Message Passing

• Valid Technician class or higher Amateur Radio license
• Santa Clara County ARES/RACES training courses:
  • Field Operations - Type III, Part A
  • Field Operations - Type III, Part B & Type II

Note:  The above prerequisites are not strictly enforced. But in order to get the most out of this course, you should have previously attended the above courses. If you have not yet attended one or more of the prerequisites, you should carefully review the course materials for the missed prerequisites prior to attending this course. Then, be sure to attend any missed prerequisites at your earliest opportunity.

Students are expected to perform the following pre-class homework:

• Study SCCo ARES/RACES Message Handling Procedures (PDF) [updated 06/28/2024]
• Learn the ProWords and techniques. Practice until you know them well. (It's not hard. But it does take time and must be done before class.)
• Our class work will assume you know all of the ProWords and techniques covered in that document.

• Copy of course materials (see below)
• Pen/pencil and pad of paper

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Accurately and effectively pass operator-to-operator and 3rd party message traffic

The course agenda includes:

• ProWords and Basic Techniques - Review Homework
• Message types
  • Operator-to-Operator vs. 3rd party (spoken and written)
• Radio Routing Information
• Common Procedures
  • Announcing, Sending, Logging
• Form-specific Exercises
• Relaying Messages
• Problem Solving
• Lots of in class exercises and practice

Classroom presentation (Last revised 18-June-2024). This can be paper or electronic format as desired.

• 1 slide per page ( Landscape PDF - 6.8 MB)
• 1 slide per page ( Portrait PDF - 6.4 MB)
• 2 slides per page (PDF - 5.5 MB)
• 3 slides per page (PDF - 2.3 MB)
• 4 slides per page (PDF - 3.23 MB)

Print out and bring the following to class as paper copies:

• Qty 1: SCCo ARES/RACES Message Handling Procedures (PDF) [updated 06/28/2024]
• Qty 1: Recommended Form Routing Cheat Sheet
• Qty 2: Radio Routing Slip
• Qty 3: ICS-213 Message Form
• Qty 1: EOC-213RR Resource Request Form
• Qyt 1: SCCo OA Jurisdiction Status Form
• Qty 1: SCCo OA Shelter Status Form
• Qty 1: SCCo Allied Health Facility Status Form
• Qty 1: SCCo RACES Mutual Aid Request Form
• Qty 1: ICS-309 Communications Log

Additional reference material:

Our message passing procedures are based on the ARRL National Traffic System (NTS) Chapter 2. If you desire more background you can review these documents, however some of it is not applicable to EmComm message passing (you do not need to print it out for this class).

• ARRL NTS Chapter 1 - The ARRL Message Format  (PDF - 97 KB)
• Chapter 1 deals with the NTS message form. It has little value for our local EmComm efforts but does provide some information on the NTS systems used in other areas.
• ARRL NTS Chapter 2 - Sending Messages on Voice  (PDF - 187 KB)
• Chapter 2 defines how to voice various types of message content, such as numbers, initials, addresses, etc. Some of this document is not applicable to EmComm traffic since it does not address our sending 3rd party traffic on behalf of our served agencies, but does provide some background to our procedures.