Amateur Radio operators use Field days, POTA's, and SOTA's to prepare for emergency situations where normal communication infrastructure becomes unavailable. ARES is discussed on the ARRL Public Service ARES web page. King George County does not currently require ARES membership in order to help during a crisis in the county but ARES has excellent training courses available to help prepare you to assist. As these training materials are copyright protected, they are only available to ARES members.

The first step to get involved with ARES would be to download the Training Task book from the ARRL ARES Webpage and review the required tasks to determine if ARES involvement is for you.

Step 2 would be to fill out the ARES Registration Form provided below and provide it to our Emergency Coordinator (Jack Deem).

The ARRL ARES Plan, describes the three levels of training available. Level 1 training is for those that just want the basics. Anyone with a Ham license pretty much qualifies for Level 1. Level 2 requires completion of the 4 basic ICS courses. Level 3 is for those operators wanting to be involved in ARES management and requires many more ICS courses.