The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Emergency Communications will offer its Auxiliary Communications (AuxComm) course May 12-14 prior to Hamvention® 2015 in Dayton, Ohio. More than 1000 Amateur Radio operators have completed the course, which trains qualified hams to assist local, county, and state government with emergency back-up communication. The AuxComm course covers emergency communication in a public safety context within the National Incident Management framework. It also introduces the auxiliary communicator to the Communications Unit Leader function. Details and registration requirements are available on the Hamvention website.

Applicants must meet all prerequisites and provide documentation to attend this class. The class is limited to 50 qualified students. The intensive 3-day course provides facilitated lectures, student exercises, and interactive discussions.

The AuxComm workshop is designed for auxiliary emergency communicators who volunteer to provide back-up emergency radio communication support to public safety and emergency response professionals and their agencies.

The public safety community often relies on the Amateur Radio service for communications support for situations such as sporting events and festivals or when telecommunication systems have collapsed or been severely disrupted during a natural or manmade disaster.

Many states/territories, regions, county, and local governments have incorporated some level of participation by Amateur Radio operators into their communications plans, including statewide communication interoperability plans and tactical communication interoperability plans. — Thanks to Henry Ruminski, W8HJR, Hamvention Media Chair