

SCCo ARES/RACES hosts city/county drills three times a year, in which many cities participate.

Exercises

Exercises are events focused on the interactions between practitioners of various skills. Participants are expected to have the necessary classwork and equipment and at least some practical experience with the skills they sign up for.

There are also occasional opportunities to take part in broader exercises with other emergency responders. These could be county wide events, or regional or state coordinated activities.

Public Service Events

Public Service Events are events such as parades, bike races, festivals, etc., that need communications help. These are real events and we need to serve the organizers competently. These are good opportunites to practice with the public and deal with the unscripted events. That is as close as we can get to what might occur in a real emergency. However, no drill or exercise will ever provide as much training value (or as many unexpected scenarios) as a real-world event.

Public service events are added to the calendar occasionally.