About Us

Madison Amateurs - Doing what is needed when Needed

Ares Activation Plans

ARES' principle support for an emergency situation is to provide an alternative communication channel for emergency services agencies. This is the primary support requirement. Other optional support activates due to the mobile communications capabilities or ARES members may be requested but are performed at the discretion of that ARES member and will not influence their membership in ARES if declined.

Some activates such as weather spotting may over lap and an ARES member can perform each of these duties without conflict to either agency.

Activation Self activation At any time any ARES member may activate the ARES net for any emergency or threat to public safety. This does not establish a state of emergency for Madison County but provides a means to discuss and evaluate the current situation and potentially prepare for an upcoming situation. Examples of the condition are a known tornado or severe weather damage in Madison county, a train accident, a major fire or any similar situation.

Net Testing

At any time an ARES member may call a Net to test activation procedures, propagation or bandwidth usage. Example of this is the testing of our simplex communication or testing the use of another repeater.

EOC activation

An emergency activation shall come from the Director of Emergency Management or their assistant for any official emergency activation. An activation must be accompanied by a written activation order signed by the Director or their designee within 24 hours of activation. Notice of activation can be made by email, text alert, telephone or voice command.

ARES shall respond to any activation on a State or Federal level when issued by the Florida Division of Emergency Management or issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. An activation may be made without direct communications to the Emergency Management team but should be validated through multiple sources.

Upon Activation

Go to nearest safe place, if possible a location with radio equipment. Assure the safety of you and your family Once safe, log into the Net. The first person who is on frequency shall take the roll of Net Control and maintain a list of available stations. At anytime the Net Control operator may turn over Net Control to another ARES member. A log must be maintained once the net is activated. Log in each operator and obtain the following information:

Net Control shall attempt to establish communications with the Emergency Operations Center once the Net has started operation. Communications with the operations center may be communicated by radio, either Net or Official frequencies or by phone. If communications cannot be established, Net Control shall determine which Ares member has the safest capability to reach the EOC to establish communication with the director. Once the Director has been contacted, an action plan will activated.

Action Plans

An action plan shall be maintained by all activated members of ARES. A plan will contain all activates and locations where the ARES member provides service to the emergency team. Below are links to resources that will be needed in any activation:

Action Plan
A record of the emergency as stated by the director and the required support from ARES as required by the EOC.
A record of the ARES Members responding to the emergency.
A record of any passed communications formal or informal
Potential Action Scenarios Distribution of resources
Traffic Management
Establish alternative modes of communication
Relay commutations
Message Handling
Location reporting
Resources Frequencies and Repeaters Emergency Services Locations
Approved Shelters
Secondary shelters
Local officials
Outside agencies
Outside Emergency contacts
Forms and manuals