HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED?       

 Life is full of choices and responsibilities!!!!!!

 

1. If ARES/RACES ceased to function as it is?
2. How things would work without training?
3. What you would do if you tried to get a message through in an emergency and NO one could hear your call.
4. How you would feel if one of your family members were injured and your antenna was down and you did not have a back up emergency antenna, and all other normal lines of communications were down?
5. What it would be like to be the EC of a group and know that there were members whose skills needed HELP, only to have them respond when you bring up training “Oh, I already know that” or “We’ll be just fine, we have always managed to get the job done somehow.”

 

Life is full of choices and opportunities. We have the choices as to what is important to us. Setting priorities is something we all do every day, consciously or unconsciously.  Would you rather know what you need to know and do, or would you just as soon always be scrambling to catch up?

 

Amateur Radio as we all know is a hobby. It is a hobby which has many uses and one of those uses is emergency communications. If you were on the receiving end of services being provided to you and your family by someone with less than proficient skills, would you feel comfortable? Would you trust you family’s well being and care to ensure their needs were being cared for with someone who had less than practiced skills? I bet not!!! I am betting though that you would want the very best trained and most professional kind of person there is to be helping you and your family.

 

Weather you are an old hand who has been there done that, or the newest Ham on the block, I am sure if you are honest with yourself, you may admit that you can still learn from training.

 

Have you ever wondered how much better your group might function if they practiced more together, became more familiar with procedures and working with each other? Have you ever wondered how your not participating in nets, exercise, or training may influence someone else’s participation? Have you ever wondered what Ham radio or ARES/RACES would be like if there were no good examples for us to follow? Where do you stand as far as your training? Is your training the best it can be? Is your equipment always at its peak in terms of preparedness? How involved and committed are you to being one of the best trained in your group? Are you willing to give the time and effort it takes to prepare yourself?