TO: ALL WEST VIRGINIA ARES MEMBERS (OFFICIAL)
ALL ARES AND NON-ARES AMATEURS ANYWHERE (INFORMATION)
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM WV SECTION EMERGENCY COORDINATOR
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INCORPORATED
WV ARES BULLETIN NR 10.16 DATE: April 18, 2010
SUBJECT: LEARNING BY EXPERIENCE.
Assisting with events like the Half-Marathon, Homecoming and Christmas Parades, and other walking, running, biking, or boating events, has a multiple purpose. It affords us the opportunity to handle tactical communications, use tactical call signs, expose Amateur Radio to the public, and provide a service to our communities that no one else but Amateur Radio could do.
If you feel you may have goofed, or made mistakes during any of these events, then you've already learned the most important lesson. Recognizing where we have failed, or gone wrong in an event, is our best learning experience. It may be a year before we can see if we corrected the mistakes that we made, but, we know what to correct.
These events and experiences makes us better communicators, and helps us better understand communications under pressure, like during an emergency or disaster.
Use these non-emergency events to learn what to do and how to correct the mistakes. They will help to keep us from making the same mistakes in an actual disaster or emergency.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
Wood County WV
WV ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
WV ARES District 3 Emergency Coordinator