Lake County Ohio ARES
Emergency Coordinator
Mike Goffos WB8ZGH
Assistant Emergency Coordinators
Don Kocsis WA8TWM Ed Kopcak KB8BKE
Joe Koskcvics N8JKO Bob Mekinda K8QXO
Jim Pyle AA8OY
Weekly training net: Mondays @ 19:30 147.210/r
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) program exists to recruit licensed amateur radio operators who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment with their local ARES leadership for communications duty in public service when disaster strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) or any other local or national organization is eligible to apply for membership in ARES. Lake County is part of the Ohio ARES 10th District, which also includes the counties of Ashtabula, Geauga, Lorain, and Medina. All ARES members are encouraged, but are not a required, to take the 4 basic ICS courses, for general participation. It should be noted that some of the primary served agencies DO require basic and additional ICS training to be eligible to work in a or an emergency operations center (EOC).
In addition to the ICS courses, the ARRL has recently released two new courses to train emergency communications (EmComm) operators for volunteering within the Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®). Both courses are within the ARRL Learning Center. The Basic EmComm course is designed to get a new volunteer started. It provides basic knowledge and tools for any emergency communications volunteer and contains three modules and 11 topics, including required prerequisites. It’s expected to take approximately 10 – 20 hours to complete. The Intermediate EmComm course builds on the lessons learned in the first course and equips volunteer radio amateurs with the tools needed to thrive in the fast-paced environment of public service communications and to understand the legal rights and responsibilities of working with a served agency, as well as teach them and how ham radio fits into the broader incident command (IC) structure. The new courses replace the previous EC-001 and EC-016 programs, however, certificates of completion earned for the previous courses are still valid.
To get involved in ARES
Fill out an ARES Registration form and submit it to your local Emergency Coordinator.
In Lake County. submit to Mike Goffos (WB8ZGH) at: < mjgoffos252@gmail.com >
Suggested Guides:
ARES is a program of the ARRL and is not controlled by, nor does it control the Lake County Amateur Radio Association. The two groups operate as individual entities that are partnered to meet the same common goals.