Several of you have sent me emails regarding the new EC-016 Public Service and Emcom Management course. This is the new course that replaced the Level 2 and Level 3 ARECC courses.   This course does have some signifcant pre-requisites but is designed to provide a level of training more thourough than the previous courses.  Below is some information on the course and some links to where to register on the ARRL website: http://arrl.org/online-course-catalog

Course #: EC-016

Description. This course is designed to train licensed Amateur Radio operators who will be in leadership and managerial roles organizing other volunteers to support public service activities and communications emergencies. In this course you will learn how radio amateurs prepare and organize to support local community events, and, working in coordination with governmental and other emergency response organizations, deploy their services to provide communications when needed in an emergency.

This course is made available on our website to all ARRL members. It is a self-study course that you may complete at your own pace.

This is not a course which you can easily complete in a weekend - it is not intended to be. If you are currently serving in a leadership role in your local ARES organization or are training to assume more management responsibility, you may want to complete the final assessment for this course and earn the certificate of completion validating your study.   Students who successfully complete the curriculum activities and receive their certificates will indeed be ready for leadership roles in situations where lives and property are at stake.

We understand that you are volunteers and "amateurs." Your and our interest in this training is to provide the best possible assistance to our communities when our services are needed. Thank You! for all that you do.

Prerequisites:

Before you begin the course you should have completed the following prerequisites. These courses provide a foundation for the content of this course. ·

• ARRL Amateur Radio Communications Level 1/ Basic

And the following Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) courses: ·

• ICS-100  Introduction to Incident Command System ·
• ICS-200 ICS for Single Incidents and Initial Action Incidents ·
• IS-700 NIMS: An Introduction
• NIMS ICS-300, Intermediate Incident Command System, a classroom course, is also highly recommended, but not required.   Throughout this course you will find additional FEMA courses that are referenced as preparation for topics within the course.  The additional courses required are the following: ·

• IS-800 National Response Framework ·
• IS-240 Leadership & Influence ·
• IS-241 Decision Making & Problem Solving
• IS-250 Emergency Support Function 15 (ESF-15) External Affairs·
• IS-1 Emergency Manager, An Orientation to the Position ·
• IS-288 The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management ·
• IS-244 Developing and Managing Volunteers ·
• IS-120.a An Introduction to Exercises ·
• IS-130 Exercise Evaluation and Improvement Planning ·
• IS-139 Exercise Design

Course Syllabus.

1. Amateur Radio Relevance in a Changing World
2. Key ARES Management Positions
3. ARRL Field Staff and Section Level Support Positions
4. ARES Management and the Incident Command System
5. Review of Basic Net Operations
6. Health and Welfare Traffic Management
7. Digital Options in Message Handling
8. Working with Served Agencies
9. Building Your ARES Organization
10. Training
11. ARES and the Media
12. FCC Rules on Emergency Communication

• Student Activities. Here are a few examples of typical suggested student learning activities in the course.  Develop a list of topics or questions you would use to guide the post-emergency debriefing.
• Consider the modes that do and do not have forward error correction or other ways to assure that their transmissions are correctly received. Match these modes' utility in deployments and activities in which you have participated in the past. Which ones could have worked out well? Why - or why not?
• Prepare a presentation outline you could use in talking to public safety leaders about your own group.
• To apply for the final assessment and certificate you will need to document completion of the prerequisites listed above, obtain a recommendation from your Section Manager and pay an administrative fee. For more information on enrolling for the final assessment and certificate : http://arrl.org/ec-016-application-for-final-assessment

Documenting Course Requirements These requirements need to be documented and verified by the ARRL Continuing Education Program office:

Please note: the list of FEMA course as prerequisites, as well as those referenced internally within the course, may change as FEMA makes changes to its course offerings or the course is modified to introduce new content.

Section Manager Recommendation

After completing the Public Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio Amateurs course you may choose to take a final assessment to earn a certificate of course completion. To enroll for the final assessment certain requirements must be met.   The Public Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio Amateurs course requires that you have previously completed ARRL’s Emergency Communications Level 1/Basic course, certain FEMA courses and have some experience with Amateur Radio and public service/emergency communications.

To apply for the Final Assessment and course completion certificate you will also need to supply a reference from your ARRL Section Manager, stating the reason for your participation. Section Managers will take into account your relevant experience or role within public service and emergency communications and whether you are in good standing within the amateur radio community.

Anyone who wants to receive a course completion certificate for this new course (which we refer to in shorthand as “Advanced EmComm” or “Emcomm for Managers”) will first need to document that they have satisfied these requirements. After providing the necessary documentation, you will need to pay an enrollment fee of $35.00 to gain access to the course’s final exam. This fee will help to offset the cost of developing the course and for the online testing service as well as costs for administrative support.

For those wishing to take the course, please complete the online registration and proof of completion of pre-reqs and then contact me regarding the SM recommendation. I will confirm with ARRL that you have submitted all required paperwork and review your request.

Lee