Once a year we run our own EmComm Workshop. The workshop is designed to give an introduction of amateur radio emergency communications that we do within the team, playing out typical scenarios, and having an emphasis on both classroom theory and hands-on activities that simulate various situations presented by actual team activations.

Workshop participants will need a hand-held transceiver capable of the 2 Meter and 440 MHz amateur radio bands. These will be used for various over-the-air activities throughout the day.

All team members are highly encouraged to participate in this workshop at least once to get acquainted with the nuances of amateur radio emergency communications, to be ready for when we have actual activations. However, all amateur radio operators are welcome to attend.

The course contains the following topics:

• Incident Command System Basics for Ham Radio
  
• Long-Term Preparation
  
• Essential Elements of Information Report
  
• Immediate Preparation for Activation
  
• Net Operations
  
• Regular Nets
  
• Team Activation
  
• Initial Reporting
  
• Situational Awareness
  
• Radio Room Operations
  
• WinLink 2000
  
• National Traffic System
  
• Voicing Procedures
  
• Deployment and Response
  
• Stand Down
  
• After Incident Reporting

The course syllabus is as follows: