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Author Topic: ARRL Courses  (Read 7202 times)

AC0KT

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ARRL Courses
« on: March 21, 2008, 02:15:19 AM »

I'm wondering if anyone here has taken the ARRL EC series of courses, and what they thought of them.

I have been involved in ARES in the past, and was inactive for a time, but now with my renewed activity on the bands, would like to give back a bit through public service.  While not required for ARES participation, the courses DO look interesting.

Due to the fact I would be starting with EC-001, to those that have taken the course, my questions are:

1.  If you took the course, how much of the information was actually "new" to you?

2.  What was the one thing you walked away from the course thinking "that was a REALLY good chunk of information" (where something just "clicked" or something you've previously observed was suddenly explained, etc.)


I am very interested in learning any information that may make me a more competent operator, or provide information that will assist in preparedness.

What I'm not interested in "learning" is all the information that should be common sense to the skilled operator, or that highly specialized information that can be easily looked up in the handbook or operators manual.  I don't want to take a course that is going to teach me how to draw up NTS forms from scratch out of my head, or help me memorize the organizational chart of various ARES leadership positions.  Like any compulsive "filer" I've already got this reference material in the shack, no need to waste what little brain-storage I have left on this stuff.

I have been toying with the idea of just trying the course out to see if the information presented will actually be useful.  As an ARRL member though, even the $45 seems like a big risk to take.  I know I'll be a member for as long as I can operate, QST alone is worth the price of admission.  I am a little skeptical about everything else the league charges for, though.  After scanning through my library to figure out what actually warrants the limited bookshelf space in the shack, and what goes on the "house bookshelf" I got a nice refresher on just how many of my ARRL books are just neatly organized collections of the information that is more easily searched through on line.  (so essentially, are worth EXACTLY the price of the paper they are printed on)

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KE4SKY

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« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2008, 05:35:41 AM »

The ARRL courses are one option. These links take you to training we use with our volunteer groups. Materials are copyrighted, but available without charge for non-commercial, educational and public safety use, subject to conditions in the copyright statement on our web site.
 
ACS-RACES Radio Operator Basic Course  - http://www.w4ava.org/training.htm
 
CERT Two-Way Radio Fundamentals Course - http://www.w4ava.org/races/CCauxcomm03.htm
 
ACS and RACES Manual - http://www.w4ava.org/races/auxcomm01.htm
 
Disaster Survival Skills for the Urban Environment - http://www.w4ava.org/races/KKauxcomm33.htm
 
Virginia RACES Training - http://www.varaces.org/adv-training.htm
 
RACES Rescource Library - http://www.w4ava.org/races/AAauxcomm.htm
 
FEMA - NIMS Training Page - http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/nims_training.shtm
 
If I can be of further assistance please contact me.
 
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AC0KT

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« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2008, 05:47:03 AM »

THANKS!

Bunch of great links to satisfy my thirst for knowledge.

From the looks of it, there are plenty of resources out there for what I would assume is similar knowledge.

The more I look at things, I think the ARRL courses might just be "certifications" that you pay for.  In the computer industry, where any competent tech can pass nearly any exam they throw at you, you really start realizing that its just about the $$ rather than your abilities.  We like to call it "buying a resume"

When it really counts, the proof is in the pudding, so to speak.  If there are valuable lessons to be learned in the ARRL courses though, I'd be very interested to know.
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KC0SHZ

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« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2008, 09:36:54 AM »

Our EOC wants us to take the FEMA courses (ICS 100, 200, 400, and 700), for sure the 100 and 200 courses.  These are free and online/self-paced.  

I got something out of each of them.
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AI4NS

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« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2008, 04:48:29 PM »

It depends on what you are after. The ARRL courses focus on message handling, setting up communications, shift work, equipment, etc. Most ARES organizations require or at least strongly desire the completion of at least the first course. The FEMA courses deal with emergencies, etc with a focus on government operations. They also cover shift work, site prep, etc but are more generic in nature. They are also required by DHS for all workers working at a government operation, regardless of affiliation. If the government entity can not prove all workers have completed the courses required for each position, it will lead to loss of grant money from the federal and state governments. The links that KE4SKY mentioned are great to make you a good EMCOMM person, but the FEMA courses are your "license" to work in an EOC.
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KF4URY

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« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2008, 07:35:32 PM »

---Posted by AI4NS on March 21, 2008

The links that KE4SKY mentioned are great to make you a good EMCOMM person, but the FEMA courses are your "license" to work in an EOC.---



There are two things you "need"....

#1 to be a good communicator, otherwise why show up?  

#2 to have what you need to do #1, so if that means ICS-836 "How to organize a rubik's cube" then that's what you need to take.  



Until a time hits when arrl courses are required, maybe your time would be better spent getting more and/or better training elsewhere.  

Would I spend the money on an arrl course, no.  I also am not a drinker of the arrl koolaid either, so maybe that's one more reason for me  >:o)


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W0IPL

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« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2008, 05:59:26 AM »

As a person that worked on the initial development of the ARECC courses, I'll say that they lean toward the Applehood and Mother-pie [sic] end of emergency communication. In my opinion they are full of the "Gee, I already knew that" and generalities that allow the courses to cover "everything" to a trivial degree and almost nothing, fully. After seven years of upgrades they are finally approaching where they should have been on initial release in 2001.

You can go to the Kentucky or Colorado courses (built from the original ARECC source material) and get a full set of the usable portion of ARECC, for free. Will you learn something "new" from either of these courses? I believe that most will. Will there be a large percentage of "common sense"? ABSOLUTELY! Just remember how uncommon "common sense" is anymore. The real purpose of these courses is to document what "most" already knew, so there is far better consistency.
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KV9U

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« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2008, 05:24:35 PM »

I took the classes a few years ago when they were subsidized by outside companies. I really can not recommend the courses for those of us who have been involved for emergency communications for decades, but for newer hams it might be of some value to take the first course.

There is nothing in the course material that is something not covered elsewhere and I STRONGLY have asked my Division Director to make the material freely available. He did not respond. I have been told by the ARRL staff that we can use the material to teach the classes locally but we can not allow the students to have copies of the material, even if it is electronic copies. They want to at least sell the books. They claim they can not afford

If I would have had to actually pay for the courses I would not have continued after taking the first course. And after taking the other two courses, which in some cases repeat information from the first course, I would have found the cost/benefit difficult to justify. I did learn something about Marine communications which might have some application due to our proximity to the Mississippi River.

From what I understand, there have been updates, especially to Level III, but even though we have completed the coursework, there is no access to updates which I consider unacceptable. Presumably the ARRL wants you to purchase updated printed courses.

The course certifications are not directly associated with the interests of emergency management or other agencies that might ask for our help. The information can be helpful to a ham who is new to emergency communications.

The main value of the coursework is for those who wish to have a leadership in ARRL ARES since different positions may require that you take certain courses. In our Section you are expected to take Level I if you are appointed as an EC, and other positions require Level II or Level III. I can not support charging for such required training and I suspect it may be affecting the ability to retain quality people for ARES positions.

Again, this material should be made available at no cost when it is a required course for volunteers. Perhaps some of you folks will write to your Division Director (if you are an ARRL member) and suggest that this material be made at least electronically available.

It seems that a while back there was a ham who was developing a computer presentation program based on the ARRL materials, but I can not remember what ever came of that. Perhaps some of you recall?
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K9KJM

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« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2008, 01:34:44 AM »

I took all three ARRL courses a few years ago when the fee was repaid if you passed them.  
I  consider them to be good educational courses. I expect most everyone will come away from them learning something new.

Are they worth the 45 bucks each now??   I dont know.
I suggest you take the first one and decide for yourself.

And DO be sure to check out the FEMA courses. All FREE and lots of good info in them too.

http://training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.asp
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W2KYM

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« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2008, 10:11:27 AM »

They're probably great courses to take, but naturally, the league wants to make a buck which is their bottom line. I for one feel compelled to take them because I am a RACES C.O. in my county. But to have to pay for them when I provide my services on a volunteer basis is not attractive to me. FEMA's courses are tax payer subsidized and all my volunteer firefighter training was paid for by the dept.

I don't know....
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KE4SKY

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« Reply #10 on: March 24, 2008, 07:38:42 AM »

The IS-300 and IS-400 courses are exercised based and not available online so far as I know. The ICS-300 and ICS-400 requirement is referenced in the following document which can be accessed on the NIMS web site at http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/.

During the conduct of this training, students move away from awareness training (IS-700, IS-800, ICS-100, and ICS-200) to practical application of ICS (i.e. development of an incident action plan, establishing a command structure based on a scenario, etc.). The next step in the training process will be for students to develop core competencies by completing ICS position specific training.
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W2KYM

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« Reply #11 on: March 24, 2008, 09:29:05 AM »

Oh yes...
I took 300 and I will tell you, this is no sleep during class or day dream situation. You definitely will work during this time!
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K2GW

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« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2008, 07:44:46 AM »

I took all 3 ARRL courses and the FEMA courses mentioned.

The ARRL ones are practially oriented to what folks actually do as hands on ham communicators.  If you've  done emergency communications for a few days on a few actual emergencies, you probably will only get a little new info out of them; if not, then much of it will be new and valuable to you.  

BTW, the League doesn't make money off of these three courses, most of the $45 fee goes to the CT Learning Consortium for hosting them.  That's why they are MUCH cheaper than the other League online courses for things like antenna modeling where the league does legitimately make a profit.

IMHO, the FEMA courses are mostly about the political and govermental bureaucracy of running major disasters and are more valuable to folks leading EmComm operations than to folks who just plan to be simple communicators.

Summary is I would say the ARRL courses are more useful to folks getting started and the FEMA courses are more useful to EmComm supervisors and management.  Thus take the ARRL ones or their equivalent first.

73

Gary, K2GW
SNJ SEC
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AC2Q

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« Reply #13 on: April 03, 2008, 10:17:51 AM »

As regards EC-001, I found it quite informative, and actually ENJOYED taking it.

EC-002 seemed to repeat much of EC-001, and damn near put me to sleep.

Others in the Group tell me that EC-003 was good and informative, but I am out of motivation.

"I never made it without biting, ask Mr. Owl"
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AC2Q

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« Reply #14 on: April 03, 2008, 10:21:26 AM »

I became an ARRL Member solely for the tuition reimbursement for EC-001 and EC-002.

It ended up costing me over $2000.

Damn QST Advertisements...............
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